My science outreach efforts come in all different flavors. I’ve been part of education efforts for K-12 students, non-science adult audiences, and STEM-aligned professional organizations. Below is smattering of the various efforts.
If you’d like me or my colleagues to participate in an event, please contact me by email to discuss!
May 17, 2021 I don’t get interviewed very much, and I’m not famous enough to have my own podcast. So when Cayk shows up on my virtual doorstep saying it’s time for a podcast, I don’t hesitate!
Their podcast’s current season is on Chemical Education, and we talked about what an undergraduate-focused research program looks like and how to make it fruitful. Nothing is one-size, of course, but I hope you enjoy it thoroughly even if it doesn’t fully apply to what you like to do.
February 5, 2021 At the ACS meeting in San Diego in 2019, I was starving for some coffee and happened to spot a chemistry Twitter celebrity. You know them as Chemistry Cayk, but I know them as… Cayk. Basically on a first name basis.
I couldn’t resist saying hey. One thing led to another, and here I am chatting with Cayk on the podcast!
We talk about helical molecular orbital, live-tweeting journal articles, and, of course, batteries! Please enjoy the all the episodes and not just this one though!
June 15, 2020 Undergrad in the Lab is a Twitter handle that you should get familiar with! They focus on making the experience of undergraduates in research as best as it can be.
When this whole COVID thing happened, they posted up asking what research mentors were planning as they went into the summer. I DMed with my plans, and we talked about all the conversations they’ve had with students reassuring them that the cancellations of research positions isn’t their fault.
I then jumped into writing my own little piece about what went into my decisions for this summer, and now you can see it on their site!
January 13, 2020 I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to have my children attend preschool and to also have them do so close to campus. The college is such a great resource for them. Students visit to help, teach, and entertain. And now I’ve gotten to do the same! Their weekly science class has entered a new chemistry unit. I was able to visit the class, talk about what a scientist does (ask a question, try to answer the question), do a small science demo, and have them sing me their scientific method song! I will say I was totally floored by the awesome demos the teachers were already planning. I could barely come up with something unique and awesome for me to present! Teachers are awesome!
February 11-12, 2019 Representation in STEM is not what it should be. There are many forces that keep people within underrepresented minority populations from being part of higher education, both as students and as faculty.
At Davidson, we have wonderful students that deserve to see that someone just like them has achieved greatness, is respected, and is totally awesome. So I decided to invite Raychelle Burks, Mary Crawford, and Maria Gallardo-Williams to campus to talk about their stories as students and mentors. Additionally, science talks about their respective research projects were given and really showed the breadth that chemistry has to impact the world!
January 31, 2018 LaunckLKN hosted its monthly gathering in Moorseville, NC, and I was invited to talk about the research pipeline of energy storage and batteries. The video is below (my portion begins at 42:57, additional Q&A begins at 1:01:20).
November 27, 2012 Nerd Nite is a national organization but also a local grassroots effort to educate people about… everything?! While it leans STEM, it’s definitely about much more. If you’re a nerd for anything, you can give a talk about what you love!
The SF East Bay chapter of Nerd Nite hosted my talk on luminescence, and that was eventually chosen as one of the best talks nationally for Nerd Nite! Later that year, I gave the same talk at the national Nerd Nite gathering in DC sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine. So fun! I hope to do it again some day!
