Distinguished Faculty
Dr. Paul Alivisatos
Director of Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute (Kavli ENSI),
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Paul Alivisatos
Dr. Paul Alivisatos is Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and is the University of California (UC) Berkeley’s Samsung Distinguished Professor of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. He also directs the Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute (ENSI), and holds professorships in UC Berkeley’s departments of materials science and chemistry. In addition, he is a founder of two prominent nanotechnology companies, Nanosys and Quantum Dot Corp, now a part of Life Tech.
Martin Daunton, FBA
Programme Director, Philomathia Social Science Research Programme,
University of Cambridge
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Martin Daunton, FBA
Head of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences and from 2004 to 2014 Master of Trinity Hall at Cambridge , Professor Daunton has researched and written on development of economic and social policy in industrial societies. He has addressed the themes of housing, labor, welfare, and taxation. In addition, Professor Daunton served as Chairman of the faculty of History and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Cambridge and was President of the Royal Historical Society and a Trustee of the National Maritime Museum.
Dr. Dustin Garrick
Philomathia Professor of Water Policy and Research,
McMaster University
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Dr. Dustin Garrick
A former research fellow at the University of Oxford who brings more than a decade of experience in water research, science and policy to his work at McMaster University, Dr. Garrick specializes in comparative water policy, climate change adaptation and drought management. As the Philomathia Professor of Water Policy and Research, he leads the work of the Philomathia Foundation Water Project at McMaster University.
Simon Haines
Director of the Research Centre for Human Values,
Chinese University of Hong Kong
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Simon Haines
Formerly the Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Human Values, Professor Haines was appointed the Centre’s Director in 2013. He is also a Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include models of the self in Romantic and post-Romantic poetry and philosophy, concepts and metaphors in Milton and Shakespeare, and the nature of literary value.
Dr. Isabelle McNeill
Philomathia Fellow,
University of Cambridge
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Dr. Isabelle McNeill
The Philomathia Fellow in French, Dr. McNeill is the Director of Studies in Modern & Medieval Languages and an affiliated lecturer in the Department of French at Trinity Hall. She specializes in French cinema and theory, with a particular interest in the relation of film to cultural memory. Her current research focuses on home, belonging and displacement in recent French and francophone film.
Dr. Chris Somerville
Philomathia Chair in Alternative Energy,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Chris Somerville
A professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and the Director of the Energy Biosciences Institute, Dr. Somerville is an award-winning author of more than 200 scientific papers on plant and microbial genetics, genomics, biochemistry, biotechnology and molecular biology. His current research is focused on characterizing the proteins implicated in plant cell wall synthesis and modification. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Canada.
Paul Wright
Director of the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute (BECI),
UC Berkeley
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Paul Wright
Paul K. Wright is the Director of the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute. BECI is the coordinating hub for energy and climate research at UC Berkeley. BECI fosters collaboration between UC Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and other external partners. The Institute promotes interdisciplinary research by integrating science, technology, business and policy. Paul is also a professor in the Mechanical Engineering department, and holds the A. Martin Berlin Chair. He is also a co-director of the Berkeley Manufacturing Institute (BMI) and co-director of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC). From 1995 to 2005 he was the Co-chair of the Management of Technology Program (a joint program with the Haas School of Business).
Dr. Adam Branch
Philomathia Fellow,
University of Cambridge
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Dr. Adam Branch
A university lecturer in African Politics, Dr. Branch was appointed Philomathia Fellow at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, in 2015. He was previously senior research fellow at the Makerere Institute of Social Research, Kampala, Uganda. His work has focused on political violence and human rights, largely in East Africa, and he is currently beginning a new research agenda around the politics of energy security and climate change.
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Dr. Steven Chu
A pioneer in and ardent advocate of carbon-neutral renewable sources of energy and other scientific solutions for addressing climate change, Dr. Chu held the chair from its establishment in 2008 until his departure from UC Berkeley to become the U.S. Secretary of Energy. While at UC Berkeley, he served as a professor in the Department of Physics and was Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Chu shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on cooling and trapping atoms using laser light.
Dr. Alastair Fraser
The Philomathia Fellow in African Politics, Dr. Fraser is the Director of Studies for Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies at Trinity Hall. His work focuses on the political economy of Southern Africa. He is also part of the Management Committee of the University of Cambridge’s Centre of African Studies and the Editorial Working Group of the Review of African Political Economy.
David Parker
The former Chair of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Department of English, Professor Parker was appointed inaugural Director of the Research Centre for Human Values in August 2009. His research interests include literature of the modernist period, ethics and literary theory, autobiography and aesthetics. He is also a Fellow of the Comparative Literature Research Centre of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Research Fellowships
Dr. Danny Cullenward
Philomathia Research Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Danny Cullenward
Dr. Cullenward joined UC Berkeley in 2013 after receiving a J.D. in Law and PhD in Environment & Resources from Stanford University. His research interests intersect at energy economics and climate policy. As a Philomathia Fellow, continues to work on interdisciplinary projects intended to inform national policy debates, addressing topics such as federal climate policy and carbon offset protocols. In October 2013 he published an article on California’s carbon market auction and in February 2014 co-authored an abstract on the Climate Protection Act of 2013.
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Dr. Junling Huang
Philomathia Research Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Junling Huang
Dr. Huang joined UC Berkeley as a Philomathia Fellow in September 2016, after completing his postdoctoral study at Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. At UC Berkeley, Junling is responsible for creating the research capacity on China’s energy and climate challenges at the Berkeley Energy and Climate Institute. His research interests include China’s energy and climate policy, China’s science and technology policy, and China’s governance. Junling received a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences from School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University in 2014. He earned a B.S. from School of Physics, Peking University in 2009.
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Dr. Juan Munoz-Portillo
Philomathia Post-doctoral Research Associate,
University of Cambridge
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Dr. Juan Munoz-Portillo
Dr. Muñoz-Portillo received his PhD in Politics and International Relations from Dublin City University (DCU), in 2013, where he focused on the study of the effects of electoral systems on the behaviour of legislators. His research interests lie in comparative political economy and international political economy, in particular, the influence of political institutions on public spending distribution, and on sovereign debt markets. As a Philomathia Fellow, he is currently working on the project “The consequences of the politics of austerity in the European Union.” This project documents and describes the specific ways in which EU countries have implemented fiscal austerity programmes in the recent past, and it will analyse several of their social and political consequences. In addition, he continues his collaboration with colleagues from DCU on sovereign debt research.
Dr. Poornima Paidipaty
Philomathia Post-doctoral Research Associate,
University of Cambridge
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Dr. Poornima Paidipaty
I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University and my work examines the intersections of decolonisation, governance and modern social science. Alongside this research, I am working on a book, Tribal Nation, exploring the history of anthropology in the subcontinent, and charting the relationship between military science, political culture and citizenship in India’s tribal borderlands. This work is part of an ongoing interest in large-scale state sciences (logistics, cartography, statistics, demography and engineering) and their historical implications for understanding economic disparity and democratic politics in South Asia.
Dr. Nitzan Peri-Rotem
Philomathia Post-doctoral Research Associate,
University of Cambridge
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Dr. Nitzan Peri-Rotem
A Philomathia fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge. Her research interests lie in the field of social demography with a focus on social and cultural determinants of fertility patterns in post-industrialized countries. Before joining Cambridge in 2014, she completed a DPhil at the University of Oxford on the role of religion in shaping women’s family and employment patterns in Western Europe. In her current work, she explores the social incentives and constraints to family formation and expansion in the UK and Europe. In particular, she is interested in the relationship between education and fertility outcomes and the way this relationship has changed over time.
Dr. John Liddicoat
Philomathia Post-doctoral Research Associate,
University of Cambridge
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Dr. John Liddicoat
I graduated from the University of Melbourne with honours degrees in both law and science, and I recently submitted my PhD at the University of Tasmania. My PhD examined whether Australian patent law is handling emergent technological and legal issues consistently with its underpinning justifications.
I am broadly interested in the development and use of new technology. I am interested in this because it has the ability to drive economies forward and increase public welfare. To this end, and as a lawyer with scientific training, much of my research focuses on the ability of patent law to meet its welfare-enhancing goal of incentivising the creation of new technology. In medicine and life-sciences — special interests of mine — this focus is particularly important, but it is also quite complex, often requiring multi-disciplinary analysis and research beyond doctrinal-legal reasoning. I enjoy this challenge and enjoy designing research to answer questions in these and related fields.
I am currently working with Dr Kathy Liddell on a research project titled, “Realising Genomic Medicine: Intellectual Property Issues Beyond the ‘Old’ DNA Patent Debates”. In this project we are investigating two ways in which intellectual property interacts with the realisation of clinically-useful genetic developments.
Dr. Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli
Philomathia Post-doctoral Research Associate,
University of Cambridge
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Dr. Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli
Leslie-Anne Duvic-Paoli is a Philomathia Post-doctoral Research Associate in international energy law at the Cambridge Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance (C-EENRG). She holds a Master’s degree in international relations/political science from Sciences Po Paris and one in public law from the University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne). Her doctoral dissertation, written at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, offers a comprehensive assessment of the prevention principle in international environmental law. At the Graduate Institute, Leslie-Anne was a teaching assistant within the LL.M. programme and gave tutorials in general public international law and international environmental law. Prior to her doctoral studies, Leslie-Anne worked in various think tanks and research centres focusing on maritime and naval affairs, East Asian politics and conflict studies.
Leslie-Anne is currently working with Professor Viñuales on a three-year project entitled ‘The Law of Energy Transitions’ which investigates the legal consequences of the on-going transition to a low-carbon economy. Her other research interests lie in the legal framework relative to the protection of the marine environment and in the human rights approach to environmental damage.
Dr. Alexander Forse
Philomathia Research Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Alexander Forse
Alexander Forse is joining UC Berkeley as a Philomathia Research Fellow in 2016 after completing postdoctoral work in Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, UK. Alexander studied Natural Sciences (M.Sci.) at the University of Cambridge. He continued at Cambridge with graduate research in the group of Professor Clare Grey in the Department of Chemistry, and received his Ph.D. in 2015 for work on the development and application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to the study of supercapacitors. By carrying out NMR experiments on working supercapacitor devices, the molecular processes underlying charging and discharging were unravelled. Recent post-doctoral work has shown how charging dynamics can be probed in supercapacitor electrodes using magnetic resonance methods.
Post-Doctoral Fellowships
Dr. Trevor Yeats
Post-Doctoral Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Trevor Yeats
Trevor is a Philomathia Postdoctoral Fellow at the Energy Biosciences Institute. He obtained his doctorate in Plant Biology at Cornell, where he focused on the biosynthesis of cutin, the major biopolymer constituent of the plant cuticle. Trevor currently works with Professor Chris Somerville on the molecular machinery of cellulose biosynthesis. The controlled deposition and rearrangement of cellulose microfibrils defines the extent and direction of cell expansion and thus plant form from the cellular to organismal level. As the most abundant component of terrestrial biomass, cellulose is the most widely used renewable biomaterial, and is the main component of animal forage. The major industrial uses are paper, textiles (eg., cotton), and lumber. Cellulose is also envisioned as a renewable feedstock for liquid biofuels. Ultimately, a deeper understanding of cellulose synthesis and biomass structure will be essential in optimizing our utilization of these resources.
Dr. Padma Gunda
Post-Doctoral Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Padma Gunda
A Philomathia Fellow at the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, Dr. Gunda obtained her doctorate in molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, where she focused on plant biomass degradation by fungal enzymes. Her current work involves the role of water in biofuels, assessing environmental and socioeconomic impacts during large-scale production and conversion of plant biomass to liquid fuel.
Dr. Rodrigo Noriega
Post-Doctoral Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Rodrigo Noriega
Dr. Noriega received his PhD in applied physics from Stanford University, where he studied the connection between microstructure and electronic properties of organic semiconductors. His work as a Philomathia Fellow looks at energy flow in biomimetic light harvesters, seeking to uncover the fundamental mechanisms behind efficient long-range energy transfer to help replicate natural photosynthetic processes in artificial systems.
Dr. Hailiang Wang
Post-Doctoral Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Hailiang Wang
A Philomathia Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, Dr. Wang received his PhD in physical chemistry from Stanford University, where his research focused on the development of inorganic/carbon hybrid materials for electrochemical energy storage and conversion. His current work looks at surface chemistry and catalysis of alcohol oxidation reactions in both gas and liquid phases.
Dr. Didier Devaux
Post-Doctoral Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Didier Devaux
Didier first received an engineering degree in electrochemistry from Grenoble Institute of Technology (France, 2006). Then he worked in the fuel cell domain, first at Arkema Inc. (USA) on electrochemical device characterizations followed by a period at the Clean Energy Research Centre (Yamanashi University, Japan) studying biofuel electrocatalysis. Then, he received a PhD at Aix-Marseille University (France, 2012) in materials science on polymer electrolyte for lithium batteries before joining in 2013 the Balsara group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Didier is now a Philomathia Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at UC Berkeley still in the group of Nitash Balsara. His work focuses on i) lithium battery characterization and analysis of their failure modes by synchrotron X-ray microtomography and ii) characterization and optimization of a new class of nonflammable liquid polymer electrolyte based on perfluoropolyether for lithium battery application.
Dr. Nadav Sorek
Post-Doctoral Fellow,
UC Berkeley
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Dr. Nadav Sorek
Nadav is a Philomathia Postdoctoral Fellow at the Energy Biosciences Institute. He obtained his doctorate in Plant Biology at Tel Aviv University, where he focused on protein lipid modifications and their importance for protein targeting. Nadav currently works with Professor Chris Somerville on understanding the basic mechanisms of plant cell wall biosynthesis. He has identified several novel genes involved in the synthesis and organization of cell wall polymers. Lignocellulosic biofuels, sometime referred to as second generation biofuels, rely on the conversion of non-crop plants into fuel. Since the plant cell wall is the dominant component of plant biomass, this work contributes to the understanding and characterization of the substrate for lignocellulosic fuels.
Dr. Soloman Asfaw
After receiving degrees in physics from Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Dr. Asfaw earned his PhD specializing in energy system analysis from Ben-Gurion University (Israel). His current research interests include grid integration and storage requirements for intermittent renewable energy resources, with his work as a Philomathia Fellow focusing on ways to improve access to electricity in East Africa.
Dr. Sheng Shen
A graduate of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China as well as MIT, Dr. Shen’s research interests include nanophotonics, nanoscale energy transfer and renewable energy technologies. As a Philomathia Fellow, he explored how nanoscale engineering could help resolve issues related to solar and thermal energy conversion. In 2011, Dr. Shen accepted a faculty position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Graduate Fellowships
Kathryn Fiorella
Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management, Ph.D candidate,
UC Berkeley
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Kathryn Fiorella
Kathryn’s research combines elements of public health, community ecology and socioeconomics to address critical issues surrounding the dynamics of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss in rural Kenya. Her approach combines extensive ecological surveys (primarily of Lake Victoria fisheries), household livelihoods surveys (500+ surveys to date) and public health assessments of child growth and cognitive development. These data sets are brought together to explore linkages and feedbacks between the health of ecosystems and the health and livelihoods of the communities who depend on them.
Lauren Hallett
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, Ph.D candidate,
UC Berkeley
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Lauren Hallett
Lauren’s thesis research centers on the relationships between climate, biodiversity and ecosystem services in California rangelands. She uses long-term data analysis and field experiments to test how functional relationships between plant species may moderate the impacts of increased climate variability on rangeland services such as forage production. Lauren also applies her interest in integrating science with environmental management locally, and leads a team of undergraduate researchers to develop methods to improve restoration efforts along Strawberry Creek.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2013-2014
Jennifer Hofmeister
Integrative Biology, Ph.D candidate,
UC Berkeley
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Jennifer Hofmeister
Jennifer’s research interests focus on understanding the behavioral response of highly phenotypically plastic animals to ecosystem change. Octopuses play an important predatory role in almost every coastal environment, yet we know little about their behavioral response to changes in their environment. Understanding this concept could aid in issues surrounding biodiversity loss and fisheries management. Jennifer uses a combination of SCUBA surveys, ecological modeling, food web analysis, and behavioral experiments to understand how and why octopuses interact with varying components of their community, primarily on Catalina Island. She also dedicates much of her time to programs and conferences encouraging young women to stay in science, as well as training the next generation of scientific SCUBA divers.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2013-2014
Abby Knight
Chemistry, Ph.D candidate,
UC Berkeley
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Abby Knight
Abby is working towards identifying materials for selective metal binding that can be applied to water remediation and the improvement of metal separation procedures. As selective metal chelation is relatively unexplored area, she is using a combinatorial library approach to explore interactions that enhance affinity and selectivity. Abby is currently focusing on identifying chelators for hexavalent chromium, a prevalent toxin, but she is beginning to apply the developed procedures to other applications including trivalent lanthanide ion separations, currently caustic and inefficient processes.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2013-2014
Matthew Luskin
Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, Ph.D. candidate,
UC Berkeley
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Matthew Luskin
Matthew’s research is focused on understanding how rapid oil palm expansion in Southeast Asia is threatening wildlife communities. He is conducting empirical field studies in Indonesia, utilizing a diversity of sociological and ecological research methods. His research is elucidating the long-term follow on impacts of oil palm plantations on wildlife and human communities.
Ryan Melnyk
Plant and Microbial Biology, Ph.D candidate,
UC Berkeley
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Ryan Melnyk
Ryan’s research focuses on bacterial reduction of perchlorate, a toxic compound found in drinking water. His work integrates comparative genomics, genetics, and biochemistry in an effort to uncover how this metabolism functions, how it is regulated, and how perchlorate reducers deal with the reactive intermediates that are produced. A deeper understanding of these concepts may enable the design of more effective biological systems for perchlorate removal.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2013-2014
Daniel Portik
Integrative Biology, Ph.D. candidate,
UC Berkeley
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Daniel Portik
Dan’s research will test a series of hypotheses regarding the processes generating high species richness in the African tropics. How species-rich taxonomic assemblages are generated and maintained, especially in the tropics, is a subject of great interest to biodiversity researchers and Dan’s project has the potential to provide an outstanding contribution to this field.
Joshua Apte
Joshua’s research focuses on the environmental and health impacts of transportation and other urban infrastructure systems. He uses mathematical models and field measurements to characterize human exposure to motor vehicle air pollution. His projects include a global assessment of the exposure consequences of urban vehicle emissions using the intake fraction metric and measurements of exposure to particle air pollution vehicles. One of his research sites is New Delhi, India.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2012-2013
Danielle Christianson
Danielle is motivated by her concern for the ability of human culture to persist sustainably within the natural world. She is pursuing an interdisciplinary research agenda: 1) testing the relevance of large-scale climate models to forest dynamics, and 2) exploring new ways to explain complex topics visually.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2012-2013
Cristina Poindexter
Cristina’s research focuses on acoustic measurement device bias and physical controls on gas transfer in emergent vegetation in order to improve the active management of wetlands. The results of her field and laboratory experiments will inform wetland modeling and management for issues such as carbon sequestration and methane emission.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2012-2013
Nicholas Matzke
Nick is working on the integration of bioinformatics, biogeography, and macroevolution, focusing in particular on the role that phylogeny and reticulate phylogeny can play in understanding biogeographic patterns and the origin of complex systems. Nick also maintains an interest in evolution and earth history education, particularly the goal of making the scientific literature accessible and understandable to the public, especially in order to rebut antievolutionist claims about the evolution of biological complexity.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2011-2012
Joey Pakes
Joey’s research focuses on dark, low-oxygen, anchialine caves, in which a marine layer rests beneath one or more isolated layers of brackish or freshwater. Most anchialinecaves contain low invertebrate densities, yet some have inexplicably large biomass of shrimp and remipedes, a rare crustacean found only in subtropical anchialine caves. She is working to integrate studies of geochemistry, microbiology, food web dynamics, and behavior to better understand whether chemosynthesis correlates with macrofaunal density and diversity as well as feeding behaviors in these extreme ecosystems.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2011-2012
Daniel Richter
Daniel’s research focuses on ancestral genome reconstruction and the evolution of sex in animals. To examine which aspects of animal reproduction are shared with their unicellular ancestors and which are distinct, Daniel is studying the reproductive process in choanoflagellates, the most closely related extant unicellular relative of animals. Choanoflagellates are a diverse group of globally distributed marine and freshwater heterotrophic nanoflagellates that play a significant role in global carbon cycling.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2011-2012
Manisha Anantharaman
Manisha’s research focused on sustainable consumption and environmentalism in India. Globalization and economic liberalization are enabling individuals in emerging economies like India and China to access lifestyles and consumer options similar to the resource-intense West. This spread of consumption poses substantial ecological challenges. Manisha studied emerging forms of ‘sustainable’ consumption practices in the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad, India among the new middle class, using participant observation on online forums and public events and ethnographic interviews. Her results are especially relevant to activists and policy organizations interested in changing consumption practices in India.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2010-2011
Tanya Renner
After completing her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, Tanya took a position as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona. In the lab of Dr. Judith Becerra, Tanya’s research focused on the molecular evolution host specialization in chrysomelids (beetles). Blepharida are both ecologically and evolutionarily interesting because of the high degree of coadaptation with their host plants Bursera. She is particularly interested in the genetic mechanisms behind host volatile recognition and seeks to reconstruct the evolutionary history of chemosensory genes in Blepharida.
James Schnable
James’ research focused on the regulation of gene expression in plants using comparative genomics and gene expression data. He researched what makes the two subgenomes within ancient tetraploid species such as maize different from each other. By taking advantage of the huge datasets that are now routinely generated by research groups using second generation sequencers, he is examining how homeologs (duplicate genes created by a whole genome duplication) on the two subgenomes of maize behave differently.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2010-2011
Andrea Silverman
Andrea’s research interests include waterborne pathogens, natural mechanisms of disinfection, wastewater reuse, and low-cost wastewater/fecal sludge treatment to mitigate the microbial health risks associated with waste reuse. Working under Professor Kara L. Nelson at UC Berkeley, Andrea studied sunlight disinfection of viruses in the laboratory and, in the field, its application as a low-cost intervention to treat wastewater used in urban, irrigated agriculture in Ghana.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2010-2011
Hamed Hossein-Afshari
Driven by a desire for high-tech engineering innovation, Hamedhossein’s research looks at fault diagnosis and prognosis in complex systems, with much of his work grounded in the field of control engineering. Through the support of the Foundation, he was able to further examine questions related to why and where abnormal conditions or defects occur in complex systems.
Steve Bellan
After completing his Ph.D., Steve took a postdoctoral position with theCenter for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at University of Texas. Steve’s research applied statistical and mathematical models to better understand infectious disease burden and transmission dynamics. His research focused on two projects. The first is on anthrax and rabies epizootology in Namibian wildlife, using surveillance, animal movement, and camera trap data sets to estimate the burden of these diseases and assess their impact on wildlife conservation and public health. His second research direction focuses on understanding HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa in order to better target novel antiretroviral treatment-based interventions.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2009-2010
Chris Golden
Upon completion of his Ph.D., Chris took a position as an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for the Environment. His research focuses on the interface of ecosystem service provisioning and human health, specifically in the context of global trends in biodiversity loss and ecosystem transformation. Chris worked with Walter Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health and Sam Myers at Harvard Medical School to study the human health impacts of ecosystem services. Chris plans to increase the geographic scale and depth of his past research on ecology and public health in Madagascar.
Anastasia Holobinko
Seeking to develop a multifaceted system for victim identification, Anastasia’s research examines isotope signatures in static human tissue (e.g., tooth enamel) with those in continuously forming tissue (e.g., hair) to compare geographic origins with geographic location at time of death. The Foundation’s support allowed her to travel to Vienna to present at the European Geosciences Union meetings, and to obtain materials and samples required for her thesis project.
Ahmed Medra
A highly active volunteer in the global electrical engineering community who has helped organize more than 20 conferences over the past decade, Ahmed’s research looks at how new wireless communications systems can provide users with more and high quality services. The Foundation’s support enabled Ahmed to access better tools and work environments while also providing encouragement for future research.
Lars Plate
Lars’ graduate work in Professor Michael Marletta’s lab focused on elucidating the biological role of nitric oxide (NO) sensing pathways in the bacteria Shewanella oneidensis and Vibrio cholerae. Lars has demonstrated that a particular NO sensor protein in these organisms is part of an unusually complex bacterial signaling network. NO induces biofilm formation as a likely protection mechanism against this cytotoxic molecule. Lars is currently investigating the role of the NO sensing pathway in Vibrio cholerae infections and its role in protection from NO formed by the host innate immune response.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2009-2010
Chodon Sass
Chodon received her Ph.D. in Plant Biology from UC Berkeley in 2010. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Craig Moritz at UC Berkeley working on biogeography and next generation sequencing in Australian reptiles. She later worked in Professor Chelse Specht’s Lab at UC Berkeley working on comparative methods for phylogenetic analyses as part of the NSF funded Arbor Initiative. This initiative takes on the daunting volumes of data researchers face, looking at how to organize that information into a usable format. This project team is creating software tools to develop a way to visually portray evolutionary data so scientists can see, at a glance, how organisms are related. The results have the potential to transform the way biologists test evolutionary and ecological hypotheses.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2009-2010
Christopher Ellison
Chris completed his Ph.D. in Professor John Taylor’s lab at UC Berkeley in 2011 then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Professor Doris Bachtrog Lab (functional and evolutionary genomics). He is investigating the gain of chromatin entry sites on the neo-X chromosome of D. miranda in the Department of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2008-2009
David Soerge
Upon completion of his Ph.D., David took a position in the Information Extraction and Synthesis Lab at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst on projects in natural language processing, particularly regarding mapping scientific literature. David and his colleagues process text from tens of millions of scholarly articles to learn about the evolution of scientific disciplines. They are also actively experimenting with variations on the peer review process, with the goal of increasing the rate, quality, timeliness, and openness of scientific discourse.
A paper arising from David’s work as a Tien Fellow received a Faculty of 1000 recommendation and can be viewed here.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2008-2009
Eric Steen
After completing his Ph.D., Eric joined the Professor Jay Keasling lab at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher. His research focuses on understanding mechanisms of regulation of fatty acid metabolic pathways and exploiting that knowledge for producing high levels of fatty acid derived chemicals and fuels. He is also a co-founder of Lygos, the first company to spin out of JBEI, a Department of Energy research center directed by Professor Keasling. Lygos was founded in 2012 to pursue breakthroughs in the production of cellulosic biofuels.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2008-2009
Michael Wasserman
After completing his Ph.D., Michael joined McGill University as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. His research interests include primate ecology, environmental endocrinology, nutritional anthropology, and evolutionary medicine. Specifically, he is examining ecological and evolutionary relationships between wild primates and their estrogenic plant foods, with relevance to understanding the roles of endocrine disruptors in primate conservation, human evolution, and modern human health and diet.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2008-2009
Greg Wiebe
Greg is using the support provided by the Philomathia Foundation to further research he initiated during his Master’s studies on the topic of demonology. His current research focuses on the writings and teachings of St. Augustine and the mystical nature of early Trinitarian theology, especially as it relates to contemporary political theology.
Kelly Wrighton
Upon completion of her Ph.D., Kelly joined the lab of Jill Banfield as a post-doctoral researcher specializing in the the physiology of microbes. In an article of the journal Science, Kelly and her colleagues reported on their sequencing of nearly 150,000 genes from soil samples at a former uranium mill site along the Colorado Rive in Rifle, CO. The results of this project could help lead to improved methods for stimulating the uptake of carbon from the atmosphere by soil bacteria in order to reduce greenhouse gases.
Allan Bayntun
With the support of the Philomathia Foundation, Allan was able to further his studies on string theory and extra-dimensional models, a developing branch of theoretical physics that may allow for possible cosmological explanations of the beginning of the universe.
Lillian Fritz-Laylin
After completing her Ph.D., Lillian was a postdoctoral scholar in Professor Dyche Mullins’ lab at UCSF School of Medicine, identifying and characterizing genes required for cell migration, a process important in human development, immunity, cancer metastasis, as well as for single celled organisms that bridge the food chain between bacteria and animals. Lillian has performed a comparative genomics screen that identified 112 gene families conserved only in organisms capable of actin-based cell motility. She also looked at the phenotype of cells depleted of the gene products, using human white blood cells. So far, several novel genes have promising phenotypes, including reduced migration, and aberrant actin structures.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2007-2008
Philip Johnson
Upon completion of his Ph.D., Philip joined the Rustom Antia Lab at Emory University as a research fellow. His research interests include: immune system dynamics viewed through the lens of population genetics, population genetics of microbial communities, sequencing error in making inferences based on population genetic theory, and mathematical disease modeling in structured populations.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2007-2008
Nicholas Holm
An award-winning humour writer and lecturer at the School of English and Media Studies at Massey University in New Zealand, Nicholas believes humour is central to our modern society. His graduate work supported by the Philomathia Foundation examined the ways humour is used to enable cultural, social, and political discussions.
Kristin Robrock
Dr. Robrock went on to work as a Senior Engineer at Exponent, Inc., in Oakland, California. She is an environmental engineer and microbiologist who specializes in biodegradation and the fate of chemicals in the environment. Kristin’s focus is on emerging contaminants, chlorinated solvents, in-situ bioremediation, and analytical chemistry. During her Ph.D. work, Dr. Robrock studied the degradation of the flame retardants polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) by aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and delineated the degradation pathways and determined the conditions necessary for these biological processes to occur.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2007-2008
Ashley Murray
Since completing her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, Ashley worked as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley’s Institute of Urban and Regional Development based at the International Water Management Institute in Accra, Ghana. In 2010, using her considerable expertise is in the design and implementation of reuse-oriented wastewater and fecal sludge treatment systems, she founded Waste Enterprisers LLC, a business that treats human waste as a resource. The organization recently received a $1.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Ashley was named to the 2011 class of National Geographic Emerging Explorers.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2006-2007
Kabir Peay
After obtaining his Ph.D., Kabir continued as a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley and then at Stanford University. Kabir worked as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota from 2011-2012 and he became a professor at Stanford University in September 2012. His primary research focus is community ecology and he encourages people in his lab to use a wide range of experimental approaches and technical tools, such as remote sensing, stable isotopes, gas exchange analyses and molecular genetics, to study a number of ecological topics. He works primarily on plant-fungal interactions (specifically mycorrhizal symbiosis).
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2006-2007
Tom Sharpton
Upon completion of his Ph.D., Tom joined UCSF’s J. David Gladstone Institute for Cardiovascular Disease as a postdoctoral research fellow. Tom’s current research focuses on understanding the abundant array of microorganisms that cover the human body (known as our microbiome) and may influence our health. He specializes in the development and application of high-throughput computational and statistical tools that characterize the diversity of the human microbiome as it relates to health. His interests center on understanding how microorganisms and their biological functions are distributed across space, time, and host phenotype with the aim of developing testable hypotheses about how human-associated communities interact with our bodies.
* Also awarded a Philomathia fellowship in 2006-2007
Marjorie Westbrook
After completing her Ph.D., Jody went on to work as a scientists at Locus Development, a San Francisco-based startup developing clinical tools and services that will enable more personalized, predictive, preventative, and cost-effective healthcare.
Jessica Cande
Since completing her Ph.D., Jessica continued as a postdoctoral fellow in the Prud’homme and Gompel lab at the IBDML in Marseille. Her research focuses on understanding the evolution and genetics of innate courtship behavior in diverse fruit fly species.
Adam Leache
Upon completion of his Ph.D., Adam took on the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Washington. Research in his lab focused on phylogenetics, systematics, phylogeography, and species delimitation. Adam and his lab staff and students study natural populations and conduct extensive fieldwork to collect specimens for their research. The focus is currently on amphibians and reptiles, but the lab has on-going projects focused on birds, mammals, and plants.
Gene Tyson
After obtaining his Ph.D, Gene went on to become Assistant Professor, Senior Research Fellow at the Advanced Water Management Centre, and Deputy Director at the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. He is a microbial ecologist whose research applies molecular approaches to understand the structure and function of microbial communities in the environment. Following his Ph.D., at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2006-2009), he conducted postdoctoral research work on the composition, functional potential, regulation, and evolution of complex marine microbial communities at sites around the world. His research interests at the Advanced Water Management Centre include molecular microbial ecology, microbial diversity, microbial evolution, the role of microorganism in the biogeochemical cycles that underpin life on Earth.
Travel Scholarships
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Xingchen (Amber) Chen
Amber’s scholarship allowed her to travel throughout India, where she spent most of her time working on health policy research with the Public Health Foundation of India. After witnessing the social implications of poor sanitation and water quality, she also wanted to help people on an individual basis—so she partnered with local volunteers and entrepreneurs to launch a campaign to provide people in need with affordable toilets. Her experiences in India have reinforced her desire to work with underprivileged people around the world.
Sarah Haliburton
A nursing student at McMaster University, Sarah used her travel scholarship to spend a summer in Kolkata, India, where she completed a 10-week placement with the Institute for Indian Mother and Child. She returned from India with much more confidence and skill as a nurse. To help further her research, Sarah is applying to McMaster’s Graduate Nursing Program, where she hopes to develop a standardized tool to measure the effectiveness and success of cardiovascular disease programs.
Catherine Zagar
Catherine used her travel scholarship to visit England, where she conducted research at a Roman archaeological dig site—developing new skills in the field and collecting data for her Master’s thesis project. She is currently studying as a visiting researcher at Texas Tech University. Her research interests include literature, archaeology, biology, forensic anthropology and urban studies.