2011 National IRACDA Conference
Speaker Biographies
Speaker Biographies
Richard A. Aló, Ph.D.
Professor of Computer and Mathematical Sciences
University of Houston – Downtown, Houston, TX
Richard A. Aló is the Executive Director of the Center for Computational Sciences and Advanced
Distributed Simulation (1995- present) at the University of Houston – Downtown. He is
currently a Program Director for the Division of Undergraduate Education and the Directorate
for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation. Before attending
graduate school, he was a Retrofit Systems Test Engineer for the Command, Control and
Interoperability tasks of the US Air Force’s Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) System
at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories. He earned his MA and Ph.D in Mathematics with minor in
Computer Science from the Pennsylvania State University, followed by a one year Lecturer
position. He was a member of the mathematics faculty at Carnegie-Mellon University for 11
years followed by six years as Department Head of Mathematics and Computer Science at
Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He has held his current position of professor of
Computer and Mathematical Sciences at the UHD since 1982, chairing its Department of
Computer and Mathematical Sciences from 1982 until 1995. He was responsible for initiating
both the computer science and statistics degree BS programs. From 1995 to 2010 he was
Executive Director for Grants /Contracts at UHD raising over $30 million in sponsored projects.
He has served on several advisory and executive boards one of which is the Association of
Departments of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at Minority Institutions
(ADMI, a founding member). He chaired two ADMI national conferences; co-chaired the
Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Symposium, Houston, 2001 and the
Education Committee for Supercomputing 2002. He was selected as the 2002 Educator of the
Year by the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference (HENAAC). He has
published over 150 research papers. His primary research and educational interests are
computational science applications, fuzzy logic, grid computing, cyber infrastructure tools,
automated reasoning and decision making. Aside from science and mathematics, he is
President of the Houston International Dance Coalition that brings 10 to 12 international
modern dance companies per year to Houston for the week long Dance Salad Festival,
www.dancesalad.org .
Utpal Banerjee, Ph.D.
Irving and Jean Stone Professor and Chair of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology
Department
University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Utpal Banerjee received his B.Sc. in Chemistry from St. Stephens College, Delhi University in
India. He moved to the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India for his Masters degree in
Chemistry. He then moved to CALTECH where he received his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1984. Dr.
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Speaker Biographies
Banerjee switched to Biology and was a Del E. Webb and LSRF Burroughs Welcome
Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Seymour Benzer at Cal Tech, where he began
studying the role of Sevenless in the Drosophila visual system. In 1988, Dr. Banerjee joined the
faculty of UCLA in Los Angeles, where he is currently the Irving and Jean Stone Professor and
Chair of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology Department. Dr. Banerjee has served as
president on the Drosophila Board. He currently is Co-director of the Broad Stem Cell Research
Center and is a director of the Genetics Society of America Board. In 2008 he was elected a
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2009, the American Association for
the Advancement of Science elected him as a Fellow. In 2010 he received the Genetics Society
of America Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Education and a number of other
accolades. Since 2002, he has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, and
with this HHMI support has implemented new approaches to integrate undergraduate teaching
and research by using several novel pedagogical tools including a strategy called “Research
Deconstruction”. His laboratory currently studies interactions between signal transduction and
metabolic pathways in development and generation of progenitor fate and stress response
during hematopoiesis.
Bonnie Bartel, Ph.D.
Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Rice University, Houston, TX
Bonnie Bartel received her B.A. in Biology from Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. She
moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate studies, where she held an NSF
Graduate Fellowship and studied the yeast ubiquitin system in the laboratory of Dr. Alexander
Varshavsky. She received her Ph.D. in Biology from MIT in 1990 and was an American Cancer
Society Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Gerald Fink at the Whitehead Institute for
Biomedical Research, where she began studying auxin metabolism in the model plant
Arabidopsis thaliana. In 1995, Dr. Bartel joined the faculty of Rice University in Houston, where
she is currently the Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Dr.
Bartel has served on the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee, the Scientific
Advisory Board for the Arabidopsis Biological Resource Center, and on the Executive Committee
of the American Society of Plant Biologists. In 2007, she was elected an AAAS Fellow by the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and in 2011 she received a
Fellow of American Society of Plant Biologists Award and the Presidential Award for Mentoring
at Rice University. She currently is an Associate Editor for the journals Genetics and Plant
Physiology, an AAAS Council Delegate, and a member of the Genetics Society of America Board
of Directors. In 2006, she was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, and with
this HHMI support has implemented new approaches to integrate undergraduate teaching and
research. Her laboratory currently studies auxin regulation and peroxisome biogenesis and
functions in plants.
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Janet Braam, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
Rice University, Houston, TX
Janet Braam received her Ph.D. in Molecular Virology and Biology in 1985 from the SloanKettering Division of the Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, conducting research to
elucidate the influenza viral polymerase function. She then joined Stanford University School of
Medicine as an NSF postdoctoral fellow in plant biology. Her research at Stanford led to the
discovery that plants turn on genes in response to touch and shed light on the importance of
calcium signal transduction in mechanical perturbation responses in plants. In 1990, she joined
the faculty at Rice University, rose through the ranks, and is currently Chair and Professor of
Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Her current research contributions include uncovering roles of
calcium-binding and cell wall proteins in plant responses to environmental stress, with recent
work focused on elucidating aspects of nitric oxide signaling, autophagy regulation, chloroplast
signaling, and jasmonic acid dependent defense. Interdisciplinary collaborations include
analyses of nanomaterial uptake in plants and plant circadian rhythms.
Anthony DePass, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President for Research Development
Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY
Anthony L. DePass is the Assistant Vice President for Research Development for Long Island
University (LIU), and an Associate Professor of Biology at its Brooklyn campus. He is the Director
of the LIU MBRS RISE Program, and also served as Co-PI and member of the administrative core
for the NIH-NCI funded U54 research partnership between LIU and Columbia University. Dr.
DePass serves as the institutional coordinator for LIU in the IRACDA New Jersey/New York for
Science Partnerships in Research & Education (INSPIRE) program. He is also the external
evaluator for the IRACDA program led by Virginia Commonwealth University, and its partner
institutions. Dr. DePass has led several efforts at the institutional, regional, and national levels
that target student learning and advancement through inquiry-based pedagogic approaches
that have been central to professional development activities for faculty, and to research
training and development for students. Dr. DePass’ leadership in this area began in 1996, as
Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the NSF-funded Multimedia and Interactive Learning
(MIL) project. He has since provided leadership at the national level in coordinating programs
that address the underrepresentation of minorities in the scientific workforce. As a member
and chair of the Minorities Affairs Committee for the American Society for Cell Biology, Dr.
DePass was the Principal Investigator of its NIH-funded T36 grant that focuses on education and
professional development through activities that have directly affected individuals from over
140 institutions. As Chair/co-Chair for the 2007-2011 national conferences on Understanding
Interventions that Broaden Participation in Research Careers, Dr. DePass has also provided
leadership in bringing together communities of scholarship and practice in an effort to more
actively incorporate scholarship into training and professional development programs that
promote diversity in the scientific workforce. Currently Dr. DePass runs an active research
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program and serves as reviewer, advisory board member, and evaluator for several programs
that focus on training the next generation of scientists.
K. Jane Grande-Allen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Bioengineering
Rice University, Houston, TX
Jane Grande-Allen received a B.A. in Mathematics and Biology from Transylvania University in
1991, and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Washington in 1998. After
performing postdoctoral research in Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic, she joined
Rice University in 2003 and was promoted to Associate Professor of Bioengineering in 2008. Dr.
Grande-Allen’s research group investigates the structure-function-environment relationship of
heart valves through bioengineering analyses of the extracellular matrix and cell
mechanobiology. Their goal in characterizing the mechanisms of heart valve remodeling is to
derive novel therapies that can be used to treat patients earlier in the disease process. Dr.
Grande-Allen’s work employs numerous bioengineering, molecular biology, materials science,
and mechanical engineering strategies. Her work has been supported by over $4M in funding
from several federal, non-federal, and international agencies, and results are described in more
than 70 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Grande-Allen has received numerous awards including
the Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Development Award (2005),
Hamill Innovation (2005, 2008, 2010) and Medical Innovation (2007) awards from Rice’s
Institute for Biosciences and Bioengineering (IBB), the Outstanding Young Scientist Award from
the Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology (2005), the Brown Foundation
Teaching Award (2006), the Rice University Presidential Mentoring Award (2009), and the A.J.
Durelli award from the Society for Experimental Mechanics (2011). She is an associate editor of
the journals Annals of Biomedical Engineering, BMC Biotechnology, and Cardiovascular
Engineering and Technology. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Biomedical
Engineering Society.
Charles Hauser, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Bioinformatics
St. Edwards University, Austin, TX
Dr. Hauser received his undergraduate training in botany and chemistry from the University of
Texas, Austin. While there he carried out a plant survey of land overlooking Redbud Island in
Austin. Upon graduation, he worked with a group at Shell Research studying the formulation of
solid resins used in a diverse array of products from sailboat hulls to carbon-fiber bicycles. Dr.
Hauser returned to earn his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics working with Dr. H. Gray at
the University of Houston where his research focused on the cloning and enzymology of the
nuclease BAL31, a dual-functional endo- and exo-nuclease. Following this hiatus from plants,
Dr. Hauser went to Duke University working with Drs. N.W. Gillham and J.E. Boynton where his
postdoctoral research focused on characterization of chloroplast post-transcriptional regulation
mechanisms in the unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Dr. Hauser extended his
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stay at Duke, where as a research scientist he was involved with the Chlamydomonas genome
project in collaboration with Dr. Arthur Grossman at Stanford. Seeing a need to introduce
bioinformatics into the undergraduate curriculum, Dr. Hauser moved to St. Edward’s University
in Austin, Texas where he is establishing an undergraduate program in bioinformatics.
Jerry E. Johnson Jr., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology & Biochemistry, Department of Natural Sciences
University of Houston Downtown, Houston, TX
Dr. Jerry Johnson earned his B.S. in Biology in 1999 and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2003 from
the University of Houston. Dr. Johnson then continued on to an NIH/NEI-funded post-doctoral
fellowship in retinal developmental toxicology at the University of Houston, College of
Optometry from 2003 - 2005. As a student, Dr. Johnson acquired a passion for teaching
excellence and effective pedagogy, with an emphasis in the Socratic Method. In the fall of 2005,
Dr. Johnson joined the tenure-track faculty of the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) as an
Assistant Professor of Biology & Biochemistry in the Department of Natural Sciences. As a
faculty member at UHD, Dr. Johnson has combined his passion for research and teaching by
running a laboratory of undergraduate research students and teaching undergraduate courses
in: first- and second-semester Biochemistry, Cellular Biology, Human Physiology, and Principles
of Pharmacology & Toxicology using a variety of pedagogical styles. Dr. Johnson’s laboratory is
interested in a wide array of topics from mitochondrial enzymology, to developmental
neurobiology and heavy metal toxicology. His students have won national awards for their
research related to retinal cellular metabolism and aging. Dr. Johnson has published, in
collaboration with the University of Houston, in journals such as the Journal of Biological
Chemistry (JBC), Molecular Vision, Environmental Health Perspectives, and recently in
Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. Dr. Johnson has also delivered international talks on
pedagogy as well as Pharmacology and Toxicology. He is the PI of an NIH MARC grant at UHD,
and serves as the director of the UHD partner campus for the IRACDA consortium with Baylor
College of Medicine. Dr. Johnson has performed freelance work for numerous textbook
publishing companies and is a consultant for the MCAT preparatory company, Examkrackers,
Inc.
Krešimir Josić, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics
University of Houston, Houston, TX
Krešimir Josid was born in Pula, Croatia and came to the United States as an exchange student
in high school. He received a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Texas at
Austin, followed by a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Penn State in 1999. As a postdoctoral fellow
in Mathematics at Boston University he joined the Center for BioDynamics. There he had the
opportunity to learn about theoretical neuroscience from Nancy Kopell and synthetic biology
from James Collins, amongst others. He joined the University of Houston Mathematics
Department in 2002. Since then, his lab has worked on a number of different problems in
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theoretical and computational biology. Projects have ranged from the modeling
of radiovirotherapy as a treatment for cancer to the study of the dynamics of neuronal
networks. The computational and analytical techniques used and in this research have been
equally wide ranging. Dr. Josid has been actively involved in the creation of a new major in
Mathematical Biology at the University of Houston, and is working on expanding this effort in
the future. After supervising the research of a number of students at the interface of
theoretical and computational biology, he firmly believes that such students attain a unique
and highly valuable combination of skills.
Britt Kern, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, NC
Britt Kern earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Houston in 1997. While at UH, she
participated in several summer internship programs, including the SMART program at Baylor
College of Medicine. In part due to this program, she attended BCM and worked in the lab of
Dr. Gerard Karsenty, earning her Ph.D. in 2003. After graduation, she entered the SPIRE
program at UNC-Chapel Hill, where she worked with Dr. Frank Conlon. She did her teaching
year at Johnson C. Smith University, in Charlotte, NC. She was eventually hired by JCSU, and is
now an Assistant Professor of Biology. She serves as the Biology Degree Coordinator,
departmental Teacher/Advisor, Faculty Senator and as a course coordinator for the general
education science course.
Maia Larios-Sanz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Biology
University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX
Originally from Mexico City, Mexico, Dr. Maia Larios-Sanz got her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from
the University of Houston in 2003. She was a National Library of Medicine Keck Postdoctoral
Fellow in the Department of Statistics at Rice University from 2004-2006 where she got training
in Bioinformatics. She later returned to the University of Houston as a Research Assistant
Professor in the Department of Biology and Biochemistry. She is currently an Associate
Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of St. Thomas where she has been
involved in mentoring IRACDA postdocs. She teaches General Biology, Microbiology and
Bioinformatics. She uses a variety of active learning techniques in her classes, including teambased learning (TBL), collaborative learning, case-study teaching, problem-based learning,
scientific teaching and service learning. She is also involved in undergraduate research at UST.
Her research interests include horizontal gene transfer, genome evolution and development of
biological databases.
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Mark E. Lee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology
Spelman College, Atlanta, GA
Mark E. Lee is an Associate Professor of Biology at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. There, he
teaches Cell Biology, Biochemistry, Research in Cell Biology, and the Sophomore-Senior Biology
Seminar. Spelman is a small liberal arts institution serving women, with an enrollment of
approximately 2000 students. Biology Faculty at Spelman serve as Scholar-Teachers. In this
model, they are intentional about integrating their research into their instruction of basic and
advanced courses. Dr. Lee has provided mentoring for, and fostered the development of, four
post-doctoral trainees seeking advanced training in classroom preparation and college level
teaching through the IRACDA (Emory FIRST) program. In 2007, working with David Sue, he was
recognized as Mentor of the Year.
Saundra Yancy McGuire, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Saundra Yancy McGuire is Professor of Chemistry and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Learning,
Teaching and Retention at Louisiana State University. She received her B.Sc. degree, magna
cum laude, from Southern University, her Master’s degree from Cornell University, and her
Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where she received the Chancellor’s
Citation for Exceptional Professional Promise. Dr. McGuire has been teaching chemistry and
working in the area of learning support for the past 40 years. She has presented her widely
praised workshop, "Teaching Students How to Learn," at over 100 colleges and universities, to
thousands of faculty and students from diverse economic backgrounds, at different
developmental levels, and with widely varying learning styles. Both faculty and students alike
have reported increased professional and academic success after implementing the strategies
she presents. Dr. McGuire was recently named a 2011 Fellow of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. In 2010, she was named a Fellow of the American Chemical
Society, and she also received a Lifetime Learning Center Leadership Certification from the
National College Learning Center Association. The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science,
Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring was presented to Dr. McGuire in a 2006 White House
Oval Office Ceremony. Dr. McGuire is married to Dr. Stephen McGuire. They are parents of Dr.
Carla McGuire Davis and Dr. Stephanie N. McGuire, and the grandparents of Joshua, Ruth,
Daniel and Joseph Davis.
Lisa Morano, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology and Microbiology, Department of Natural Sciences
University of Houston Downtown, Houston, TX
Lisa Morano earned a B.Sc. from the University of California, Irvine in Biology and a Ph.D. from the
University of California, Davis in the Department of Viticulture and Enology. Her thesis work focused
on root distribution patterns, root growth and metabolic responses of rootstocks crosses and wild Vitis
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species. In 1995 she worked with the Sonoma County Grape Growers Association in Sonoma, California
creating a computer database for growers on soil and macroclimate compatibility data for rootstock/
scion combinations in the area. Since 1995 she has taught biology, microbiology, plant physiology, and
cell biology at universities in California, Michigan and now in Texas. Since coming to the University of
Houston Downtown in 2001, her research interests have focused on the bacteria associated with
grapevines. Specifically, Dr. Morano is focusing on the genetics and epidemiology of the bacterium
Xylella fastidiosa, the causative agent of Pierce’s disease spread by the Glassy-winged sharpshooter
insect vector. She has been involved in developing long distance learning strategies. She is a leader of
the T.E.A.C.H. Workshops at UHD and is a teaching mentor for the REACH IRACDA Postdocs. When she
is not teaching or doing research, Dr. Morano spends time with her husband and two girls (13 and 15
years old). Her hobbies are swimming, photography and Tango dancing.
Robert S. Pozos, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, Co-Director, San Diego IRACDA
San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
Bob Pozos has been the Co-Director of the San Diego (UCSD/SDSU) IRACDA program with Dr.
Larry Brunton at UCSD since its inception in 2003. Dr. Pozos has been at San Diego State since
1994, initially serving as Assistant Dean for the College of Sciences for seven years. He has been
dedicated to undergraduate training and fostering the development of future scientists. Since
1995 he has been the director of both the McNair scholar’s program and the Minority Health
and Health Disparities International Research Training (MHIRT) program at San Diego State.
Earlier in his career, while at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, Dr. Pozos directed the Health
Careers Opportunity Program (15 years), the Minority Biomedical Research Training Program
(12 years), and the Minority Access to Research Training program (10 years). It was at the
University of Minnesota that Dr. Pozos, along with his partner Dr. Larry Wittmers, established a
hypothermia lab in Duluth that advanced the state of the research field, bringing national and
international attention and earning Dr. Pozos his reputation as a pre-eminent scholar of human
temperature regulation and physiological response and performance in extreme environments.
Dr. Pozos has served as Vice President for Minority Affairs at the University of Washington,
Director of Physiological Performance and Operational Medicine at the Naval Health Research
Center in San Diego, and as a member of NIGMS Council at the NIH. Dr. Pozos strongly believes
that digital books are the wave of the future and that it will be within the lifetime of the current
IRACDA fellows that the electronic classroom will take the place of the traditional lecture hall.
With the IRACDA program, he has been able to combine his commitment to undergraduate
education, his dedication to the training of young scientists and educators, and his engagement
with web technology. Dr. Pozos’ recent publications include articles on cell signaling and
receptor mechanisms, a study of faculty hiring trends at top NIH-funded universities, and a
chapter on Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) in the forth-coming Handbook of Medical
Technology from Springer-Verlag—a volume which he also co-edited. His current research
projects include developing new ways to display and interpret Electromyographic (EMG) and
other physiological data, and also analysis and evaluation of student and faculty performance—
particularly in regards to performance in online environments vs. classroom environments.
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Rosemarie Rosell, Ph.D.
Professor, Chair of the Biology Department
University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX
Rosemarie Rosell received her Ph.D. in 1989 from the University of Memphis in Molecular and
Cellular Biology and held several postdoctoral positions at the University of Arizona. During her
postdoctoral studies she also taught Introductory Biology for Nurses, General Biology I and Anatomy
and Physiology for several years at Pima Community College in Tucson. Dr. Rosell is currently a full
professor at University of St. Thomas in the Department of Biology, where she serves as Department
Chair. She has redesigned the General Biology curriculum, including both the lecture sequence and
the laboratories, by reequipping the General Biology labs with modern techniques and the necessary
tools. Dr. Rosell has established a modern Cell Biology laboratory (with the monies from the Chair
and the University) and a course in Cell Biology, which is required of all Biology Majors. She has
taught Freshman Success Courses (Odyssey), Junior/Senior Seminar, Special topics, Molecular
Techniques and Research Methods. She has been a Freshman (FYE) advisor since 1998. Dr. Rosell
has held the Cullen-Smith endowed chair in Biology from 2000-2006 and has been the Chair of the
Biology Department since 2007. Her primary research interests concentrate on the organismal,
cellular and molecular interactions between invertebrate vectors and causative agents of plant and
animal diseases. A recent focus has been on endosymbiotic relationships between bacteria and the
insect vectors, whiteflies and glassy winged sharpshooters, and those between algae and sea
anemones. Two projects her students are currently working on are the phylogenetics of whitefly
primary and secondary endosymbionts and induction of antioxidants in whiteflies under stress.
Premkumar B. Saganti, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics
Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX
Premkumar Saganti is currently a tenured Professor of Physics at Prairie View A&M University
(part of the Texas A&M System) with an additional responsibility as a NASA-CARR Faculty. He
teaches fundamental physics as well as advanced nuclear and radiation courses. He conducts
extensive research developing space radiation environment model calculations for Low Earth
Orbit (LEO), Moon, and Mars for NASA in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory
(NM) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (NY). Apart from research grants and awards from
NASA, Dr Saganti also received several recognitions as a faculty member including Teaching
Excellence Awards (2009 and 2010) from the Chancellor of TAMUS. Dr. Saganti also has Adjunct
Faculty commitments with the University of St. Thomas, teaching Astronomy classes in Physics,
and University of Houston – Clear Lake teaching medical imaging classes in Computer Science
and Computer Engineering. Dr. Saganti worked as a Senior Scientist for Lockheed Martin (19932003) at NASA-JSC, prior to joining PVAMU as a faculty, and contributed to the NASA’s Space
Exploration Vision through Image Science Analysis Group supporting more than 30 Space
Shuttle missions including Hubble Space Telescope repair missions, MIR and ISS. Dr. Saganti
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also served as part of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident image analysis investigation team.
He developed the needed image interpretation techniques, receiving Lockheed Martin’s
prestigious award, Top Flight (2003), for his contribution and support. Dr. Saganti’s research
work from NASA appeared in several prestigious publications such as - Radiation Damage to
DNA (National Geographic, 2001) and The Radiation Environment Model at Mars (DISCOVER
and SCIENCE, 2002). Dr. Saganti is an author and co-author of eight books and nearly 200
research publications in peer-reviewed and conference proceedings. According to Google
Books, Dr. Saganti’s published work has been cited in more than 100 books / reports around
the world during the past ten years and his NASA space radiation work is being referenced in
several thousands of web pages. Dr. Saganti’s education includes: B.Sc. in physics, chemistry
and mathematics; M.Sc. in nuclear physics; M.Sc. in electro optics; and a Ph.D. in physics.
Hector Sandoval, Ph.D.
IRACDA Postdoctoral Scholar
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Hector Sandoval received his B.Sc. in Biology from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. After
graduation he was unsure of his future path and decided to take a year off to think of his
future. During this year, he joined the lab of Dr. Emmanual Katsanis at Arizona Health Science
Center, where he worked as a Research Technician on a project engineering tumor-derived
heat-shock protein vaccines against chronic myelogenous leukemia. It was here where his
interest in research began and decided to pursue a Ph.D. in immunology at Baylor College of
Medicine. Under the guidance of Dr. David B. Roth, a molecular biologist, he initiated a new
project determining the role of conserved aromatic amino acids in Rag1 in the formation of
hairpin coding joints during VDJ recombination which led to a 2 nd author Nature Structural
Biology paper. At the commencement of his third year, Dr. Roth accepted an endowed chair
position in New York University School of Medicine. He therefore decided to join the laboratory
of Dr. Jin Wang. During this time, he held an NRSA Graduate Fellowship and studied mitophagy
during red blood cell terminal differentiation. He published a 1st author Nature paper and was
an author on a Science paper. He was selected by his program as their representative speaker
for the Graduate Student Research Symposium and was an invited speaker for a Keystone
conference. He received his Ph.D. in Immunology from BCM in 2008. After graduation, he
entered the REACH IRACDA program at BCM, where he works with Dr. Hugo Bellen on focusing
on mitochondrial role in neurodegeneration. He did his teaching year at University of St.
Thomas, in Houston, TX and is now back doing research in Dr. Bellen lab and attempting to
obtain a K01 career development grant.
Diane Scaduto
Ph.D. Candidate
Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Diane Scaduto is a native of Southern California. She attended California State Polytechnic
University, Pomona, earning her Bachelor's degree in Political Science and a Master's degree in
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Public Administration the following year. Diane attended California State University, Los
Angeles, double majoring in Biochemistry and Microbiology in 2006. While at CSULA, she joined
the laboratory of Dr. Raymond Garcia conducting research on metabolic disorders and high
cholesterol. She also frequently tutored and eventually taught BIO115 – Introduction to
Biology. That summer, she was awarded an NIH post-baccalaureate fellowship that funded her
to conduct research on prostate cancer at the University of Southern California under the
direction of Dr. Richard Cote. In 2007, Diane matriculated at Baylor College of Medicine and
began studies as a first-year Ph.D. She had the opportunity to work on a unique HIV
transmission case. This case set legal precedent in the State of Texas and made both national
and international news. The case was featured as a one hour special on 20/20, discussed on
Oprah and even became a plot line on a Law and Order, SVU episode. The work was published
in Proceeding of the National Academies of Sciences in 2010. Since then, she has continued her
thesis work in the Metzker lab, researching Ketosis-Prone Diabetes, which has lead to a
publication in Diabetes Care. As a second year graduate student she was awarded a NIHsupplemental fellowship, which was renewed the follow year. As a third-year Ph.D. candidate,
she was the recipient of The Claude W. Smith pre-doctoral fellowship in honor of excellent
research. She has been a guest lecturer for Molecular Methods lecturing on next generation
sequencing technology and presented her thesis research at the American Diabetes Association
national conference in Orlando, FL. As a fourth year Ph.D. candidate, she will be defending her
work on August 1st, 2011 and has accepted a post-doctoral fellowship position at M.D.
Anderson where she hopes to continue uncovering answers to the world’s most complex
diseases.
Caroline Szymeczek, Ph.D.
Co-founder and President, Integrated Learning Innovations
Caroline Szymeczek is the co-founder and President of Integrated Learning Innovations (ILI), Inc.
ILI’s mission is to apply its principals’ expertise and experiences to help facilitate a renaissance
in STEM that attracts and advances a new generation of researchers and educators. With an
eye towards this goal, ILI supports the efforts of institutions of higher education to transform
their STEM education and training to address the educational, training, and fiscal realities of a
competitive, rapidly evolving global scientific culture. Dr. Szymeczek earned her Ph.D. from the
UNC School of Medicine, where she studied the role of the cyclic AMP regulatory element in
regulating gene expression during the early postnatal development of the mammalian
respiratory system. After completing a postdoc at the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences and serving in a faculty position in the Pediatrics Department at UNC Chapel
Hill, she sought a new career path that would allow her to contribute to needed change in
science education. Dr. Szymeczek joined forces with Dr. Skip Bollenbacher, then a Professor of
Biology at UNC Chapel Hill. Her research in this new position focused on proof of concept and
demonstration projects in science training, education, and policy, with an emphasis on
achieving equity of access to science careers, especially for those underrepresented in STEM
professions. This scholarship led Caroline and Skip to co-create UNC’s Institute of Science
Learning (ISL), where Caroline served as Associate Director. While at the ISL, Caroline created
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the Institute’s Instructional Media Group, which received the Pirelli Science Education
Multimedia Award, known in media circles as the “Nobel Prize of Science Multimedia.”
Desiring to have broader impact on STEM education, Caroline and Skip left UNC in 2006 to
devote their full time to ILI, which they had co-founded a year earlier. In its first five years, ILI
has developed comprehensive technology-based data collection and analysis strategies to
evaluate STEM training and policy infrastructure, and it has helped its clients create, fund, and
implement education and training programs that emphasize diversity and provide rich
professional development for trainees.
Richard Tapia, Ph.D.
Professor of Engineering
Rice University, Houston, TX
Richard A. Tapia, University Professor and Maxfield-Oshman Professor of Engineering at Rice
University, was born in Los Angeles to parents who emigrated from Mexico when they were
children, seeking educational opportunities. He was the first in his family to attend college,
earning his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from the University of California, Los
Angeles. Due to his efforts, Rice University has received national recognition for its educational
outreach programs, and the Rice Computational and Applied Mathematics Department has
become a national leader in producing women and underrepresented minority Ph.D.s in the
mathematical sciences. Dr. Tapia’s major research contributions have been in the area of
computational optimization, both linear and nonlinear programming, where he pioneered the
exploration and settlement of the important computational methods in numerical optimization
known as primal-dual interior point methods. Dr. Tapia has authored or co-authored two books
and more than 100 mathematical research papers. His honors include: election to the National
Academy of Engineering (1992) for his seminal work in interior point methods; being the first
recipient of the A. Nico Habermann Award from the Computing Research Association (1994) for
outstanding contributions in aiding members of underrepresented groups within the computing
community; the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
Mentoring from President Bill Clinton (1996); appointment by President Clinton to the National
Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation (1996); and the Lifetime
Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1997). He
received the Hispanic Engineer of the Year Award from Hispanic Engineer Magazine in 1996,
and was inducted into the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference Hall of
Fame in 1997. Hispanic Engineer & Informational Technology Magazine also selected him as
one of the 50 Most Important Hispanics in Technology and Business for 2004. That same year
Dr. Tapia was inducted into the Texas Science Hall of Fame. Dr. Tapia has been named one of 20
most influential leaders in minority math education by the National Research Council; listed as
one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the U.S. by Hispanic Business magazine (2008); and
given the “Professor of the Year” award by the Association of Hispanic School Administrators,
Houston Independent School District, Houston, Texas. In 2005, Dr. Tapia was elected to the
Board of Directors for TAMEST, comprised of the Texas members of the National Academy of
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Engineering, National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. In 2009, Dr. Tapia
received the Hispanic Heritage Award for Math and Science.
Marty Tracey, Ph.D.
Professor of Biological Sciences
Florida International University, Miami, FL
Marty Tracey grew up in suburban Boston and Providence. After completing a Ph.D. in
population genetics at Brown University, he went west to California where he was a Postdoc for
three years at the Universities of California Davis and Berkeley. At the Bodega Bay Marine Lab
he was the Director of Population Genetic Studies on Maine lobsters. He is currently a professor
at Florida International University where he teaches General Biology, Genetics, Human
Genetics, Population Genetics and Evolution. His research focuses on studies of gene evolution
and structure. In addition, he has testified in more than 600 DNA trials over the past 23 years,
and has volunteered as Guardian ad Litem for twelve years. During his more than thirty-four
years at the University he has received awards for teaching, advising and research; he was
elected a Fellow of AAAS and was a National Academy of Sciences Teaching Fellow (2004-2005).
He has served as Biology Department chair, NIH Research Support founder and director. He has
been associate editor of The Journal of Heredity and BioScience for more than twenty years. Dr.
Tracey has been the faculty advisor to the Free Cuba Foundation for twenty years. He has also
been the mentor to many students who went on to professional careers, all of whom promised
him free medical, psychiatric or dental care for life!
Maggie Werner-Washburne, Ph.D.
Regent’s Professor
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Maggie Werner-Washburne, a Regents’ Professor at UNM, has lived her life in several worlds.
Her mother was Mexican and her father was German and she was raised in a small town in
Iowa on the banks of the Mississippi River. After getting her B.A. in English from Stanford, she
lived in Mexico, Central, and South America, Alaska, Samoa, and other parts of the world,
where she enjoyed learning how to work successfully across cultures and make friends around
the world. At the University of New Mexico, Maggie has had a yeast genomics laboratory where
a diverse group of students has found a place where they can grow, thrive, and learn to become
scientists, without losing who they are and where they come from. She also works to bridge
gaps that separate scientists working in interdisciplinary groups, collaborating successfully with
geomicrobiologists as well as chemical engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians. She
is the Director of the UNM- Initiatives to Maximize Diversity program, which mentors and funds
nearly 30 pre-Ph.D. students a year to do research at UNM and is co-PI of the Model Organism
Databases (MOD), FlyBase, based at Harvard, and VectorBase, based at Notre Dame. Through
the MOD funding, she and her colleagues have established a genome annotation center with
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level scientists from New Mexico who, for cultural reasons, need to stay close to their homes.
Dr. Werner-Washburne has received many national awards for her research on the stationary
phase of yeast as well as mentoring, including 2 presidential awards for research and
mentoring, The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Latinos and Native Americans in the
Sciences (SACNAS) Distinguished Scientist Award, the American Society for Cell Biology EE Just
Lecturer, and, most recently, Harvard Foundation’s Scientist of the Year, 2011. She is also an
AAAS Fellow and member of the AAAS Biological Sciences Steering Committee; on the board of
directors for SACNAS; and recently nominated for NIH-NIGMS Council. In her spare time,
Maggie is also in a band (Holy Water & Whiskey) with her husband, sister, and brother-in-law
and has two sons who don’t play music, Gabriel, who is an aspiring electrician, and Alex, who is
a graduate student in mathematical biology.
Alexander C. Zambon, Ph.D.
Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Pharmacology
University of California San Diego
Alexander Zambon began conducting independent research projects as a freshman
undergraduate in the Howard Hughes Minority Undergraduate Research Scholar program at
the University of California Irvine (UCI). He was interested in whole animal studies and worked
in the Department of Surgery, at the UCI Medical Center, conducting pharmacological screens
for compounds that would increase survival in a rat model of hemorrhagic shock. After
graduating from UCI with a B.Sc. in Biology, he joined a laboratory in the Department of
Neurology at UCI as a research associate, working on elucidating the role of sigma receptors in
movement disorders. Dr. Zambon’s graduate studies were conducted in the Biomedical
Sciences program at UC San Diego. He studied the signaling mechanisms of purinergic (P2Y) Gprotein coupled receptors in renal epithelial cells. After graduating from UCSD just a few
months before the first draft of the human genome sequence was published, he felt the need
to expand his training into the burgeoning field of genomics with a focus on the cardiovascular
system. This decision led him to conduct postdoctoral work at the J. David Gladstone Institutes
at the University of California San Francisco. After two unsuccessful years of job searches as a
postdoctoral fellow, his Ph.D. thesis advisors lured him back to UCSD where he became an
IRACDA postdoctoral scholar. He saw this as a tremendous opportunity to apply for
independent funding and to harness the vast collaborative network that exists in the area.
During the third year of his IRACDA fellowship, Dr. Zambon was able to secure his own
independent funding in the form of a Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart
Association and was promoted to Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of
Pharmacology at UCSD in 2010. He is also currently in the process of receiving a joint
appointment in the Department of Medicine in the Division of Biomedical Informatics.
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