Ashley Juavinett, UCSD Professor, Author of “So You Want to Be a Neuroscientist?”
Title: “Anyone can be a neuroscientist — here’s how.”
Since the dawn of neuroscience, most of our data has been hidden behind closed laboratory doors. But these days, neuroscience data is freely out in the wild. Why aren’t you (or other people) hacking it yet?
Ashley Juavinett is a teaching professor in neurobiology at UC San Diego and the author of “So You Want To Be a Neuroscientist?” She received her PhD from UC San Diego, where she investigated the cell types and circuits underlying visual perception. Her current research focuses on developing best practices for training the next generation of neuroscientists. When she isn’t thinking or teaching, she is staring lovingly into her dog’s eyes.
Ductal network structures are common place in multiple organs in the body. These networks are vital for the proper functioning of the body. One example is the pancreas ducts which transport digestive enzymes secreted in the pancreas to the small intestine. Another example is the mammary ducts which facilitate the delivery of secreted milk to breastfeeding infants. In this talk, I will discuss our current knowledge of the very complex interactions that occur during ductal network formation and will highlight why it is important to gain more insight into these interactions.
Uduak Z. George, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at San Diego State University (SDSU). She completed her PhD in Mathematics at the University of Sussex, England, United Kingdom. Dr. George combines computational modeling with artificial intelligence and machine learning to gain deeper insights into the processes that drive biological development and impact health conditions. Dr. George is a recipient of the 2023 NSF CAREER Award. She was named an SDSU Presidential Research Fellow in 2023.
Trevor Valle, Paleontologist and Creative Consultant
Title: “Reentry to Runway: Landing a Space Shuttle”
Imagine you’re in a flying brick with stubby little wings 400,000ft over South America wrapped in a ball of 3000°F plasma hurtling toward the ground, aiming for a 300ft wide, 3 mile long strip of concrete 5000 miles away. You’re also traveling at around Mach 25 so you have 17 and a half minutes to go from really, really fast to zero, safely. And you only have one chance to do it.
Trevor Valle has been a Nerd Nite regular across the country since 2014, and is primarily known as a paleontologist, biologist, and role-playing game historian. What you might not know is that he is a 4-time graduate of Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, has been invited to California Science Center events to speak about the Endeavour orbiter on display, and has successfully completed over two dozen simulated landings at Space Camp and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Title: Neuroscience of The New Flesh: Body Horror In Your Brain
Dr. Eric Leonardis is a neuroscientist and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies who studies perception and action in the brains of mice, monkeys, and humans. Eric blends the cerebral with the sensational: when not working on brain-inspired AI, he can be found introducing films in movie theaters and DJing at warehouse parties across SoCal. He is currently organizing the “New Flesh Party”, a screening of David Cronenberg’s Videodrome followed by a dance party at the Digital Gym Cinema in Downtown SD on May 4th, 2024
Sydney Smith
Title: Using Data and Neuroscience to Understand the Most Effective Depression Treatment
I’m a Colorado-transplant and computational neuroscience PhD candidate at UC San Diego. Essentially, I am a gigantic nerd who uses math and computer science to learn about the brain. Lucky for me, San Diego is a delightful place to be a nerd and I’ve spent the last 7 years enjoying this beautiful city, roaming the dog beaches with my fluffy BFF, and endlessly searching for the best tacos and breweries in town. Some of these breweries let me host an event every spring called the Taste of Science Festival, which is similar in spirit to Nerd Nite. You can find more of my work on the platform The Conversation, the Stories of Women in Neuroscience podcast and blog, and in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
Paul Wynns
Title: Top Code: I, for one, welcome our fighter pilot overlords
Paul is a returning Nerd Night presenter who has worked in aviation and aerospace as a program manager at the world’s largest aerospace company. Prior to that, he was a Navy jet pilot who denies ever having said “Red Five standing by” on the radio during weapons training or carrier operations. These days, he is enrolled at the UC San Diego Rady School of Management as a PhD candidate studying passenger trust in automated air travel.
From archaic brain circulation seesaws to Neuralink brain implants, neuroscience has a long and diverse history of creative—and sometimes outlandish—approaches for measuring the human brain and its activity. Although not all approaches worked, even the strangest among them got us to where we are today… In this talk, Prof. Voytek will sample some of the weirder approaches that have been developed for studying the human brain, discussing his research with mini-brains grown in human dishes to working with people implanted with permanent brain stimulators.
Danielle Gaffen
Title: Decoding Your Diet: Personalizing Your Plate with Nutrigenetics, Nutrigenomics, and Microbiome Science
From the earliest feasts to futuristic foods, the quest for the perfect plate has evolved. Today, it’s not just about the power-packed provisions that propel health or the savory selections that shield against sickness. The real spice lies in the dynamic interplay between our genetic blueprint and the bustling community of microbes residing within us – our microbiome. Gear up for a feast of knowledge, sprinkled with fun, and discover the fine dining experience designed by precision nutrition for your body.
Nicholas Peters
Title: Pokémeh: Design Oddities in the Pokémon World
Pokémon continues to be the very best in terms of the world’s top performing media franchises, but for every proverbial Hyper Beam the brand unleashes on popular culture, there have been several storied not-so-super effective moves. With particular mind to art, narrative, and game design, we’ll catch some of Pokémon’s most hilarious, fascinating, and head-scratching controversies; including dashed evolutionary dreams, monsters that can’t sit, game breaking miscalculations, and a quest so inaccessible, it’s downright shocking.
In the 2020 finale, we talked Math! Like really rad, sexy math and geometry. We also learned about secret codes in textiles!
“The Spies Who Stitched Me”
by Czarina Salido & Francis French
Codes, spies, needles, and intrigue! Did knitting change the outcome of a war? In the world of textiles, codes can refer to the ancient origins of the modern computer codes that deeply affect our everyday lives. But there are stories of other, hidden codes in textiles… codes used by spies that may have changed the outcome of wars or helped people escape persecutors. Delve into this mysterious history with Francis French, science educator (and textile photographer on books such as The Techniques of Indian Embroidery), and Czarina Salido, Director of Taking Up Space, currently teaching Native American girls about coding.
Bios: Czarina Salido is the Director of Taking Up Space, a program that inspires the next generation of explorers through mentoring and awarding Native American girls scholarships to Space Camp, while introducing girls to fun, hands-on experiences that help to facilitate a high level of self confidence and interest in STEM-related areas.
Francis French is an author and educator with international experience in relating science, engineering, music, astronomy, art, and wildlife to general audiences through classes, workshops, public speaking, television and documentary productions. He is the author of numerous bestselling history books, and a keynote speaker at conferences.
“Unsolved Math Mysteries at Burning Man”
by Satyan Devadoss
Brilliant, cutting-edge ideas are all around us: Beyoncé and music, quantum computing and physics, vaccines and biology, Hamilton and theatre. But when it comes to math, many think of it as a pile of formulas and equations that is painful but useful, like a root canal. In reality, mathematics is filled with mysteries and wonders that can bring joy to anyone, much like ice cream.
This talk is about one of these revolutionary ideas, whose origins date back 500 years to the Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. We discuss Dürer’s puzzle and play with higher-dimensional cubes, all of which inspired the creation of a 2-ton sculpture at Burning Man. This talk is open for all ages, especially suited to those who absolutely love or absolutely hate math.
Bio: Before becoming the Fletcher Jones Professor of Applied Mathematics at USD, Satyan Devadoss was a professor at Williams for nearly 15 years, and has held visiting positions at Ohio State, UC Berkeley, Harvey Mudd, and Stanford. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, and recipient of two national teaching awards, whose thoughts have appeared in venues such as NPR, the Times of London, the Washington Post, and Forbes. His work explores the structure of shape, and its intersection with origami, painting, architecture, genetics, and design. He is a satisfactory father to four children and married to a queen.
Nerd Nite SD are actively increasing the participation and representation of women scientists in science communication. In 2017, only 12% of NNSD presenters were female. By 2019, the number of female speakers more than doubled (29%) and in 2020, the male-female presenter ratio was 60% vs. 40%. Our goal for 2021 is to reach equal representation of male and female presenters on NNSD!
Female scientists are encourage to nominate themselves or other female scientists to present their work at Nerd Nite SD! Contact
When it comes to creatures living in the waters, you might have all the questions! The answer lies in the icosahedron! This August, we’re brining you three biology nerds who each nerd out on a unique aspect of marine or freshwater habitat. What are oysters and mussels up to when they think no one is watching? In his marine peepshow, Luke Miller, who spends his time squatting on the rocky shore or in the mud sticking sensors on animals, reveals what makes intertidal communities thrive or fail. How do flatworms re-grow lost body parts?Ricardo Zayasuses freshwater planarians (flatworms) as models to study the molecular basis underlying tissue regeneration. And Ric DeSantiago, a.k.a. DaHood Scientist, “takes the hood to science and brings science to the hood” and helps us understand relationships among intertidal communities!
August speakers:
Luke Miller “Prying into the private lives of oysters and mussels”
To most people, shellfish like oysters and mussels are just rocks with food inside, And frankly, we’re not going to quibble with that viewpoint. But before they arrive on your dinner table, those animals spend years stuck to rocks, piers, boats, or each other, and they make their living sucking up whatever happens to be floating by in the water. It’s not a glamorous life by any measure, but mussels and oysters are doing their part to keep our bays and coasts lively and productive, while avoiding all sorts of threats to their survival. We’re going to take a peek into what they’re doing when they think no one is watching, and try to gain insight into why they flourish or fail.
Bio: Luke Miller spends a lot of time squatting on the rocky shore or in the mud, where he attempts to stick sensors on animals and keep seawater out of sensitive electronics. When not quarantined at home, he spends large chunks of time sitting in an office at San Diego State University where he is an assistant professor of biology, or running around keeping a small child and wife entertained.
Measuring tide pool water chemistry parameters in Sitka Alaska, January 2019
L: Sarah Mastroni, C: Luke Miller, R: Genevieve Bernatchez
Ric DeSantiago “Inter ecosystem connectivity through marine subsidies: Foodwebs don’t care about your boundaries!”
As ecologists, we tend to focus our specific ecosystems and how organisms within those systems interact with each other and the environment. The more we study these interactions, the better we understand the predator-prey and grazer-plant that make up the foodwebs in our systems. But nature doesn’t care about our definition of an “ecosystem” or where we draw the boundaries. So, if we want to understand the natural world, we need to be the fish who jumps out of the water and explores the land. This is the story of the lessons I learned when I was invited to explore South Coronado Island.
Bio: Ric DeSantiago is a PhD student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Ecology at San Diego State University and University of California, Davis. He works with Dr. Jeremy Long and is a proud member of the #longlabmafia. Ric broadly studies coastal communities and is interested in the connectivity between sea and land. His current research looks at the impact of the invasive seaweed, Sargassum horneri, on rocky coastal communities as it washes ashore. Ric likes to use art in the form of cartoons and short film to communicate science and is always down to nerd out over beers.
Ricardo Zayas “Regaining a sense of touch: lessons from flatworms”
Have you ever wondered if worms can feel gentle touches or feel pain when baiting fishhooks? Animals rely on sensory systems to physically interact with the environment. Specialized cells allow us and worms to detect light, vibrations, temperature, smell chemicals, or feel touch. Impaired sensations can be quite debilitating or dangerous. My lab uses freshwater planarians, flatworms with the remarkable ability to replace injured tissues, to study how animals can regenerate sensory cells. Tune in to learn about how our work should offer insights into genetic mechanisms underpinning sensory cell repair, function, and disease.
Bio: Dr. Ricardo Zayas was born and raised in Puerto Rico. Ricardo moved to the mainland to earn his B.S. in Biology from Fairfield University (1993). Motivated by a long-standing commitment to social justice and teaching, he volunteered as a science and math teacher at Loyola High School, a school predominantly addressing the needs of under-served male African Americans in Detroit, MI. Ricardo earned his Ph.D. in Biology from Tufts University (2003) and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Illinois where he studied stem cell biology and tissue regeneration in planarians. Planarians are really cool (and cute) organisms that are capable of regenerating lost body parts from very small body pieces from a population of adult pluripotent stem cells. Ricardo joined San Diego State in 2008, where he runs a research program using planarians as a model to investigate molecular and signaling pathways underlying regeneration of the nervous system.
Watch Dr. Zayas talk about flatworms replicating own cells to grow parts of their body:
