Biophysical Society Newsletter | August 2017

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BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER 11
AUGUST 2017
Saturday Morning Biophysics: Image Life!
Empowering Future
Generations of Women
Scientists
Recruiting a diverse pool of students, especially
women and those from underrepresented groups,
to pursue STEM careers is a broadly recognized
challenge. Andreea Trache works to address this
challenge by captivating the interest of middle-
and high-school girls with the outreach program
Saturday Morning Biophysics: Image Life! This
program introduces students to current research
topics in the physical and life sciences by stimu-
lating their interest in biophysics and science in
general. In addition to communicating the excite-
ment of biophysics research, the program provides
information on career paths in STEM research.
Designed for general audiences, the program
offers an educational and a social component.
For the educational component, a diverse pool
of Texas A&M faculty and students discuss
their research in easy-to-understand multimedia
presentations. These lectures are accompanied by
interactive hands-on activity sessions to reinforce
the scientific concepts presented during the talks.
The social component of the program introduces
the graduate student role model. Graduate student
speakers not only discuss their research, but also
talk about their personal journeys as they navigate
their scientific careers. This is a popular segment
of the program with both students and parents
alike, as the speakers highlight their accomplish-
ments and discuss their decisions, challenges, and
lessons learned along the way. These engaging
discussions give the attendees a realistic glimpse of
life in college and beyond.
The development of this program was inspired
by Trache’s passion for promoting women into
science and engineering and also giving back to
the community. To date, the program has been
attended by 350 middle- and high-school girls and
70 adults (parents and teachers) from 11 different
towns located in the rural Texas area surround-
ing the Bryan/College Station campus. Trache’s
interdisciplinary training and research have also
influenced the program design. A traditionally
trained physicist with a background in optics
and spectroscopy, Trache transitioned to vascular
cell physiology research during her postdoctoral
training. Her research uses tools from the physi-
cal sciences to study fundamental biophysical
concepts at the cellular level, such as adaption of
vascular cells to mechanical stimuli. Reflecting
her interdisciplinary approach, the lectures and
hands-on activities span a variety of topics across
several disciplines as biophysics, medicine, and
engineering.
Initiated as part of Trache’s NSF CAREER
Award, Saturday Morning Biophysics: Image Life!
continues to be funded beyond the grant life by
Trache’s academic unit, the College of Medicine
and Department of Medical Physiology at the
Texas A&M University Health Science Center.
This year the Saturday Morning Bio-
physics: Image Life! program cele-
brates its tenth year. The program was
started to motivate future generations
of women to consider STEM careers,
but along the way it has inspired and
touched all of the faculty, students,
and staff who have volunteered to
make this program a success. The
Biophysical Society plans to work with
Trache by contributing a lesson plan
and wooden microscopes donated to
the Society by Echo Labs/Chroma for
a Saturday Morning session this fall.
Teachers participating in the program
will bring the microscopes back to
their classrooms. We hope the work
being done by Trache will inspire oth-
ers to participate in and develop programs to reach
and inspire the next generation of biophysicists.
To learn more about Saturday Morning Biophys-
ics: Image Life!, visit the program’s website at:
The student observes the structure of
fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) at high
magnification using a light microscope.