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PRESIDENT OF JURY – Dr. Kelley is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She received her A.B. degree from Barnard College and Ph.D. from Rockefeller University, where she was also a postdoctoral fellow. Kelley’s research uses the South African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis, to study the neurobiology of social communication, with the goal of determining how one brain communicates with another. She is also scientific adviser for the Tribeca Film Insitute-Sloan Screenplay Development Program and inspired Claudia Myers’s winsome romantic comedy, Kettle of Fish. |
The son of a scientist and a doctor, Jad Abumrad did most of his growing up in Tennessee, before studying creative writing and music composition at Oberlin College in Ohio. Following graduation, Abumrad wrote music for films, and reported and produced documentaries for a variety of local and national public radio programs. Jad is currently the host and producer of Radio Lab on WNYC, an award-winning series that explores big ideas in science (and beyond) through conversation, sound & storytelling.
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Ari Handel graduated from Harvard University with a degree in biology, and went on to get a PhD in neuroscience from New York University’s Center for Neural Science. He spent 8 years at New York University mapping the brains of rhesus macaques. In 2000, Ari left academia to work on the development of “The Fountain.” Since 2002, Ari has been the President of Protozoa Pictures, where he is currently writing and developing new projects.
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