Keynote Address

 Amy Gladfelter
(Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Associate Professor in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Graduate Program, Member of the Cancer Mechanisms Program, Norris Cotton Cancer Center, DHMC)

Amy is fascinated by how cells are organized in time and space. Her research group studies how cells manage time to create highly variable yet accurate cell division cycles. They also look at how cells use the septin cytoskeleton to assemble functionally unique zones on the cell cortex. For their work they combine live cell microscopy and computational approaches with genetic and biochemical analyses.

 

Visiting speakers

Julia Tartaglia
(Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of ScientistaFoundation.com)

Julia Tartaglia graduated from Harvard College in 2011 Cum Laude with a BA in Human Evolutionary Biology and an honors track in Mind, Brain and Behavior. Passionate about all that is related to the brain and the evolution of human behavior, Julia spent her four years at Harvard conducting research in the Stickgold Lab Center for Sleep and Cognition. In addition to research, she volunteered as a Health Leads fellow, an Advocating Success for Kids advocate, and as a “big sibling” for various science organizations.

Christina Tartaglia
(Co-founder of ScientistaFoundation.com)

Christina Tartaglia graduated from Harvard College in 2009 with a BA in Molecular and Cellular Biology and minor in Health Policy.  A lab rat since high school, Christina has spent much of the time she was not in school working with pipettes and mice. Christina is passionate about disease and drug development, studying autoimmune diseases in both high school and college.  She spent her undergraduate years working on a novel therapy for Multiple Sclerosis in the Strominger Lab.  After graduating, she worked further down the pipeline in drug development as a research coordinator of clinical research trials at
Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Jennifer Konikowski
(Founder of PyLadies, Boston and developer at Visible Measures)

Graduate of the George Institute of Technology, Jennifer Konikowski is now a Boston-based programmer skilled in Python, Rails, Javascript and a host of other programming languages. Trained as an industrial engineering, Jennifer has firsthand experience with learning coding while busy with other scientific pursuits and making the switch from earlier interests to being a full-time programmer. Blogger, cocktail-aficionado, and Cross-fit star, Jennifer joins us to discuss women, science, coding, and all the connections in between.

 

Dartmouth-based speakers

Laura Barrett
(Director of Education & Outreach at Baker-Berry Library)

Laura is  Director of Education & Outreach (E&O) at Dartmouth College Library. E&O provides collaborative leadership to enable library staff to become better teachers, and to integrate the Library into the intellectual life of the Dartmouth community and support learning at Dartmouth.

Chandlee Bryan
(Assistant Director, Center for Professional Development)

Chandlee provides career/job search coaching to all students, with particular emphasis on junior and senior year. Chandlee helps students implement job search strategies for both leave-term and entry-level work opportunities. She is a co-author of The Twitter Job Search Guide and enjoys working with students on social media and online presence.

Jordan Carpenter
(Postdoctoral Researcher)

Jordan received his doctorate in social psychology from the University of North Carolina in 2013.  That same year, he began work as a postdoctoral researcher at Tiltfactor Lab, working under Dr. Mary Flanagan.  Jordan is a personality and social psychologist interested in the ways that games can persuade and instruct.

Mary Flanagan
(Professor of Film and Media Studies, Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities)

Dr. Mary Flanagan (@criticlaplay) is a scholar interested in how human values are in play across technologies and systems. Flanagan has written more than 20 critical essays and chapters on games, empathy, gender and digital representation, art and technology, and responsible design. Her recent books include Critical Play (2009, MIT Press) and Values at Play in Digital Games with Helen Nissenbaum (forthcoming 2014, MIT Press). An artist, researcher, and designer, Flanagan’s work has been supported by grants and commissions including The British Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the ACLS, and the National Science Foundation. Flanagan is the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Professor in Digital Humanities at Dartmouth College.

Geoff Kaufman
(Postdoctoral Researcher)

Geoff is a postdoctoral researcher at Tiltfactor Lab.  He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in psychology from Ohio State University and a B.A. in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on how experience-taking – the mental simulation of characters’ experiences in fictional narratives, virtual worlds, or games – can change individuals’ self-concepts, attitudes, behaviors, and emotions.  He has investigated how such experiences can build interpersonal understanding and empathy, reduce stereotypes and prejudice, and inspire higher levels of social consciousness and pro-social behavior.

Shirley Zhao
(Physical Sciences Librarian, Kresge Library)

Shirley is an educator, liaison, and collection specialist at Baker-Berry Library, where she focuses on improving Dartmouth’s access to physical science resources. She frequently teaches campus workshops on new programs such as LaTeX and is manager of the Cook Mathematics Collection. In addition to her work at Baker-Berry, Shirley is Director of Communications for the New England Chapter of the Special Libraries Association and is learning to play the ukulele.

 

Speed-mentors

Lindsay Allen
(Engineer, Creare)

Dr. Allen received her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering: Systems from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. degree in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College.  She has a strong background in control systems, particularly discrete event systems and artificial intelligence.  Her thesis work focused on verification and fault detection for the control of industrial manufacturing systems without the need for a pre-existing formal model.  This work emphasized the importance of academic and industry cooperation to solve persistent industry problems.  Since 2011, she has been an engineer at Creare, in Hanover, NH.  In this role, Dr. Allen has worked on projects related to development of on-machine inspection during challenging machining operations, automation of lifetime testing for vacuum pumps, creation and validation of improved techniques for hearing assessment, and measurement of space weather from small satellites.

Vidisha Gupta
(Power Systems Design Engineer at Hypertherm)

Vidisha Gupta received her Bachelor in Engineering degree from Panjab University, India in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering in 2009.  She then moved to Canada to pursue graduate studies where she received her Master’s degree in Power Electronics from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada in 2012. She is now working as Power Supply Design Engineer with Hypertherm Inc. based in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. Her research interests include the design and development of power topologies in the field of renewable energy, industrial welding, telecommunications, semiconductor etc.

Leslie Henderson
(Professor of Physiology & Neurobiology)

Leslie Henderson is the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Serving in this role since 2008, she oversees all aspects of appointments, titles and promotions for Geisel faculty members situated at the three primary sites that constitute the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (the Geisel campus in Hanover, NH, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic/Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital campus in Lebanon, NH, and the Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center in White River Junction, VT) and at clinical affiliates throughout the United States and international locales. In 2009, she initiated and led efforts concluding in 2012 that resulted in substantive revisions of the Geisel APT policies highlighting a new emphasis on interdisciplinary and “team” teaching and research and a broader definition of scholarship that includes contributions through non-traditional media, entrepreneurial advances and engagement. Professor Henderson serves as the Geisel liaison to the Dartmouth College Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity for faculty hiring and chairs the Council on Sponsored Activities and the Conflict of Interest Committee for the College.

Erika Johnson
(Doctoral candidate, Environmental Engineering, Cornell University)

After graduating from Dartmouth College with a B.E. and M.E.M, Erika worked in a number of different capacities in the human spaceflight program.  She worked as a biomedical engineer at Johnson Space Flight Center, performing pre- and post-flight neuro-vestibular testing on astronauts.  She also worked as a stress analyst at Kennedy Space Flight Center, where she certified Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) hardware for flight.  She is currently finishing up her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at Cornell University and will be heading to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to pursue her postdoctoral research.

Lorie Loeb
(Executive Director, Dali Lab)

Lorie is a professor in the computer science department at Dartmouth College, Director of the Digital Arts Minor, and the Director of DALI Lab. Lorie’s expertise is in information visualization–building tools that communicate complex information in meaningful ways.  The Neukom DALI Lab is a new research and development lab in the computer science department at Dartmouth College.  Teams of graduate and undergraduate students work together to design and develop innovative technology tools that help our partners communicate effectively, make data meaningful and information accessible.  DALI partners with faculty, Centers across campus, non-profits and start-ups.  The DALI Lab is supported by the Neukom Institute for Computational Science.

Madhura Mahajan
(Plasma Process Engineer, Hypertherm)

Madhura Mahajan received her Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Pune, India in 2007. Later she pursued graduate studies in heat transfer and fluid mechanics at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities where she earned a Master’s degree in 2010. Her research at the University of Minnesota was funded by Hypertherm Inc., Hanover, NH and was focused on Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic modeling of plasma flow inside a plasma cutting torch. She now works as a Plasma Process Engineer with Hypertherm Inc., where she is involved in the design and development of cutting edge plasma technology.

Vicki May
(Associate Professor of Engineering)

Vicki began her academic career in the Department of Architectural Engineering at the California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where she was awarded tenure in 2003. Upon relocating to the east coast, Vicki served as an Associate Director for Science, Math, and Engineering with the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning. In this role, she worked with faculty and graduate students across campus to improve and assess their teaching. A passion for teaching drew her back to the classroom. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth. Vicki was named the NH Professor of the Year in 2013 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Vicki is currently a Public Voices Fellow as part of the OpEd Project.

Michelle Prince
(Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center)

Dr. Michelle Prince is a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Michelle graduated cum laude from Smith College with a BA in Biochemistry and received her MD from Loyola University. Prior to attending medical school, she worked as a Neurochemistry Research Assistant at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and as a Neuroscience Research Assistant at the UCLA School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. She completed an Orthopaedic Surgery residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and a Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery fellowship at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Georgia. Michelle served as an orthopaedic trauma surgeon for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in Nigeria in 2012. In addition to her clinical work and raising a young family, she is currently pursuing her Master of Health Care Delivery Service at Tuck.

Thalia Wheatley
(Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences)

Thalia Wheatley is an expert in the fields of neural systems and animate and inanimate interpretations in the brain. Her primary research interests are awareness of our own mental states and how we understand those states in others. She established an online site—the Wheatley Lab —dedicated to social neuroscience research at Dartmouth College. Her current projects include “A Neural System for Inferring and Imagining Animacy,” “The Order of Authorship in Academic Psychology” and “Dissociating Valence and Intensity: An fMRI Study of Affective Priming.”

Xia Zhou
(Associate Professor of Computer Science)

Xia Zhou designs network systems to handle the volume and unpredictable nature of today’s data traffic. Driven by models and measurements, her work designs dynamic spectrum auction systems to support dynamic traffic demands in wireless networks, and a new wireless primitive to address dynamic traffic hotspots in data centers.