Join  SciStarter, Science Cheerleader and our partners from Discover Magazine and Astronomy Magazine at the free Family Science Days in Boston on February 18th-19th as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting.

This free event features tons of interactive science exhibits. Come talk with scientists, learn about their jobs, and explore science! SciStarter will help you DO science with citizen science including counting birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count. recording your flu symptoms for Flu Near You, observing clouds to ground-truth NASA satellites with the GLOBE Cloud Observer app, hunting for Backyard Bark Beetles and more! We can’t wait for you to become a citizen scientist with us!

We’ll also be joined by our partners from Science Cheerleader. Watch physics in action when the MIT cheerleaders show off their stunts and bring to life the free ebook, The Science of Cheerleading! Be sure to catch the Science Cheerleader stage show on Sunday, February 19th at 11:30am, sharp!

Meet Science Cheerleader Hilary and a special guest from the hometown heroes, the New England Patriots Cheerleaders! Learn more about these women below.

Theresa: Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
I graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. I am currently working at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard as a research associate in the laboratory of Feng Zhang. I am helping to develop a genome-editing platform by harnessing the crazy genome rearrangement pathway found in ciliated protozoa. Genome editing, or the ability to change the DNA code of human cells, allows us to further understand complicated genetic diseases such as cancer and someday could be used in therapeutics. I am currently applying to PhD programs in Biochemistry and Biophysics and I hope to continue contributing to scientific discovery throughout my career. My interest in science developed as a kid through science fair projects such as designing a seashell filter to remove lead contamination from water or harnessing wind energy with a kite power system. As a New England Patriots Cheerleader, I enjoy being engaged in the community and connecting with many different people. It has also allowed me to share my passion for science with kids and to encourage them to follow their own dreams, whatever they may be!

Hilary: Medical Oncology
I graduated from Colgate University with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry. From there, I went on to do my PhD at Brown University in Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, which I defended in 2016. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School in William Kaelin’s lab. I am researching ways to selectively kill cancer cells based on the differences between cancer cells and normal cells. Currently, I am focusing on kidney cancer. I love my work, and I love getting people excited about it and about science in general (just like I loved getting the crowd excited as a cheerleader at Colgate!). I have been a regional coordinator with Science Cheerleader for almost five years, and one of my favorite things is watching young scientists get excited when they connect science to something they’re passionate about!

Kelly: Computational and Systems Biology

I graduated from Harvard with a degree in Engineering Sciences and I am now working on my PhD in Computational and Systems Biology at MIT.  Being a scientist, and being able to discover things that nobody else in the world knew until me, makes me incredibly happy.  I also like the fact that my research tries to answer “big questions” like understanding how our cells are capable of handling stress like starvation or temperature fluctuations.  Understanding protein folding and interactions in this context is like a big puzzle, and I am so lucky that I get to help fit a tiny piece of the puzzle into the whole. In both cheerleading and science, having passion for what you’re doing and having the self-confidence to do it are hugely important!  When you’re competing, there’s this saying to “leave it all on the mat” – do your best, don’t be afraid, believe that your stunts will hit, and give the performance of your life.  In science, loving what you do and not being afraid to do it are what will allow you to come up with completely new ideas that can reshape what we know about our world.

See you the AAAS Family Science Days in Boston!