The Curie Society is here! Einhorn’s Epic Productions is more than a little excited to share the adventures of Simone, Maya, and Taj with all of the eager readers out there.
To add to the hype, we’re sharing our free educational tools for teachers and science-curious students! This guide contains Informational materials, activities and worksheets, and proposed experiments – perfect for anyone who wants to explore more about some of the science touched on in the comic! Check it out!
This graphic novel and this educational guide would not be the same without all of the working scientists who helped brainstorm the near-future scientific advancements that the members of the Curie Society use to conduct their research. See below for more info about some of the people who helped craft The Curie Society!
Below are all of the advisors on the Curie Society Advisory Panel, with links to explore their fields of study!
Nadja Oertelt is a co-founder of Massive Science, a science media company that aims to engage the public and scientists in new ways. She is a former research neuroscientist, and works as a digital, educational, interactive and event media producer and documentary filmmaker. She graduated from MIT in 2007 and has worked in labs at MIT, Harvard and Cambridge University.
Raychelle Burks enjoys the challenge of developing detection methods for a wide variety of analytes including regulated drugs, explosives, and chemical weapons. Dr. Burks is a popular science communicator, appearing on TV, in podcasts, at large genre cons such as DragonCon and GeekGirlCon, in addition to writing a science-meets-true crime column called “Trace Analysis” for Chemistry World. She is a member of a number of local, national, and international committees, task forces, and projects focused on social justice and STEM.
Dr. Danbee “Tauntaun” Kim is a Korean-American neuroscientist and teacher developing a framework for precisely observing nervous systems in increasingly natural environments and contexts, aka “field neuroscience”. This includes studying cuttlefish, building interactive exhibits, and using comics and dance as a tool for education and research. Tauntaun believes that art plays an important role in organizing and building knowledge, as a tool for helping experts across specialities collaborate and share insights.
She earned her BSc in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from MIT, where she also spent 10 years acting, directing, choreographing, costume designing, and writing original content for the MIT Musical Theater Guild. While earning her PhD from the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Tauntaun continued to connect science with art as a musician, capoeirista, and author of a graphic novel version of her PhD thesis called The First VIRS. Check out their Twitter here for the latest updates!
Maia Weinstock is the deputy editorial director at MIT News and has been on staff at BrainPOP, Discover, SPACE.com, and Science World. Maia writes on diversity in STEM media and on the history of women in STEM. She is the author of “Carbon Queen,” a biography of physicist Mildred Dresselhaus, and is known for LEGO projects including Women of NASA, a LEGO Ideas-winning and Amazon best-selling toy. Maia has been an MIT lecturer on the history of women in STEM and led efforts to increase diversity on Wikipedia.
Jane Zelikova is an ecosystem scientist working at the intersection of climate change science and policy. From a young age, Jane has loved spending time outside and getting her hands dirty, which is one of the reasons she fell in love with ecology. She earned a PhD from the University of Colorado and has worked across the western US and abroad, examining the effects of global change in natural and managed systems.
She is now a researcher at the University of Wyoming and the Chief Scientist at Carbon180, a non-profit organization that brings together scientists, policymakers, and businesses to fundamentally rethink carbon. Jane also co-founded 500 Women Scientists and Hey Girl Productions. She’s @j_zelikova on Twitter.
Deborah Blumdirector of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT, is a Pulitzer-prize winning American science journalist, columnist, and author of six books, including the 2018 New York Times Notable Book, The Poison Squad, and the New York Times best-seller, The Poisoner’s Handbook(2010). She has written for publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, and Wired. She is currently publisher of the award winning digital science magazine, Undark and serves on the advisory boards of Chemical & Engineering News and The Scientist.
Get the latest authorial updates fresh off the pen on Deborah’s twitter @deborahblum.
Christine Moran is the technical group supervisor of the Cyber Defense Engineering and Research group at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She has a Ph.D. in astrophysics and spent nearly a year in Antarctica running the South Pole Telescope. She’s also an aspiring astronaut, an author, and a mom. Get the out-of-this-world updates from her twitter, @corbett!
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is an assistant professor of physics and core faculty in women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. One of under 100 Black American women to earn a PhD from a department of physics, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical particle cosmologist, with an expertise in dark matter, and a feminist theorist, with a focus on Black women’s social location in STEM. Get the latest from @IBJIYONGI.
Kasia Chmielinski is the Co-Founder of The Data Nutrition Project, an initiative that builds tools to improve the health of artificial intelligence through better data. Kasia is also a technologist at McKinsey & Company and previously worked at the U.S. Digital Service (Executive Office of the President) and Scratch, a project of the MIT Media Lab (Lifelong Kindergarten Group). They are an affiliate at The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where they also studied physics. When not in front of a whiteboard or a keyboard, Kasia can be found cycling uncomfortably-long distances. Get the latest from @kaschm!
Dr. Ritu Raman is an engineer, writer, and educator with a passion for biohybrid design: building machines powered by biological materials. She develops implantable robots that dynamically sense and adapt to the human body and help fight disease and damage. Ritu grew up in India, Kenya, and the United States. This taught her to thrive in dynamic environments, and inspires her to diversify STEM education. Ritu is currently a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. She received her B.S. from Cornell University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Here’s her Twitter: @DrRituRaman.
Professor Angela Belcheris the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering, Materials Science and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Medicine at MIT and the head of the Department of Biological Engineering at MIT. She is a biological and materials engineer with expertise in the fields of biomaterials, biomolecular materials, organic-inorganic interfaces and solid-state chemistry and devices. Her primary research focus is evolving new materials for energy, electronics, the environment, and medicine. She received her B.S. in Creative Studies from The University The University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at UCSB in 1997. Read more about her work in Chemical & Engineering News and ACS Network.
