This September, we are excited to host a special edition of The Story Collider at The Applied Superconductivity Conference in Salt Lake City, UT as part of the ELEVATE program. From the heartbreaking to the hilarious, you’ll hear five true, personal stories about science!
This show will be hosted by Saad Sarwana and Misha Gajewski.
This event is currently only open to registered conference attendees.
Stories By:
Karoline Mueller is the youngest of 4 siblings. Growing up in Germany, the family interests included music, art, nature, and building things. From fairly young, there was no question in her mind but she would study music and teach private music lessons. Her plan got smashed in the audition process and she was not accepted into a conservatory program. It took her some time to recover from this huge disappointment. In a relatively random way, she stumbled on the book, Urban Systems in Crisis, by a biochemist and network thinker and was fascinated by this new way of solving problems. She was reminded of fun chemistry demonstrations and enrolled at the Saarland University in Chemistry. Despite low confidence in her English, Karoline pursued a semester abroad and came to the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston. Delighted by the amazingly supportive mentorship at the center, she decided to return for her Ph.D. in Chemistry. She has been working there as researcher and student mentor ever since. Karoline’s passion for science outreach grew over the years and now she takes great pleasure in organizing presentations and demonstrations of superconductivity.
Erica Salazar has devoted much of her career to the development of innovative superconducting magnet technologies for fusion energy applications. She is currently a Magnet Systems Lead at Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) where she works on developing R&D programs for superconducting magnet technology. Erica received her PhD from MIT’s Nuclear Science and Engineering department and performed her thesis research at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center. And prior to her PhD, Erica worked at General Atomics for 5 years as a mechanical engineer and process manager on the ITER Central Solenoid superconducting magnet manufacturing project. Erica also loves spending time with her baby boy, dog, partner, and going on hikes or playing ultimate frisbee in her spare time.
Sofia Viarengo: I’m a young researcher originally from a small town close to Rome, Italy. Since I was a child, I’ve always been passionate and curious about my surroundings. I wanted to explore the world and learn about the nature of things. Very early I developed an interest for the science, and when I finished the high school, I had to think about the path to take. I told myself that I wanted to do something for the world, to save and safeguard it, something practical: so, I started studying engineering. University was definitely one of the best and hardest times of my life so far, but with time I became more and more convinced of the choice I made. It gave me the opportunity to discover new things and become even more motivated. My studies took me from Rome to Turin, from Turin to California, and in contact with so many knowledgeable and inspiring people. During my master thesis I became familiar with superconductivity, which has become my research focus nowadays!
Saad Sarwana also know as “The Standup Physicist” has been a comedian for 25+ years. He has performed in every major comedy club on the east coast, and over 25 states. As a certified geek, Saad hosts the “Science Fiction and Fantasy Spelling Bee”. Saad is also a two time MOTH StorySLAM champion. As a Physicist/Engineer, Saad has 40+ peer reviewed papers and is the past president of the US Committee on Superconductor Electronics. Saad had appeared on multiple Scifotainment (Scientific Entertainment) shows on Discovery / Science Channel, including over 100 episodes on the TV show “Outrageous Acts of Science.
Lance Cooley is a Florida State University professor in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, in addition to his MagLab roles as director of the Applied Superconductivity Center (ASC) and an associate lab director.
Cooley serves as vice-president for publications for the IEEE Council on Superconductivity, which publishes the IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. He has served on many review panels of the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation. He is a fellow of the Institute of Physics and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He has over 120 refereed publications, and has given more than 30 colloquia, plenary or public lectures.