Felisa Wolfe-Simon: About

Long Resume/CV available here.

Proven track record of taking a scientific question from inception through to completion; beginning with an idea through fundraising, experiment design, laboratory bench work, multidisciplinary collaborations, data collection, data analysis, and finally communication through authoring papers, lectures and outreach.
20 years of hands on field and laboratory experience.
Led teams of students, postdocs, technicians and faculty to execute lab and field based work.
Extensive experience leading multidisciplinary and remote teams.
Designed experiments to solve problems in the environmental sciences with novel applications of biochemistry and molecular biology.
Integrated multidisciplinary data to solve large scale problems.

Published more than a dozen technical papers in journals including Science and PNAS.
Multimedia presentations for both academic (i.e. Columbia, Caltech) and lay audiences (i.e. TED, SFMOMA).
Teaching and outreach at the college and graduate level including Harvard and Stanford Universities as well as grade schools and community events.

Awarded federal grants totaling over $500K.
Organized and submitted 50 to 300 page length proposals complete with extensive budget considerations and teams of over 20 scientists.
Reviewer for major international grant competitions.

WRITING, COMMUNICATION & MANAGEMENT

Felisa Wolfe-Simon, Ph.D.

Management

Communication

Fundraising

Mentoring, Training and Supervising

Managed and organized teams of supervisors, colleagues and students to complete projects on time and within budget.
Coordinated more than 10 other highly diverse scientists across the globe to produce high-impact research and publications.
Supervised and mentored Ph.D. students who graduated from Harvard and ASU.
Supervised and mentored undergraduate students. All headed for graduate programs in science. One graduated cum laude from Harvard University under my guidance.
Supervised and mentored high school students all who have gone on to top ranking universities, including Stanford.
Designed, developed and taught scientific inquiry, oceanography and astrobiology coursework.
Trained international multidisciplinary scientists in Latin America for UNESCO/NASA.

Technical Writing and Scientific Communication

Authored more than a dozen academic papers and published results in high-impact peer-reviewed journals including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Geobiology, Plant Physiology, Phycology, Limnology and Oceanography, Biochemistry.
Reviewed and judged grant proposals for international agencies including the National Science Foundation, NASA and Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.
Co-raised over $8,500,000 as a result of successful grant awards from federal agencies (NSF, NASA). Led to sustained support of self and projects. Expanded ties to DOE.
Prepared, developed and presented over 30 invited presentations to audiences that range from the general public (TED, SFMOMA, Chabot Space & Science Center) to interdisciplinary scientists (U.S. National Academy, Royal Society, Gordon Research Conferences).
Highly develop skills in information synthesis and communication across disciplines and sectors.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Kavli Fellow from U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Faculty Member of the Year Award, NASA travel grant, Mills College Faculty Innovation Grant, Mills College Faculty Development Grant, NASA NAI DDF Award, International Symposium of Metallomics Young Scientist Award, National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in Award, Excellence Graduate Fellowship, Sigma Xi member, Hope Hibbard Scholarship in Biology, Leo S. Millar Prize in Biological Scholarship.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

University of California Berkeley, Lab Operations Manager @ Bakar Labs.

Mills College, Chan-Norris Distinguished Visiting Professor.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow.

United States Geological Survey, NASA Astrobiology Research Fellow.

Harvard University, NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology.

Arizona State University, NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology.

Rutgers University, Graduate Fellow, Graduate Assistant and Teaching Assistant.

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Oceanography, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

B.A. Biology (Chemistry), Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, OH.

B.M. Music Performance, Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, OH.

Selected Scholarly Publications:

J. Glass, A. Poret-Peterson, F. Wolfe-Simon and A. Anbar. (2013). Molybdenum limitation induces expression of the molybdate-binding protein Mop in a freshwater nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium. Advances in Microbiology. 3: 9-15. [pdf]

F. Wolfe-Simon, et al. (2011) A bacterium that can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus. Science. 332: 1163-1166. [pdf]

F. Wolfe-Simon, et al. (2011) Response to comments on “A bacterium that can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus”. Science. 332: 1149. [pdf]

D. Chauhan, I.M. Folea, C. Jolley, R. Kouil, C. Lubner, S. Lin, D. Kolber, F. Wolfe-Simon, J. Golbeck, E.J. Boekema & P. Fromme (2011). A novel photosynthetic strategy for adaptation to low iron aquatic environments. Biochemistry. 50: 686-692. [pdf]

M.B. Higgins, F. Wolfe-Simon, R.S. Robinson, Y. Qin, M.A. Saito and A. Pearson (2011). Paleoenvironmental implications of taxonomic variation among d15N values of chloropigments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 75: 7351-7363. [pdf]

J.B. Glass, F. Wolfe-Simon, J.J. Elser and A.D. Anbar (2010). Molybdenum–nitrogen colimitation in freshwater and coastal heterocystous cyanobacteria. Limnology and Oceanography. 55: 667–676. [pdf]

D.T. Johnston*, F. Wolfe-Simon*, A. Pearson, and A.H. Knoll (2009). Anoxygenic photosynthesis modulated Proterozoic oxygen and sustained Earth’s middle age. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106: 16925-16929. [pdf]

R.S. Oremland, C. Saltikov, F. Wolfe-Simon and J.F. Stolz (2009). Arsenic in the evolution of Earth and extraterrestrial ecosystems. Gemicrobiology Journal. 26: 522-536. [pdf]

F. Wolfe-Simon, P.C.W. Davies and A.D. Anbar (2009). Did nature also choose Arsenic? International Journal of Astrobiology. 8: 69-74. [pdf]

J.B. Glass, F. Wolfe-Simon and A.D. Anbar (2009). Coevolution of marine metal availability and photoautotrophic nitrogen assimilation. Geobiology. 7:100-123. [pdf]

P.C.W. Davies, S.A. Benner, C.E. Cleland, C.H. Lineweaver, C.P. McKay and F. Wolfe-Simon (2009). Signatures of a shadow biosphere. Astrobiology. 9:241-249. [pdf]

F. Wolfe-Simon, V. Starovoytov, J.R. Reinfelder, O. Schofield, and P. G. Falkowski (2006). Localization and role of manganese superoxide dismutase in a marine diatom. Plant Physiology. 142: 1701-1709. [pdf]

F. Wolfe-Simon (2006). The role and evolution of superoxide dismutases in algae. Ph.D. Dissertation. Rutgers Graduate Program in Oceanography. [pdf]

F. Wolfe-Simon, D. Grzebyk, O. Schofield, and P. G. Falkowski (2005). The role and evolution of superoxide dismutase in algae. Journal of Phycology. 41: 453-465. [pdf]

F. Wolfe, K. Kroeger and I. Valiela (1999). Increased lability of estuarine dissolved organic nitrogen from urbanized watersheds. Biological Bulletin. 197: 290-292. [pdf]