Science in Action
During each semester, the Science in Action Seminar Series is held every Tuesday from 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 pm in the STEM Center, Building 7, Room 7-307.
This weekly series is presented in partnership with the San Francisco State University Bridges to Baccalaureate Program, the Skyline College Science and Math Division, and the Math, Engineering, Science Achievement Program (MESA).
The seminar series is free and open to the public. The topics vary and are geared not only towards science, but the entire college experience, so we encourage non-science students to attend. Attendance confirmation slips will be provided. We look forward to seeing you there!
If you're interested in presenting at the Science in Action Seminar Series, please contact Alyssa Wong-Conway. If you have questions about attending the Science in Action Seminar Series, please contact Bryan Swartout.
Spring 2020 Seminar Schedule
Opportunities in Education
May 12, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | YouTube
Raymond Hernandez | Dean of Science, Math and Technology at Skyline College
Science In Action looks to finish the semester in reflection and growth by hosting our very own dean Raymond Hernandez. Dean Hernandez started as a faculty member of the Respiratory Care Program in 1996 and is currently serving his final semester as Dean of the Science, Math, and Technology Division at Skyline College. For over 20 years, he has worked to bring academic and community resources together and provide effective leadership to a division serving diverse student populations. Please join for our final session this semester as Dean Hernandez shares his educational journey and insights.
Panel Discussion: Women in STEM
May 5, 2020 | 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. | YouTube
Emilie Hein, Safiyyah Forbes, Elayne Rodriguez, Maryam Khan & Bela Singha
For its second iteration, Skyline College's Women In STEM discussion panel will take place virtually, organized in partnership between the STEM Center and the Library. Women in STEM will share experiences in their fields, lessons they have learned along the way, and what drives them to do the work they do.
Please submit questions you would like to pose to panelists by clicking here.
A Decade in Pursuit of a Microbiology Masters
April 28, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | YouTube
Emily Quach | Master's Candidate
Emily Quach is currently a third year master's student in Dr. Guiton's lab at California State University East Bay. She obtained her A.S. in Biology from the College of Alameda and her B.S in Biotechnology with a concentration in microbiology and fermentation from the University of California Davis. While at Davis she learned how to brew beer and grow wheat in a lab setting. In 2017, she started to work on an obligate intracellular parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. She is currently investigating how developmentally regulated metabolic enzymes contribute to stage conversion between bradyzoites and tachyzoites in Toxoplasma gondii. Emily is the lab manager for Guiton Lab. She enjoys mentoring undergraduate researchers.
My Educational Journey - Skyline College to UCSF
April 21, 2020 | 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. | YouTube
Jasmine To | Skyline College Alumni & IND Safety Coordinator/Senior Regulatory Specialist, UCSF
Jasmine To attended Washington High School in San Francisco, then Skyline College for three years with a one year scholarship. She then transferred to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and graduated in two years with a major in Animal Science and minor in Poultry Management. Right after graduation, Jasmine started working at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She started in animal procurement for drug safety in clinical trials. She will talk about her experience within UCSF and her experience as a Clinical Resource Coordinator, an entry level position. If you are interested in drug discovery, med school, or wondering what you can do with your degree after college, this is the place to be!
Skyline College's Respiratory Care Degree Program and COVID-19
April 14, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | YouTube
Brian Daniel | Director of Clinical Education, Skyline College Respiratory Care Program
Brian M. Daniel is a tenured professor and Director of Clinical Education for Skyline Colleges Respiratory Care Program. As practicing respiratory care practitioner for more than 30 years, Brian has split much of his career working between Skyline College and the University of California San Francisco Health. Working at the University of California San Francisco, Brian has been involved in clinical leadership and coordination for Respiratory Care Service and UCSF’s Cardiovascular Research Institute. Brian has co-authored many publications over the course of his in the pathogenesis and management of acute lung injury and mechanisms of airway clearance. Brian is committed to clinical quality and is part of several multi-disciplinary teams charged with insuring continuous quality improvement and evidence-based patient outcomes. In addition to his role at Skyline, Brian’s many educational roles with the University include medical house staff development, and selected educational topics as adjunct faculty for the University of California’s School of Nursing (advance practitioner courses).
My Educational Journey
April 7, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | YouTube
Adrian Barrera-Velasquez | Student, San Francisco State University
I work in Dr. Mark Chan's lab at SFSU studying nuclear positioning in budding yeast and how it relates to the site of budding. Budding yeast divide asymmetrically, as their name implies, through budding where the daughter cell begins to grow from the periphery of the mother and its contents are inherited through a small opening called the bud neck. The movement of organelles through this bud neck requires the cell to set up cytoskeletal elements to the bud site for transporting cargo and is a well researched field. Given this necessity for a transport architecture, I am interested to see how the initial positions of the organelles before budding vary so as to not disturb this network. In particular I am studying the nucleus' position using the cell center and bud site as landmarks to establish a frame of reference. I use focus stack fluorescence microscopy to obtain images of our fluorescently labeled yeast and I write image processing pipelines to annotate, analyze, and visualize organelle position in 3D space.
I originally graduated from College of San Mateo as a Computer Science major and transferred to UCSC as a Computer Engineer with emphasis on Robotics but ended up coming back to Skyline to change paths into Biology and transferred to SFSU where I will be completing my BS in Cell/Molecular Biology. I have worked at Skyline as a tutor at the MESA center as well as an IT Student Technician and Media Services Student Technician. I'm an athlete who loves bouldering, swimming, and running as well as other activities. When I'm indoors I love to play video games with friends, read books, watch anime, or just learn new skills. I might be addicted to Vietnamese food.
Bioinformatics and Sequence Company
March 17, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | YouTube
Cory Padilla
Achieving the Impossible
March 10, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Irene Yim and Susan Wu | R&D Culinary Supervisor and Stability Technician, Impossible Foods
Irene Yim is currently the R&D Culinary Supervisor at Impossible Foods, Inc. She prides herself as a non-traditional student, having completed her lower division coursework at Skyline College. She holds a BS and MS in Food Science with a focus in Microbiology from the University of California, Davis. Prior to Impossible Foods, Irene Yim worked as a chef and cheesemonger for 10+ years. Besides being an awesome and well-loved manager, Irene enjoys tacos, street art, used bookstores, obscure Chinese cookbooks and snuggling up with her dog, Tortilla.
Susan Wu currently works at impossible Foods, Inc. as a Stability Technician conducting shelf-life studies on various projects. She completed her lower division coursework at Skyline College and holds a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Davis. Prior to Impossible Foods, Susan worked at Skyline College, helping set up wet labs for the Biology department. To learn more about her educational journey, join Susan and Irene at Science in Action!
Changing the Face of STEM
March 3, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | STEM Center (Building 7, Room 7-307)
Tiffany Reardon | Engineering Student Services, UC Berkeley
For nearly twenty years Tiffany Reardon has been working to change the face of STEM. She began doing this at Skyline Community College where she worked as the Director of the Mathematics Engineering, Science Achievement Program from 2000 to 2008. After successfully establishing Skyline's MESA program she accepted a position as the Assistant Director of Programs for MESA Statewide at the University of California’s Office of the President working with nearly 70 community college and university MESA programs. In 2012, she joined UC's flagship campus by accepting a position at the UC Berkeley in the College of Engineering. In 2013, she established Berkeley’s Transfer Pre-Engineering Program (T-PREP) which serves engineering students that have transferred from community colleges. Aside from T-PREP, she also directs the Pre-Engineering Program (PREP) which serves freshman engineers. Both PREP and T-PREP support students throughout their time at Berkeley. Tiffany has helped hundreds of students successfully transfer to top-tier universities, prepare for graduate school, and gain prestigious research fellowships. In 2018, she launched REUFinder which is a blog aimed at exposing non-traditional students to paid research opportunities.
Biomedical Engineering
February 25, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | STEM Center (Building 7, Room 7-307)
Hania Osman & Subhraj Shinder | Graduate Students, San Jose State University
Graduate students Hania Osman and Shubhraj Bhinder will talk about their educational journey as well as invite Skyline Student to be a part of the 2020 Bay Area Biomedical Device Conference (April 2, 2020). This student-lead conference was developed by SJSU Biomedical Engineering students in order to introduce all students in the Bay Area to this exciting field that encompasses both Engineering and Biology. Come and see how you can get reduced/free admission to the conference and if there is enough want let’s see if we can get a Skyline Van to attend the meeting.
Hania Osman is a graduate biomedical engineering student at San Jose State University. She graduated with a bachelors in physics from William Jewell College in Kansas City, MO. She is currently doing research in one of her Professor’s cardiovascular lab and assisting a group of graduate students to characterize the flow and leaflet motion of a mechanical heart valve using particle image velocimetry. She is also the marketing lead for the 2020 Bay Area Biomedical Device Conference.
Shubhraj Bhinder received his B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Ca where he created a partial finger prosthetic for his senior project. Currently, he is in his 3rd year as a graduate student at San Jose State University enrolled in the M.S. in Biomedical Engineering program. He is also working full time as a Systems Test Engineer at Abbott Laboratories in Pleasanton, Ca. His graduate research involves the design of a realistic model of tissue perfusion to assess the effect of convective heat transfer on the effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation therapy.
STEM Education Support
February 18, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | STEM Center (Building 7, Room 7-307)
Nick Kapp, Bryan Swartout & Stephen Fredricks | Faculty and Staff, Skyline College
Across the board, regardless of educational attainment, U.S. STEM workers earn higher wages that their non-STEM peers and have a broad impact on the economy. STEM supports 69% of the U.S. GDP, 2 out of 3 workers, and 2.3 trillion in annual tax revenue. Come and discuss this with STEM faculty and staff, including Nick, Brian, Steve and others, and let us know how we can better support your STEM education.
Computer Science for Society and Human Rights
February 11, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | STEM Center (Building 7, Room 7-307)
Jenny Minh-Ai Phamhi | Student, Stanford University
Modern computer science gives us the ability to affect billions of people and learn from countless data points in the blink of an eye.
This talk will explore the brave new ways that people – students, researchers, educators, and activists – are using their technical and scientific knowledge to help make the world a better place, from protecting far-off archaeological sites to fighting human trafficking in our communities close to home.
We'll see that even a little bit of coding knowledge can go a long way, and we'll talk about how to get involved with research that ignites your passion for social good along your path from Skyline to four year universities and beyond.
enny Vo-Phamhi is a proud graduate of Skyline College where she pursued engineering studies and spent much of her time in the MESA Center as a tutor. She founded Skyline Women Engineering, helped found the Skyline College Science and Research Club, took part in the Engineering & Robotics Club and helped with the Solar Boat Team. Jenny is continuing her studies at Stanford University where she also actively conducts research. She is a 2020 candidate for a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Classics.
Challenges and Opportunities in Cancer Immunotherapy
February 4, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | STEM Center (Building 7, Room 7-307)
Dr. Cheng Liu | Founder and CEO, Eureka Theraputics
Dr. Cheng Liu is the founder and CEO of Eureka Theraputics. Prior to founding Eureka, Dr. Liu was a Principal Scientist in antibody drug discovery at Chiron (now Novartis), where he championed anti-CSF1 antibody program for treatment of bone metastasis to human clinical trials. He is the inventor of multiple issued US patents in drug discovery. In 2007, he was awarded Special US Congressional Recognition for his contributions to improving human health. Dr. Liu received his B.S. in Cell Biology and Genetics from Beijing University and a PhD in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Microbes Medicine and Money - Biomanufacturing in the 21st Century
January 28, 2020 | 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. | STEM Center (Building 7, Room 7-307)
Jim Dekloe | Founder and Director, Industrial Biotechnology Program at Solano College
Jim DeKloe serves as the director and founder of the Industrial Biotechnology program at Solano College in the North San Francisco Bay Area. He also played a key role in designing the Solano College Bachelors of Science in Biomanufacturing program; this baccalaureate degree contains upper division courses in the scientific, technical and engineering principles of biomanufacturing, as well as in the business, regulatory, quality aspects of biomanufacturing, bioethics, technical writing and project management. Needless to say, graduates of the program are in demand to their well rounded character. Dr. DeKloe heads a United States consortium working on developing a national workforce for emerging Cell and Gene therapy technologies, this effort is funded by the National Institute for Innovation in the Manufacture of BioLogics (NIIMBL).
In 2011, Solano College faculty chose Jim as the Distinguished Faculty Member of the Year. He has also served as a consultant to help biotech giant Amgen redesign the training programs for their biomanufacturing technicians and for their quality assurance associates. He is a knowledgeable, exciting and humorous speaker. If you are interested in biotechnology, in the flavor of business, engineering, science or regulation, he has a talk that will interest you.