The Academic Minute for 2026.02.09-2026.02.13
Monday
Tomas R. Guilarte – Florida International University
Can We Detect Alzheimer’s Disease Decades Before Symptoms Start?
Tomás R. Guilarte, Ph.D., joined FIU in 2016 after serving as the Inaugural Leon Hess Endowed Chair Professor and Chairman of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) at Columbia University School of Public Health in the City of New York. Prior to Columbia University, he received his Ph.D. and was a professor with tenure in the EHS department at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health where in 2018 he was inducted into the prestigious Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars.
Tuesday
Robert Krencik – Houston Methodist Research Institute
Tiny Capsules, Big Hope: A New Tool to Repair the Brain From Within
Dr. Krencik received his PhD in neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and conducted research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California-San Francisco. At Houston Methodist, his research focuses on understanding the functional relationship of human astrocytes and neural networks in normal and injured states. His laboratory employs novel human pluripotent stem cell-based technologies to answer vital biological questions and to accelerate progress in promoting neuroregeneration in the human brain.
Wednesday
Pablo Moyano Fernandez – Washington University in St. Louis
Concrete, the Future for Affordable Housing
Pablo Moyano Fernández is an Associate Professor and founder of the Performative Concrete Hub (PCH). He brings extensive experience in architecture, having worked with international and national firms with a strong focus on construction. His teaching and research explore the performative qualities of concrete in building enclosures, structural systems, and other applications, leveraging innovative fabrication methods and novel concrete technologies.
Through advanced studios and seminars, he investigates concrete’s potential across multiple scales—examining its impact on design, assembly, formwork innovation, and architectural expression.
Thursday
Tara McAllister – New York University
High-Tech Help for Speech Therapy
Tara McAllister is a linguist and speech-language pathologist in NYU’s Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders. Her research aims to understand how speech skills are acquired in both typical and clinical populations, and why developmental speech patterns resolve in some children but persist in others. As director of the Biofeedback Intervention Technology for Speech (BITS) Lab at NYU, she has overseen multiple clinical trials measuring the efficacy of acoustic and ultrasound biofeedback in the treatment of speech sound disorder. Dr. McAllister is also active in technology development for speech therapy applications and oversees the team that released staRt, an iOS and web app to make biofeedback intervention widely accessible.
Friday
Akihisa Terakita – Osaka Metropolitan University
How Eye-Less Corals See the Light
Akihisa Terakita and Mitsumasa Koyanagi are Professors at Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Science with interest in photoreception.