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Academy Leadership

President & CEO

Nicholas Dirks

President & CEO

Nicholas B. Dirks is a widely respected and highly influential historian and anthropologist, and a prominent leader in higher education. In June 2020, Dirks assumed leadership of The New York Academy of Sciences as President and Chief Executive Officer.

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Academy Leadership

Douglas Braaten, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Editor-in-Chief, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Melanie Brickman Borchard, PhD, MSc
Director, Life Sciences

Jacqueline Chaplin-Kravetz
Director, Development

Michael Cowan
Vice President, Communications

Sonya Dougal, PhD
Senior Vice President, Scientific Programs and Awards

Brooke Grindlinger, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer

Edison Huynh
Director of Research and Special Projects

Lalitaa Isahack, SPHR, CPSP
Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Chenelle Bonavito Martinez, MS
Senior Vice President, Operations & Project Development

Clare Peeters
Chief Business and Financial Officer

Robin Stephenson
Senior Vice President, Advancement

Melanie Brickman Borchard, PhD, MSc

Writing

Ethics in Pediatric Research  
Med Journal 

Appearances

What is the New York Academy of Sciences? 
CUNY TV 

“Why is it important to convene experts across industries for this conversation on healthcare in the era of big data?” 
Facebook 

The Future of Vaccinology: On-Demand Event Promotion 
Facebook 

Dr. Brinkman Borchard on the Blog

Douglas Braaten, PhD

Doug Braaten

Writing 

‘Predatory’ Science Journals 
The New York Times 

A Report on Chernobyl 
The New York Times

So You Want to Publish a Scientific Paper 
Academy Blog

Appearances

Metro Focus: A Historic Science Society 
PBS

Dr. Braaten on the Blog

Brooke Grindlinger, PhD

Headshot of Brooke Grindlinger

Speaker Reel

Writing

The ‘Barbie’ movie could help push more girls into STEM
The Washington Post

Restricted Funding Is Stifling Scientific Progress 
The Chronicle of Philanthropy 

From Invisibility Cloaks to Cancer Treatments – Rewarding Young Scientists Speeds Up Innovation 
International Business Times 

Leading with Heart: Brooke Grindlinger of The New York Academy of Sciences on the Power of Authentic Women’s Leadership
Authority Magazine

Speaking Appearances and Podcasts

Podcast appearance: Unified Purpose Podcast

Commencement Speaker: New York Medical College Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

Podcast appearance: Sylvia & Me: Female Scientists Breaking Barriers

Podcast appearance: Women in STEM

Podcast appearance: 2023 Let’s Talk PR and More!

2022 SXSW Panel Host: Alienating Mars: Challenges of Space Colonization

Keynote Presentations: 
These are prepared keynote presentations that Dr. Grindlinger can deliver to universities, research institutes, companies, etc. For more information on the above presentations, please contact media@nyas.org.

  • AI in Global Education
  • Editor’s Guide to Writing and Publishing Your Scientific Manuscript
  • Navigating Your Career Pivot: Opportunities in Science Nonprofits
  • Trust in Science Starts with You: Communication Tips for Scientists

Dr. Grindlinger on the Blog

The Artificial Intelligence and Society Fellowship Program

Overview
The logo for The New York Academy of Sciences.

In response to the urgent need to incorporate ethical and humanistic principles into the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI), The New York Academy of Sciences offers a new AI and Society post-doctoral fellowship program, in partnership with Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

Merging technical AI research with perspectives from the social sciences and humanities, the goal of the program is the development of multidisciplinary scholars more holistically prepared to inform the future use of AI in society for the benefit of humankind.

Promising young researchers from disciplines spanning computer science, the social sciences, and the humanities will be recruited to participate in a curated research program. Fellows’ time will be divided between New York City, Arizona State University, and on-site internships, working alongside seasoned researchers who are well-versed in academia, industry, or policy work.

From the Academy Blog

Learn about the accomplishments of AI and Society Fellows.

Program Requirements

Applications are now closed.

To qualify, candidates must have a PhD in a relevant field such as computer science, artificial intelligence, psychology, philosophy, sociology, ethics, law (JD), or a related field. Strong research background and expertise in the field of AI and Society, including publications in leading academic journals, is recommended.

Fellows

2023 Fellows

Akuadasuo Ezenyilimba, PhD

Akuadasuo Ezenyilimba is a recent Human Systems Engineering PhD graduate. Her academic background consists of a Bachelor’s in Psychology, Master’s in Applied Psychology, and a Master’s in Human Systems Engineering, Her research interest include human computer interaction, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and TBI rehabilitation. She is looking forward to beginning her post doctoral work focused on Artificial Intelligence in Society with Arizona State University and The New York Academy of Sciences.

Nitin Verma, PhD

Nitin is an incoming Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society in collaboration with the New York Academy of Sciences. His doctoral dissertation research at the School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin investigated the notion of public trust in video with the emergence of deepfake and allied generative-AI technologies. Nitin’s broader research interests include the interrelationship between society (individuals, platforms, governments, and other stakeholders) and AI, the role of the photographic record in shaping history, and in the deep connection between human curiosity and the continuing evolution of the scientific method.

Marjorie Xie, PhD

Dr. Marjorie Xie serves as an AI & Society fellow at The New York Academy of Sciences, joint with Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society. Marjorie’s work combines AI, mental health, and education. Her goals are: 1) Develop technology to enable social-emotional learning and to facilitate collaborative interpersonal relationships; 2) Develop systems for effective AI governance. As an AI researcher, engineer, and social entrepreneur, she hopes to collaborate with mental health professionals, educators, business leaders, and social media experts.

Prior to serving as a fellow, Marjorie interned at Basis Research Institute, building AI tools for reasoning about collaborative intelligence in animals. Marjorie completed her Ph.D. in Neurobiology & Behavior at Columbia University, where she used AI tools to build interpretable models of neural systems in the brain. Before her PhD, she designed and completed an independent major in computational neuroscience at Princeton University, where she also pursued intensive studies in philosophy, literature, and history. Born in France and raised in Seattle, Washington by Chinese immigrants, she currently lives and serves as a resident fellow at the International House in New York City.

The Junior Academy

Students smile and pose together during an Academy event.
Program Overview
Benefits
The Challenge Process
For Students
For Mentors
A Junior Academy participant sits at a desk, typing on a laptop.

STEM experts and professionals who are STEM enthusiasts can engage with the Junior Academy community by serving as Mentors. Mentors work with student teams on virtual Innovation Challenges by encouraging and supporting the students as they move through the different phases of the scientific process—researching and brainstorming, proposing an innovative design, experimenting to test their hypothesis, analyzing feedback and preparing a final presentation about their solution.

Innovation Challenges are offered twice during the program year. Fall Challenges take place from mid-September to mid-November. Spring Challenges take place from mid-February to mid-April. Mentors may choose to participate in the Fall, the Spring, or both.

Mentors can choose to engage in two ways: 1) As a Dedicated Mentor to one or more teams, guiding them through the process and providing in-depth feedback. 2) As a Floating Mentor to support all challenge participants by answering questions and providing expert feedback upon request.

Applications Temporarily Paused

We’re currently improving our application process. Please check back in Spring 2026 for the next opportunity to apply.

Mentor Eligibility Requirements

Qualified mentors for the Junior Academy are:

  • Undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs or professionals working in a STEM-related field
  • Passionate about engaging and inspiring the next generation of STEM innovators
  • Able to access at least one communication device with internet capabilities
  • Able to communicate clearly in spoken and written English
  • At least 18 years of age
  • Experienced in conducting original scientific research (preferred but not required)

Time Commitment

All Mentors accepted to the program should expect to spend 1-2 hours on orientation and training at the start of their first program term.

During the challenge period, mentors should generally expect to spend 1–2 hours per week answering student questions, providing input on projects, or meeting with teams. The timing of this is flexible, and is based on your schedule. This work and communication can be done both synchronously and asynchronously.

Throughout the year, we may ask mentors to participate in focus groups and surveys. These are optional, and can range from a few minutes to a couple of hours.

Application Process and Program Participation

  1. Mentor applications are accepted on a continuous basis. All submitted applications will be reviewed twice a year and decisions will be shared prior to the upcoming term.
    • Application Review and Decisions will take place each August for the upcoming Fall Challenges.
    • Application Review and Decisions will take place each January for the upcoming Spring Challenges.
  2. We will complete background checks on all mentors.
  3. Mentors are expected to complete program training and orientation.
FAQ

Stay Connected

To receive the latest news and important announcements for our education initiatives, including The Junior Academy, please log in. Navigate to My Account and, under Contact Preferences, select STEM Education Updates to subscribe to our newsletter.

Contact Us

For more information, contact education@nyas.org.

Partner with Us: High School Research Programs

Our Unique Approach to Engaging Teenagers

Our high school programs are designed for students who have a curiosity about science but don’t have opportunities in their own school to work with a scientist on a real research project. We aim to bridge the gaps and welcome all high school students worldwide who have a desire to use STEM to tackle challenges in their communities. 

Ways to Work with Us

There are several ways we partner with external organizations to offer high school students exciting opportunities to deepen their understanding of STEM.

  • You can sponsor an Innovation Challenge for high school students. Level up the partnership by creating an employee engagement program, where you not only sponsor the project but also encourage your staff to serve as mentors to the high school student teams.
  • We can collaborate to develop an event series tailored to the interests of our high school community that meets your organizational objectives.
  • You can support our annual Virtual Student Symposium through sponsorship and/or providing speakers from your organization.

Impact Report

Download the New York Academy of Sciences STEM Education 10-Year Impact Report, 2024.

GENERATION STEM: Empowering Scientists of the Future

Download the Report

From the Academy Blog

Contact Us

To partner on a program aimed at engaging STEM-interested high school students, contact education@nyas.org.

Prehistoric Sloth-Like Creatures May Have Roamed the US

A skeleton of a prehistoric sloth-like creature.

An Annals article and lecture given by Samuel L. Mitchill in 1823 presented paleolithic research suggesting that the territory of the Megatherium americanum may have extended farther north than scientists had previously thought.

Published November 28, 2023

By Nick Fetty

An illustration of what the Megatherium americanum may have looked like.
Image by Nobu Tamura. Licensed via CC BY-SA 4.0.
No changes were made to the original work.

Massive sloth-like creatures may have been roaming the land that we now call the United States during the Pleistocene Epoch (between 2.6 million and 11,700 years ago), according to research presented by The New York Academy of Sciences’ first president two hundred years ago this month.

Samuel L. Mitchell, a prominent physician, scientist, politician, and founding member of the Academy (then known as the “Lyceum of Natural History in the City of New York”) gave a talk at the Lyceum on November 17, 1823, entitled “Observations on the teeth of the MEGATHERIUM recently discovered in the United States.”

This was followed by an article by the same name published in the inaugural issue of Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1824. The article and lecture covered findings from Mitchell’s paleolithic research which suggested that the territory of the Megatherium (Megatherium americanum), a now-extinct species of giant ground sloth, may have extended farther north than scientists previously thought. This marked the first such recorded discovery north of the equator.

A Noteworthy Discovery

Mitchell received a set of fossil teeth that were discovered on Skidaway Island, just south of Savannah, Georgia. Mitchell noted that the teeth marked a noteworthy scientific discovery at that time, but bones that were discovered alongside the teeth were not able to be studied because of improper handling.

“These teeth are very remarkable, and differ much from any hitherto discovered in North America,” Mitchell wrote, adding “…there can be no doubt that the teeth in question belong to that extinct species, [known as] the Megaterium.”

A Megatherium americanum skeleton on display at the Natural History Museum in London.
Photo by Ballista.
Licensed via CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED.
No changes were made to the original work.

Built Upon Previous Findings

This discovery built upon similar findings from the late 18th century (about fifty years prior) when a near-perfect skeleton of the Megaterium was discovered near Buenos Aires, Argentina. Years later, another specimen was discovered in Paraguay. The full skeleton was on display at the Royal Cabinet of Madrid (Spain) at the time Mitchell published his findings. Charles Darwin, another prominent member in the early history of the Lyceum, would go on to discover remains from another Megatherium in Argentina between 1832 and 1833.

The Megatherium was described as similar in size to a rhinoceros or elephant. Biologically, the furry creature occupied a space between a sloth (Bradypus Lin.) and an ant eater (Myrmecophaga Lin.), though it shared more characteristics with the former. Based on the form of the teeth and the structure of the claws, researchers hypothesized that the creature subsisted on vegetables, predominately roots.

5 1/2 Inches in Length

Mitchell described the fossils in his possession as “one tooth entire, with the exception of the fang which is broken transversely off, and the half of another, with the fang separated.” Each sample was square in shape, with rounded edges. Their approximate length of five and a half inches matched the description provided by previous researchers, indicating to Mitchell that these teeth were, in fact, likely those of a Megatherium. The teeth were black in color and the cutting edges were well-worn, indicating the animal’s likely advanced age at the time of its demise.

Mitchell, who arranged the Lyceum’s first formal meeting in 1817, concluded his paper by reemphasizing the importance of this discovery within the context of the natural history of the United States.

“Although, from the circumstances previously mentioned, it is hardly possible that a complete skeleton will be found, yet enough has been discovered to satisfy us, that the United States, which contains so many relics of huge animals, may add to her ‘giant brood,’ the Megatherium.”

Ethical Implications in the Development of AI

An AI researcher poses for the camera.

The research of Betty Li Hou, who presented a seminar as part of The New York Academy of Sciences’ Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Society Lecture series, explores the educational, philosophical, sociological, and legal dimensions that should be considered when developing ethical AI systems to benefit society.

Published November 21, 2023

By Nick Fetty

Betty Li Hou, a Ph.D. student in computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, presented her lecture “AI Alignment Through a Societal Lens” on November 9 at The New York Academy of Sciences.

Seminar attendees included the 2023 cohort of the Academy’s AI and Society post-doctoral fellowship program (a collaboration with Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society), who asked questions and engaged in a dialog throughout the talk. Hou’s hour-long presentation examined the ethical impacts that AI systems can have on societies, and how machine learning, philosophy, sociology, and law should all come together in the development of these systems.

“AI doesn’t exist independently from these other disciplines and so AI research in many ways needs to consider these dimensions, otherwise we’re only looking at one piece of the picture,” said Hou.

Hou’s research aims to capture the broader societal dynamics and issues surrounding the so-called ‘alignment problem,’ a term coined by author and researcher Brian Christian in his 2020 book of the same name. The alignment problem aims to ensure that AI systems pursue goals that match human values and interests, while trying to avoid unintended or undesirable outcomes.

Developing Ethical AI Systems

As values and interests vary across (and even within) countries and cultures, researchers are nonetheless struggling to develop ethical AI systems that transcend these differences and serve societies in a beneficial way. When there isn’t a clear guide for developing ethical AI systems, one of the key questions from Hou’s research becomes apparent: What values are implicitly/explicitly encoded in products?

“I think there are a lot of problems and risks that we need to sort through before extracting benefits from AI,” said Hou. “But I also see so many ways AI provides potential benefits, anything from helping with environmental issues to detecting harmful content online to helping businesses operate more efficiently. Even using AI for complex medical tasks like radiology.”

Social media content moderation is one area where AI algorithms have shown potential for serving society in a positive way. For example, on YouTube, 90% of videos that are reviewed are initially flagged by AI algorithms seeking to spot copyrighted material or other content that violates YouTube’s terms of service.

Hou, whose current work is also supported by a DeepMind Ph.D. Scholarship and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, previously served as a Hackworth Fellow at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics as an undergraduate studying computer science and engineering at Santa Clara University. She closed her recent lecture by reemphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary research and collaboration in the development of AI systems that adequately serve society going forward.

“Computer scientists need to look beyond their field when answering certain ethical and societal issues around AI,” Hou said. “Interdisciplinary collaboration is absolutely necessary.”

About Annals

Overview

Journal Citation Reports® Science Edition (Clarivate Analytics, 2022) Impact Factor: 5.2

ISI Journal Citation Reports© Ranking 2022: 17/73 (Multidisciplinary Sciences)

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences is an international science journal published monthly in many areas of science, though predominantly the biological sciences. Each issue presents original research articles and/or commissioned reviews, commentaries, and perspectives. Articles published online before print can be found here. In 2022, Ann NY Acad Sci began publishing a new front-half section of essays, book reviews/excerpts, commentaries, and perspectives in the spirit of The New York Academy of Sciences’ venerable general science magazine The Sciences (published 1960-2001).  Ann NY Acad Sci is a hybrid (open access–subscription) journal available in 80+ countries worldwide, rigorously peer-reviewed, and ranked among the top multidisciplinary journals worldwide. Current journal metrics can be found here.

Aims and Scope

Published on behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences, Ann NY Acad Sci provides multidisciplinary perspectives on research of current scientific interest with far-reaching implications for the wider scientific community and society at large. Each issue assembles top research and ideas by contributors to various fields of investigation at times of emerging developments and the possibility of new insight. Ann NY Acad Sci issues stimulate new ways to think about science by providing a neutral forum for discourse—within and across institutions and fields. Learn more about our aims and scope here.

Related Links

Editorial Staff & Contact Information

Douglas Braaten, PhD, EMBA
Chief Scientific Officer
Editor-in-Chief
dbraaten@nyas.org

Patrick C.H. Lo, PhD
Senior Scientific Editor
plo@nyas.org

Benjamin Ragen, PhD
Senior Scientific Editor
bragen@nyas.org

Liang Dong, PhD
Senior Scientific Editor
ldong@nyas.org

Contact Information

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
New York, NY
annals@nyas.org
212-298-8634

Access & Ordering

Full text articles are available online through the Wiley online content platform, and subscribing libraries, and on a pay-per-view basis to others. Tables of contents and abstracts may be viewed by all.

Member Orders & Discounts  

  • All Academy Members receive free unlimited digital access to Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. To explore Ann NY Acad Sci online, first log in via the Account page, then browse through the online catalog to find volumes and/or individual papers of interest to you
  • Ann NY Acad Sci volumes dating to 1823 have been digitized to provide an online archive available through institutions that have purchased access and to Academy members with Annals benefits who have logged in on The New York Academy of Sciences Web site. 
  • Ann NY Acad Sci volumes are available in print format at a special discounted price for Members. To order, log in via the Account page, select the volume of your choice from the online catalog, then click the PURCHASE button associated with the volume(s) you wish to order. 
  • Ann NY Acad Sci is published by Wiley. Academy Members may order any book offered on the Wiley bookstore at 25% off the list price.

Non-Member Orders & institutional subscriptions 

Inquiries for institutional print and/or online access to Annals should be made directly through Wiley.

The previous year volumes or a single-issue purchase may be available from Wiley, subject to stock availability. To request a quotation for back issues please contact Wiley Help and Support with the journal, volume, issue, and mailing address details.

Earlier volumes can be purchased from Periodicals Service Company.

For bulk sales of volumes and/or commercial reprints of individual articles, please contact: 

Douglas Braaten, PhD, EMBA
dbraaten@nyas.org

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