Ritu Raman
@DrRituRaman
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Eugene Bell Assistant Prof @MIT • Neuromuscular Tissue Engineering for Medicine & Robotics • Women in STEM • 🇺🇸 via 🇮🇳 🇰🇪
Cambridge, MA
Joined February 2014
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Proud of the 30th bday gift I gave myself ❤️ My book, Biofabrication
@mitpress
, is out today! Shares how biological materials are used for medicine, lab-grown meat, robots, & more! Also discusses the ethics, economics, & sustainability of biofabrication:
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1K
A few months ago… we started a lifelong collaboration between the Raman Lab at MIT and the Flynn Lab at Harvard!
@raflynn5
🤍
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5K
The two engineers who raised this engineer 🙋🏽♀️ finally got to see my office and lab
@MIT
! So proud to bring the Raman Family to the Raman Lab, and such fun to remember the first time we were on this campus together for a college tour in 2007….!
#ImmigrantStories
🥰🙏🏽
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2K
PhD rejections from 15/16 programs, accepted by the one and only
@UofIllinois
. Illinois taught me to think like a scientist & trained me for my current role as a Prof
@MIT
. Reminder to those struggling with rejections rn - this is not a measure of your worth or your potential 💪🏽
I love seeing people more open about struggles along the journey
PhD rejections:
UC San Diego
Vanderbilt University
Washington University in St. Louis
PhD Acceptance:
UC Irvine
I used to be embarrassed about this but it really only takes ONE 🙌🏾 and I am thriving ✨
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1K
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1K
The face of a woman who woke up at 5am today because the only time the plumbers could install her brand new incubators was at 6am…. One step closer to our lab’s big move in day!!! 💪🏽
Now for some tea… 🍵
#newPI
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Sometimes I look at equations I wrote and get intimidated by myself 😂
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The face of a woman who just read *every single paper* in the “I should read this” pile of open Zotero tabs, email drafts, and phone screenshots… 😵💫 Inspired by all the new advancements in biofabrication, biohybrid robotics, and neuromuscular disease and ready to tackle 2024! 💪🏽
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16
1K
Super grateful to be awarded the d’Arbeloff Career Development Chair Professorship
@MIT
! This endowed chair gives me and my lab extra support to develop as scientific leaders while pursuing impactful research👩🏽🔬
@MITMechE
#WomenInSTEM
#WomenInScience
#NewPI
#Academia
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These two
#newPI
kids just got their office doors painted - guess that makes us officially professors!!! So lucky to have an awesome group of fellow new faculty
@MITMechE
to share these exciting milestones 🥰
@CarlosMPortela
@MIT
#academia
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Five year anniversary of the day I became a U.S. citizen!!! 🥰
Taking some time today to reflect on the
#immigrant
experience and finding a home in
#Boston
❤️🙏🏽
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When it’s only 2 weeks into the semester and your lecture notes look like this…. 👀
#WelcomeToMIT
#Firehose
@MIT
@MITMechE
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Our lab was just awarded an
@NSF
#CAREER
award to support research, pedagogy, and outreach on
#biofabrication
and the mechanics of motor control! We are excited to deepen understanding of the neuromuscular interface and enhance inclusion and diversity in biomaker spaces
@MIT
💪🏽🦾
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One of the most exciting (& scariest) things I’ve had to do as a
#newPI
is managing the construction of a custom
#biofabrication
lab from scratch - stopping by the site to see our design coming to life is *thrilling*. Stay tuned for the launch of our brand new space
@MIT
soon!
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Oh what’s this? Just three of
@MIT
’s newest profs 🥰🥰🥰
Really looking forward to kicking off faculty life with amazing new friends like
@LozaTadesse
&
@iiabate
!
@MITMechE
@mit_dmse
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We started out as Simone and Ritu, then became Dr. and Dr., and now we get to be Prof. Douglas-Green and Prof. Raman. I believe this is what the kids call a “glow up” 😍💪🏽
@DrBlackBoots
@MIT
@GeorgiaTech
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Healing traumatic muscle injuries is a longstanding challenge in tissue engineering. Our new study in
@Biomaterials_
shows that actuating optogenetic muscle grafts with light *completely restores* functional mobility in mice within 2 weeks of injury! 🧵1/3
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Big news for our lab! As part of the
@DeptOfDefense
Young Investigator Program, we’ve received an early career grant from the Army Research Office to support our work on biology-powered sensing and control for soft robots 🙌🏽
#NewPI
#WomenInSTEM
#Robotics
#Biofabrication
@MITMechE
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Been reading a lot of rec letters & would love to see more mentors be conscious of implicit gender & race bias in writing. It's great that someone is "nice" & "friendly", but would LOVE to hear about their technical expertise & leadership. Sharing a resource & looking for others!
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The Raman Lab just got our very first grant!!! So thankful for support from the
@MIT
MCELS center that will help us study & control intercellular signaling in engineered tissues. Stay tuned for science!
@MITMechE
#AcademicTwitter
#newPI
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Reviewing grad apps to MIT as a
#newPI
is so hard! My ritual is to first read my own app materials from 2012 to remind myself what it was like to apply and help me set reasonable expectations for students... Anyone have pro tips on how to approach these reviews in a fair manner?
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Being a
#newPI
means rushing to your basement lab on a rainy morning to mop up the water before it reaches your precious brand new equipment 😅
cc:
@LozaTadesse
@ProfZhaoMIT
fyi, please alert your labs!
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Being a
#newPI
comes with many challenges, among the hardest being learning how to teach core engineering concepts in engaging ways. Thankyou to the students who have patiently supported my growth as a teacher, and to the senior faculty mentors that set me an inspiring example 🙏🏽
The School of Engineering has awarded Professor
@DrRituRaman
of
@mitmeche
the 2024 Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is given annually to faculty members that embody the tradition of high-quality engineering education at MIT.
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You know you’re mathing too hard when you hear the audible sighs of twenty tired MIT undergrads behind you… 😂
#proflife
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So excited to welcome Dr.
@tamara_rossy
as a postdoc in our group
@MITMechE
!!! Her expertise in tissue engineering & mechanobiology, developed in
@alexpersat
's lab, will help us advance understanding of diseases that impact mobility. Her latest paper:
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The Raman Lab
@MIT
is hiring a
#postdoc
interested in 3D biofabrication of multicellular systems - emphasis on neuromuscular
#TissueEngineering
. Job details & info on how to apply are below ⬇️
Join our dynamic team! Retweets appreciated 🥰
@MITMechE
#sciencejobs
#AcademicTwitter
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Our lab’s best ideas come from nature. I remember sitting by this lake daydreaming about how aquatic organisms move… thrilled that this pic's happy ending is receiving a
@USNavyResearch
YIP for adaptive underwater robots powered by biology!!!
@MITMechE
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All dressed up to film a lecture for an online MIT course on rapid prototyping! Love how many forms of pedagogy and science communication I get to engage with in my job 🥰🙌🏽
@MITMechE
is a wonderful place!!!
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In 2017,
@jmigueljd
and I formed a “postdoc support team” to help each other shape happy & productive postdocs in the Langer Lab.
It’s 2024, and I am SO excited to see Prof. Jimenez start his lab across the river
@BU_Tweets
!
Officially rebranding to “
#NewPI
support team”
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My New Years resolution for 2021 was to start a new job…. And now that’s a wrap on the first semester of professor life! Feeling very very very grateful to have such an exciting job and lucky to have the opportunity to keep sciencing my way into 2022 🥰🙌🏽
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Great article featuring my former boss and forever mentor. Will never forget he took the time to call and counsel me through my mid-pandemic-career-crisis despite it being the most stressful of times for the Langer Lab and Moderna 🙏🏽 Kindness = Success 🥰
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Meet the Raman Lab, v1.0 😍 Thrilled to start this journey w/Dr. Liz Calle, Angel Bu, & Naomi Lynch!!! Our goal is to restore mobility to those who have lost it after disease/trauma & to deploy bioactuators as functional components in machines. Learn more:
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So grateful to have our new lab honored by a Hisako Terasaki Young Innovator Award, and happy to celebrate among great mentors and leaders in the field including
@NPeppas
@khademh
@AManbachi
! Thanks to the
@TerasakiInst
for an amazing event 🙏🏽
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This week in our lab meeting: an MIT grad student has some very important data to present on a year-long experiment…
#science
#cattitude
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Celebrating wins with my work bestie, Prof.
@CarlosMPortela
! So excited we made it to the ~cover~ of MIT
@techreview
, sharing our vision for new materials that will change how engineers design and build. Learn more:
@MITMechE
@MIT
#research
#academia
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Did you know that when you become a Distinguished Chair Professor at Harvard, they give you an actual chair??? Huge congratulations to
@MrJeffKarp
for this wonderful recognition of pioneering contributions to science coupled with kind mentorship of the next generation!
#RoleModel
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The sweetest words in the English language might be “I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been accepted for publication”
🥹😭🙌🏽
Crying some
#newPI
happy tears! Every paper means SO MUCH for a new lab.
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My advice for young folks in STEM is *not* to focus purely on “following your passions” but think, instead, on how you can use your talents to provide a service to your community. Thanks to
@mit_ilp
for the chance to share my career path and research:
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it’s my 5 year bostoniversary - I’ve never had a 5 year anniversary anywhere else. taking the day to reflect on how lovely it is to feel like I am “from” somewhere 🥰
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If you like fun, action, & adventure - read
@TheCurieSociety
- a comic about elite undercover
#WomenInSTEM
who go on high stakes missions & save the world! The authors worked with real
@MIT
scientists (like me!) to write science so cool it’s basically science fiction 😮
#scicomm
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Super excited to be named to the
@MIT
@techreview
#35InnovatorsUnder35
list! Thank you to the mentors + collaborators who helped me explore new scientific frontiers - I can't wait to build our
#biohybrid
future!
#WomenInSTEM
#WomenInScience
#science
#STEM
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Highlight of my week = getting to see my PhD advisor for the first time since becoming a professor. So blessed to have such a kind and supportive lifelong mentor in
@RashidB23819196
!
#newPI
#academia
#mentor
@uofigrainger
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Saying goodbye to
@DrBlackBoots
as she wraps up her postdoc and kicks off her career as PROFESSOR Douglas-Green
@GeorgiaTech
@CoulterBME
! We’ve been on this journey together since our time as baby grad students
🥲❤️💪🏽
#newPI
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Happy to be featured on MIT’s industrial liaison program website! Read more to learn about our research & why I hope to forge meaningful connections between our academic lab and industry in the coming years ⬇️
#WomenInScience
#WomenInSTEM
#NewPI
#Academia
5
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Having a weird
#newPI
experience of walking into my lab & seeing the space being shaped by my group when I’m not around. We have a word of the week?! And all our equipment has names?!
Ex:
Autoclave: Dr. Tutti
-80: Ultimate Frozone
Centrifuges: Mama Spin, Baby Spin, & Spin Kiddo
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BMES 2013 -> BMES 2023. Revisiting Seattle (site of my very first BMES conference as a grad student!) with a decade of good memories of MS, PhD, & postdoc life. Grateful to introduce my young lab to
@BMESociety
so they can start making their own memories! 🥰
#BMES2023
#newPI
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In London for a wedding… but can’t resist opportunities for science tourism! Super excited to visit the Centre for Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine today to learn about their translational work in neuromuscular disease!
@KCLstemcells
#science
#research
#medicine
#biotech
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Cells feel and respond to forces. Our platform for Magnetic Matrix Actuation (
#MagMA
) enables noninvasive mechanical stimulation of tissues. We use MagMA to program form & function muscle as a 1st demo of future apps in
#mechanobiology
&
#robotics
:
🧵
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10k!!!! I’m not cool enough to pretend not to be excited about this milestone!!! So grateful for the
#scitwitter
and
#scicomm
community that has offered support, advice, and relatable memes throughout my academic journey ❤️
#AcademicTwitter
#WomenInSTEM
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Excited to be chosen as a Kavli Fellow and to present my work in Biohybrid Design at the
@theNASEM
Frontiers of
#Science
symposium this week! A truly special opportunity to learn about the latest in a wide range of scientific disciplines from young pioneers.
#womeninscience
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When I was an undergrad I loved cars but was too intimidated to join the Formula 1 design team because I didn’t see that many girls in the machine shop. Today a student told me that the MIT Motorsports team has many women (and in leadership roles!) & I’m filled with warm fuzzies
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Baby Ritu’s biggest dream was to write a book. Proud to share that “Biofabrication” by Dr. Raman hits the shelves in stores & online Fall 2021, published by
@MITpress
! This general audience book shares how engineers build w/biology for medicine, agriculture, robots & more! (1/2)
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Things you never want to hear 3 hours into lecturing: “professor, we can’t tell the difference between the way you write r and the way you write γ”
😫 gone are the days where I’m the only person that needed to understand my handwriting, alas 😭
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I suppose getting the first rejections for papers from your lab is a special kind of
#newPI
milestone… trying to remember that this is always how the process works 🥺 …and of course gearing up for our next attempt 💪🏽
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A lot of what I do as a woman is try to regain the confidence I had as a girl - today is
#InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience
, so do the world a favor & show a girl she can make an impact with
#science
! If she can see it then she can be it.
#WomenInScience
#WomenInSTEM
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An email from middle school Ritu to Dr. James Van Allen, the space scientist who discovered the Van Allen radiation belts. He responded. A nice reminder that small kind gestures can make a big impact on a young mind interested in science ☺️
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Those last minute administrative checks/edits may have given me heart palpitations but… first R01 submitted!!! Trying to remember that the milestone at this point is just ~submitting~ and not the outcome 🥹🙌🏽
#newPI
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1000 citations!!! Very proud of this science milestone and deeply grateful for the mentors and collaborators who helped me get here 🙌🏽❤️
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What's that sound? The sound of another patent dropping! Eeek so excited about this new issued patent on our invention of "muscle-powered biological machines" - the product of years of hard work
@Illinois_Alma
!
#WomenInSTEM
#Patent
#Innovation
#WomensHistoryMonth
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Our lab celebrated
#Nowruz
for the first time thanks to amazing food and a great presentation from Dr.
@FerdowsAfghah
! Spring is in full swing
@MITMechE
🌷
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Why *buy* lab equipment when you can BUILD it? Check out the amazing 3D bioprinter built by graduate students in my lab, Naomi and Angel, at the
@CarnegieMellon
Bioprinting workshop hosted by
@RegenBio
! So excited to see what you’ll print with it
@MITMechE
😍
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City inspectors just signed off on us moving into our brand new renovated lab at MIT - 2 years in the making, custom built for
#biofabrication
&
#biohybrid
#robotics
!!! Just in time for our group to double in size in the next month 😳 Stay tuned for some
#newPI
content.
@MITMechE
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One of the most rewarding things about my job is seeing young people grow into amazing engineers. A highlight of this week was catching up with Ngoc Vo, a former high school mentee and current Midshipman and Mechanical Engineering student in the U.S. Naval Academy!
#WomenInSTEM
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5
178
So excited to be a finalist in the
@MIT
Faculty Founder Initiative & grateful to
@snbhatia
for accelerating
#biotech
#entrepreneurship
led by women! Our lab
@MITMechE
is excited to explore ways our research can help preserve & restore healthy mobility 💪🏽
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Gave a talk
@johnshopkinsu
's annual
#WomenInSTEM
symposium about learning to be a leader… made me think about the 5 rules I’m following as I grow in my career (feedback/suggestions welcome)... (1/4)
#WomenInSTEM
#Leadership
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Huge milestone for the lab - our first two PhD candidates! Congratulations to Angel Bu and Brandon Rios on passing their qualifying exams and starting an exciting new phase of graduate school!
@MITMechE
💪🏽
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169
Our review on “
#biofabrication
of living actuators” is out now in
@AnnualReviews
of Biomedical Eng! We discuss tissue-scale muscle-powered robots that walk, swim, pump, grip, & compute! Learn more about what’s now & what’s next in
#biohybrid
#robotics
💪🏽🦾
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171
Summer 2020: mentoring high school students in a virtual STEM outreach program, led by
@DrBlackBoots
Fall 2023: welcoming one of our mentees as a freshman engineer
@MIT
!
You truly truly truly LOVE to see it 🥹
#WomenInSTEM
#outreach
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Heart is full with joy, love, and support from all the amazing junior faculty at
#BMES2022
.
@BrianAguado
@AnaMaPorras
@DrErikaMoore
@DrBethanyA
@DrBlackBoots
@SantiCorreaPhD
@cathaljkearney
@TomasGF90
@Irene_dLz
and many more. We’re all in this
#newPI
life together 💪🏽
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Just got invited to speak at the 11th annual Women Empowered in STEM conference at Illinois… can’t believe it’s been that long since I helped plan the very first one! Also by a perfect coincidence, I’m wearing my most
@UofIllinois
dress 🧡💙
@GradSWEillinois
#WomenInSTEM
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153
Our recent paper on using targeted actuation of optogenetic
#muscle
grafts to accelerate functional recovery after trauma is featured on
@MIT
news! Exciting learnings leveraging 10 yrs of research on
#optogenetic
muscle. Read the paper on
@Biomaterials_
💪🏽
3
9
152
Check out '35 challenges in materials science being tackled by PIs under 35(ish)' in
@Matter_CP
featuring science from
@AnaMaPorras
,
@telomerase2
,
@BrianAguado
, me, and many more awesome young profs!
@CranfordMATTER
#NewPI
#AcademicTwitter
#science
1
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Super fun conversation with Rania Khalaf (CIO
@Inari_Ag
) at the
@SolveMIT
plenary discussing the role that
#biohybrid
design and emerging
#biotech
can play in achieving a more sustainable future for all! 🌎 🌍
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1
152
Surreal immigrant moment: so wonderful to attend an
@MIT
dinner hosting the Indian Ambassador to the United States, surrounded by amazing mentors & role models on our campus. A great reminder of the ways in which science innovation can be a force for positive global impact 🇺🇸🇮🇳
An evening of candid conversations with
@MIT
’s leadership & senior faculty on ways to deepen 🇺🇸🇮🇳 educational, research & skill connect, particularly in STEM areas.
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1
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148
Spent the weekend celebrating the
#IfThenSheCanExhibit
at the
@smithsonian
- the largest collection of statues of women! Next time you’re in DC, say hi to StatueRitu at the National Air & Space Museum, & show your support for all the amazing
#WomenInSTEM
honored by
@ifthenshecan
!
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One year anniversary of a great day 🙌🏽
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I don’t always talk about biology-for-robots… sometimes I talk about robots-for-biology! 🤖 Had lots of fun at the MARSS conference in Delft 🇳🇱 brainstorming w/ amazing friends & robots-for-biology enthusiasts
@SimoneSchuerle
@MarianaMedinaS6
@OzkaleBerna
@mssakar
and more!
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That feeling when you place an $80k order of equipment for your new lab... I'm sure this is DEFINITELY the right decision and I've made NO mistakes at all and I don't need to go through this quote line by line another forty times... 😅
#newPI
5
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Is it just me, or do 100% of awesome Twitter friendships translate into awesome real life friendships?! ❤️ so great to FINALLY meet
@nabsicle
and chat about building great labs, teams, and cultures 😍
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you know you’re uncool when your advisor does a TikTok dance video before you do... GO BOB!!!!
#RoleModel
in every way 😍 Check out some amazing dance moves from the man who brought us Moderna:
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One of the most impactful new areas of our lab
@MITMechE
is funded by the Aging Brain Initiative run by
@DrLiHueiTsai
- such fun presenting our newest results and learning from others at the Aging Brain Symposium
@MIT_Picower
! Learn more:
#neuroscience
1
7
139
The only science thing that feels better than your experiment working is your students experiment working 🥺❤️ Brb going to shed some
#newPI
happy tears!!! So proud of this awesome team 🙌🏽
#science
#MondayMotivation
@MITMechE
4
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135
Even though I wasn’t able to fly to Brazil this week to give a keynote at the SENAI institute for
#innovation
in
#biotech
… I did get to speak virtually AND hear myself translated to Portuguese in real time so I call that a win!
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Saying goodbye to our awesome summer intern, Karina Shah, whose experiment worked on the first try (what?!?!) and hello to a new grad student in our lab, Quentin Thernize! Great science, happy people, and Toscanini ice cream = an awesome summer day in our lab
@MITMechE
2
5
131
Love this display at the MIT COOP bookstore 😍 No greater honor than having “Biofabrication” featured alongside great books by role models like
@SusanHockfield
and
@grok_
!
#scicomm
#BookTwitter
#WomenInSTEM
#WomenInScience
@MIT
@CoopMIT
@mitpress
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