Guest Mentors

Tania A. Baker is the Edwin C. Whitehead Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1983, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford University in 1988. Her graduate research was carried out in the laboratory of Professor Arthur Kornberg and focused on mechanisms of initiation of DNA replication. She did postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Kiyoshi Mizuuchi at the National Institutes of Health, studying the mechanism and regulation of DNA transposition.

Her current research explores mechanisms and regulation of enzyme-catalyzed protein unfolding, ATP-dependent protein degradation and remodeling of the proteome during cellular stress responses. Professor Baker has served terms as both the Associate Head and Head of MIT’s Biology Department. Professor Baker received the 2001 Eli Lilly Research Award from the American Society of Microbiology. In 2000 she was awarded the MIT School of Science Teaching Prize for Undergraduate Education and in 2008 she was elected as a MacVicar Faculty Fellow for her contributions to education. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Microbiology. In 2014 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Stanford Medical Center Alumni Association. Professor Baker is coauthor (with Arthur Kornberg) of the book DNA Replication (2nd edition) as well as of the 5th, 6th and 7th editions of Watson’s influential text Molecular Biology of the Gene. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with her husband and two children and enjoys sea kayaking and fiber arts.

Jasna Brujic is a Professor of Physics at New York University. She is one of the core faculty in the Center for Soft Matter Research. Brujic is an experimental physicist, who received her Ph.D. for work on the statistical mechanics of granular matter at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, UK. She then conducted postdoctoral research at Columbia University in the area of single molecule proteins. Since 2007, Brujic has led a research group at the interface between soft matter physics and biophysics. The group uses biomimetic emulsion systems to study jammed matter, cellular organization in tissues in 3D, protein protein adhesion, and programmable selfassembly of materials with custom designs.

Ana Carnaval, Associate Professor, Biology, Graduate Center and City College. Dr. Carnaval's lab studies spatial patterns of biodiversity and their underlying evolutionary and ecological processes, with the explicit aim of improving biodiversity prediction and conservation in tropical regions. Their research projects focus on tropical biogeography, integrative uses of comparative phylogeography, GIS-based distribution models, current environmental data and paleoclimatic simulations, and the impacts of global anthropogenic changes and host-pathogen interactions on amphibian diversity. Ongoing lab projects and collaborations involve field work in the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest, the Cerrado, and the Australian Wet Tropics.

Cait Crawford has spent over two decades in industry doing research and development on systems, software, algorithms and applications. Her work has spanned platforms ranging from the largest supercomputers in the world to low power embedded systems and mobile devices. Most recently, her background in algorithms, performance optimization and embedded systems has led to her projects in machine learning, both deep and shallow, for Decentralized Edge to Cloud AI. She graduated from MIT with an SBME and went on to earn an MSE and PhD from Princeton University in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering specializing in large scale numerical simulations of physical systems. She is currently a Distinguished Engineer at IBM Research AI and when not making the bits fly at work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and 3 teenage children.

Ocean explorer Dr. Katy Croff Bell has spent nearly 20 years using deep sea technology to discover what lies at the depths of the ocean. She is the Director of the Open Ocean initiative at the MIT Media Lab and a Fellow at the National Geographic Society, developing programs for rapid deployment of new and emerging technologies for ocean exploration and community building. Previously, as Executive Vice President of the Ocean Exploration Trust, Bell led the development of exploration, research, and educational outreach activities for E/V Nautilus, including management of scientists, engineers, educators, and students from 30+ countries working together to conduct telepresence-enabled expeditions around the world.

 Bell is currently Vice Chair of the Marine Protected Areas Federal Advisory Committee. She was a 2001 John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow in the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration, 2006 National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and 2014 MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow. Bell holds an S.B. in ocean engineering from MIT, an M.Sc. in maritime archaeology from the University of Southampton, and a Ph.D. in geological oceanography from the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.

Ph.D. MIT Mathematics, 1992
B.S. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1984, Mathematics
B.S. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1984, Computer Science

For twenty-five years, Debra K. Borkovitz was a faculty member at Wheelock College, a small college in Boston whose mission was to improve the lives of children and families. At Wheelock she led a math program that featured excellent, inclusive, inquiry based teaching and helped turn math phobic students into math majors.  When Wheelock merged with Boston University last spring, she joined the Mathematics and Statistics Department at BU.  

Debra’s teaching is informed by her love of math, her love of students, and her sensitivity to issues of power.  She was an out lesbian at MIT during the 1980’s (a classmate of Gioia De Cari’s), and in 1989 she was one of the founders of The Network/La Red, one of the first organizations in the country addressing domestic violence in queer relationships.    

In recent years she has become interested in mathematical art, and her Temari Permutation Ball is on the cover of this year’s calendar from the American Mathematical Society. At Wheelock she designed and taught a course Exploring Math with Yarn and Thread and she is working with a colleague to design a similar course at BU.  Her website is debraborkovitz.com.

Lissette Delgado-Cruzata, MPH, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology at John Jay College, in the City University of New York. She earned her Masters in Public Health and PhD at the Columbia University, and her undergraduate degree at the University of Havana, Cuba. She carries out translational research in the discovery and development of epigenetic biomarkers in chronic diseases, specifically she is interested in identifying breast cancer susceptibility biomarkers in Latinas. Her work has been funded the National Cancer Institute, and the American Society of Cell Biology. She is passionate about increasing the number of minority students that go on to graduate school programs, and directs two initiatives: the Minority Initiative of Female Students in STEM (MIXXS2) and the Program to Inspire Minority Undergraduates in Environmental Health Science Research (PrIMER), which is currently funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Martha Gray, PhD, has a multifaceted career in which she has built programs to drive biomedical technology innovation, conducted research to better understand and prevent osteoarthritis, led a preeminent academic unit, and served the profession through work with organizations and insti-tutions. Trained in computer science and electrical and biomedical engineering, and serving as an MIT faculty for three decades, she has held numerous leadership positions. For 13+ years, she directed the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST), an academic unit with multiple research and training programs for careers in medicine, business, and re-search. Dr. Gray currently directs MIT linQ which operates several multi-institutional ventures focus on accelerating and deepening early-career researchers’ potential for impact. Over the course of these efforts, she and her team have established a principled methodology for needs identification and opportunity development, and an organizational model that fosters a vibrant multi-stakeholder community necessary for sustained local and global impact.

Professor Laura Kay received her B.S. in Physics and B.A. in Feminist Studies from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics from the University of California at Santa Cruz. She is the recipient of an NSF Career Grant and is lead author of the textbook 21st Century Astronomy. She has served as the chair of the department of physics and astronomy at Barnard College.

Ju-Lee Kim joined the MIT mathematics faculty as tenured associate professor in 2007. She received the B.S. from the Korean Advanced Institute in Science & Technology in 1991, and the Ph.D. from Yale in 1997, under the direction of Roger Howe. She had postdoctoral appointments at the École Normale Supérieure, and at IAS before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan as assistant professor in 1998. In 2002, she moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago. Professor Kim's research interests include representation theory, harmonic analysis of p-adic groups, Lie theory and automorphic forms.

Leslie A. Kolodziejski completed her PhD in 1986 in Electrical Engineering at Purdue University. She joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Purdue University as an Assistant Professor. In 1988, Dr. Kolodziejski joined the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) faculty at MIT as Assistant Professor. In 1999, Professor Kolodziejski was promoted to Full Professor. Professor Kolodziejski received the Young Investigator Award from NSF, the Young Investigator Award from ONR, and is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America. At MIT, Professor Kolodziejski is the founder of the Nanoprecision Deposition Laboratory and PI of the Integrated Photonic Devices and Materials Group. Professor Kolodziejski received the EECS Graduate Student Association Graduate Student Counseling Award in 2007, the Capers and Marion McDonald Award for Excellence in Mentoring and Advising from MIT School of Engineering in 2009, and the Faculty Ambassador Award from the office of Multicultural Programs at MIT in 2017. Since 2010 Professor Kolodziejski has served as the Graduate Officer of EECS working to support the graduate student body and guide the students through the graduate program. Professor Kolodziejski is the principal investigator for the University Center of Exemplary Mentoring since 2016. Currently, Professor Kolodziejski is the Chair of MIT's Committee on Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response and also serves as the Faculty Marshal in MIT's graduation exercises.

Dr. Kaliris Salas-Ramirez is currently an Assistant Medical Professor at the newly accredited CUNYSchool of Medicine in the department of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences. She runs a behavioral neuropsychopharmacology research laboratory and teaches physicians Neuroscience. She is also an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Hunter College, CUNY teaching upper level undergraduate and graduate courses on the biological basis of psychology.

Dr. Patricia Silveyra was born and raised in Argentina, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, and her PhD in Biochemistry, from the University of Buenos Aires. She came to the United States in 2008 after being selected for an Ambassadorial Scholarship by The Rotary Foundation to pursue postdoctoral studies at Penn State University, and in 2011 she joined their faculty. Dr. Silveyra‘s research group studies molecular mechanisms of lung inflammation, with special emphasis on the impact of air pollution and sex hormones in asthma exacerbations. She has received multiple research grants including K01 and BIRCWH awards from NIH, Graduate Women in Science, and foundation grants. She has also received awards for her promotion of women in science and community service, including the Achieving Women Award, the YWCA Tribute to Women of Excellence, the Paul Harris Fellowship award from Rotary International, and the Leadership Harrisburg Area “Extra Mile” award. Dr. Silveyra has also served as President of a non-profit organization “Estamos Unidos de Pennsylvania” with whom she supports the central Pennsylvania Latino community in the areas of education, cultural competence, leadership and social skills development. She is also the faculty advisor for the Penn State Hershey Latino Hispanic Medical Student Association (LMSA), and she has served in multiple leadership roles at Penn State. In 2015, she served as interim Director for Diversity and Inclusion in Education for the Penn State College of Medicine, and she founded a summer internship program for local undergraduate students interested in careers in science and medicine. Dr. Silveyra has published over 35 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and she has presented her work extensively.

Frances King Stage is Professor of Higher Education at New York University. She earned her B.S. at the University of Miami and her M.S. at Drexel University, both in Mathematics. Her Ph.D. is from Arizona State University in Higher Education. Her research specialization includes college student learning, especially for STEM disciplines and student participation in math and science majors. Recent work has focused on characteristics of undergraduate institutions that produce unexpected levels of students who go on to earn STEM doctorates. She also studies college access and success for underrepresented students. Stage has over 15 books150 publications, most focusing on college students and the methods used to study them. Her books include Answering Critical Questions Using Quantitative Data, Research in the College Context: Approaches and Methods and Creating Learning Centered Classrooms. Stage is past Vice President for the Postsecondary Education Division (J) of the American Educational Research Association and has won awards for research and scholarship from the Association for the Study of Higher Education and the American Educational Research Association. She spent 1999-2000as a Senior Fellow at the National Science Foundation and was a Fulbright Specialist at the University of West Indies, Mona, Jamaica in 2008 and at the University of West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados in 2011. Before moving to NYU in 2000, she was Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She has directed more than 50 doctoral dissertations to completion.

Laura Schulz is the Class of 1943 Career Development Associate Professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. She received the Troland award from the National Science Foundation in 2012, the Macvicar Faculty Fellowship at MIT in 2013, and the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in 2014. She has a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in Philosophy from University of Michigan.