Episodes

Amanda Lopez is a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow in the Water and Systems Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Her research background is in coastal geoscience world and she is currently studying the impact of wildfires on the land-sea interface. In this episode of Further Together, Lopez tells host Michael Holtz that she has wanted to be a scientist for as far back as she can remember. Her childhood included a love of Bill Nye the Science Guy and Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series. Lopez says no...

Taylor Hutchison, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow working on the James Webb Space Telescope, says her research focus is on distant galaxies --some of the first galaxies ever found in the early universe -- which give us a view toward understanding the history of the universe. In this episode of Further Together, host Michael Holtz asks Hutchison about her research emphasis, how she got to be a NASA NPP Fellow, what led her to a career in the sciences and so much more. To learn more about the NASA NPP ...

Trevor Maxwell was diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer in March 2018. During his treatment journey he was dismayed to learn that support services specifically geared to men are sorely lacking, so he set out to change that. In 2019, he launched Man Up to Cancer, an organization that encourages men facing all forms of cancer to avoid isolation and connect with each other. Men find connection in The Howling Place, a private Facebook group, in 40-plus chapters across North America and around t...

Sanah Baig is the Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she leads the management of the more than $4 billion USDA Science enterprise responsible for ensuring U.S. agriculture’s success through the advancement of science, technology, and innovation. Deputy Under Secretary Baig was a keynote speaker at ORAU's 2023 Annual Meeting of the Council of Sponsoring Institutions, which brings together members of our university consortium ...

ORAU and Villanova University teamed up to offer a workshop during which participants received certification in Basic Industry Bioprocessing Techniques. In this episode of Further Together, host Michael Holtz talks with Rosalind Wynn, associate professor in the Villanova Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Tracie Curtright, ORAU project manager, about the Innovation Partnership Program that funded the workshop. The certification earned by workshop participants is recognized by...

What is the optimal age to teach climate change science to young people? Chris Nelson, Ed.D., project manager, and Kristin Hurst, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Resources at Southern Illinois University, teamed up on an ORAU-Directed Research and Development project to study when it is best to teach young people about climate change science. They worked under the hypothesis that high school students have more developed cultural and ideological viewpoi...