Our blog would be nothing without our writers. Unfortunately they can’t stay here forever; they must go on to their next great adventures in life. So we wanted to take a moment to recognize a few of our authors who have recently left or are preparing to leave soon. We wish you all the very best in your careers!
Christopher ChoGlueck
What are you doing next after graduating?
I am going to be teaching and researching in a program dedicated to science communication at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. In the fall, I am starting as the Assistant Professor of Ethics in their Department of Communications, Liberal Arts, and Social Sciences.
What is a lesson/takeaway that you got from ScIU?
Regular writing to a popular audience is both fun and doable!
What was your thesis?
I investigated controversies at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the role of values and gender norms in regulatory science. My first aim was to clarify which values have shaped knowledge about drugs and reproduction and how those influences have impacted women’s healthcare. My second goal was to evaluate these influences by exploring feminists’ attempts at reform and by providing tools for criticism and improvement. Accordingly, I conducted three case studies of drug labeling about reproductive health, the morning-after pill (emergency contraception), the Pill (regular oral contraceptives), and other prescriptions used during pregnancy and breastfeeding. My methodology integrates historical research and in-depth interviews with philosophical analysis from a feminist approach. I identify three challenges for the FDA in regulatory science: the devaluing of women’s health in reproductive medicine for countervailing concerns, the oppression of women and other marginalized groups through both knowledge and ignorance about their health, and the misuse of ethical concepts for unethical purposes by powerful parties. For improvement, I suggest extracting sexist values and gender norms from regulatory science that cause epistemic injustices, and I point to success stories for reforming sexism with feminism at the FDA.
Chapter 1 is published here in Synthese
Part of Chapter 4 is published online at Lady Science
All of Chris’s blog posts can be found on his ScIU author page.
Josey Topolski
What are you doing next after graduating?
Since I have left the blog I have taken a position with Merck as a Senior Scientist, Preclinical Development. My position is in Analytical Sciences which is a part of Merck Research Laboratories. Analytical Sciences supports many aspects of the pharmaceutical development process such as formulation development, stability analysis, pharmaceutical dissolution, etc. As such, not only is Analytical Sciences composed of scientists from diverse backgrounds, we also collaborate with several other groups (both within and outside of Merck) throughout the pharmaceutical development process.
What is a lesson/takeaway that you got from ScIU?
Partaking in the blog gave me valuable experience with collaboration, problem solving, and communication. I was able to leverage these experiences throughout my job interviews and unsurprisingly they are skills employed everyday in my job.
What was your thesis?
My thesis is “Electronic Structure and Reactivity Studies of Catalytically Relevant Metal Oxides and Sulfides”
The first post I wrote — Fuel for the future: The evolving processing of making hydrogen is related to my dissertation, but not specifically on my first-author work.
All of Josey’s blog posts can be found on her ScIU author page.
Maria Tiongco
What are you doing next after graduating?
I am going to The University of Colorado Boulder to be a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the JILA research institute.
What is a lesson/takeaway that you got from ScIU?
Writing a blog for the general public, or even for my fellow scientists that are in different fields of study, e.g., biology, is always an interesting challenge because I can’t rely on jargon or assumed knowledge. At times I really had to get down to the very basics, but it was fun a challenge!
What was your thesis?
My thesis is “Kinematical Evolution of Tidally Limited Star Clusters.” I studied, using many simulations, the evolution of the kinematics (the study of the motion of objects) of stars in star clusters as they evolve for millions to billions of years orbiting their host galaxy. I wrote an introduction to star clusters here, and wrote about what goes on in the simulations I ran here.
All of Maria’s blog posts can be found on her ScIU author page.
