Maryanna Aldrich, Ph.D. oversees the Division of Science Graduate Affairs Office and is the Biochemistry Department Administrator at Brandeis University. The Graduate Affairs Office provides support to graduate students across the sciences throughout their time as graduate students, from application to graduation. She received her bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary in 2005 and her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry from Brown University in 2012.

Angela Gutchess, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology at Brandeis University, with appointments in Neuroscience and the Volen Center for Complex Systems. She attended Boston University for her BA/BS degrees and the University of Michigan for her Ph.D. Her research investigates the influence of age and culture on memory and social cognition using behavioral, neuroimaging (fMRI, ERP), and patient (amnestic mild cognitive impairment) methods, and has been supported by NIA, NSF, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Fulbright Program. Dr. Gutchess was elected to the Governing Board of the Psychonomic Society and the Memory Disorders Research Society. She recently published a book, The Cognitive and Social Neuroscience of Aging, and co-edited The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Aging: A Life Course Perspective.

Hongfu Liu, Ph.D. received his bachelor and master degree in Management Information Systems from the School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, in 2011 and 2014 respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in computer engineering from Northeastern University, Boston MA, 2018. Currently he is a tenure-track Assistant Professor affiliated with Michtom School of Computer Science at Brandeis University. His research interests generally focus on data mining and machine learning, with special interests in ensemble learning. He has served as the reviewers for many IEEE Transactions journals including TKDE, TNNLS, TIP, and TBD. He has also served on the program committee for the conferences including KDD, ICRL, AAAI, IJCAI, and NIPS. He is the Associate Editor of IEEE Computational Intelligence Magazine.

W. Benjamin Rogers, Ph.D.

Ben joined the Martin A. Fisher School of Physics at Brandeis University as an Assistant Professor in January 2016. His research program is focused on developing quantitative tools for understanding and controlling the self-assembly of molecules and other small particles into nanoscale structures. Before coming to Brandeis, Ben was a postdoctoral fellow in the Manoharan Lab within the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, where he studied assembly and optical properties of colloidal suspensions. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012 and his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware in 2005.

Piali Sengupta , Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Brandeis University, and is a member of the Molecular Cell Biology and Neuroscience Ph.D. programs. She completed her Ph.D in Biology at MIT, and then did a postdoc at UCSF before joining Brandeis. She recently completed a term as Chair of the Biology Department, is a past Chair of the MCB Graduate Program, and has chaired and served on both the MCB and Neuroscience Ph.D Admissions Committee. Her lab's research focuses on understanding the genetic and neuronal mechanisms that allow animals to sense environmental cues and to translate this information into specific behavioral and developmental responses. Her lab primarily uses the nematode C. elegans as an experimental organism. The lab's research is funded by the NIH and NSF. More information about the lab can be found at https://www.senguptalab.org/.

Adán Colón-Carmona, Ph.D. is a Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is a plant cell and developmental biologist studying growth control in response to internal and external environmental cues. Dr. Colón-Carmona leads university initiatives that include research education activities geared towards diverse student populations; focus on cancer and cancer disparities research, outreach and training; and address diversity, equity and inclusion within faculty ranks. A SACNAS member since 1989 and a mentor to 100s of undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs in his laboratory, Dr. Colón-Carmona is dedicated to social change in higher education as a vehicle to improving peoples’ lives.

Henry H. Wortis, M.D., Prof.,

Immunology

Member, PREP Executive

Tufts University School of Medicine

Eric Curiel manages the SACNAS chapters program with over 118 chapters across the country. He focuses on providing members resources to maintain sustainable chapters and helps chapters connect with other SACNAS members. Ericattended his first SACNAS national conference in 2010 as a community college student. After transferring to the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2011, he continued his SACNAS involvement by joining the UCSC SACNAS chapter. In 2014, Ericearned his BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Before joining the SACNAS staff, he worked as a STEM Professional Expert at College of the Sequoias, where he helped mentor students in an undergraduate research program. Eric is passionate about promoting and increasing diversity in STEM.
 

Amanda Ruiz is a doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Jonathan “Jake” Kurtis at Brown University. Her work aims to identify vaccine candidates for both human and bovine schistosomiasis. Amanda earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Barnard College of Columbia University. During her time at Columbia, she conducted research in Dr. Patricia Cortes’ clinical immunology lab at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, as well as Dr. Megan Sykes’translational immunology lab at the Columbia University Medical Center.  Beyond her work in the lab, she is deeply committed to addressing barriers to educational equity and fostering a more diverse and inclusive environment in academia. Amanda serves as a student representative on theBrown University Diversity Advisory Board, as well as the President of the Brown University chapter of theSociety for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). Amanda was also recently elected to the Board of Directors of theAmerican Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASMTH).
Professional Interests: zoonotic diseases, (re)emerging diseases, One Health, vaccine development, immunology, educational equity, education policy, STEM awareness.
Communities/Identities: Latina, first-generation college student, New Yorker, first-generation American, scientist, tropical medicine researcher, basketball enthusiast

Daniel Hidalgo: I was born in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. I received a BA in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as well as an MA in Biology from Clark University in 2008 and 2009 respectively. In 2009, I joined the lab of Dr. Merav Socolovsky at UMass Medical School as a Research Associate. In 2016, I was admitted to the PhD program in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in UMass Medical School working in Dr. Merav Scolovsky’s lab. During my PhD, I have co-authored six publications and currently working on understanding the role of Epor signaling during early erythropoiesis and erythroid terminal differentiation. As president of SACNAS-UMMS, I have focused on improving diversity and inclusion efforts institutionally as well as supporting local communities and advocating for minorities in STEM. 

Eimy Bonilla is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Sciences and Engineering working with Dr. Loretta Mickley.Eimy is also a resident tutor at Quincy House. Also at Harvard, Eimy  started and is a member of the Graduate School of Arts Sciences (GSAS) Society of Underrepresented Students in STEM (GSUSS), which promotes long-term retention in STEM graduate programs through social and networking events. She graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Environmental Engineering and worked for two years in a remediation consulting company before starting graduate school. Eimy models atmospheric chemistry and transport of fire emissions to better understand the fate of pollutants affecting air quality and climate change across South America. When she is not working on her research she spends her time playing with her dog, Oreo, and knitting.
 

Mary Munson, Ph.D. is a Professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School since 2001. She was a double major in Chemistry and Biology at Washington University (St. Louis). She received her Ph.D. from Yale in the Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Department then moved to the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University as a postdoctoral fellow, until moving to UMass Medical School. Her lab’s research on the mechanisms of membrane trafficking is highly collaborative, and strongly values and supports colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences. In addition to her passion for research, she has also been actively involved with teaching and curriculum development in their Graduate School for Biomedical Sciences. She is currently the Faculty advisor for their student SACNAS chapter, as well as leading a Diversity Action committee in her department, and a new GSBS Faculty Focused on Inclusive Excellence (FFIE) committee. Nationally, she is currently co-chair of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Women in Cell Biology committee, and a co-investigator of the ASCB’s AMP MOSAIC program for select K99 scholars. She also recently became a Trained Facilitator for “Entering Mentoring,” a program sponsored by the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) to enable her and her colleagues to be strong and supportive mentors to enable their mentees to reach their full potentials in exciting and successful scientific careers. For more information, please see her website: https://www.umassmed.edu/munsonlab/.

Karl Munger, Ph.D. earned his bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Zurich (Switzerland). After a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. he became a faculty member at Harvard Medical School where he moved through the ranks and was promoted to Professor of Medicine in 2013. He moved to Tufts in 2014 where he is a Professor and since 2020 the chair of the Department of Developmental, Molecular and Chemical Biology. His research focuses on how human papillomaviruses (HPVs) contribute to carcinogenesis. He has authored over 200 publications that have received more than 31,000 citations. He is committed to teaching and mentoring, and he contributes to all the major outreach programs that are designed to increase diversity in the biomedical workforce at the Graduate School of Biomedical Science (GSBS) at Tufts.
 

David Van Vector, Ph.D. is a Professor of Cell Biology in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a member of the DFCI/Harvard Cancer Center. Dr. Van Vactor received his B.A. in Behavioral Biology at the Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Chemistry at UCLA, before undertaking post-doctoral research at the UC Berkeley. Dr. Van Vactor has been the recipient of a Medical Foundation New Investigator award, as well as Scholar awards from the Klingenstein Foundation, the McKnight Foundation and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, as well as Partner in Research with Nikon Corp.  He received the Dean’s Community Service Award (2003), the Distinguished Faculty Award (2014) and the Harold Amos Faculty Diversity Award (2019) at Harvard Medical School.

At Harvard, Dr. Van Vactor currently serves as the Director of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS) PhD Program, and he is PD/PI of the Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Dynamics (MCD²) T32 PhD training grant from NIGMS. Dr. Van Vactor is also the founding Faculty Director of the HMS Curriculum Fellows program. From 2007-2014 he was head of the Graduate Programs in Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS), and from 2014-2019 he was Director of the cross-campus Developmental and Regenerative Biology (DRB) PhD Program. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University in Japan since 2010.  Dr. Van Vactor has been an instructor for Neurobiology courses at the Marine Biology Laboratories in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, a course Director at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories on Long Island, and founding co-Director of two summer courses at OIST. Dr. Van Vactor serves on the AAMC GREAT Group Outreach Committee to support the STERM career development of underrepresented students in the USA. He is also founding Director of Basic Science Partnership (BSP), an educational program that supports K-12 and collegiate STEM educational enrichment.