Given the virtual format of spring term due to COVID-19, DURA decided to launch a podcast series to help undergraduates connect with the research community and their professors at Dartmouth. In these podcasts, Dartmouth professors detail their engagement with undergraduate research at every step in their career: from their days as undergraduate researchers; to their graduate studies; and now as professors.
DURA is fortunate to have several amazing professors join us as guest speakers on our podcast series, with episodes to be released over the course of May 2020.
Episode 1: Professor G. Eric Schaller, Biological Sciences
Professor Schaller (PhD) is a Professor of Biological Sciences as well as the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program. We had DURA VP, Peter Kaiser '21, speak to Professor Schaller about his work and research journey.
Episode 2 (video podcast): President Phil Hanlon, Mathematics
President Hanlon '77 is the President of Dartmouth College, having studied mathematics as an undergraduate before attending Caltech for his PhD in the field. Prior to his role at Dartmouth, he was the Donald J. Lewis Professor of Mathematics and Provost at the University of Michigan. DURA President and founding member, Zach Cherian '20 (virtually) sat down with President Hanlon for a conversation on his career in research from his time at Dartmouth through his graduate and professorial careers, as well as how lessons from these experiences have translated to his current position as President of Dartmouth.
Audio:
Video (2 parts due to file size):
Episode 3: Professor Jeffrey Friedman, Government
Professor Friedman is an assistant professor in government at Dartmouth College, where he focuses on decision-making and national security studies. DURA President and founding member, Zach Cherian '20, had the chance to speak with Professor Friedman about his research career and hear his advice on a wide range of topics relating to research and academia.
Episode 4: Professor James Dobson, English
James E. Dobson is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing and Director of the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric. He is the author of Critical Digital Humanities: The Search for a Methodology (Illinois, 2019), Modernity and Autobiography in Nineteenth-Century America (Palgrave, 2017), and co-author of Moonbit (punctum books, 2019). He conducts research on computational methods for the humanities and the intellectual history of these methods. He’s presently completing a book manuscript on early computer vision algorithms. Meg Poth '20 spoke with him recently about his thoughts on research, English, academia and more.
Episode 5: Craig Layne
Craig Layne is currently an Experiential Learning Facilitator for the Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College. He completed a B.S. at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point; an MS at Bowling Green State University; and a M.A.T. at Miami University. Meg Poth '20 spoke with him about his experiences in research and academia.
Episode 6: Professor Mark Laidre
Mark Laidre is a behavioral ecologist and evolutionary biologist. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College in the Department of Biological Sciences. He completed a B.S. at Cornell University in Neurobiology & Behavior and in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology; an MPhil at Cambridge University in Zoology; a Ph.D. at Princeton University in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and in Neuroscience; a Miller Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of California, Berkeley in Integrative Biology; and a Neukom Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College in Biological Sciences. He has published over 40 papers in top peer-reviewed scientific journals and has carried out laboratory and field biology research around the world, including in East and West Africa, Central America, South America, North America, Europe, and Asia. He has studied a wide range of taxa, including ants, crustaceans, birds, mammals, and primates. His research focuses on animal architecture and social behavior, and for the past decade he has studied the housing markets and social lives of hermit crabs, both on land and in the ocean. At Dartmouth, he teaches several classes, including BIOL 11 ‘Animal Minds’ (with his colleague Professor Tom Jack), BIOL 23 ‘Social Evolution’, and BIOL 55 Ecological Research in the Tropics (a field course he co-teaches in Costa Rica). In 2016 he began conducting research at the nearby Shoals Marine Laboratory in the Gulf of Maine; and based on a generous gift from Dartmouth donor Bill Kneisel ‘69, there is now a fully-funded Shoals Marine Lab Summer Research program, which Dartmouth undergraduates can apply for through UGAR.
Episode 7: Interview with Past and Present Members of the Laidre Lab
Leah Valdes
Leah Valdes is a first year PhD student at Cornell in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, who got started in research as a Dartmouth undergraduate studying hermit crab behavior at the Shoals Marine Laboratory.
Balthasar von Hoyningen
Balthasar von Hoyningen is a ’19 who was an Environmental Studies major, has worked on Shoals over the summer, and is now working as a technician in a water-quality office of the US Geological Survey.
Jack Roney
Jack Roney is a '22 who can't help but look for life in everything from puddles to oceans. He has assisted with research projects at Dartmouth College, the University of Hawai'i, and the Sonoma Ecology Center.
Episode 8: Professor Will Leavitt
Professor Leavitt is an Assistant Professor in Dartmouth's Earth Sciences department, where he focuses on microbiology and geochemistry. He completed his B.A. at Hampshire College and his M.A. and PhD at Harvard University. Kunal Jha '24 had the chance to speak with him about his academic career, ongoing research projects, and advice for students interested in pursuing a graduate degree.