Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Margot Wohl

Photo by Agustn Rodrguez Lpez

Above: Melonie Vaughn dons a white lab coat at UC San Diego in this photo taken in August, 2019.

Melonie Vaughns desire to study neurodevelopmental disorders stemmed from watching her autistic brother struggle with navigating school and social relationships. Now she is a rising second year neuroscience Ph.D. student at UC San Diego. Melonie, an Afro-Panamanian, is the only black woman in her program.

Twitter handle: @melonievaughn_

Episode Music:Rad Scientist Theme Motif - Grant FisherAt Our Best ... Read more

Aired: September 2, 2020 | Transcript

Melonie Vaughns desire to study neurodevelopmental disorders stemmed from watching her autistic brother struggle with navigating school and social relationships. During her undergraduate at Harvard, she studied a mysterious phenomenon called the fever effect where some autistic individuals experience a reduction in symptoms when their temperature is elevated.

Now she is a rising second-year neuroscience Ph.D. student at UC San Diego. Vaughn, an Afro-Panamanian, is the only black woman in her program. After a professor made racist comments during a lecture, shes been pushing for institutional changes to her program to support students of color.

Rooting out racism includes so much more than reforming police practices. Those subtle and not so subtle barriers exist everywhere, from the streets, to the schools to the ivory towers of academia.

A new season of personal stories launches today from the KPBS podcast, Rad Scientist, stories from Black scientists who have made some cool scientific discoveries and ... Read more

Aired: September 2, 2020 | Transcript

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Continued here:
Rad Scientist Podcast: The Fever Effect - KPBS