Dr. Gesa Dinges, West Virginia University

Dr. Gesa Dinges is a postdoctoral researcher at West Virginia University in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Her research focuses on strain sensors, both in the context of insect motor control and biology-first biomimetics. After completing a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Bayreuth, Dr. Dinges ventured into an in-depth study of motor control during her Master’s degree in Experimental and Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cologne. She went on to complete a Doctor of Natural Sciences in the lab of Prof. Dr. Ansgar Büschges in Cologne, investigating the neurobiology of strain sensors in the legs of Drosophila melanogaster. Now, Dr. Dinges is using an interdisciplinary approach to studying insect strain sensing using 3-D printed structures that mimic insect morphology and implementing these in insect-inspired robotic systems.

At this year’s Science Slam Dr. Dinges will be presenting about her journey through science and robot resilience.

Felicitas Hartung, University of California San Diego

Felicitas Hartung is a History Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California, San Diego. Her dissertation explores the politicization of wartime science in the peace activism of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists (ECAS).

Before her doctoral studies, she earned a B.A. and a teaching degree from the Julius-MaximiliansUniversity Würzburg (in Germany). Her passion for teaching is not only reflected in her degree in pedagogy but also in the numerous courses she teaches. Since the beginning of her academic studies, Felicitas has received several grants and fellowships which acknowledge both her research skills as well as her commitment to her students.

At this year’s Science Slam Felicitas Hartung will be speaking about atomic scientists as an example that science is always political.

Dr. Mohamed Hassan, Washington University in St. Louis

Dr. Mohamed G. Hassan is an orthodontist-scientist interested in the growth and development of the human face and skeletal regeneration. He received his master’s in Orthodontics from Alexandria University, Egypt, in collaboration with the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. In 2017, He was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to conduct his Ph.D. research at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. Recently, He was awarded the Rita Levi-Montalcini Postdoctoral Fellowship in Regenerative Medicine to conduct his research about craniofacial regeneration at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis.

At this year’s Science Slam Dr. Hassan will be presenting on how a mother’s diet impacts the development of their child’s facial features.

Dr. Ayse Maraslioglu-Sperber, Stanford University 

Dr. Maraslioglu-Sperber received her master’s degree in Molecular Cell Biology and Neurobiology at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany and became fascinated by hearing science for her master’s thesis and has been working in the broad field of hearing research ever since. During her master’s and doctoral theses, she had the opportunity to explore different aspects of sound processing in the auditory brainstem. Currently, she has shifted her research focus from the auditory brainstem to the auditory periphery. In April 2022, she started her postdoctoral position in the lab of Prof. Stefan Heller at Stanford University to study hair cell regeneration in the mouse cochlea. Her biggest dream is to gain a broad knowledge and understanding of the breadth of the auditory system and to gain a more in-depth understanding of each aspect from the periphery to central processing. She believes that a holistic knowledge of auditory processing is essential for groundbreaking research and that it will broaden the possible directions for her future career and specialization as an independent scientist.

At this year’s Science Slam Dr. Maraslioglu-Sperber will be presenting on science and motherhood.

Dr. Dominik Otto, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center

Dr. Dominik Otto studied mathematics at the Freie Universität Berlin (Bachelor and Master) and went on to get his Dr. rer. Nat. in Informatics through his work at The Fraunhofer IZI in Leipzig from the University of Leipzig. Since the last 3.5 years he is a postdoc of computational biology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, specializing in single-cell data analysis and algorithm development.

At this year’s Science Slam Dr. Otto will be presenting on human hematopoiesis, the blood production process.

Dr. Martin Schwamborn, UC Berkeley

Dr. Martin Schwamborn is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Visiting Scholar at the Institute of European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

His home institution is the University of Cologne, where he earned his doctorate with a thesis on the relationship between European and German Constitutional Law.

In addition to European Law and Public International Law, his research focuses in particular on International Economic Law and Sustainability as well as current challenges in Air, Space and Cyber Law.

At this year’s Science Slam Dr. Schwamborn will be presenting on responsibility and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Florencia Yannelli Lucero, Centro Científico Tecnológico (CCT) CONICET Mendoza

Dr. Yannelli Lucero studied renewable natural resources engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Argentina before completing her PhD at the Technical University of Munich. She has done research in South Africa, Germany, and is currently based in Argentina where she is a postdoc at the Argentine Institute for Dryland Research (IADIZA), CONICET and Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina.

At this year’s Science Slam Dr. Yannelli Lucero will be presenting on invasive species.