Dr. Rebecca Wattam is a Research Associate Professor in the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory within the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech. Rebecca is the outreach and biology lead for a bioinformatics research center that scientists use to share and analyze their data on bacteria and bacterial genomes. This research center was originally funded to study bacteria that can make us sick in order to develop vaccines, identify drug targets, and predict outbreaks of illnesses. However, there are a lot of beneficial types of bacterial that are also now being studied based on their use for fermentation, alternate energy sources, probiotics, and other purposes. Rebecca is particularly interested in examining the similarities and differences between groups of bacteria. Living in Blacksburg, Virginia, Rebecca is close to the beautiful Appalachian Trail. She spends much of her free time hiking, canoeing, exploring the outdoors, and watching the wildlife. Rebecca received her B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of New Mexico in Biology. Next, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned a joint Ph.D. degree in Entomology and Veterinary Science. Rebecca received a MacArthur Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research at the University of Arizona in Tucson, and she completed a second postdoctoral fellowship there as well before accepting a position on the faculty at Virginia Tech. In our interview, Rebecca speaks more about her experiences in life and science.

Dr. Catherine Emily Carr is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park. In the lab, Catherine is interested in understanding how animals perceive their environment. This work involves observing animal behavior in the field, as well as laboratory studies to try to understand the biology of how different fish, birds, and reptiles use their senses and their nervous systems to perceive the world around them. Much of Catherine’s recent work has focused on hearing and how animals use the sounds they perceive and produce. Lately, Catherine has enjoyed spending her free time reading and doing volunteer work for the Maryland State Park system. As a volunteer she has been removing invasive species, like English Ivy and Japanese honeysuckle, from her local parks in an effort to restore the native habitats. Catherine received her undergraduate training in Zoology with first class honors at the University of Cape Town, and she completed her M.A. degree in biology at the State University New York at Buffalo. She was awarded her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. Afterwards, Catherine conducted postdoctoral research at CalTech, and she served briefly on the faculty at the University of Rochester before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland in 1990. She has served as a course director and co-director at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole and has served as President, Director, and a Trustee for the Glass Foundation. Catherine has received numerous awards and honors over the years, including an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and she was awarded the Humboldt Senior Research Prize twice. She is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, and the International Society for Neuroethology. She received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Southern Denmark, and she was named Mentor of the Year in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program at the University of Maryland. In this interview, she shares more about her life and science.

Dr. James O'Dwyer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Biology and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The research in James’s lab uses computational and theoretical approaches to better understand the patterns we observe in the world. He is an ecologist and is particularly interested in biological complexity. The goal of his lab is to build models and make predictions that will provide us with novel and unexpected information about how nature works. In his free time, James enjoys hiking, traveling, and strategic board games like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride. He was awarded a master's degree in Physics from the University of Durham, as well as a master's and PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Cambridge. James was awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship conducting research at the University of Oregon and the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom, and he was also awarded an Omidyar Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Santa Fe Institute before accepting his current position. James is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.