Dr. Nick Haddad is a Professor in Integrative Biology at Michigan State University and a Senior Terrestrial Ecologist at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. In addition, Nick is the author of the recently released book The Last Butterflies: A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature. Through his research, Nick searches for the rarest butterflies in the world and works to understand what factors cause the decline of these butterflies and what we can do to conserve them. Outside of work, Nick has been enjoying renovating his home with his wife who is a historic preservationist. Their home was built in 1840, so they have been tackling a wide variety of projects including updating the plumbing and replacing all of the electrical wiring. Nick received his BS in Biology from Stanford University, and he was awarded his PhD in Ecology from the University of Georgia. Afterwards, Nick conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Minnesota. Before joining the faculty at Michigan State, University, Nick served on the faculty at North Carolina State University for about 19 years. In our interview, Nick shares more about his life and science.

Dr. Louis L. Jacobs is Emeritus Professor in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and President of the ISEM at SMU. As a vertebrate paleontologist, Louis studies the fossils of animals with backbones. His goal is to understand their evolution and how it fits together with the earth and the environment to present a holistic picture of our world. When he’s not working, Louis loves to look at rocks, tend to orchids, bind books, and spend quality time with his grandchildren. They are insatiably curious and interested in everything, including rocks, fossils, and space. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution from the University of Arizona. After completing his training, he worked as a research paleontologist at the Museum of Northern Arizona, a geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, a lecturer and a research associate at the University of Arizona, Head of the Division of Paleontology at the National Museums of Kenya. He joined the faculty at SMU in 1983. During his time at SMU, Louis has held leadership positions at the Dallas Museum of Natural History as well as the Shuler Museum of Paleontology at SMU, where he ultimately served as Director for 13 years. Louis has won numerous awards and honors for his scholarship, his service, and the books he has written, including the University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award from SMU, the Joseph T. Gregory Award for Service to the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, The Texas Earth Science Teachers Association Lifetime Membership and Friends of TESTA Award, and many others. In addition, he is a past Fellow of the Explorers Club, Past President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and ten fossil species have been named after him. In this interview, he shares more about his life and science.

Dr. Karen Daniels is a Professor in the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University. Karen’s lab investigates the physics of how materials change state (e.g. from solid to fluid), how they deform, and how they may ultimately fail. She studies these questions across a variety of length and time scales, from microscopic phenomena that occur in less than a second to shifts in land that occur on geologic timescales and may lead to landslides. Travel is a passion for Karen. While traveling, she loves hiking on mountain trails, eating delicious food, discovering new foods that she can try to make at home, reading books, knitting, and interacting with new people and places. She received her BA in physics from Dartmouth College. Karen then worked for about three years as a science teacher at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn before enrolling in graduate school at Cornell University where she earned her PhD in physics. She then conducted postdoctoral research at Duke University before joining the faculty at NCSU in 2005. Karen has been awarded a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to support a yearlong sabbatical at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany. In addition, Karen was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the Equity for Women Award from NCSU, and the LeRoy and Elva Martin Award for Teaching Excellence. She has also been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society. In our interview, Karen shares more about her life and science.