ScienceOnline is first and foremost a community made up of thousands of scientists, journalists, librarians, educators, students and others. Each one has a voice, and all voices are welcome to participate in our online and face-to-face conversations, conferences and other events.
We’re also a nonprofit corporation, and this is our leadership team:
Karyn Traphagen
Executive Director
@ktraphagen
karyn@scienceonline.com
Karyn Traphagen’s life mission is echoed in the name of her blog: “Stay Curious.” For her, communicating science is not simply about giving answers; it is about highlighting the things that people sometimes miss. By asking questions, she helps others discover for themselves more about their own world. Karyn’s mother taught her that if she wanted to learn something, there is no barrier—that she can learn anything if she tried. That is her vision for the world—to facilitate for others who want to learn and collaborate in order to stay curious.
As the co-founder and Executive Director of ScienceOnline, Karyn is the steward facilitating the ongoing atmosphere where like-minded people are able to find each other. Karyn (along with others in the ScienceOnline community) describes this as “finding your tribe.” Through both face-to-face events and social media, the community of researchers, educators, artists, data visualizers, developers, and students stay connected. They form collaborations (e.g., the project between a genomics lab and citizen science organization that will launch an experiment to the International Space Station) and share encouragement (e.g., the #IamScience project).
Karyn’s entire career has been dedicated to learning complex subjects and then successfully communicating these challenging topics to all levels of students. She is an accomplished educator of Physics (HS, Undergrad, Grad), Algebra (HS), Ancient Languages (Grad), and even violin (beginning and intermediate students). The magic happens when students have simple access to complex subjects, which enables them to be successful. For example, when teaching physics to non-science majors she focused on helping students discover physics concepts with everyday objects so they could make real connections with their own day-to-day lives. When teaching algebra, she would start with easy concepts (e.g., 2+2) and build step-by-step to complex equations.
Karyn’s love of learning is evidenced by her diverse studies: a BS in Psychology, a Master of Arts in Religion, and a Master’s in physics from the University of Virginia, with whom she still has a teaching affiliation. She also studied at the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) in a doctoral program in the department of Ancient Studies (for ancient languages).
Karyn’s insatiable curiosity has led to accomplishments and recognition including student-nominated education awards, 2011 Blog Together community service award, and the Certificate for Non-profit Management from Duke University. Always up for an adventure, Karyn is a member of the Adirondack 46ers Club (having climbed all 46 of the high peaks in the Adirondacks, NY) and in May of 2013 she completed another triathlon, the RocketmanTri at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
While Karyn’s house and part of her family are in Durham, NC, she lives online at Twitter (@kTraphagen) and Google+ and continues to challenge others to Stay Curious on her blog.
Read Q & A with Karyn
Read Double X Science Interview with Karyn
Anton Zuiker
Chairman and Treasurer
@mistersugar
Anton is director of communications in the Duke University Department of Medicine. A longtime blogger and an early adopter of social media, Anton is co-founder of ScienceOnline, and with Bora was creator and co-organizer of the annual precursor ScienceOnline conferences.
Anton earned a master’s degree in medical journalism from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his thesis reporting project was a 12,000-word narrative magazine feature on a rise in HIV among college students in North Carolina. Before that, he’d spent two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, an experience that gave him his nickname and that continues to inspire his personal blogging at mistersugar.com. He lives in Carrboro, North Carolina.
Bora Zivkovic
Vice Chairman and Secretary
@boraz
Bora is blog editor at Scientific American. He’s also known as the Blogfather in recognition of his tireless efforts to promote the works and careers of new writers, students, scientists and artists. It was his idea that led to the ScienceOnline conferences, and his tireless networking that seeded the ScienceOnline community. He also is the creator and series editor of Open Laboratory – the annual anthology of the best writing on science blogs.
A native of Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), Bora was always interested in animals and nature. His studies in veterinary medicine were interrupted by the 1990s war in the Balkans, when he arrived in the USA. He went to graduate school at North Carolina State University, where he studied how bird brains measure time of day (circadian rhythms) and time of year (photoperiodism). He started his science blog, A Blog Around The Clock, in 2004.
Bora teaches introductory biology to non-traditional students at North Carolina Wesleyan College. Although he’s posted more than 100,000 tweets and regularly writes very long and very insightful blog posts, he does find time to sleep and walk in his Pittsboro, North Carolina neighborhood.
Additional board members are being recruited.
