About Us
Throughout our journeys, we were lucky to have mentors who invested in us, whether it was through mentorship, providing access to research opportunities or making us aware of fellowship opportunities. We believe that everyone deserves to have someone who can push forward potential and guide him/her along the way.
The Científico Latino Project comes from a drive to increase the pool of minority scientists and professionals by creating a platform where everyone—regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability or immigration status—has equal access to fellowship and scholarship opportunities, and the chance to learn from their peers to becoming successful STEM professionals and other related fields.
Our Initiatives
To help spread information about relevant opportunities in STEM through practical professional development workshops for college and high school students.
Create equal access opportunities that provide critical support needed to succeed in STEM through public databases.
Preparing underrepresented students to navigate the STEM graduate school application process.
Amplifying the voices of underrepresented scientists and allies through a platform that features diverse scientists and scientific journeys.
Faculty Advisors
Enrique M. De La Cruz, PhD
Faculty Advisor, Yale University
Dr. De La Cruz is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (MB&B) and Head of Branford College at Yale University. He is a first generation Cuban-American who was raised in Newark, NJ. Dr. De La Cruz received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Rutgers University where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Beta Beta Honor Societies. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry, Cell & Molecular Biology (BCMB) with Dr. Thomas D. Pollard at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and received postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Drs. H. Lee Sweeney and E. Michael Ostap at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He was a Visiting Scientist at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) & Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble, France in 2009, a Mayent-Rothschild Senior Researcher Fellow at the Institut Curie, Paris in 2015, and an Invited Professor Fellow at ESPCI Paris Tech (école supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris), Paris in 2016. Dr. De La Cruz research focuses in the areas of actin and myosin regulation, RNA helicases, and signaling enzymes.
Sua Myong, PhD
Faculty Advisor, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Sua Myong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biophysics and an affiliate of CMDB (Cellular Molecular Developmental Biology and Biophysics) graduate program at Johns Hopkins University. She is a first generation Korean-American who came to the US as a Sophomore High School student. Dr. Myong received both her undergraduate and doctorate degree at University of California, Berkeley (Molecular Cellular Biology, Biochemistry/Nutrition). Her research interest in the field of Single Molecule Biophysics developed in her postdoctorate years in the laboratory of Dr. Taekjip Ha at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. The current research area in the Myong laboratory include investigating molecular interactions involved in telomere processing, gene expression mediated by G-quadruplex and phase separation implicated in neurodegeneration (ALS/FTD). Dr. Myong led a three year long (2012-2015) STEM outreach in Jefferson Middle School (Champaign, IL) in the form of weekly afterschool science club for teaching 7&8th graders experimental science and quantitative data analysis. The outreach effort involved approximately 50 undergraduate students in Bioengineering program at University of Illinois who prepared lesson plans with Dr. Myong and teaching the middle schoolers in a group of 2-3 students per week. Dr. Myong is passionate about STEM outreach and is privileged to be a part of the Cientifico Latino!
Alan S. Goldman, PhD
Faculty Advisor, Rutgers University
Alan Goldman was born and raised in Queens, NY. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University, studying the mechanisms of photoinduced organometallic reactions. He then took an IBM Post-doctoral Fellowship in the lab of Prof. Jack Halpern at the University of Chicago. Goldman began his independent career as an assistant professor at Rutgers University where he is currently Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. His research focuses on the development and mechanistic study of reactions catalyzed by transition metal complexes, with a focus on energy-related problems. He is faculty advisor for LEEDAR, an outreach program through which Rutgers graduate and undergraduate students try to bring the excitement of scientific research to high school classrooms, and is Director of the Graduate Program and Chair of the Graduate Admissions Committee of the Rutgers Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Goldman has received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Fellowship, the ACS Catalysis Lectureship Award for the Advancement of Catalytic Science, and the American Chemical Society Award in Organometallic Chemistry. He is delighted to be part of Científico Latino!
Giovanna Guerrero-Medina, PhD
Advisor, Executive Director of CienciaPR
Español: La Dra. Giovanna Guerrero-Medina es Directora Ejecutiva de Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR) y Directora de la Iniciativa Yale Ciencia, en Yale University. A través de estos puestos, la Dra. Guerrero-Medina desarrolla y estudia programas que amplían la participación en la educación y las carreras STEM. Bajo su liderazgo, CienciaPR se ha convertido en una de las comunidades de científicos hispanos más grandes del mundo, ha obtenido fondos federales y de fundaciones para apoyar la diversidad en la educación científica y el desarrollo profesional de científicos, y en 2015 recibió el reconocimiento como “Estrella” en la educación científica de hispanos por parte de la Casa Blanca. La Dra. Guerrero-Medina es investigadora principal de la Academia Yale Ciencia, con fondos del NIH, la cual provee oportunidades de desarrollo profesional, divulgación científica y creación de redes a estudiantes graduados a través de los EEUU y Puerto Rico. También dirige el programa Ciencia al Servicio, con fondos del NSF, para promover colaboraciones entre científicos y maestros en el desarrollo de lecciones de ciencia más pertinentes y efectivas. La Dra. Guerrero-Medina ha trabajado como Directora de Política Científica en el Instituto de Investigación Van Andel, como Analista de Políticas de Ciencias de la Salud en los Institutos Nacionales de la Salud, y fue becaria del programa Christine Mirzayan de Política Pública en Ciencia y Tecnología. Tiene un
doctorado en biología molecular y celular de la Universidad de California, Berkeley, donde tuvo una beca pre-doctoral Howard Hughes para estudiar el desarrollo de conexiones neuronales a través de sensores de actividad sináptica genéticamente codificados. Obtuvo su B.S. en biología de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras.
English: Dr. Giovanna Guerrero-Medina is Executive Director of Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR) and Director of the Yale Ciencia Initiative at Yale University, positions that allow her to advance programs that broaden participation in science education and careers. Under her leadership, CienciaPR has become one of the largest networked communities of Hispanic scientists in the world, has secured federal and foundation funding to support diversity in science education and career development, and has received recognition as a “Bright Spot” in science education for Hispanics by the Obama White House and as Science Defender by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Dr. Guerrero-Medina currently leads the NIH-funded Yale Ciencia Academy, which provides young scientists from diverse backgrounds opportunities for professional development, leadership, and community outreach. She also directs the NSF-funded Ciencia al Servicio program, to promote collaborations between scientists and teachers so that students in Puerto Rico have access to culturally-relevant, engaging and effective science lessons. Dr. Guerrero-Medina’s career spans positions in government, non-profit, and academic settings. She has a B.S. in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and was a National Academy of Science and Technology Policy Fellow.