Kenneth L. Hess is the Founder and President of Science Buddies. Ken successfully wears a lot of hats in his life: educator, entrepreneur, engineer, and author. And no matter which of those hats he's wearing it's his nature to create and build something new, be it an original product, solution, or organization. When he saw how much his daughter learned doing her own science projects, it was only a matter of time before he founded Science Buddies in an effort to create the same positive learning experience for students everywhere. Closely observing how students and teachers do science projects, Ken developed our Topic Selection Wizard specifically because of the problems students had picking a project that interests them.

In recognition of his work in the field of science education, Ken has been appointed to the Statewide Advisory Board of the California State Summer School for Mathematics & Science (COSMOS), a program of the University of California for students in grades 8-12.

Prior to turning toward education, Ken founded Banner Blue Software and developed a specialized business graphics program, Org Plus, which is still actively upgraded and sold today. During the 1990's he popularized computer genealogy by designing, developing, and selling the Family Tree Maker product line, which has sold millions of copies and fostered the creation of some of the most popular sites on the Internet.

Ken recently authored the book, Bootstrap: Lessons Learned Building a Successful Company from Scratch, recounting his experiences founding and managing a startup organization. He has also lectured about the startup experience at Stanford University and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Ken graduated from Stanford with a B.S. in Engineering with Distinction and received a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard.

Courtney Corda is Vice President of Science Buddies. Courtney has a decade of experience in the computer software industry, having held various management positions at companies including Banner Blue Software, Broderbund Software, and The Learning Company. From her private sector employment, Courtney brings a wealth of knowledge and skills in all facets of marketing to Science Buddies. While at Broderbund Software, as a divisional Vice President of Marketing, Courtney was instrumental in broadening the market for their highly profitable genealogy products while building leadership positions in market share, customer satisfaction, critical acclaim, and product performance in a highly competitive climate.

Courtney's background will help her play an important role at Science Buddies as the organization meets the needs of its "customers": students who need inspiration, support, and opportunities to succeed in science. Courtney will also draw on her successful experiences in past PR, sales and business development roles to help Science Buddies develop strong relationships in the science fair and educational communities as well as to obtain financial support from corporations, private foundations and governmental agencies. Courtney is a summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. She also earned a certificate from the AEA/Stanford Executive Institute, an intensive summer "mini-MBA" program for executives.

Tina Lanese is Vice President of Science Buddies. For over ten years Tina has worked closely with educators to develop educational products that make learning fun for students of all ages. In her previous senior level positions with Broderbund Software, Mattel, and LEGO, Tina developed innovative products that utilized technology to promote learning through play-based activities. Her products not only led their categories in sales, but also won praise among educators and reviewers.

Tina appreciates that students have a natural desire to learn, and believes that materials presented in the right way support and encourage the learning process. In continuing her work with educators, Tina is excited about developing new materials and tools that empower students to learn.

Tina graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Economics with Distinction from the University of Virginia, and has a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School.

Marisa Montalvo is Director of Development of Science Buddies. She brings over six years of experience in non-profit fundraising, as well as experience in the education sector, as a former Eighth Grade Social Studies Teacher. In her previous positions with the American Heart Association and United Way of Miami-Dade, Marisa succeeded in cultivating high-level corporate relationships, managing volunteers and large-scale events, securing individual donations, as well as raising funds for health, education and social service programs.

Marisa is excited to be part of Science Buddies, as she believes in the importance of educating our future innovators, as well as reaching out to the community to promote the importance of hands-on learning. She graduated with a B.A. in History and Social Sciences from the American University of Paris.

Dr. Michelle Maranowski is a Staff Scientist at Science Buddies. She completed her PhD in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. There she studied silicon carbide oxide reliability in the laboratory of Dr. James A. Cooper. After graduating from Purdue, Michelle went to work for Hewlett Packard Optoelectronics Division (HP OED) in San Jose, CA, where she was a Manufacturing Development Engineer. At HP OED she was part of the InGaN Blue Light Emitting Diode (LED) transfer team and worked on bringing the R&D process into high volume manufacturing. Her second assignment at HP OED was as a Product Engineer for the high-power AlInGaP LED line (red, yellow, and amber). She was responsible for overall yields, improvement projects, and tracking failure issues. After spending 4 years and a graduate career in the semiconductor industry, Michelle decided to challenge herself and learn about the biotechnology field. She joined Agilent Technologies BioScience Research Unit, which manufactures DNA micro arrays. There she worked with the data analysis group, figuring out ways to separate good arrays from faulty arrays using manufacturing data. Michelle believes that everybody is a scientist and looks forward to making science fun and approachable for people of all ages.

Dr. Sandra S. Slutz is a Staff Scientist at Science Buddies. She's always started so many sentences with "how" and "why" that it was clear she'd end up doing experiments to answer those questions. Sandra graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a BS in Biology and a minor in Psychology. She recently completed her PhD in Genetics at Stanford University in the laboratory of Dr. Man-Wah Tan. While in the Tan laboratory, Sandra's research focused on how bacterial pathogens are detected by the immune system of Caenorhabditis elegans. She also spent many fun hours mentoring and teaching upcoming young scientists in the laboratory. Sandra is delighted to join Science Buddies and help other students discover the joys of finding answers to "how" and "why."

Dr. David Whyte is a Staff Scientist at Science Buddies. He is a science fair "veteran," having helped his two daughters with their projects in the San Francisco Bay area schools. He believes that science fairs play a critical role in increasing the scientific literacy of our children. He has a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of California, San Francisco, and a BS in Chemistry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently senior director at Argus Biosciences, a personal genomics company. Dr. Whyte was director of Molecular Technologies at Sugen, Inc, until 2004. Prior to joining Sugen, he was a principal scientist in the Tumor Biology Department at the Schering-Plough Research Institute in New Jersey.

Debbie Stimpson is Website Editor of Science Buddies. She is a graduate of San Francisco State University with a B.S. in Computer Science. Debbie comes to our foundation with a strong background in website design, graphics, ecommerce, and traditional programming. She brings her ten years of experience as a website designer to our foundation along with her years of database and application programming as a systems supervisor at Southern Pacific Transportation Company. Debbie is excited to be part of Science Buddies and looks forward to improving the growing Science Buddies website for all of its student, parent, teacher, and scientist visitors.

Rebecca Steelman is an Editor at Science Buddies. She's had a zeal for editing and writing for as long as she can remember. She graduated from Ohio University with an English degree and went on to work at the major textbook publisher The McGraw-Hill Companies in Columbus, Ohio. There, she worked as a Production Editor for the high school science department, as well as a Project Manager for middle and high school science supplementary materials. Rebecca most recently worked as the sole Technical Editor for the Capital One Auto Finance creative team in Dallas, Texas. Her role included editing direct mail, brochures, online banner ads, and webpages. Rebecca is thrilled to be back in the educational field, helping create important tools to enrich students' studies.

Amy Cowen is Online Community Manager for Science Buddies. She holds an MA in English Literature and did her doctoral work at the University of Maryland, College Park. Amy comes to Science Buddies with wide-ranging freelance experience in technical writing and online content production, website design and implementation, user-interface design, and project management for companies including Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and CNET. She is excited about Science Buddies and looks forward to contributing to Science Buddies' continued growth and success.

Meghan O'Hare is Development Associate at Science Buddies. She holds a BA in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is currently pursuing a master's degree at San Francisco State University. Before joining Science Buddies, Meghan worked in journalism and academic publishing. She is excited to be involved in the educational field and working for an organization that is committed to helping students achieve their goals.

Amber Hess has been involved in Science Buddies since high school. She was a Mentor in the Science Buddies Online Mentoring Program for three years and has contributed articles about advanced science competitions. A passionate science student, she won awards at many prestigious science competitions in middle school and high school.

Now Amber is a full-time volunteer, designing and developing new sections of the Science Buddies website. Amber graduated from MIT in June 2009 with a self-designed major in chemical engineering (with an emphasis in electronics and computer science). After taking a few electronics and computer science classes at MIT, Amber realized that she was more interested in computers than chemical engineering. To gain more software experience, she decided to volunteer at Science Buddies for a year. She will start working at Oracle as a software developer in summer 2010.

Amber hopes her work at Science Buddies will show students how fun and practical science can be.

Heidi Strahm Black has worked as the Science Fair Coordinator for East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD) for the last 8 years. Heidi also runs the district fair that serves over 1400 students. During that same time period she has been a Director of the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association. In addition, Heidi works as the teacher liaison with the Synopsys Outreach Foundation developing support systems and doing teacher trainings related to science fairs. Heidi holds high school teaching credentials in both Biology and Physics and taught in ESUHSD in San Jose, California for 16 years. During her year as a Teacher-in-Residence at San Francisco's Exploratorium, Heidi contributed curriculum to their Teacher Institute Program. She has also published articles in the Physics Teacher.

Brad Crutchfield is the Vice President and Group Manager of Bio-Rad's worldwide Life Science Group, a position he has held since January 2004. Throughout his 23 years of service at Bio-Rad, he has held a variety of positions including Sales and Marketing Manager, Managing Director of the U.K.-based Bio-Rad MicroScience Ltd., and Manager of the company's BioMaterials Division, for which he led a team responsible for developing tools used in protein separations, food pathogen testing, and BSE testing. Mr. Crutchfield holds a Bachelor of Science in Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of California, Davis.

Lily De Los Rios is Vice President of the Program Office for Symantec Corporation's Consumer Business Unit. In this role, she is responsible for leading cross-functional teams on key initiatives for the business unit. Lily brings a long and successful history of both technical development and product delivery management to her current position. Lily joined Symantec as a senior software engineer working on Macintosh products in 1991. She has served in a variety of management positions, including leading the antivirus development team and co-founding Symantec Antivirus Research Center (SARC) which is now known as Symantec Security Response. Under her guidance, Symantec's research team grew in scope from addressing viruses to today's more complex internet threats. As vice president of product delivery for Client & Host Security, Lily was responsible for the product management and software development of Symantec Client Security, server and groupware antivirus and intrusion prevention solutions. Most recently, she led Symantec's overall strategy and effort to deliver key solutions for Microsoft's new operating systems, Windows Vista.

Lily gained extensive product management and engineering experience working with start-up companies prior to joining Symantec. She worked on MacInTax and Turbo Tax for SoftView, which was ultimately acquired by Intuit. She had previously sat on the board of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), which focuses on industry standards for the management of software and hardware. An active member of her community, Lily is currently the assistant commissioner for American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) Region 9.

Bernard A. Harris, Jr., M.D. is an accomplished NASA astronaut, physician, and businessman. He serves as president of The Harris Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization he founded in 1998 to develop math and science education programs for America's youth.

In 1990, Dr. Harris was selected as a NASA astronaut and flew his first mission three years later. A payload commander of STS-63, the first flight of the joint Russian-American space program, Harris accomplished his childhood dream and became the first African-American to walk in space. At the time of his retirement from NASA in 1996, he had logged more than 438 hours in space and traveled over 7.2 million miles.

Dr. Harris earned a bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Houston and later obtained a Doctorate of Medicine from Texas Tech University School of Medicine. A trained aerospace flight surgeon, he completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic and fellowship at the NASA Ames Research Center. Other degrees include a Master of Medical Science from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Houston Clear Lake and two Honorary Doctorate of Science degrees from Morehouse School of Medicine and Stony Brook University (SUNY). Throughout his life, Harris has received numerous awards and recognition, including election as Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the NASA Space Flight Medal, the NASA Award of Merit, and the 2000 Horatio Alger Award.

Charles Moore is a Corporate Fellow and the Technology Group CTO at Advanced Micro Devices. He has held several key positions at AMD including the Chief Engineer of AMD's next-generation microprocessor core (code named Bulldozer), and more recently, the Chief Architect for AMD's Accelerated Computing initiative. Prior to joining AMD, Mr. Moore was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin where he did research on technology scalable computer architectures. Before then, Chuck was a Distinguished Engineer at IBM, where he was a design leader in several key projects including the PowerPC 601 chip and the Power4 Server complex. While at IBM, he was elected to the IBM Academy of Technology and was named an IBM Master Inventor.

Chuck has been granted 29 US patents, along with several others pending. He has published numerous conference papers and articles on a wide range of subjects related to computer architecture and design. He is on the editorial board for IEEE Micro magazine, and the program committee for several important industry conferences. Mr. Moore holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Dr. Douglas Osheroff, along with Drs. David Lee and Robert Richardson, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996 for the discovery of superfluidity in helium-3. Osheroff and his colleagues used a Pomeranchuk cell to investigate the behavior of helium-3 at very low temperatures. They observed unexpected effects in their measurements, which they eventually explained as phase transitions to a superfluid phase of helium-3.

Dr. Osheroff received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1973. He then worked for 15 years at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. In 1987, he moved to Stanford University, where he is Professor of Physics and Applied Physics and holds the J.G. Jackson and C.J. Wood Professorship in Physics. He also served as department chair from 1993-96. His current research focuses on the behavior of quantum fluids, solids, and gasses at ultra-low temperatures.

Dr. Richard Popp is currently Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Johns Hopkins University where he performed his internship and residency. He has been a clinical cardiologist for over 25 years. Dr. Popp began his career as an "invasive" cardiologist but focused his research on developing non-invasive methods for medical diagnosis and therapy. In addition, he served as President of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 1997-98 and has been a trustee of the ACC for many years. He has been President of the American Society of Echocardiography and the Association of University Cardiologists. He is the previous Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Cardiovascular Diseases Subspecialty Board and has been on the Executive Committee and the Board of Governors of the ABIM. He is a member of several honorary scientific associations including the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Popp also serves on a number of corporate boards. Dr. Popp maintains a continuing interest in technology development for improved patient care. He has made significant contributions to the continuous improvement of ultrasonic diagnostic methods in areas including two-dimensional and three-dimensional echocardiography, Doppler ultrasound, color flow imaging, transesophageal and contrast echocardiography. He was one of the first to employ intravascular ultrasonic imaging. The diffusion of technology and new information into clinical practice is a special area of interest of Dr. Popp's.

Dr. Craig Sander recently retired after a long and successful career in the semiconductor industry, including over 28 years of research and development of semiconductor process technologies at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) and it's "spin-off," GlobalFoundries. At AMD, Craig worked on or managed technology development projects in the areas of DRAM, SRAM and CMOS logic. He helped develop AMD's first CMOS technologies and was Director of AMD's logic technology group. In that role, he took charge of technologies used in AMD's microprocessors, starting with the AMD Am486® Processor. He became Operations Director of AMD's Submicron Development Center in 1994. Craig was promoted to the position of Vice President, Technology Development in 1998 and to Corporate Vice President in 2004. He served as Senior Vice President for Technology Development at GlobalFoundries during its startup. Until his retirement, Craig served on the boards of directors for Sematech and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). Craig received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of New Mexico and master's and doctorate degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.

Dr. Steven Vogt is Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Lick Observatory, UC Santa Cruz. Steve has been at Lick Observatory for the past 21 years. He built both the Hamilton spectrometer at Lick (with which most of the first extrasolar planets were discovered) and HIRES, the world's most powerful spectrometer on the Keck Ten-meter telescope in Hawaii. Steve received his A.B., Physics and A.B., Astronomy at University of California, Berkeley, a M.S. of Astronomy at University of Texas at Austin in 1976, and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from University of Texas at Austin in 1978. Dr. Vogt is currently a member of the California-Carnegie Planet Search Team. This preeminent extrasolar planet search team is building a new telescope in the Lick Observatory that will be the most powerful in the world, able to track planets to a precision of 1 meter per second.

Elaine Wherry is Co-founder and VP of Products at Meebo. After growing up on a goat farm in southwest Missouri, Elaine migrated west to Stanford University where she earned a degree in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction. After graduating, she became the Manager of Usability and Design at Synaptics. Elaine co-founded Meebo.com in 2005 with two good friends, Seth Sternberg and Sandy Jen. Initially, she authored Meebo's JavaScript framework and went on to build and oversee Meebo's web, user experience, and product management teams. Today, Meebo has approximately 40 million unique users in the United States and over 125 million unique users worldwide.

Bob Whitmore serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Seagate. He is responsible for product design and development; head and media component design and manufacturing operations; global hard disk drive manufacturing operations; global materials; and corporate quality. In addition, Whitmore is responsible for Seagate's solid state drive (SSD) development.

Dr. Andrew Olson was Senior Scientist at Science Buddies for two years, during which time he authored and edited hundreds of project ideas for the website. Andrew is a neuroscientist by training, with a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, and an A.B. in Classics-Latin from Harvard College. He is now the director of the imaging core facility for the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford University. He would like to take this opportunity to dedicate his Science Buddies web publications to the teachers of the public schools in Duluth, Minnesota, who gave him a solid start on a path of lifelong learning.

Dr. Sara J. Agee was a Staff Scientist at Science Buddies. Sara completed her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California at Berkeley in the laboratory of David Weisblat. Her scientific research is focused on mechanisms of embryonic patterning and body plan evolution, integrating the fields of Molecular Evolution and Developmental Biology. Sara uses new molecular biology techniques to study the function of homologous genes involved in segmentation and early development of Annelid Worms. Before moving to Berkeley to attend graduate school, Sara and her family lived in Denver, Colorado, where she received her B.S. degree in Biology from the University of Denver. There, Sara worked with a tri-district initiative to mentor elementary school teachers in the Denver metropolitan area using inquiry based and hands-on science teaching methods. Sara's passion for improving elementary science education was evident in her work developing Project Ideas at Science Buddies.

Kristin M. Strong was a staff scientist at Science Buddies for two and a half years. Kristin studied electrical engineering and bioengineering, and worked in the aerospace industry before joining Science Buddies to develop science project ideas and career profiles. Kristin would like to thank the dedicated teachers of the Logan City and Cache County School Districts for giving her such a great start in her education, especially the Edith Bowen Laboratory School, science teachers Mike Salvesen and Lynn Archibald, physiology teacher Gerald Allen, physics teacher Richard Bradford, mathematics teacher Carletta Elich, and English teacher Pat Stoddart.