Once a Scientist
Unfiltered career discussions with scientists
Episodes
96 episodes
91. Michael Koeris, Director of DARPA BTO, on autonomous science to accelerate discovery
Episode 91. Michael Koeris is the Director of the Biotechnologies Office at DARPA. Michael completed his PhD at Boston University and did postdoctoral research in synthetic biology at MIT. He spent time early in his career at Flagship Pioneerin...
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55:26
90. Barry Bunin, CEO at Collaborative Drug Discovery, on tapping into the collective consciousness of science.
Episode 90. Barry Bunin is the CEO and President at Collaborative Drug Discovery, which he founded 20 years ago. Prior to that, Barry was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Eli Lilly. He completed his PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry at UC Berkeley and...
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1:17:32
89. Seemay Chou, CEO of Arcadia Science, on metascience and rethinking the structure of science
Seemay Chou is co-founder and CEO at Arcadia Science, Board Member at Astera Institute, and Board Chairperson at The Navigation Fund. Seemay was previously an assistant professor at UCSF and completed her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology at UC...
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1:04:54
88. Gene Yeo, professor at UC San Diego, on team science and building a training playground
Episode 88. Eugene Yeo is a Professor at UC San Diego and is building a scientific ecosystem in San Diego. He runs the Innovation Center at Sanford Stem Cell Institute, is Scientific Director at the Sanford Consortium, Chief Scientist at the Sa...
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1:13:26
87. Jesse Gray and Sud Pinglay, at SeaHub, on recording cellular activity and making big bets
Episode 87. Sudarshan Pinglay is a researcher at the University of Washington and faculty at the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology (SeaHub). He did his PhD at New York University and bachelor's degree at Johns Hopkins. Jesse Gray is a Sen...
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1:04:24
86. Prachee Avasthi, CSO at Arcadia Science, on exercising agency and doing science differently
Episode 86. Prachee Avasthi is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Arcadia Science and Head of Open Science at the Astera Institute. Prachee was previously a professor at Dartmouth and University of Kansas. She completed a PhD in Neurosc...
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1:08:09
85. Fay Lin, science journalist and editor, on seeking out diverse voices and learning from experts
Episode 85. Fay Lin is a Senior Editor at GEN Biotechnology. She completed her PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular, and Structural Biology at UCLA and undergrad in Biology at NYU with minors in Computer Science and Chemistry.GEN Biotechnolog...
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46:42
84. Maryann Martone, professor at UC San Diego, on neuroinformatics, reproducibility, and open science
Episode 84. Maryann Martone is an emeritus professor of neuroscience at UC San Diego. She received her BA from Wellesley College in Biological Psychology and Ancient Greek and her PhD in Neuroscience from the UC San Diego
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1:18:23
83. Anand Muthusamy, Convergent Research fellow, on going after ambitious scientific moonshots
Anand Muthusamy is a Fellow at Convergent Research, where he's laying the groundwork for a focused research organization (FRO) to monitor the real-time activity of biomarkers in humans. Anand is a chemist and neuroscientist. He recently ...
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1:20:38
82. Alexander Titus, professor and entrepreneur, on why scientists make great entrepreneurs
Episode 82. Alexander Titus is a professor at USC, doing research at the intersection of biology and AI. He completed his PhD in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences at Dartmouth. He's also the founder of Bioeconomy.xyz and advises the U.S. Governm...
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44:50
81. Ashley Ruba, academic expat and career coach, on being nimble and making pivots
Episode 81. Ashley Ruba is the founder of After Academia and a Human Factors Engineer at Arthrex. Ashley did her PhD in developmental psychology at the University of Washington and her undergrad degree at Duke University. Sh...
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1:00:01
80. Amy Kruse, neurotech investor, on forging new paths
Episode 80. Amy Kruse is Chief Investment Officer at Satori Capital and a Venture Partner at Prime Movers Lab. Amy completed her PhD in Neuroscience at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After leaving the bench, Amy spent time as a Progra...
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1:04:35
79. Sammi Sison, co-president of Nucleate, on grassroots efforts to impact science education and commercialization
Episode 79. Sammi Sison is co-president of Nucleate, an international student-led organization designed to help scientists kick off careers in entrepreneurship, business development, and venture capital. Sammi is a PhD student at UC San Diego w...
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54:35
78. Kim Edwards, my much better half, on what I'm doing starting a business
Episode 78. Kim Edwards, my partner, is the guest interviewer. We talk about motivations for starting a company. Check out the journey in real-time on my newsletter: transitionstates.substack.com
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42:54
77. Jun Axup, entrepreneur and musician, on science moonshots through Focused Research Organizations
Episode 77. Jun Axup is Chief Operating Officer at E11 Bio, a Focused Research Organization. She is an entrepreneur and former Chief Scientific Officer and Partner at IndiBio. She's also a musician, artist, and community builder. Jun completed ...
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1:12:53
76. William Marks, a friend and entrepreneur, interviews me way back in 2020 on starting a podcast and getting into neuroscience
Episode 76. We turn the table in this episode. William Marks, a longtime friend, interviews me in 2020 on the motivations behind getting into neuroscience and starting a podcast
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1:09:01
75. Andrew Akbashev, a Scientist and Creator for Academia, on navigating academia and its challenges as a grad student, postdoc, and group lead
Episode 75. Andrew Akbashev is a Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. He holds a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from Drexel University and completed a postdoc at Stanford University. If y...
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1:57:31
74. Quantum biologist, Clarice Aiello, on incremental science vs transformational science
Episode 74. Clarice Aiello is the Principal Investigator of the Quantum Biology lab at UCLA. She completed a PhD in Electrical Engineering at MIT and did postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford and UC Berkeley. Check out this article ...
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1:15:23
73. Community builder, Julio de Unamuno IV, on increasing science accessibility and supporting scientific innovation ecosystems
Episode 73. Julio de Unamuno IV is the Founder & CEO of LabFellows and Executive Director of HomeLab, the biotech accelerator at UC San Diego's Center for Novel Therapeutics. He did his undergrad in Biochemistry at the University of San Die...
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1:04:04
72. Science communicator, Gertrude Nonterah, on freelancing and communicating confidence
Episode 72. Gertrude Nonterah is a Medical Communications professional at Thermo Fisher and the creator of The Bold PhD, where she helps PhDs navigate non-academic careers. Gee did a postdoc at UC San Diego, PhD at Temple University, and underg...
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1:14:11
71. Pioneering AI inventor, biomedical scientist, and music executive, SK Sharma, on the random walk of life and careers
Episode 71. SK Sharma is the Chief Analytics and AI Officer at Universal Music Group and an Entrepreneur in Residence at UC San Diego. SK completed his PhD at Caltech in Biophysical Chemistry and Biological/Chemical Physics. He has held senior ...
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1:12:00
70. Product manager, Aditya Mahara, on applying product management principles to career exploration
Episode 70. Aditya Mahara is a Senior Product Manager at Medable and has worked in product management at AstraZeneca and Siemens Healthineers. Aditya completed a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Dartmouth College and a Bachelor's degree in Phys...
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1:01:59
69. CSO of Immuno-oncology at Moderna, Tatiana Novobrantseva, on the cross-disciplinary nature of developing medicines
Episode 69. Tatiana Novobrantseva is the Chief Scientific Officer of Immuno-Oncology Research at Moderna Therapeutics. She has worked at multiple biotech companies including Verseau Therapeutics (co-founder), Third Rock Ventures/Jounce, Alnylam...
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1:00:24
68. R&D operations expert, Jake Haworth, on drawing outside the lines of a typical research career
Episode 68. Jake Haworth is an Associate Director of Research and Early Development Operations at Moderna. Jake did an undergraduate degree at the University of New Mexico and spent time as a researcher at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute befor...
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1:15:58
67. Neuroengineer-entrepreneur, Aadeel Akhtar, on building things that people need
Episode 67. Aadeel Akhtar is CEO of PSYONIC, a neuroprosthetics company. Aadeel did his undergraduate degree and first master's degree at Loyola University Chicago. He completed a second master's degree and a PhD in neuroscience at the Universi...
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52:02