#014: Icon of Possibilities - Executive Director Dr. Joaquin Ruiz

01/21/21 • 46 min

In this episode, we are joined by the Executive Director of Biosphere 2, Dr. Joaquin Ruiz. Joaquin is the Vice President of Global Environmental Futures at the University of Arizona where he was previously the Dean of the College of Science for nearly 20 years. Joaquin is a distinguished Thomas R. Brown chair Professor of Geochemistry in the department of Geosciences. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and was named a National Researcher by the Mexican government in 2010. In 2018, the Mexican Secretary of State named Dr. Ruiz one of forty distinguished Mexican citizens living abroad who have brought distinction to the country. As a scientist with equal abilities in chemistry and in geology, Dr. Ruiz has addressed many first-order problems in the Earth Sciences, such as the development of new isotope systems for studying ore deposits and the tectonic processes involved in the growth and evolution of Mexico. His research teams address problems ranging from the origins of life to present-day climate change. In this episode, we discuss Joaquin's origins as a scientist, his career in geochemistry, and the legacy and impact of Biosphere 2 as in Icon of Possibilities in Global Climate Change Solutions.

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#013: Interrogating Our "Better" Futures - Dr. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. Daisy is an artist examining our fraught relationships with nature and technology. Through artworks, writing, and curatorial projects, Daisy’s work explores subjects as diverse as artificial intelligence, exobiology, synthetic biology, conservation, biodiversity, and evolution, as she investigates the human impulse to “better” the world. Daisy has spent over ten years experimentally engaging with the field of synthetic biology, developing new roles for artists and designers. She is lead author of Synthetic Aesthetics: Investigating Synthetic Biology’s Designs on Nature (MIT Press, 2014), and in 2017 completed Better, her PhD by practice, at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA), interrogating how powerful dreams of “better” futures shape the things that get designed. Daisy studied architecture at the University of Cambridge, was a visiting scholar at Harvard University, and received her MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art. Daisy won the World Technology Award for design in 2011, the London Design Medal for Emerging Talent in 2012, and the Dezeen Changemaker Award 2019. Her work has twice been nominated for Designs of the Year (2011, 2015). Daisy exhibits internationally, including at MoMA New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, the National Museum of China, and the Royal Academy. Daisy is a resident at Somerset House Studios in London, and is working on a major new commission for the Eden Project for 2021. I highly encourage you to check out Daisy's website linked in the show notes BEFORE listening to the podcast. We refer to a number of her works by title, and do our best to describe each project in depth for our listeners, but her work is best appreciated through the visual medium. https://www.daisyginsberg.com/work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEeBeEfGoYU&t=3893s

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#015: OSIRIS REx Mission - Heather Enos

In September of 2016, a NASA spacecraft known as OSIRIS REx began its journey to the near Earth asteroid Bennu, an ancient asteroid believed to be a remnant from the dawn of the solar system. Late last year, OSIRIS REx successfully collected and stored a surface sample from Bennu completing one more of several successful mission objectives on its journey. In this episode we are joined by Heather Enos, the Deputy Principal Investigator for the OSIRIS REx mission. Heather Enos has a long history in project management with University of Arizona space missions. Before OSIRIS REx, she was previously Project Manager for the 2001 Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer team as well as the Project Manager for the 2007 Phoenix Thermal Evolve Gas Analyzer. In this discussion Heather speaks to some of the OSIRIS REx missions greatest challenges and how her team adapted and responded on the fly. Heather talks about why her science team is interested in Bennu and we get first hand insight into what it takes to lead large interdisciplinary teams on NASA Missions. Before listening to this talk, I encourage you to follow some of the links in the description, particularly the video of the OSIRIS REx Tagsam sample collection. And now, here is Heather Enos. https://www.asteroidmission.org/galleries/