About this site and Joanne Manaster

Joanne Loves Science!

This site, born out of what I can best describe as a need to shift my attention to what I do well, is about my passion for science. I have enjoyed nature and reading about science all of my life. I started, as a very young girl, by wanting to be an astronomer and abruptly decided that I wanted to be a doctor in 5th grade.

When I was 15 years old modeling chose me quite unexpectedly. I never thought I was pretty or coordinated, but I am grateful to those people who saw a little something in a scrawny, shy girl and worked with it. Modeling brought me out of my shyness and taught me some valuable lessons and rendered me with a little more poise and grace than I would've had without this experience. I never became very interested in my looks as an obsession, but learned the rules of style and began to apply them.

Fun Fact: Why I'm called @sciencegoddess on twitter. A student sent me a link to a "nerd quiz". I happened to ace it, and afterwards was proclaimed a "Supreme Nerd God"! To which I quipped "Clearly they are unaware of my gender!" After that it was shortened to "Science Goddess" The name has stuck ever since.

As I entered my junior year of college, I realized the pre-med life was not for me. I discovered that working in research labs was fun and I was quite good at it.I also happened to take a cell biology and histology course and with an incredible knowing, deep down, that this was the material I would focus on and branch out from. I discovered that I loved teaching, so that became my priority....the fun of lab work combined with the satisfaction of sharing my passion with really bright students.

My research has ranged from working with sewage bacteria (Acinetobacter lwoffi) as a potential oil slick consumer to the effects of acid rain on pine trees in my undergraduate years to studying muscle development in the larvae of Manduca sexta (tomato horn worm) for my master's degree. Now I work with mammalian cells in culture. Apparently, I've climbed the evolutionary tree! I started a PhD and soon realized that what I really wanted to do, to teach, did not necessarily require it, so I eschewed the life of a grant-writing researcher for that of a full time educator.

It's funny how life oscillates. I began by wanting to view the heavens with a telescope and then ended up looking into the body with microscopes. I started my life by focusing mainly on science and preferring NOT to be seen, to experiencing a world whose main emphasis is image and being larger than life, to withdrawing back into a studious scientific bent and now putting myself once again out in the world, trying to integrate all that I am in my goal of sharing science.

Part of the purpose of this site is to encourage young men and women to not be afraid of pursuing science for fear of stereotyping yourself as a nerd or geek. In my experience, most every student I meet is extremely well rounded and knows quite a bit about a lot of things, not just science, and some dress quite fashionably within the budget they can afford...as long as they don't mind the chance they could spill some hydrochloric acid on their designer jeans!

A brief history.... And me now.....

Joanne and little sis in New Mexico

Shy, serious and sweet, at least back then. I was probably contemplating the fact that I was limited by things like time, space and gravity and able to feel pain and frustration. Why would I be thinking that? Well, it turns out that my very first memory is of climbing that wall behind me and falling into a few cacti, leading to painful removal of the cactus spines from my backside...ouch!

I lived in Guam during junior high and high school. Yes, that is a catholic school uniform! And, yes, that is Pope John Paul II, very young and spry at age 62. Thanks to my mom's job, we were so fortunate to have a brief private audience with the Pope! I'm grinning because this man had an incredibly extensive aura of peace radiating from him. It was one of the most phenomenal experiences of my life.

This is only one of quite a few hundred modeling pictures of me from a while ago. I worked in Guam, Tokyo and very briefly in New York. A great way to earn money, but I was so much more excited about science and couldn't wait to go to college!

Funny story: I was eliminated for a toothpaste commercial because I was missing a tooth, but didn't even know it because my teeth were so close together.

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This is not my favorite picture but it comes from the largest campaign I did for Hollywood Salon and Spa in Tokyo, Japan. My personality at the time preferred that I be a bit incognito so the billboards, commercials, magazine ads and subway signs was a bit unnerving! I learned that young Japanese girls will run up to you and say "Sign! Sign!" to request an autograph!

Me in 7th grade. If I can recover from this, anyone can!

I look like I was built only for sitting around and reading science books and making daisy chains........but don't let the fresh faced innocent enthusiasm fool you, I hiked through the tropical boonies for hours a day, holding my own against giant banana spiders, and running away from the occasional wild boar.

I grew up watching the excellent science programming of NOVA and National Geographic. I know these were formative influences leading me to choose a career in science. I vividly recall watching an episode of NOVA as a preteen. In it was demonstrated cardiac muscle cells beating independently of each other in vitro while there was space between individual cells, but as the dish reached confluence and the cells came in contact with each other, they began to beat in unison (which today I can confidently tell you is due to the presence of gap junctions)! This image impacted me to such an extent that I work almost daily with in vitro cultures of cell lines and stem cells while instructing future medical doctors and tissue engineers in my laboratory courses here at the University of Illinois. I am proof that high quality scientific television programming is more than entertainment; it can inspire one’s life work.

La Paris moins conventionelle Fall 2007

Practicing for GAMES hoola hooping competition

I still wish to be free from the constraints of time and space.....I think that science will get us there, well after I am dead, for sure.

I currently work as a laboratory teaching specialist and lecturer at the University of Illinois in Urbana and have been doing so for nearly 20 years!

Basically, if you want to learn how to do a cell or molecular biology technique, I am able to teach you how, and give you the background information you need to understand it. And I'll probably do it with more humor and enthusiasm than you might expect someone who seriously knows her stuff to do it!

I teach histology (studying tissues and organs using a microscope) for the department of Cell and Developmental Biology. Ask anyone who knows me well, and they will agree that this is my favorite topic!

I teach mammalian cell culture techniques and the concepts of stem cells and tissue engineering in the Bioengineering Department. Since histology is a fairly static subject, this is how I keep fresh and dynamic with respect to research on mammalian tissues!

I am involved in outreach activities including

I've been an Event Supervisor for

numerous events (Cell Biology,

Designer Genes, Heredity and

BioProcess) at the

Illinois State Science Olympiad

I am the faculty coordinator for the

Bioengineering portion of the

GAMES camp for the

Women in Engineering program

a member of the advisory panel for

the Young Scientists Journal International

I also occasionally assist with

U of I's Bugscope

I have an advisory role

U of I's undegraduate synthetic

biology team for iGEM

Lovely scientists-to-be from GAMES 2007

Joanne and Marina love mentoring these girls!

Here is the local production of a tour through my lab and a brief talk about stem cells from Parkland Community College and their show Surrounded by Science, click on episode 22

I will be adding various videos of lectures, etc., as they are produced to my youtube channel, joannelovesscience

This site wouldn't be complete without a picture of my best friend for 18 years, Allie!

Sadly, he passed away in December 2006, but his cameo will continue to make appearances in my lectures!!

One of the great things about being an Air Force brat was the traveling (although not nearly as much as the Navy brats would do). Modeling also afforded me plenty of travel opportunities.

After college, I remained stationary for quite some time but last year I visited Europe (each time with visits to France) three times within six months. I hope to increase my travel opportunities. I love everything about it! My dream vacations would include visiting sites where famous scientists worked or grew up and more historical science museums. Even visiting famous scientific facilities would just make me giddy! Check out the french powerpoint presentation I gave for an oral french class last year about my "nerdy" visit to Paris in October/November 2007(picture on right)! My summer visit was much more conventional!

Want to read more about French scientists in French? Visit my Famous Scientists page for a powerpoint on that. If you like scientists in general, check out my eponyms powerpoint also found on the Famous Scientists page

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