Senior Scientist Seminar Series
Spotlighting the Research and Career Paths of Dell Med Scientists
Research improves thousands, if not millions, of peoples’ lives at a time. Join Dell Med’s Health Transformation Research Institute for the Senior Scientist Seminar Series (S4) to learn about the impressive career paths and impactful scientific contributions of Dell Med and UT faculty.
S4 is aimed at trainees, faculty, healthcare workers and the UT community at large to learn from experienced clinician-scientists.
Save the Dates, noon-1pm* CST
October 23, 2025 - Suzannah Creech, PhD, presents Flipping the Focus in PTSD: Translational Research to Address Relationships and Families as a Primary Outcome. Recording here.
December 11, 2025 - Steve Ekker, PhD, presents From Zebrafish to Zevo - Pioneering Science to the Clinic using D rerio. Recording here.
February 19, 2026 - Sam Poloyac, PharmD, PhD presents From the Cold to the Hete: A Story of Critical Care Pharmacy Research and Life’s Leadership Adventures! Recording here.
April 23, 2026,1-5:30pm, (2:15 – 2:55pm keynote in HDB auditorium), George Macones, MD, MSCE in collaboration with the Dell Med Annual Research Symposium!
Meet This Year's S^4 Speakers
Suzannah Creech, PhD, is the associate dean of strategic research initiatives and professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Dell Medical School. She also serves as a research psychologist for the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System. Dr. Creech’s research program spans treatment development, clinical trials, and implementation science methodologies within organized health care settings. Her research focuses on improving family functioning, overall well-being and prevention of interpersonal violence and its consequences in populations exposed to stress trauma.
Stephen Ekker, PhD is a professor of pediatrics and associate dean of innovation and entrepreneurship at Dell Medical School. Dr. Ekker is a genome engineer and entrepreneur who uses zebrafish in vivo and human cells in vitro to develop new molecular DNA editing tools to understand our genome and create new therapeutics. The first company he helped co-found, Discovery Genomics Inc., was acquired by Immusoft in 2016. Dr. Ekker continues to be active in entrepreneurship, including diverse companies from lab robots, canine cancer treatments, to a new cosmetics company. Dr. Ekker has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for more than two decades and has co-authored over 170 scientific publications.
Samuel Poloyac, PharmD, PhD, is the Dean and James T Doluisio Regents Chair at The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy. He has led multiple research teams and made novel discoveries in the field of critical care pharmacology; his work affects drug dosing and novel drug targets and discovery. The NIH and the American Heart Association have supported his research, leading to more than $9 million in NIH research funding. Dr. Poloyac has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and has served as the Director of the Center for Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Small Molecule and Biomarker Core, two entities that have been remarkably successful in fostering collaborations in research and education. As Dean, he has committed to unifying the vision of the College of Pharmacy as the innovative, interdisciplinary leader in education, research, and service, with the goal of revolutionizing patient care and health outcomes in Texas and the world.
George A. Macones, MD, MSCE, is an internationally recognized expert in obstetrics, and he leads the Department of Women’s Health at Dell Medical School. He is also a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in the Women’s Health clinical partnership between Ascension Seton and UT Health Austin, the clinical practice of Dell Med. Since joining Dell Med in 2019, Macones has strengthened the school’s partnerships with Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas through the launch of the Comprehensive Fetal Care Center and overseen the continued growth and success of Dell Med’s clinical, research and training efforts dedicated to improving the health of Central Texas women. From September 2021 through November 2022, he served as interim dean of Dell Med, advancing the school’s mission to revolutionize how people get and stay healthy. He has authored over 400 publications, and he is internationally renowned for his research on the safety of vaginal birth after Cesarean section and for developing new guidelines on monitoring fetuses during labor.
Archive of Past Speakers
Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, MD, MS, FACOG, UC San Diego. "Developing an Academic Research Career: Lessons Learned Over the Years"
George Georgiou, PhD. "Molecular-Level Understanding of the Human Polyclonal Antibody Response in Health and Disease."
Lorie Harper, MD MSCI, "Failing Up: In the Middle of an Academic Medicine Career"
Gurjit "Neeru" Khurana Hershey, MD, PhD. "Musings from an Academic Allergist: Sensibility, Serendipity, and Serenity."
Beth Lippard, PhD, "Of Mice and (Wo)Men: Bench to Bedside Tales from the Accidental Clinical Scientist."
Claudia Lucchinetti, MD, "My Academic Journey: From Bedside to Bench and Back."
Mike Mackert, PhD. "Health Communication: Research, Practice, and Telling the Story of Your Career."
George Macones, MD, MSCE. "A (Long) Career in Clinical Research."
Elizabeth Matsui, MD MHS "The Air You Breathe: When Your Neighborhood Determines Your Asthma Risk."
William Matsui, MD. "Chutes, Ladders, and Cancer Translational Research"; blog post summary here.
Jason McLellan, PhD, "An Unintentional Path to Vaccine Design".
Lauren Ancel Meyers, PhD. "Math and Computing in the Fight Against Global Pandemics."
Charles Nemeroff, MD, PhD. "Paradise Lost: The Neurobiology of Child Abuse and Neglect."
David Paydarfar, MD. "Solving the Unexpected Death of Infant K.P.: A Clinician-Scientist’s 40-Year Quest"; blog post summary accessible here.
William Schwartz, MD. "A Tale From the Neurology Clinic: The Man Who Had an Upside-Down Circadian Clock."
Methodius Tuuli, MD MPH MBA (Brown University; in combination with the Ken Shine Excellence in Research Awards). “My Journey in Clinical Research: Serendipity, Preparation, Mentorship.”
Kiran K Shokar, MD, MPH. "Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Research: An Adventure Through Space and Time."