IYRC STEM WINTER 2024
November 23, 2024 – January 11, 2025
SPEAKERS
Dr. Stephen Luby studied philosophy and earned a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Creighton University. He earned his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas and completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital. He studied epidemiology and preventive medicine at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Luby's previous positions include directing the Centre for Communicable Diseases at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 2004 - 2012, conducting research and teaching epidemiology at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan from 1993 - 1998, and working as an epidemiologist in the Foodborne and Diarrheal Diseases Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |
Dr. Monika Kress was Professor of Physics and Astronomy at San José State University for 19 years, including 5 as Department Chair, before joining the advising team at Stanford. Upon her retirement from SJSU, she was granted the status of Professor Emerita. A first-gen college student herself, she devoted most of her teaching career to STEM student success in the introductory physics sequence for science and engineering majors.
Monika earned her BS and PhD in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She went on to conduct postdoctoral research in astrobiology at NASA Ames Research Center and the University of Washington, where her research involved computational modeling of the formation of organic material in interstellar space and its delivery to habitable planets. She was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal for her role in the Antarctic Search for Meteorites, which involved two months of fieldwork at 85 degrees South latitude in the glacial headwaters of the Transantarctic Mountains. |
Ryann Fame, Ph.D. joined the faculty at Stanford University in 2022. Following her undergraduate degree in Biology and Chemistry at the College of William & Mary, Dr. Fame completed a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard University. She conducted postdoctoral fellowships at The Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT and at Boston Children’s Hospital Pathology Department. Her research program encompasses the early neural stem cell niche, neural tube closure, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), metabolism, and cortical neuronal development. As a stem cell and developmental molecular biologist, Dr. Fame is dedicated to broad collaboration focused on translating an understanding of neural development and CSF biology into regenerative strategies for the treatment of neurodevelopmental disease.
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Dr. Megan Brennan's interests include the development of organic chemistry lab courses that give students hands-on opportunities to explore chemistry while reinforcing and building upon concepts learned in lecture classes. She aims for her labs to bring chemistry to life, and to afford students a chance to have fun and experience a taste of scientific discovery.
While studying chemistry at Lafayette College (B.S. 2002), Dr. Brennan worked on the preparation of triazaphenanthrenes and the Oxa–Pictet–Spengler reaction of 1-(3-furyl)alkan-2-ols. She completed her doctoral work at Stanford (Ph.D. 2008), conducting her thesis research in palladium asymmetric allylic alkylation under the advisement of Professor Barry Trost. During her postdoctoral research with Professor Scott Miller at Yale University, she investigated the use of peptides containing a thiazole side chain for use in acyl anion chemistry. She joined the teaching staff at University of California, Berkeley in 2010 before coming returning to Stanford in 2011 to spearhead the development of a new summer organic chemistry sequence, a comprehensive course designed for pre-meds, offering an entire year of organic chemistry in nine weeks. Dr. Brennan also acts as the liaison to the chemistry majors, to promote events with faculty in both the academic and social aspect: providing an environment that allows students to be comfortable and able to learn, while helping them take advantage of every opportunity that Stanford offers. Dr. Brennan's current research is in the development classroom experiments that bring cutting edge industrial and academic research into the undergraduate laboratory experience. |