Faculty Profiles
Adam Hall
Adam Hall earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from University of Cambridge, U.K., and his doctorate in biochemistry from the Imperial College of Science and Technology at the University of London. His laboratory research investigates the molecular mechanisms of anesthetic action in the mammalian nervous system.
In the 2013 Summer Science and Engineering Program, Hall will teach the neurobiology course Making Connections: An Exploration of the Nervous System. Using sophisticated microscopes, SSEP students will examine the cells of the nervous system and the neuroanatomy of the brain. Through laboratory experiments, they will explore how neurons function at multiple levels: molecular, cellular and in living organisms. Hall is currently the director of the neuroscience program and an associate professor of biological sciences at Smith College.
Leslie Jaffe
Dr. Leslie Jaffe is director of Health Services and college physician at Smith College. In addition to providing care to the students, he also teaches two courses at Smith: one looking broadly at women's health and the other focusing on women in India, including Tibetan women living there in exile. The latter is a small seminar of five students who travel to India with Jaffe for a month to learn experientially what they have already studied. Previously, Jaffe served as director of the Adolescent Health Center of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, the largest clinic for teens in the country. He is a board-certified pediatrician and did his fellowship training in adolescent medicine at Mount Sinai. Continuing his work and interest with adolescents, Jaffe has taught in the Smith Summer Science and Engineering program for many years.
Meg Thacher
Meg Lysaght Thacher has worked as a laboratory instructor in the astronomy department at Smith College since 1999; she has also taught physics and writing at Smith. She received her bachelor of arts in physics from Carleton College and her master of science in astrophysics from Iowa State University. She taught astronomy for five years in Smith's Summer Science and Engineering Program before becoming its academic director.
Naila Moreira
Naila Moreira is a writing counselor at the Smith College Jacobson Writing Center and a lecturer in the English department, specializing in science writing. Her science and environmental journalism and nature essays have appeared in The Boston Globe, Science News, The Seattle Times, The Common Online, and other venues. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and her doctorate in geology from the University of Michigan.
During the 2013 Summer Science and Engineering Program, Moreira will teach a writing course titled Narrative and Imagination in Science: a Workshop for Writers. SSEP students will learn how to look at the natural and research worlds as attentive observers, melding scientific knowledge with creative expression to create their own essays, newspaper articles and poems.
Kaitlin Okamoto
Katlin Okamoto has been teaching in the Smith College Exercise and Sport Studies Department since 2009. She teaches and assists with courses including Applied Exercise Science, Introduction to Exercise and Sport Studies, Exercise Physiology, and Biomechanics for both undergraduate and graduate students. Okamoto received her Masters of Science in Exercise and Sport Studies from Smith College and Bachelors of Arts in Biology from Colorado College. In addition to her teaching role, she is an Assistant Women's Soccer Coach at Amherst College and is involved in youth development research, particularly in the sport for development field.
Katherine Taylor Halvorsen
Katherine Halvorsen is chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Smith and has taught statistics at Smith College since 1989. She has also taught in professional development workshops for high school teachers of statistics since 1997. She has a strong interest in developing students’ research skills, and all of her introductory statistics students work on research teams to write a research proposal, apply for IRB approval (where necessary), collect and analyze data, and present their results in posters, talks and/or research papers. She has regularly taught special studies in statistics and directed several summer projects in statistical consulting that have included collaborations with Smith faculty in several departments and with local businesses and town committees.
