Research Journey Podcast: Recent Episodes
Research Journey Initiative
This episode features archaeology PhD student, Vera Haponava and her advisor Dr. Catriona Pickard, a senior lecturer at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Edinburgh University.
We explored in detail of how they carefully curate samples from relics for the stable isotope analysis. The real world politics and varied interests present unexpected hurdles for laboratory research. We also talked about very realistic suggestions for aspiring future archaeology graduate students in how to choose a topic and a graduate program with all these non-laboratory challenges.
How does historical review play a role in interpreting data? Is there any "objectivity" in the data? We also talked about concrete examples where the assumptions about historical context totally changes how archaeologists work on the materials.
In this episode, we invited a pair of neuroscientists: the student Roshni Lulla and her advisor Dr. Jonas Kaplan. They talked about the difficulties of neuroimaging studies, the brain regions for empathy and even consciousness, how Roshni balances her PhD work with her startup role, and Dr.Jonas’s interesting idea on how to choose best grad students.
Roshni is a second year PhD student in University of Southern California, her research focuses on emotional processing. She also hosts the Behind Your Behavior podcast with her cousin, where they interview professional neuroscientists and explore concepts from social interactions to decision-making.
Dr. Kaplan is an Associate Professor of Research in Psychology at USC's Brain and Creativity Institute, he is also the Co-Director of the Dana & David Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, and the Associate Director for Mindfulness and Neuroimaging for the USC Center for Mindfulness Science.
Terms mentioned
- fMRI: functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, it measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow.
- Voxels: a value on regular grid in the three-dimensional space. It represents a tidy cube of brain tissue in fMRI studies.
- Valence: referring to the intrinsic "good"-ness or "bad"-ness of an emotion.
- Insular cortex: a portion of cerebral cortex folded deep within the brain, believed to have roles in consciousness and emotional processing.
- Frontal cortex: the cerebral cortex of the frontal lobe, important for higher cognitive functions.
- Confounds / confounding variable: an unmeasured third variable that influences the study of a cause-and-effect relationship.
Credits
Host | Zhiwei Li
Edit | Xiaoyue Zhu
Theme music | Cody Cook, Zhiwei Li
Cover | Puzzle Man by illot
Twitter: @ResearchJourne1
Website: researchjourney.org
If you’d like to be our next guest, please email us at researchjourneyinitiative@gmail.com
Thank you for listening.
Dr Yi Yin, a research scientist from the California Institute of Technology, explains how she uses satellite data to study the uneven distribution of heat distribution in the city and how that reflects socioeconomic inequality.
Dr Jiachen Zhang, an Air Resources Engineer in the Mobile Source Analysis Branch at the California Air Resources Board, talks about the process of using research to enlighten policy-making.
Terms mentioned:
- Albedo, the proportion of light reflected from a surface (roughly, "whiteness").
- Urban heat island: a phenomenon that occurs when cities replace natural land cover with dense concentrations of pavement, buildings, and other surfaces that absorb and retain heat.
Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash
Episode 01 - Art historians Tianyuan Deng and Yunhao Chen
In this very first episode of Research Journey Initiative, we invited two art historians from the Institute of Fine Arts (IFA) of NYU: Tianyuan Deng, a 6th year Ph.D. student in her dissertation-writing stage, and Yunhao, a 2nd year Ph.D. student who is just about to begin his research journey.
They talked about their research projects, with a focus on traditional Chinese art and how it embraced the western influence, the Mogao Caves; their deep personal passion for beauty and aesthetics, and how the art could provide a different mode of happiness that is lacking in the modern world.
Keywords we mentioned:Karl Marx’s idea of ancient civilization as a mummy; Zhang Zhidong; Mogaoku Caves; Marx Weber; Goddess with the wings in Louvre; Jaś Elsner, "Art History as Ekphrasis," Art History, 2010; Matisse; Ba Da Shan Ren(八大山人); Rodin, Gate of hell; Hegel: ontological view of art; Andy Warhol; Jackson Pollock; Marcel Duchamp and his urinal…
Host: Zhiwei Li
Edit: Xiaoyue Zhu
Music: Cody Cook and Zhiwei L
Follow our Twitter! @ResearchJourne1
Our website for more info: researchjourney.org
If you’d like to be our guest, email us (Zhiwei/Xiaoyue) at: researchjourneyinitiative@gmail.com