Science storytelling organization The Story Collider develops “true, personal stories about science” as part of their mission to reveal the vibrant role that science plays in all of our lives through the power of storytelling. Two IGB members will be featured on the November 25th episode of the Story Collider weekly podcast, which will be titled “Unlikely Paths: Stories from the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.”

Heng Ji is a Professor of Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as an Amazon Scholar. Her research interests focus on natural language processing, especially on multimedia multilingual information extraction, knowledge base population and knowledge-driven generation. She is the leader of the AI-enabled synthesis planning thrust of the Molecule Maker Lab Institute (MMLI) to develop an AI platform to solve complex chemistry problems.

Brendan Harley is the Robert W. Schaefer Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and the theme leader of the Regenerative Biology & Tissue Engineering research theme at the IGB, as well as an affiliate of the Environmental Impact on Reproductive Health research theme. His research looks to develop biomaterials that replicate the microenvironments found in the tissues and organs of the body, to generate new insights towards cell response regarding development, disease, and regeneration.

Heng and Brendan will share stories of their own unlikely paths through the lens of their personal and professional experiences on this special edition of The Story Collider podcast, available to download or stream via your preferred platform. Visit https://www.storycollider.org/podcasts to access their episode when it airs on November 25th!