Expert Directory
Amanda Arvai, Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida
Deputy Branch Manager for Spacecraft Operations
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)Webb Space Telescope, Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Flight Operations
Amanda Arvai serves as the deputy branch manager for the spacecraft operations and engineering branch at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which supports the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spacecraft flight operations. In this role, she develops flight products and procedures to operate JWST post-launch. She leads the Attitude Control Subsystem (ACS), which is responsible for pointing control and attitude determination, and supports the propulsion and fault management subsystems. She also supports the development and maintenance of software tools for the flight operations team.
Tracy Beck, PhD in Astronomy from State University of New York
AURA Scientist
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)Webb Space Telescope, Stars, Circumstellar Disk
Dr. Tracy Beck is an AURA Observatory Scientist in the Instruments division at STScI. Her functional duties involve working on the AURA James Webb Space Telescope NIRSpec team, helping with the JWST telescope commissioning in the Telescopes group, proposal planning, user support and operations development. Her research expertise involves high spatial resolution imaging and spectroscopic observations of gas and dust in the environments of young T Tauri stars and binary/multiple star systems.
Lou Strolger, PhD
Observatory Scientist/Deputy Head of Instruments
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)Webb Space Telescope, Supernovae, Cosmology
Dr. Lou Strolger is the Deputy Head of the Instruments Division, and Observatory Scientist at STScI. He is primarily concerned with clues to the nature of supernova progenitors through bulk analyses; rates, environmental effects (star-formation, metallicity, etc.), and the global evolution of these properties over the history of the Universe. He is also involved in projects on four robotic telescopes; three in space — the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope; and the RCT 1.3-meter on the ground. He is active in a number of initiatives addressing underrepresented minorities in astronomy and physics, and looking at approaches to improve recruitment and retention.
James D. Long, PhD
Associate Professor of Political Science and a co-founder of the Political Economy Forum
University of WashingtonComparative Politics, Crime and Criminality, International Relations, International Security, Minority and Race Politics, Political Methodology
James D. Long is an Associate Professor of Political Science and a co-founder of the Political Economy Forum at the University of Washington. He is a faculty affiliate at the University of Washington’s Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS), Technology and Social Change Group (TASCHA), African Studies Program, and Near and Middle East Studies Program; and UC-Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) and Evidence in Governance & Politics (EGAP). Previously, James was an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, dissertation fellow at the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, a Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar at the US Institute of Peace, and a Fulbright Scholar. His research in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia focuses on elections in developing countries, including the determinants of voting behavior, the dynamics of electoral fraud, the impact of ICT and digital media on corruption monitoring, and the effects of civil war and insurgency on state-building. He is the host of the Forum’s podcast series, “Neither Free Nor Fair?” about election security and the fate of democracy in the 21st century. James mixes quantitative, experimental, and qualitative field research methods, including household surveys, exit polls, field experiments, randomized control trials/impact evaluation, election forensics, and ethnography. His research has been funded by the US Agency for International Development, National Science Foundation, Qualcomm, UCSD, Democracy International, World Vision, Development and Conflict Research, USIP, and Fulbright. His most recent work, the subject of a TedX@UW talk, examines ways that ICT and digital media can address problems of information and human welfare in developing countries, building multi-channel platforms that drive citizen engagement, reporting, and monitoring on matters related to peace-building, elections, government performance, corruption, and service provision. In 2010, he served as Democracy Internationalʼs Research Director for their Election Observation mission for Afghanistan and has observed elections in South Africa (2014), Kenya (2013, 2007), Egypt (2011), Uganda (2011), Afghanistan (2014, 2010, 2009), and Ghana (2008). James received a PhD in Political Science from UC San Diego, an MSc (with Merit) in African Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and BA (High Honors) in International Relations and History from the College of William & Mary.
Victor Menaldo, PhD
Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington & Co-founder of the Political Economy Forum
University of WashingtonComparative Politics, Environmental Politics, Latin American, Political Economy
Victor Menaldo (Ph.D., Stanford University, 2009) is a professor of Political Science and is affiliated with the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CSSS), Near and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Center for Environmental Politics. He co-founded and co-leads the UW Political Economy Forum (along with James Long and Rachel Heath). He specializes in comparative politics and political economy. Menaldo has published articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Annual Review of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, World Politics, Comparative Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Economics & Politics, Political Science Quarterly, Policy Sciences, Business & Politics, among several other places. His first book, “The Institutions Curse,” is published by Cambridge University Press (2016). Menaldo's second book, "Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy" (with Mike Albertus), is also with Cambridge University Press (2018). Menaldo is interested in the political economy of property rights, industrialization, innovation, liberal democracy, and development and enjoys sharing his insights with policymakers, pundits, and the general public; he has published numerous Op-eds in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post (Monkey Cage), USA Today, Seattle Times, Forbes, Foreign Policy, Areo, and Inside Higher Ed. He is currently writing a book on the political economy of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Orthopedic Surgery, Sports Medicine, hip preservation, Hip Surgery, arthroscopic hip surgery
Dr. Bryan T. Kelly is Surgeon-in-Chief and Medical Director at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City. He specializes in treating sports injuries and in arthroscopic and open surgical management of non-arthritic disorders affecting the hip. He cares for several sports teams, serving as Head Team Physician for the New York Rangers, Orthopedic Consultant for UFC, Associate Team Physician for the New York Giants, the New York Red Bull's MLS team, and several collegiate teams in the tristate region. He has a faculty appointment at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Scott Wolfe, MD
Director, Center for Brachial Plexus and Traumatic Nerve Injury
Hospital for Special SurgeryOrthopedic Surgery, hand and upper extremity surgery, Brachial Plexus, parsonage-turner syndrome, accute flaccid myelitis, Total Wrist Replacement, KinematX, AFM
Dr. Scott Wolfe is chief emeritus of the Hand and Upper Extremity Service at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and currently serves as director of The Center for Brachial Plexus and Traumatic Nerve Injury at HSS. He is a foremost expert in upper extremity conditions and injuries that affect the fingers, hands, wrists, elbows and nerves. He frequently performs surgery to treat complex problems such as torn ligaments, wrist fractures and non-unions. He has special expertise in nerve repair and nerve reconstruction to restore mobility in patients suffering from debilitating conditions such as Parsonage-Turner syndrome and acute flaccid myelitis. In 2020, the FDA approved a total wrist replacement designed by Dr. Wolfe to more closely match the anatomy of a normal wrist.
Spine Surgery
Dr. Andrew Sama is co-chief of HSS Spine. Board certified in orthopedic surgery, he specializes in the evaluation and surgical management of all traumatic, degenerative, and deformity-related conditions of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbosacral spine. His areas of interest include clinical and basic science research involving the biology and biomechanics of spine fusion and fusion alternatives. He has received a number of research grants, including funding from the National Institutes of Health for a study on surgical and nonsurgical approaches to the treatment of low back pain. Dr. Sama is involved in product development and has helped design orthopedic implant devices used in spinal surgery. He engages in research that will benefit patients and has published articles in numerous peer-reviewed medical journals. He co-edited a textbook titled, "Lateral Access Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery" published in 2016 and has authored chapters in several other medical textbooks. He is a spinal consultant with the medical staff of the United States Olympic Committee and serves as a reviewer for the journals Spine and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research.
Spine Surgery, Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, Computer-Assisted Spine Surgery
Dr. Harvinder Sandhu is Co-Chief Emeritus of HSS Spine and specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery, endoscopic spine surgery, microsurgery, computer-assisted surgery, and the study and use of spinal biologics. He has more than 75 peer-reviewed scientific publications in areas such as biologic enhancement of spinal surgery and the minimally invasive management of spinal disorders. He has received research grants from the North American Spine Society, the Orthopaedic Research Society, and the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, including the prestigious Volvo Award in Spinal Research. In addition to clinical practice, Dr. Sandhu is actively engaged in the research, development, and invention of a variety of medical devices and instruments used in spinal surgery. He holds several patents involving the diagnosis and treatment of spinal disorders.
Spine Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, motion sparing spine surgery, Minimally Invasive Spinal Fusion, Minimally Invasive Spine Study Group
Dr. Qureshi is co-chief of the Spine Service at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) and Patty and Jay Baker Chair in Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery at the hospital. He is a recognized leader and one of the premier surgeons in the field of minimally invasive and motion sparing spine surgery. He has one of the busiest clinical practices in the country, performing nearly 300 minimally invasive spine surgeries annually. His major research interests include outcomes related to minimally invasive spine surgery, cost-effectiveness and value of spinal surgery procedures, and comparative effectiveness of various treatments of spinal pathology. He has authored over 100 articles, book chapters, and text books. He helps design innovative surgical technology with leading spinal implant companies. As an educator, Dr. Qureshi has given over 100 invited lectures around the world. He has also contributed his surgical videos for surgeon education around the world. He has trained fellows nationally and internationally. Spine surgeons have visited his operating room to learn the newest techniques in minimally invasive spine surgery from China, Korea, Japan, Australia, England, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and India.
Darren Lebl, MD
Spine Surgeon, Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery
Hospital for Special SurgerySpine Surgery, robotic-assisted surgery, Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery, computer-guided spinal surgery
Dr. Darren Lebl specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery, the cervical spine, motion preserving spine procedures, and robotic computer-guided navigation surgery. His practice at HSS involves a customized approach to each individual patient to help maximize quality of life and musculoskeletal health. He incorporates innovative procedures, newer and less invasive surgical techniques, and biologic healing agents into his practice. He has written numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on complication avoidance in spinal surgery, cervical spine disorders, minimally invasive procedures, and motion preserving spine procedures. Dr. Lebl has participated in medical missions to The Gambia and Ghana in West Africa. Dr. Lebl was the director of the Complex Cervical Spine Symposium at HSS that brings leading international cervical spine surgeons to New York for an educational exchange in a CME accredited surgeon-training course. He also was the director of the Cervical Spine Motion Preservation Symposium at HSS. He works with several cutting-edge medical device companies on techniques to improve spine surgery and patient outcomes. He has been an invited lecturer at many regional, national, and international academic meetings around the world.
pediatric orthopedic surgery, Spine Surgery
Dr. Roger Widmann has served as Chief of the Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery Service at HSS since 2004. He specializes in the surgical and nonsurgical treatment of pediatric spinal deformities and pediatric limb deformities. He focuses on providing state-of-the-art surgical and nonsurgical management for pediatric patients with these complex conditions. Dr. Widmann is a member of the Scoliosis Research Society, the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America and the Limb Lengthening and Reconstruction Society, and he has served on numerous national committees. As Chief of the Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery Service at HSS, Dr. Widmann has led a collaborative effort to build and staff the Lerner Children's Pavilion with highly regarded and nationally renowned pediatric orthopedic surgeons and pediatricians. With a focus on clinical and surgical excellence, academic productivity, and care for the underserved, the Lerner Children's Pavilion is the largest volume provider of pediatric orthopedic and pediatric spine surgery in the tristate area. Dr. Widmann is proud to serve as the Leon Root Chair in Pediatric Orthopaedics at HSS and to support the ongoing critical missions of pediatric orthopedic clinical care, research and education.
Tom Brown, PhD
Head, Hubble Space Telescope Mission Office
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)Hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, Star Formation, Galaxy Formation, stellar populations
As the head of the Hubble Space Telescope mission office, Dr. Tom Brown is responsible for leading the observatory’s staff and science operations center at the institute, collaborating with mission partners to represent scientific and operational interests, and managing the mission’s budget. He previously served the institute as a mission scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, which allowed him to lead the work of the instrument and optics teams. Earlier in his career, Dr. Brown served as a postdoctoral research associate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and as an adjunct professor at Loyola University in Baltimore. As a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins University, he was involved in the integration, testing, and ground control of the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) for the Astro-2 space shuttle mission. Dr. Brown has acted as the principal investigator of over a dozen Hubble programs. Dr. Brown publishes his work in the Astronomical Journal and the Astrophysical Journal, and presents his research in a variety of settings for both the public and astronomical community.
Marc Postman, PhD
Distinguished Astronomer ; Chair, Science Staff
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)Hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, Galaxy Clusters, Galaxy Evolution, Cosmology
As the chair of the Space Telescope Science Institute’s science staff, Dr. Marc Postman works to strengthen the Institute's research productivity by advocating for the needs of the research staff. He monitors the use of research-enabling resources, oversees the peer mentoring program, seeks ways to enhance the scientific environment, and consults with the research staff to guide the institute toward exciting research initiatives. From 2005 to 2019, Dr. Postman led the community missions office, where he guided the institute’s role in providing science operations support for a number of ground- and space-based observatories that are led by independent astronomical groups in partnership with STScI, Dr. Postman’s primary research interest has been the formation and evolution of structure in the universe, from galaxies to the largest superclusters. He was a member of the science investigation team for the Advanced Camera for Surveys instrument that was deployed on the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002. From 2010 to 2017, Dr. Postman lead an international team of researchers to conduct a 525-orbit survey with the Hubble telescope to study dark matter in galaxy clusters and to detect some of the most distant galaxies in the universe. Dr. Postman has published over 185 refereed research articles and currently holds the title of Distinguished Astronomer.
Felice J. Levine, Ph.D., A.B., A.M.
Executive Director
American Educational Research Association (AERA)Research Ethics, research and science policy, data access and sharing
Felice J. Levine is Executive Director of the American Educational Research Association. Previously she was Executive Officer of the American Sociological Association. She was also Director of the Law and Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Senior Research Social Scientist at the American Bar Foundation. She holds A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. degrees in sociology and psychology from the University of Chicago. Levine’s work focuses on research and science policy issues, research ethics, data access and sharing, the scientific and academic workforce, and higher education. She is currently collaborating on a major NSF-supported assessment of education research doctorate programs in U.S. universities, and is principal investigator of the AERA Grants Program and member of its Governing Board. Levine served on the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and on the 2000 Decennial Census Advisory Committee. She also served on the National Research Council (NRC) panel that produced the report, Putting People on the Map: Protecting Confidentiality with Linked Social-Spatial Data and chaired the NRC workshop on Protecting Student's Records and Facilitating Education Research. In addition, she co-authored Education and Training in the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences: A Plan of Action, undertaken at the request of National Science Foundation. This report was published by NSF in 2004. Levine is Associate Editor of the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Consortium of Social Science Associations, is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics, and is Secretary General of the newly established World Education Research Association. Levine is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Educational Research Association, and the Association for Psychological Science as well as an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. She is also a past President of the Law and Society Association.
Fatemeh Afghah, PhD
Associate Professor, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems
Northern Arizona UniversityWireless Networks, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Wireless Communication, System Security/Hackers, Theory/Design, Research & Development, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, computer science and engineering
Fatemeh Afghah, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University, where she directs NAU’s Wireless Networking and Information Processing Laboratory. She is also an affiliated faculty with the Partnership for Native American Cancer Prevention. Dr. Afghah is the principal investigator or co-investigator on major cybersecurity projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. She is a recipient of the prestigious Young Investigator Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for a project involving unmanned aerial vehicle networks for disaster management, and the NSF CRII award for AI-based decision-making in ICUs. Most recently, Dr. Afghah was awarded a CAREER grant from the NSF. She co-invented a patented technology, “PUFs with multi-states and Machine Learning.” A senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Dr. Afghah serves as associate editor for Elsevier Ad Hoc Journal, Springer Neural Processing Letters, IET Wireless Sensor Systems Journal and Frontiers Aerial and Space Networks Journal. She has co-authored dozens of scholarly publications. Dr. Afghah’s primary research interests include wireless communication networks, game theoretical optimization, multi-agent systems, machine learning, signal processing and unmanned aerial vehicles.
covid, covid 19, COVID-19, COVID-19 precautions, Genome Mapping, Genome Sequencing, Pathology, Pathologist, Microbiology, microbiologist, diagnostic pathology, diagnostic microbiology, Viruses, Superbugs, Antibiotic Resistance
Dr. S. Wesley Long received his MD degree in 2007 from The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston TX, where he also earned a PhD in Experimental Pathology. After finishing his doctoral studies, Dr. Long completed a clinical pathology residency at Houston Methodist. He currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board for Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Long’s research centers on functional genomics of multidrug-resistant bacterial strains to identify novel drug targets. He is currently focusing his work on MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and Klebsiella pneumoniae, both of which readily acquire resistance to several different types of antibiotics and are prevalent in the hospital setting.
Hubble, Hubble Space Telescope, stellar kinematics, Globular Clusters, Local Group
Dr. Laura Watkins is an ESA-AURA Astronomer working in the Science Mission Office at the Space Telescope Science Institute on various Hubble-related activities. Her primary research interests are the spatial and velocity distributions of small stellar systems, both internal and global, and what they can tell us about their formation, evolution, and present state. She studies the kinematics using proper motions from Hubble and from Gaia, and uses dynamical models to connect the observations to the underlying physics. She also works with simulated systems to test models and inform future observations. Before taking up her current role at the Institute , Dr. Watkins was a postdoc at the University of Vienna, the European Southern Observatory Headquarters in Garching, STScI, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg.
Roman space telescope, Galaxies, Black Holes
As the head of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission office, Dr. Roeland P. van der Marel leads the institute’s Roman Space Telescope science operations, which include the mission’s planning and scheduling system, the data processing system for the Wide Field Instrument, and the data archive. He joined the institute in 1997 as a Giacconi Fellow, and has been an astronomer with tenure since 2008. He also holds a position as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. He has extensive astronomical observing experience on space- and ground-based telescopes, with a focus on using Hubble for studies of the dynamics of galaxies and the presence of black holes at their centers. He leads the Hubble Space Telescope Proper Motion (HSTPROMO) collaboration, which aims to improve understanding of stars, clusters, and galaxies in the nearby universe through measurement of their proper motions.
Hubble Space Telescope, Dark Energy, Hubble Constant, Cosmology
Dr. Adam G. Riess is a Distinguished Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and a Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the Johns Hopkins University. His research involves measurements of the cosmological framework with supernovae (exploding stars) and Cepheids (pulsating stars). In 1998, Dr. Riess led a study for the High-z Team which provided the first direct and published evidence that the expansion of the Universe was accelerating and filled with Dark Energy (Riess et al. 1998, AJ, 116, 1009). This discovery, together with the Supernova Cosmology Project's result, was called the Breakthrough Discovery of the Year by Science Magazine in 1998. In 2011, he was named a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and was awarded the Albert Einstein Medal for his leadership in this study. Currently, he leads the SHOES Team in efforts to improve the measurement of the Hubble Constant and the HIgher-z Team to find and measure the most distant type Ia supernovae known to probe the origin of cosmic acceleration.
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