Video interview on digitizing the Cornell University Insect Collection (2020): https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/08/historic-insect-collection-modernize-going-virtual
Radio interview for Chicago radio station (101.9 fm) on “MIX Matters” (April 2012)
Video interview for the Field Museum’s “The Field Revealed” series on “Turtle ants” (September 2011)
Featured scientist for the Field Museum’s “Expeditions” website which included creating three short videos about my research, ants, and climate change (January – March 2010)
Lead curator for The Romance of Ants public museum exhibit at the Field Museum of Natural History (open July 2010 – October 2012; over 500,000 visitors). Download Graphic Novel
Content contributor for SPECIMENS: Unlocking the Secrets of Life public museum exhibit at the Field Museum of Natural History (open March 2017 – December 2017).
Content contributor for Nature’s Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art, and Invention public museum exhibit at the Field Museum of Natural History (open May 2012 – December 2012).
Featured scientist on the DNA Discovery Center exhibition website and exhibit interactives.
Participated in the Meet a Scientist program at the Field Museum by sharing research and specimens with public visitors through this program.
Participated on many occasions in the “Talk to the Scientist” hour communicating science and my research to museum visitors for the Field Museum’s pubic exhibit DNA Discovery Center.
Teacher / Educator training
Created a double-sided “Ants of the Florida Keys” poster and list of K-12 educator resources that comply with the US national Next Generation Science Standards, so teachers can extend the use of the poster for teaching about biodiversity, ecology and evolution in the classroom. These resources were mailed to over 350 K-12 science teachers in southern Florida and the Chicago region (March 2013). | Download Poster || Download Illinois Educator Handout || Download Florida Educator Handout |
Co-instructed a Simply Science workshop titled “Cultivating Curiosity” as part of the Families First Workshop series (October 2011).
Gave a tour and presentation to high school teachers-in-training as part of the University of Chicago’s Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) (June 2011).
Co-instructed an IMLS funded “Parents as Educators” workshop series “Investigations into Science” sponsored by the Field Museum’s Education Department (April 2011).
Gave seminar on teaching evolution in the classroom to elementary school teachers as part of the Early Elementary Science Partnership (E2SP) program (March 2011).
K-12 student training
X-STEM Extreme STEM Symposium for the USA Science & Engineering Festival invited “top” science speaker to 3000 middle & high school students, Washington, D.C., USA. April 2017.
Lead workshop and lecture for the Youth Design Team academic course offered through the Field Museum (October 2012). This course for academic credit gives students in 10th – 12th grade from across the Chicago region the opportunity to actively participate in science, museum studies, and exhibit design.
Gave scientific tours of the Field Museum’s Insect Collections and DNA Discovery Center to two groups of students for the CIMBY High School Science Summit (May 2011).
CoolHub Global Science Seminar presentation for STEM teaching and learning. Online, realtime, interactive presentation to high school students from around the world titled “Ants, DNA, and Bacteria, Oh My!” (October 2010).
Gave a lecture and participated in the short film created for the exhibit for the FMNH Museology Course for middle school students from Chicago area schools (January 2010).
Gave lecture and lead tour to the summer 2010 “High School Transformation Project” Chicago public high school science interns – June 2010.Gave two lectures for the FMNH-AAAS Middle School Summit on Evolution to promote science education to middle school students from Chicago inner city schools (January 2009).
Participated in the AAAS “Breakfast with Scientists” event to encourage retention of high school students in science careers (January 2009).
Gave four lectures to minority public high school students at Oakland (California) Leadership Public Schools College Park titled “What do scientists do and how do you become one” (October 2008).
Lead tours of Field Museum’s scientific collections and/or DNA laboratory to many high school groups.
Mentoring of high school students (for a list of students see Corrie Moreau’s CV).
Undergraduate and graduate training
Invited presentation for the NSF iDigBio “Broadening Diversity in the Biological Sciences Workshop” at the Field Museum of Natural History on issues related to women in science (September 2014).
Worked with several undergraduates to create Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.org) species pages for several ant species.
Lecture for the DePaul STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) advancement program to 25 minority students at Truman College in collaboration with DePaul College (September 2008).
Served on a faculty panel for the University of Chicago’s Ethics course for all Biological Sciences graduate students (April 2010).
Hold a yearly workshop for Field Museum summer undergraduates, interns, and volunteers on applying to graduate school in the sciences (2008-2014).
Lead tours of Field Museum’s scientific collections and/or DNA laboratory to many university groups.
Teaching at the University of Chicago – Reconstructing the Tree of Life: An Introduction to Phylogenetics (BIO23404/EVOL35401).
Mentoring undergraduate interns and advising graduate students (for a list of students see Corrie Moreau’s CV).
Interviewed by several media outlets including Nature Magazine, Discover Magazine, Science Daily, and Phys.org regarding our recent publication in Molecular Ecology (2016)
Interviewed by several media outlets including Science Magazine, The Independent, Mental Floss, Science Daily, Genome Web, and Phys.org regarding our recent publication in Nature Communications (2016)
Interviewed by several media outlets regarding the loss of the museum in New Delhi, India, including The Chicago Tribute, Political Science Magazine, etc. (2016)
Featured in Smithsonian Magazine for their annual “Field Notes” section (2016)
Participated in a live video streaming Q&A interview via Periscope/Twitter with the host of The Brain Scoop, Emily Graslie, about the “Dissecting Ants” YouTube video (2015)
Thomson Reuters ScienceWatch® website featured an interview regarding our 2006 “Science” paper because it was identified by Thomson Reuters Essential Science IndicatorsSM to be one of the most cited papers in the research area of “early ant evolution” (February 2010)
Ant bacteria research published in PNAS highlighted on several media websites including Genome Web, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, First Science, among others (December 2009).
National Geographic News online interview on new ant discovery (2008) (online article).
Science News magazine interview on new ant discovery (2008) (print journal and online).
Science News magazine interview on the Encyclopedia of Life (2008) (print journal and online).
Cambridge Community Television (CCTV) interview for the documentary film, “Ants” (2007).
St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper interview about insects and diversity (2007).
Interviewed by New York Times, Boston Globe, Daily Telegraph, Science, Nature, Science News and other print and online media sources regarding the publication and findings of our 2006 Science paper (2006).
Other forms of outreach
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) curator (Formicidae – ants) (2009–present).
Member of the SACNAS (Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) Social Media Street Team to help promote the activities during the annual meeting in Long Beach, CA, USA (2016).
Faculty mentor for SSB/SSE Undergraduate Diversity program (one or two students each year) at the Evolution meetings: Portland, Oregon (2010); Snowbird, Utah (2013); Raleigh, North Carolina (2014); Austin, Texas (2016)
