Roxanne Khamsi, chief news editor of Nature Medicine, will present the keynote address for Case Western Reserve University’s annual Research ShowCASE, where hundreds of scientists, scholars, faculty members and students come together to exhibit, demonstrate and explain their research projects ranging from the social sciences to engineering and medicine.
Research ShowCASE 2016 is Friday, April 15, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Veale Convocation, Recreation and Athletic Center on the Case Western Reserve campus. Khamsi’s remarks open the event, which is free and open to the public, at 9 a.m.
Khamsi oversees science coverage as chief news editor at Nature Medicine, a monthly biomedical journal. Her reporting has taken her from the outskirts of Madrid, where she met with Boeing engineers designing a fuel-cell airplane, to a psychiatric facility in the suburbs of New York City, where she learned about the ethical issues of treating patients with long-acting antipsychotics.
Khamsi has written hundreds of news articles about diverse scientific topics, ranging from genetics to telecommunications as well as niche fields such as neuroeconomics to paleobiology. Her articles have also appeared in publications such as The Economist, Wired News and the MIT Technology Review. She also teaches at Stony Brook University in Long Island, New York, through the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science.
“This event is such a great learning opportunity for our students and researchers,” said Tracy Wilson-Holden, director for research integrity and education in the university’s Office of Research Administration and an adjunct bioethics instructor. “It is a chance for them to talk about their work in a way that helps the community get excited about the research being done at Case Western Reserve University. We are so pleased to have Roxanne Khamsi speak at the event, and we look forward to hearing her perspective on the essential skill of effectively communicating complex scientific messages to the public.”
Khamsi will be joined at the showcase by Provost William A. “Bud” Baeslack III and Vice President for Research Suzanne Rivera.
A signature event attracting more than 1,000 campus and community stakeholders, the daylong event includes competitions for post-docs, graduate students and undergraduate students to practice the art of communicating their research and describing the impact their science can have. Cash prizes are awarded to winners in several categories at each of the academic levels.
Each year, between 400 and 600 posters and interactive booths fill the venue, celebrating the great work and discoveries of Case Western Reserve’s research community.
Among the exhibitors:
- From the Biologically Inspired Robotics Lab, doctoral student Akhil Kandhari will demonstrate his soft-body robot that mimics the movement of a worm, which has practical implications for fixing water pipes or, one day, fitting inside a blood vein.
- The Medical Robotics and Computer Integrated Surgery Lab is working on making the popular Da Vinci surgical robot autonomously suture patients to both assist surgeons and let them work on more patients.
- Senior Emily Shelton will show her diverse skills and talents by both presenting her Senior Capstone physics research and performing a dance at the event.
- Staff member Mischelle Brown will showcase her project that explores whether children attending urban public schools become better readers when they have the opportunity to design “adventure playgrounds” in their communities.
- Postdoctoral Fellow Filomena Pirozzi will present her research on understanding the pathogenesis of microcephaly.