As we close the door on 2020, it’s clear that we don’t want to do that again. But looking back at eight months of online programming, there were definitely highlights and bright spots, some amazing speakers deserving of more time on our virtual stage. In this final event of the year we will hear more from some of our best speakers, dig deeper into the most interesting science, and get an update on our most compelling stories. If you were lucky enough to catch any or all of them the first time around, we know you’ll want to hear more. If you previously missed their talks, we’ve got you covered! Regardless, this 2020 mixtape features some of your (and our) favorite presenters. Don’t miss it.
- Jasmine Drake on advances in forensic science
- Kevin Peter Hand on our quest to explore unknown worlds
- Pat Kuhl on the impact of isolation on the young brain
- Cynda Rushton on the plight of COVID-19’s frontline clinicians
- Audience Q&A Moderated by Super Host Ahmed Best
Jasmine Drake is an Assistant Professor and laboratory coordinator of the Forensic Science Learning Laboratory in the Barbara Jordan- Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs Administration of Justice Department at Texas Southern University in Houston, TX. She is also very passionate about introducing science and in particular, forensic science, to the youth, K-12 educators, and law enforcement officials through the various hands-on forensic science workshops and training opportunities she has organized and conducted.
Kevin Peter Hand is a planetary scientist and astrobiologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he directs the Ocean Worlds Lab. His research focuses on the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the solar system with an emphasis on moons of the outer solar system that likely harbor liquid water oceans. He is the pre-Project Scientist for NASA’s Europa Lander mission concept and was co-chair of the 2016 Europa Lander Science Definition Team. His fieldwork has brought him to Antarctica, the Arctic, the depths of Earth’s ocean, the glaciers of Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya, and the desert of Namibia.
Patricia K. Kuhl is the Co-Director of the University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. Patricia’s work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain. It has implications for critical periods in development, for bilingual education and reading readiness, for developmental disabilities involving language, and for research on computer understanding of speech.
Cynda Rushton is the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics in the Berman Institute of Bioethics and the School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University. An international leader in nursing ethics, her current scholarship in clinical ethics focuses on moral distress and suffering of clinicians, the development of moral resilience, designing a culture of ethical practice, and conceptual foundations of integrity, respect, trust and compassion.
Moderator:
Ahmed Best is an Adjunct Lecturer at the USC School of Dramatic Arts and senior fellow at USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. He’s the Assistant Artistic Director of the Echo theater Company, host of Star Wars Jedi Temple Challenge on Star Wars Kids and the Afrofuturist Podcast; CEO of BISN Media; and a writer, director, producer, actor, musician, and futurist. He starred in the Broadway musical Stomp and as the first CGI lead character in a motion picture, as Jar Jar Binks in the Star Wars Prequel trilogy.
