Grad Slam Screening Judges in 2019
These preliminary judges reviewed the video presentations submitted by students and chose the finalists for the Grad Slam contest in 2019. A different set of final judges chose the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners at the live event. Screening judges for 2020 are TBA.
Brittany Anderton, PhD is the associate director of research talks at iBiology, where she assists with the video production pipeline, the Young Scientist Seminar series, and the development of educational resources. She obtained her PhD in biomedicine from UCSF in 2015. After that, she did a non-traditional postdoc at UC Davis where she studied the teaching and communication of biotechnology. Brittany has served as adjunct faculty at UC Davis and CSU Sacramento, where she taught introductory biology courses.
Lauren M. Kaplan, PhD is a technical writer in the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations. She completed a PhD in sociology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and did postdoctoral work at Oxford University and at UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her dissertation work, a comparative study of biographical experiences among people living with HIV in the U.S. and Germany, was published with Springer VS.
Michael Keiser, PhD is an assistant professor in the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at UCSF. Before this, he co-founded a startup bringing systems pharmacology methods to pharma and the U.S. FDA. Research in the Keiser lab combines machine learning and chemical biology methods to investigate how small molecules perturb entire protein networks to achieve their therapeutic effects. Keiser received his PhD in Biological and Medical Informatics at UCSF, and also has an MA in Russian and Eurasian Studies from Stanford.
Todd Nystul, PhD is an associate professor in the Department of Anatomy at UCSF. He is also co-director of the PhD program in Developmental & Stem Cell Biology. Research in the Nystul lab uses the Drosophila ovary as a model for studying the fundamental properties of epithelial stem cells, their associated niche, and the connection between epithelial stem cells and cancer. He received his PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Washington, and did postdoctoral work at the Carnegie Institution for Science.
Linda Park, RN, PhD, FNP is an assistant professor in the UCSF School of Nursing's Community Health Systems, where her research focuses on the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Park is also active in her clinical role as a nurse practitioner and works at a medical center for Cardiovascular Services. She holds an appointment as a nurse researcher at San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center where she conducts work related to her VA Nursing Research Initiative Award. She received her PhD in nursing from UCSF. Read about her research into utilizing mobile technology to help patients manage heart disease.
Tiffani K. Quan, PhD is program director of the Post-Baccalaureate Health Professions Program of UC Berkeley Extension. She is also a longtime core developer/instructor and STEM education consultant with the UC Santa Cruz Institute for Scientist and Engineer Educators (ISEE), where she helps develop research-informed workshops around science and engineering education strategies for use in a lab and classroom setting. Quan received her PhD in molecular, cell, and developmental biology from UC Santa Cruz, and is a UCSF postdoc alum. She is currently president-elect of the UCSF Graduate Division Alumni Assocation.
