Keep pursuing your ideas: A conversation with Aakash Chhabra, Ph.D., NASA Postdoctoral Fellow
Aakash Chhabra, Ph.D., is a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Earth Science Division at NASA Ames. Chhabra's background is studying fires and forest ecology using satellite data or remote sensing data. He did his Ph.D. research in Australia on studying the effects of bushfires, he says, because it's a land shaped by fires. While writing his dissertation, he wrote down some ideas for future research. Then he learned about the NPP, contacted scientists at NASA and the rest, as they say, is history. In this episode of Further Together, Chhabra discusses his research and urges fellow scientists who have novel ideas to pursue them and seek out opportunities like the NASA Postdoctoral Program where those ideas can flourish. To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program or to apply, visit https://npp.orau.org/
--------
23:15
--------
23:15
Nuclear Science Week 2025: An ORAU-funded research project and the cutting edge of radiation research
Dray Gentry, a clinical physicist on ORAU’s radiation epidemiology team, is the primary investigator for an ORAU-Directed Research and Development Grant project that aims to determine the feasibility of using artificial intelligence to speed up the process of identifying chromosomal abnormalities in the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Laboratory, which is part of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education that ORAU manages for the U.S. Department of Energy. The second is to help determine the total dose cancer patients are exposed to during treatment. In this episode of Further Together, Gentry talks to hosts Michael Holtz and Amber Davis about his research, why it’s important and what he hopes to accomplish in the next phase of his project.
--------
31:16
--------
31:16
Strengthening Regional Food System Resilience: A conversation with ORAU experts about their white paper
ORAU is tackling one of the most pressing challenges of our time: food security. ORAU is seeking a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to lead efforts to strengthen America’s food systems against emerging threats like supply chain disruptions and biological hazards. ORAU’s recently published white paper, Strengthening Regional Food System Resilience: A Framework for Risk Assessment and Emergency Preparedness outlines a transformative plan to address these challenges. This framework leverages ORAU’s interdisciplinary expertise, advanced modeling tools and stakeholder engagement to help USDA identify vulnerabilities and implement targeted interventions. In this conversation, hosts Michael Holtz and Amber Davis talk to ORAU experts Kara Stephens, Matthew Schnupp and Rachel Vasconez about their white paper, the framework they have created, and why it matters now.
--------
31:44
--------
31:44
Decoding the data ecosystem: How ORAU is helping accelerate discovery in omics research
Because of our strong capabilities in training and technical assistance, ORAU was contracted by the National Institutes of Health to develop a state-of-the-art training center for users of the Common Fund Data Ecosystem. This ecosystem is an infrastructure to make data from the NIH’s various programs easier to access with the aim of facilitating improved discovery, reuse, integration, and analyses of these datasets to form novel hypothesis for accelerating discoveries in biomedical research. In this episode of Further Together, Allissa Dillman, Ph.D., co-principal investigator and owner of BioData Sage LLC, and Jennifer Burnette, ORAU project director, talk to host Michael Holtz about the importance of the CFDE Training Center and how it can help researchers mine data for omics research of various kinds.
Dillman also hosts the Decoding the Data Ecosystem Podcast, which dives deep into unraveling the complexities and exploring the depths of omics data. The podcast can be found here: https://blubrry.com/3847772/
Check out the Common Fund Data Ecosystem Training Center here: https://orau.org/cfde-trainingcenter/index.html
Find the Common Fund Data Ecosystem here: https://commonfund.nih.gov/dataecosystem
--------
37:28
--------
37:28
Watching the sausage get made: A conversation with Rachel Harris, Ph.D., NASA Postdoctoral Management Fellow
As a child in rural Appalachia, Rachel Harris spent her days in her father’s vegetable garden, playing with dinosaur figurines and dreaming of ancient worlds. Today, she’s part of a very different world, working behind the scenes at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as a NASA Postdoctoral Management Program (NPMP) fellow. Harris, who holds a Ph.D. in geosciences with a focus on biogeochemistry and environmental microbiology, isn’t in a traditional lab or field site. Instead, she’s embedded in science management and policy, where NASA’s missions are carefully shaped and supported. In this episode of Further Together, Harris discusses how she wanted to watch the sausage get made from a space policy perspective.
“I thought I had a good understanding of NASA bureaucracy, but I’ve come to realize how interconnected and thorough the process really is," Harris said. "There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that ensures everything NASA shares with the community is vetted and supported.”
To learn more about the NASA Postdoctoral Program, or to apply, visit https://npp.orau.org/
Join your host Michael Holtz as he discuss all things ORAU, through interviews with our experts who provide innovative scientific and technical solutions for our customers. Michael and his guests will talk about ORAU’s storied history, how we’re impacting an ever-changing world, as well as our commitment to our community.
Deutschland