Impact Factor Podcast Live November 17
November 1, 2022
Join us for a special live recording of the
Impact Factor podcast hosted by Drexel alumna, Katie Van Aken, PhD '17!
Dumb it up!
Have you ever tried to explain your PhD research to your grandparents? Have you ever had to convince a person or entity to fund your very specific research? Getting your PhD involves often presenting and sharing your work to other experts in your field. But the bigger challenge is learning how to explain a technical research topic to someone who hasn't studied it for years. Let's talk about how grad school can and should prepare students to communicate technical topics to a general audience.
This event is open to ALL!
Thursday, November 17th
6 to 7 p.m. ET
Papadakis Integrated Science Building (PISB)
Room 104, First Floor
Drexel University
3245 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
And, be sure to join us for an after party with the panelists!
REGISTER [Qualtrics]
DOWNLOAD THE FLYER [PDF]
About the Host:
Katie Van Aken
After graduating from Haverford College with an undergraduate degree in Physics, Katie joined the Materials Science and Engineering department as a PhD student in Dr. Yury Gogotsi's lab. She researched electrolytes and carbon materials for energy storage and graduated in 2017. Katie went on to do a post-doc in the Electrical Engineering department at Drexel and then left to pursue a career in industry. She is currently in a project manager role at Syncro Medical, working on software development projects for medical device companies. Katie launched the Impact Factor Podcast in June of this year to discuss issues relevant to students who are at different stages of pursuing their PhD.
About the Panelists:
Ben Haslund-Gorley
Ben Haslund-Gourley researched N-glycoprotein alterations in sepsis and diabetes with the Marth Lab while obtaining his undergraduate degree in Biology at UC Santa Barbara. He was accepted to the MD/PhD program at Drexel University College of Medicine in 2019 and is entering his fourth year of the physician-scientist training program. He joined the Comunale Lab to apply glycoproteomic and glycomic analytical techniques to translational research. His work with Lyme disease patient sera provided by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation detected N-glycan biomarkers specific to acute Lyme disease. This work was confirmed using multiple analytical methods including HPLC, MALDI-MS, and UPLC-ESI-MS at two research institutions. Ben is passionate to translate scientific findings to improve patient outcomes and hopes to develop a novel acute Lyme disease diagnostic using a glycomic platform.
Claire Witherel
Dr. Claire Witherel is currently a Medical Science Liaison at Integra LifeSciences. In that role, she supports the Tissue Technologies, Wound Reconstruction & Care product portfolio, along with Nerve and Tendon products in the Surgical Reconstruction Division, helping to lead clinical evidence generation, develop/foster relationships with KOLs, support upstream development of new technologies and studies.
Prior to joining Integra, Claire worked at the University of Pennsylvania as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Bioengineering under Dr. Jason Burdick studying extracellular vesicle drug delivery and hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel synthesis. She earned her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University. During her PhD at Drexel (working under Dr. Kara Spiller), Claire's research was focused on wound healing and macrophage biology specifically at the interface of tissues and biomaterials for regenerative medicine and the design of natural polymer-based biomaterials. She also has experience leading industry-academic research collaborations, along with a strong scientific communication expertise authoring over 10 peer reviewed publications and over 20 international and national conference proceedings.
Christina Love
Professor Christina Love is an Associate Teaching Professor at Drexel University where she teaches physics to almost every type of major, including physics, fashion design, biology, and business. Prof. Love is currently developing the IceCube Neutrino Observatory Citizen Science Program, which will allow the public to help analyze signals from outer space that were recorded in a detector at the South Pole.
Prof. Love earned her PhD searching for dark matter with the DarkSide Collaboration. She completed her postdoctoral work on explosives detection with X-ray scanners. She has also performed research at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy.
Prof. Love is the director and founder of Start Talking Science, a free annual event where STEM scholars present posters detailing their research to a general audience. She also serves as a Member-at-Large for the Forum on Outreach and Engaging the Public for the American Physical Society, and she is a past president for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association for Women in Science. Prof. Love has earned numerous awards such as the Drexel University Award for Teaching Excellence and the Award for Outstanding Faculty Mentor.