香蕉秀

by Maura Kelly

When Laura J. Steinberg took the helm of the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College in 2020, she spoke to students about what they wanted out of the center鈥攁nd learned that, perhaps first and foremost, they wanted community. That goal was one of many Steinberg had in mind when, with encouragement from the various science department heads, she launched a graduate student seminar series earlier this year. She hopes the talks will help science students across and within disciplines get to know each other, while also giving them an opportunity to explain their work to non-specialist peers. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a chance to practice in a low-stakes environment,鈥� as Steinberg says. Moreover, Steinberg hopes the discussions will also prompt the next generation of leaders to 鈥減ut their work in the context of a greater problem, and do it in a way that other disciplines can be brought into the conversation,鈥� thereby helping to honor the institute鈥檚 commitment to a collaborative approach to the connected issues of environment, energy, and health.聽

The series began on March 21st, with inaugural speaker Quishi Ma explaining his work. New to 香蕉秀, Ma transferred from Marquette University in January, along with his mentor Associate Professor Jier Huang, Schiller鈥檚 newest core faculty member. 鈥淲e are trying to find new materials to address the environmental crisis,鈥� Ma explains. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking into how to convert carbon dioxide into useful chemicals like methanol, and to do that, we鈥檙e trying to understand the physical and chemical properties of those materials.鈥� Ma began his talk by describing why he chose his scientific focus: 鈥淭he greenhouse effect is very serious now, and we need to reduce concentrations of carbon dioxide and, we hope, convert it into other things,鈥� he says. 鈥淎 lot of research already shows there is a good ability to capture and convert carbon dioxide, but there isn鈥檛 much on the physical and chemical properties that we need to understand, to develop more efficient ways to use the converted materials.鈥�

In the audience during Ma鈥檚 talk was Assistant Professor of Chemistry Lucas Bao鈥攚ho asked a number of questions once Ma was finished. 鈥淎s someone with a keen interest in energy and materials research from a physical perspective, I am eager to learn more,鈥� Bao says. 鈥淎nd during the talk, I gained valuable insights into state-of-the-art spectroscopic techniques employed by Jier鈥檚 group. Although the presentation did not delve into technical specifics, I now have a general understanding of what these techniques can and cannot measure.鈥� He added: 鈥淎s a theoretical chemist, this knowledge will be helpful, as it allows me to calculate what cannot be measured experimentally and to provide my experimental colleagues with theoretical analysis to help them make accurate interpretations of their results.鈥� The exchange was instructive for Ma, too. 鈥淧rofessor Bao does quantum chemistry, and my research relies on some of that, but I don鈥檛 go too deep into it,鈥� he says. 鈥淧rofessor Bao gave a lot of helpful advice.鈥澛�

Steinberg was there on the 21st as well, and she left impressed. Ma鈥檚 listeners were 鈥渞apt,鈥� she said, which pleased her. 鈥淲e wanted to give the people in their seats a chance to expand their thinking and bring to bear their scientific curiosity on projects and problems that are not part of their everyday work, or even the work they hear about in their department seminars,鈥� she says. 鈥淪ometimes the best scientific investigations or explorations start when graduate students meet and get excited about each other鈥檚 work.鈥� She added, 鈥淭he idea is to formulate new approaches and to develop new research directions.鈥�

The chair of 香蕉秀鈥檚 Biology department, Professor Welkin Johnson, has been one of the series鈥� most enthusiastic proponents. Like Steinberg, he鈥檚 hopeful that it might lead researchers in creative directions. 鈥淓veryone says we need to get the sciences talking to each other, but it鈥檚 hard to figure out how to do that,鈥� he says. 鈥淥nce you give a public talk, though, people have a reason to approach you and ask about your research.鈥�

The second speaker in the series has made her own efforts to reach beyond her lab. , a PhD candidate in Microbial Systems Biology, has been studying how bacteria evolve to 鈥渉ide鈥� from our immune system, a focus fueled by her concern about rising rates of antibiotic resistance鈥攁 problem linked, both directly and indirectly, to climate change.聽聽鈥淎s the climate warms, bacterial antibiotic resistance is on the rise鈥攚ith heat increasing horizontal gene transfer and growth rates,鈥� she explains. What鈥檚 more, climate disasters鈥攚hich can lead to pollution, waterborne infections, and decreased sanitation鈥攃an also contribute to antibiotic resistance. In part because of the serious widespread problems that antibiotic resistance could cause, Sundaresh is also interested in the practical applications of her research. To that end, she has participated in three Boston-area biotech business incubator programs. 鈥淧art of what I鈥檓 exploring through my PhD work is how we can develop antibodies that would bind to a bacterial pathogen and disable it from evading certain components of our immune system, which would in turn help to re-establish the body鈥檚 innate immune response,鈥� she says.聽

Before Sundaresh attended her first incubator program鈥�, a student-run accelerator out of Harvard Medical School鈥攕he wasn鈥檛 convinced she wanted to move into the business world. That changed by the time she participated in the course鈥檚 final pitch competition. 鈥淚 was so excited by the innovative work that鈥檚 happening, especially in Boston, I felt really invigorated, and excited,鈥� she says. And now? 鈥淚 hope to take my career to the next step, using some of my learnings, whether in the microbiology space or another, and really bringing novel innovations from academia to patients.鈥� She鈥檒l talk more about her experience in the incubator programs during her April 4 discussion.聽聽

The series will conclude for the semester on April 26, when Eliza Greiner, from the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, will talk about the , before resuming in the fall. 鈥淲e hope it becomes part of the fabric of graduate student life for students in the sciences here,鈥� says Steinberg, who plans to make it an ongoing feature of the institute. Bao, for one, is all for it. Ma鈥檚 talk, he says, has 鈥渙pened up exciting possibilities for future collaborations.鈥�