Amy Rowat, Ph.D., M.Sc., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology & Physiology, UCLA. She is also a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Broad Stem Cell Research Center, Bioengineering Department, Center for Biological Physics, and Business of Science Center and a faculty member of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. She is the recipient of numerous awards for excellence in research innovation and teaching, including the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER award. Rowat has pioneered the use of food to teach sophisticated concepts in science, and has both written and lectured on the topic of science and food to hundreds of UCLA students and public audiences. Rowat is also Founder and Director of the Science&Food non-profit organization and leads the Food Pod of the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA.
Research
The Rowat lab aims to characterize the physical and mechanical properties of biological matter, infer their molecular origins, and uncover their role in physiological processes, focusing on two broad questions: (1) What are the molecular origins of cell and nuclear physical properties? (2) What are the consequences of cell and nuclear physical properties in physiology and disease? The physical properties of cells and nuclei are central to genome integrity, gene expression, and mechanotransduction; while altered cell mechanotype is the hallmark of a wide variety of diseases from cancer to laminopathies, the origins and consequences of these physical changes are incompletely understood. To achieve this goal, Rowat studies the mechanical properties of populations of single cells, using insights from physics and engineering to design new experiments and analyze biological processes ranging from metastasis to mechanotransduction. Her focus on cell mechanotype in physiology and disease is multifaceted and involves the integration of mechanotyping results with data from gene and protein expression, bioinformatics analyses, and functional assays. These new experiments enable her to build a deeper fundamental understanding of the origins of cell mechanical properties and advance mechanotype for clinical applications.
Education
B.Sc., Physics (honors, With Distinction), Mount Allison University 1998
B.A., Asian Studies, French, & Math (honors), Mount Allison University 1999
M.Sc., Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark 2000
Ph.D., Physics, University of Southern Denmark 2005
Jeff is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of CIV, an back and build investment firm focused at the intersection of technology and critical industries.
He also is the co-founder of Summit, a premier thought leadership gathering and global impact community, and is the co-owner of Powder Mountain, the largest ski resort in North America.
Rosenthal currently serves on the Boards of the Ocean Conservancy, Beyond Conflict, Street Soccer USA, The Summit Impact Foundation, and sits on the Global Leadership Council at Conservation International. Jeff is also a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the co-author of Make No Small Plans, published by Crown Publishing Group.
Sophia Siqueiros created an online bottle deposit database of Deposit-Return Systems (DRS) worldwide with case-studies from over thirty countries. This database provides valuable information concerning the international successes and failures of plastic DRS programs in hopes that it will help avoid ill-informed policies that unnecessarily waste time and capital.
Lylianna Allala is the Climate Justice Director at the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment. She is dedicated to working across difference to co-develop solutions that will lead us to a more equitable and just world.
Lylianna’s professional background includes leading on climate and environmental policy and outreach for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, prescribed burning for habitat restoration, trail building in the Washington’s Alpine Lakes Wilderness and restoring the West Duwamish Greenbelt, Seattle’s largest contiguous forest. Lylianna has a B.A in English from Winona State University, a certificate in Non-Profit Management from Georgetown University and a certificate in Wetland Science and Management from the University of Washington.
Lylianna has a passion for supporting equitable pathways for people of color in climate and environmental work. She contributed to the design and launch of the RAY Marine Conservation Fellowship-the first fellowship program dedicated to increasing representation for people of color in marine conservation. She was a founding member of the Seattle chapter of Environmental Professionals of Color. She is a leadership fellow with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, co-chair of the King County Open Space Equity Cabinet, board chair of Seattle based environmental justice organization Got Green and board member of Short Run Comix and Arts Festival. Lylianna is a creative partner in the Growing Old Project, a podcast series exploring Seattle’s urban forest and the humans that live within it.
Annabelle is a second-year Master of Urban and Regional Planning student at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. She is concentrating in Environmental Analysis and Policy, and Design and Development, and studies the political ecology of urban climate adaptation design. In addition to her coursework, she works as a Graduate Student Researcher at the Luskin Center for Innovation on projects focused on built environment vulnerabilities to climate change, particularly extreme heat and wildfire. Prior to attending UCLA, she completed her undergraduate degree in international studies and environmental studies at the University of Chicago and worked for a Chicago based utility consumer advocacy organization called the Citizens Utility Board.
Julia Skrovan is a mapping and technology specialist who works primarily on the development of the Southern California and Bay Area Energy Atlases, the largest sets of disaggregated energy data in the nation.
Before joining the CCSC team at UCLA, Julia worked in the public interest and geospatial fields, spearheading mapping projects as a Consumer Advocate and GIS Specialist with an LA-based public-interest nonprofit and processing LiDAR with a geospatial company in Oregon.
She received her Bachelor of Arts in Geology and Politics from Oberlin College as well as a Master of Arts in Public Affairs and Master of Science in Energy and Earth Resources from the University of Texas at Austin.
