Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientists: Beyond the (Micro)Scope Podcast:

 Beyond the (Micro)scope is a podcast focusing on science, technology, and business topics of women in science. I’m a huge advocate for women in STEM so this podcast was perfect.

Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientists: Beyond the (Micro)Scope:

Beyond the (Micro)Scope was founded by Lindsay Claiborn and Dr. Mumu Xu. Claiborn is a multimedia journalist with a background in television reporting and digital producer at FOX Soccer. She is a Claremont McKenna College alum and has a master’s in broadcast journalism from Northwestern University. Xu is an assistant professor in aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park and her research focuses on designing and controlling unmanned systems. She has an M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and her B.S. from Harvard University.

What is Beyond the (Micro)Scope?:

Photo Credit: Beyond the Microscope

Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientist: Donna Kridelbaugh

In my last Mademoiselle Spotlight, I wrote about The Thesis Whisperer, and for this post, I am featuring Donna Kridelbaugh as this month’s Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientist. Donna has amazing content for early career researchers and professionals. 

Photo Credit: Donna Kridelbaugh

Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientist: Donna Kridelbaugh:

When I started Mademoiselle Scientist I only had a handful of followers and I did not know about the online science community. I just knew I wanted to share. Donna was one of my first followers who left a comment and were able to set up a time to chat. She shared her STEM journey and her work with her Science Mentor. I talked about my STEM journey and what I’m doing with Mademoiselle Scientist. We have some overlapping interests and it was nice talking to someone who understands the STEM journey. She gave me some great advice and I know it will help my readers out too. Even though I’m new to this platform, I’m excited about what is next. Thank you Donna for helping and inspiring me to continue to write on this platform.

What is Science Mentor?:

Mademoiselle Spotlight Feature: The Thesis Whisperer/Dr. Inger Mewburn

As a graduate student, I unofficially started generating ideas and topics for Mademoiselle Scientist and discovered my first higher education blog, The Thesis Whisperer.

Photo Credit: TheThesisWhisperer 

Mademoiselle Spotlight: The Thesis Whisperer/Dr. Inger Mewburn:

Before officially starting Mademoiselle Scientist I reached out to The Thesis Whisperer. She gave me some great feedback and tips to get started. The advice I remember the most is to just start. There are not many blogs and platforms in the early academic, science, women in STEM, student and early research career category so there is a huge need. Currently, I’m two years in. I have a lot to learn and many things to share on my STEM journey.

Looking back I’m glad I took The Thesis Whisperer’s advice and recommend it to everyone. It is a gem of resources for graduate students and professionals. I can’t believe I didn’t know about The Thesis Whisperer earlier in my academic career. It would have been handy. On the bright side, I’m glad I found it.

What is The Thesis Whisperer?

Mademoiselle Scientist/Spotlight on Science: Dr. Monica Cox

In honor of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day (March 8) I want to do a double feature to spotlight Dr. Monica Cox as this month’s Mademoiselle Scientist and Spotlight on Science. If you want to check out my last double feature check out my feature about MySciCareer and Dr. Amy Freeman to learn more about women that are doing great things in science!

A couple of weeks ago I was on Twitter and I came across Dr. Monica F. Cox after participating in a #BLACKandSTEM Twitter chat. I like to keep my Mademoiselle Scientists network growing because it helps me build a strong support system. In an earlier post I talked about the importance of professional mentors and how I didn’t have many women STEM mentors growing up.

Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientists: MySciCareer

Last week I was reading Biochem Belle’s blog post, Changing Course, Part 3: Open exploration. This post was a continuation post and she shared how the myIDP tool helped her figure what she wanted to do next in her career. After spending time on the myIDP tool she discovered, MySciCareer.com. Since I never heard MySciCareer I had to explore and decided this would be a be a great double Feature Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientist post.

Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientists: MySciCareer:

MySciCareer was founded by two Mademoiselle Scientists that are biochemists, Eva Amsen and Lou Woodley. Eva is the Outreach Director at F1000 Research and Lou is currently a community engagement specialist. Another cool thing about these Mademoiselle Scientists is that they are both bloggers and are big on science outreach. They both have lots of writing and blogging up their sleeve. Eva launched and ran the developmental biology blog, the Node, shares her musician side on her blog, MusiSci, and blogs on easternblog.net and The Finch and Pea. Lou founded and served as Managing Editor of BlueSci Magazine, If you want to see more of her, check out her blog, Social in Silico, where she integrates people, science and technology.

It’s great to see fellow Mademoiselle Scientists that are bloggers and collaborating. When I started Mademoiselle Scientist I only knew about a handful of women in STEM bloggers, now every day my list is growing. I’m glad these Mademoiselle Scientists decided to come together to create MySciCareer. 

Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientist: Dr. Amy Freeman:

In my last Spotlight on Science post I talked about Dr. Greg Martin. For this Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientist post I will like to spotlight Dr. Amy Freeman.

Photo Credit: AmyFreeman.net

Spotlight on Science/Mademoiselle Scientist: Dr. Amy Freeman:

Dr. Freeman is a writer, speaker, educator and Assistant Dean of Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Construction Management from Washington State University, and both a Master of Science degree in Architectural Engineering and Ph.D. in Workforce Education from the Pennsylvania State University. In addition, she belongs to numerous organizations including the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) to name a few. She is a perfect example of a great role model for women in STEM.

The first time I met Dr. Freeman was at my first college fair. She told me about the opportunities at Penn State for students interested in STEM: Pre-First Year Science and Engineering Program and the Women in Engineering Program Orientation. A few years later I participated and both of those programs and they helped shaped me into who I am today. She is also one of the reasons I’m passionate about helping the next generations of scientists. When you meet Dr. Freeman you can see the passion in her heart when it comes to STEM diversity. She oversees many diversity programs such as the Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) and Women in Engineering Program (WEP) among other things. Not to mention she is a dynamic speaker. If you want to sample a bit of her energy check out her YouTube Channel.  Do you feel her energy?

Mademoiselle Scientist September Birthday Spotlight: Irène Joliot-Curie

September is my favorite month – I have many things to celebrate. In my last post I talked about how September 2nd marked my 1st Blogiversary for Mademoiselle Scientist. Next week I am starting a new series, Spotlight on Science. Since Irène Joliot-Curie and I share the same birthday (September 12) it makes sense to pick her as my Mademoiselle Scientist September Birthday Spotlight. If you want to check out my other Mademoiselle Scientist Spotlights check out my blog posts about: Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb and Dr. Mae Jemison. These are all amazing Mademoiselle Scientists.

Photo Source:

Irène Joliot-Curie was born on September 12, 1897 in Paris, France. She was the daughter of Marie and Pierre, two physicists that shared half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with Antoine Henri Becquerel. Following her parents footsteps she also excelled at science and mathematics. She even worked with her mother, Marie Curie at the Radium Institute in Paris. Like her mother, she was committed to science, excellence, research, and discovery.

Irène continued to excel and studied at the Radium Institute in Paris where her doctoral thesis focused on alpha rays of polonium. In 1925 after years of research she received her Doctorate of Science. While she was working at the Radium Institute she met a physicist named, Frédéric Joliot and a year later they were married. A few years later she was appointed as lecturer in 1932, and in 1935 their research paid off. They won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements. After winning the Nobel Prize in 1937 Irène became a professor and later Director of the Radium Institute in 1946. To learn more about their Nobel Prize Award and others check out NobelPrize.org.

Their discovery led to further studies and tools to help with cancer treatment. After many years working with very hazardous materials Irène was diagnosed with leukemia due to exposure of polonium. Later her health began to decline and she died on March 17, 1956 of leukemia at the age of 58 after a lifetime of exposure to radiation.

Women’s History Month Edition of Mademoiselle Scientist Spotlight: Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

In honor of Women History Month let’s celebrate Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi.

Photo Credit: TheGuardian.com

Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a virologist, professor, and Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit, Virology Department at Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Dr. Barré-Sinoussi was born on July 30, 1947 in Paris, France. She was the only child and had a passion for science at an early age. When she entered undergraduate she decided to pursue a natural science degree because she wanted to make discoveries.

Shortly after she began to work in the laboratory with Jean-Claude Chermann at the Pasteur Institute studying retroviruses and cancer in mice and completed her Ph.D. there. In 1975 she was offered a fully funded research position supervised by Montagnier. Since I am interested vaccine and infectious disease research I wanted to showcase Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi’s cutting-edge contributions to science in the field of disease transmission, immunity, and virology.

In 2008 two of the greatest discoveries were honored. 2008 was the year the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was shared with three scientists. Harald zur Hausen has 1/2 of the Prize share “for his discovery of human papilloma virus causing cervical cancer”, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi has 1/4 of the Prize share and Luc Montagnier has 1/4 of the Prize share “for their discovery of human immunodeficiency5 virus”. As stated on Nobelprize.org website,”It was identified in lymphocytes from patients with enlarged lymph nodes in early stages of acquired immunodeficiency, and in the blood from patients with late stage disease” To learn more about the discovery check out the nobelprize.org.

Dr. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi represents one of the 44 total women that have been awarded the Nobel Prize (1901-2013) and one of the 16 total women that have been awarded the Nobel Prize in the Sciences. She believes that receiving the Nobel Prize is also a prize for everyone in the community.

Black History Month Edition of Mademoiselle Scientist: My Reflections as Black Woman in STEM

As Black History Month comes to an end and Women’s History Month begins I have spent some time reflecting. In my previous post, I did a spotlight about Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb who is an African-American research scientist (Cell Biologist/Cell Physiologist) who made great contributions to cancer research. When Cobb entered graduate school there were few Black women in STEM. Now years later, we are still battling this problem. I’m often the only one in many spaces. How can we increase the number of minority women in STEM? What do we need to change?

One way is by having open conversations with each other, participating in forums, having sessions at conferences, developing curriculum for classrooms, hosting seminars at work or joining others online through Twitter Chats. Last month, The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) #AAWiSTEM hosted a Twitter chat about empowering African-American Women in STEM. This led to a dialogue of Black women scientists sharing challenges and lessons learned while navigating their STEM careers. 

After the chat I reread the American Association of University Women (AAUW) “Why so Few?”. This report addresses the reason behind this and provided solutions to increase more women and girls in STEM.  

In regards to the question, “Why so Few?”, how do we move forward? Here are my thoughts:

• Making STEM accessible to all, especially underrepresented groups
• Exposure to STEM at an early age both formal and informal
• More research on the leaky pipeline problem
• Encourage girls and women to pursue STEM fields
• More mentoring and sponsorship opportunities
• Have open conversations about challenges faced in STEM and develop solutions that are sustainable 

Black History Month Edition of Mademoiselle Scientist Spotlight: Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb

In honor of Black History Month let’s celebrate Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb.

Photo Credit: California State University State Library

Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb is a cell biologist/cell physiologist, educator, professor, administrator, and former president of California State University, Fullerton. Dr. Cobb was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 17, 1924 from a middle class surrounded by medical journals and science books at her home library. Her father was a physician, her grandfather was a pharmacist and she became the third generation in her family to pursue a science field. After completing high school she graduated from Talladega College in Alabama in 1944 with a B.S. degree in Biology. Then, she attended graduate school at New York University where she earned a M.S. degree in Cell Physiology in 1947 and a PhD in Cell Physiology in 1950.

Ever since she first looked at cells through a microscope in her high school biology class she knew that she wanted to pursue a research career. She wanted to understand the theory of diseases and as a scientist she would have this opportunity. Dr. Cobb’s research focused on the skin pigment melanin and relation to skin tumors. She tested chemotherapeutic drugs in cancer cells, specializing in cell biology.

In addition to her research she has held several academic positions: Professor at Sarah Lawrence College (1960-1969), Dean and Professor of Zoology at Connecticut College (1969-1976), Director of ACCESS Center at California State University, Los Angeles and President of California State University, Fullerton (1981-1990). She retired in 1990.