SBME Interfaces with Karen Cheung

We chat with Karen Cheung, Associate Director and Professor at SBME (as well the Graduate Program Director), on the school, the SBME graduate program, chatting with the Prime Minister, advocating for women in STEM, and much more.

All episodes available to watch on our YouTube Channel

Guest:

Karen Cheung
Associate Director and Professor, SBME
Graduate Program Director, SBME

Karen C. Cheung is a Bioengineering Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as an Associate Director and Professor in the UBC School of Biomedical Engineering. Cheung received her BSc and PhD degrees in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. From 2002–2005, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland. Her research interests include lab-on-a-chip systems for cell culture and characterization, inkjet printing for tissue engineering, and implantable neural interfaces.

Learn more about Karen here

Hosts:
Dr. Payam Zahedi
Strategic Planning & Operations Director, UBC School of Biomedical Engineering

Payam is a born problem solver and dot connector who believes that real impact only occurs when everyone is given the means to chase it. He's the Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at UBC's School of Biomedical Engineering and holds a BASc in Biomedical Engineering and an MSc and PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, from the University of Toronto. He believes we are better together and is an advocate for equity and inclusivity. In his spare time, when he's not chasing his two sons around, he's experimenting in the kitchen, reading crime fiction and untangling the mechanisms of effective leadership.

Miguel Eichelberger
Communications & Engagement Manager, UBC School of Biomedical Engineering

Miguel is an unflinching optimist. He is a communicator and writer whose work has appeared in literary magazines and on stages around the world. His most recent publications include Harpur Palate, the Literary Review of Canada, Plainsongs Magazine, and Soliloquies Anthology. He believes in authenticity; in doing and saying what you actually believe, and he is an obsessive student of leadership from the biological and anthropological perspectives. You've likely heard him rant about it, and he's not sorry.

Chapters

• 0:00 SBME Interfaces with Karen Cheung
• 1:10 On the pandemic's impact on the SBME Graduate Program
• 4:05 On wanting technology that could help people communicate and how that led to a career in academia
• 5:50 On being the Director of the SBME Graduate Program
• 7:10 On the excitement around the school, and getting to establish a new culture
• 11:04 On how the grad program delivery may change due to the pandemic
• 13:00 On teaching more science communication and the importance of communicating science to everyone
• 15:00 On needing more women in science and academia
• 17:35 On representing science to the Prime Minister of Canada
• 19:50 On lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip research
• 22:34 On how to build culture in the graduate cohort
• 25:00 On using opera to recharge
• 26:03 On not having all the answers as you get older, and why that's okay
• 27:00 On finding ways to give more research opportunities to undergraduate students