Diandra Leslie-Pelecky

Diandra Leslie-Pelecky Speaking Topics

• Nanomedicine: The Doctor's New (and Very, Very Small) Black Bag

  Not too far in the future, a diagnosis of cancer won't be a big deal: it will cost you another twenty minutes in the doctor's office while the doctor injects some nanoparticles that target and kill the cancer cells. Nanomedicine is an emerging research field that utilizes the unique properties of materials a hundredth the diameter of a human hair for medical diagnosis and treatment. We'll eventually be able to diagnose cancer at the level of a single cancer cell and use MRIs to investigate how the chemicals in your brain are doing their jobs. Sunscreen will automatically change its properties according to your sun exposure, and we'll be able to target drugs precisely to the part of the body that needs them, without affecting the areas that don't. Tiny sensors within the body will give you ample warning of a heart attack or stroke. This talk covers some of the most amazing developments in nanomedicine research that will start entering the clinic in the near term, as well as a few that already have.

• Nano: Small Miracle or Big Trouble?

  The magic of nanomaterials is the surprising discovery that when you make a material very, very small, it doesn’t always act like itself. In 1986, Eric Drexler sounded ominous warning about the dangers of nanotechnology run amok. He proposed a hypothetical construct called ‘grey goo’: a population of self-replicating nanobots that would grow like a cancer and consume everything. While Drexler’s apocalyptic vision was certainly attention getting, ‘grey goo’ has been replaced by a far more realistic and imminent concern. The unexpected properties of nanomaterials mean we can make materials we’ve never been able to make before—but it also means that we can’t always predict how those materials will interact with people, animals, and the environment. The specter of ‘grey goo’ is hyperbole. Concern over whether titanium dioxide nanoparticles in sunscreen can pass through your skin or how antimicrobial nano-silver might be released into waterways are real challenges we face right now. This talk gives a brief history of nanotechnology (which surprisingly started in the 4th Century CE) and highlights ways in which nanotechnology is already affecting your life and how it will continue to in the future.

The Physics of NASCAR

With 75 million fans, NASCAR is the #1 spectator sport in America. How do you design and manufacture a car that will move at those tremendous speeds, yet handle with precision, and—above all—will not kill its driver? What makes a NASCAR car different from the vehicles you see on the regular roads? In this presentation, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky explains the intricate and complex way the sport works in terms that anyone who drives a car—or occasionally looks under the hood—can easily comprehend. Based on her extensive access to NASCAR race shops, drivers, crew chiefs, engine builders, and pit crews during races, Leslie-Pelecky traces the lifecycle of a racecar from its creation at top race shops to competing in the door-to door action of the NASCAR series.

From Nanomaterials to NASCAR: Materials at 200 Miles per Hour

You cannot win a NASCAR race without understanding science. Materials play important roles in improving performance, as well as ensuring safety. On the performance side, NASCAR limits the materials race car scientists and engineers can use to limit ownership costs. 'Exotic metals' are not allowed, so controlling microstructure and nanostructure are important tools. Compacted Graphitic Iron, a cast iron in which magnesium additions produce interlocking microscale graphite reinforcements, makes engine blocks stronger and lighter. NASCAR's new car design employs a composite called Tegris that has 70 percent of the strength of carbon fiber composites at about 10 percent of the cost. The most important role of materials in racing is safety. Drivers wear firesuits made of polymers that carbonize (providing thermal protection) and expand (reducing oxygen access) when heated. Catalytic materials originally developed for space-based CO2 lasers filter air for drivers during races. Although materials help cars go fast, they also help cars slow down safely—important because the kinetic energy of a race car going 180 mph is nine times greater than that of a passenger car going 60 mph. Energy-absorbing foams in the cars and on the tracks control energy dissipation during accidents. To say that most NASCAR fans (and there are estimated to be 75 million of them) are passionate about their sport is an understatement. NASCAR fans understand that science and engineering are integral to keeping their drivers safe and helping their teams win. Their passion for racing gives us a great opportunity to share our passion for science with them. Level: Can be adapted for audiences from the science-interested public to a physics or materials science colloquium.

Leaving the Academy

The ultimate success for a Ph.D. (or equivalent) is finding a tenure-track faculty position, hopefully at a high-ranking institution, garnering success in grants and publications, and graduating a lot of students. What prompts someone to walk away from this dream?

Underrepresented Women in Science and the Arts

Women (and people of color) remain underrepresented in many areas of science and the arts. The attempts to address this underrepresentation in the different domains have been largely independent of each other, but there is much the two communities can learn by comparing each others' successes and failures.