Ainissa G. Ramirez

Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Yale University

Visiting Assistant Professor 2006-07; Visiting Associate Professor 2007-08

Hosted by the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Ainissa G. Ramirez is a self-proclaimed “Science Evangelist” and former Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University.

Bio

Ainissa G. Ramirez is a self-proclaimed “Science Evangelist” and former Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University. Her work includes the development of thin film NiTi shape memory alloys for microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS), as well as generating enthusiasm for STEM fields among young people.

Dr. Ramirez received her training in materials science and engineering at Brown University (ScB) and Stanford University (PhD). As a graduate student she was a science correspondent for Time magazine’s Washington D.C. bureau, which ignited her passion for communicating science. Before joining the faculty at Yale in 2003, she worked for four years as a member of technical staff at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies in New Jersey, where she developed a universal solder (a reactive solder that bonds to glass) for which she received MIT Technology Review's "100 Young Innovators" Award (2003). Her invention is now commercialized by Adhera Technologies, a company she founded.

At Yale, Dr. Ramirez founded and directed the award-winning science lecture series for children, "Science Saturdays," and hosted two popular-science video series, "Material Marvels" and "Science Xplained". She holds six patents and has written over 50 technical articles. Along with Allen St. John, Dr. Ramirez co-authored Newton's Football (Random House) and is the author of Save Our Science (TED Books), which is based on her TED talk about the importance of STEM education. She has been profiled in The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, CNN, NPR, ESPN, The Hartford Courant and scientific magazines like Scientific American and Discover Magazine.

As a leader in science education who is especially passionate about showing young people that “science is fun,” Dr. Ramirez has been advisor to several science museums--including the Liberty Science Center (Jersey City, NJ), the Boston Science Museum, and the Exploratorium (San Francisco, CA)--the American Film Institute, WGBH/NOVA, and Dragonfly TV. She has served on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Academy for Education and on Howard University’s CREST (Materials Center) Advisory Board.

Honors include: the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Yale Institute for Nanoscience Seed Award, Yale Elm-Ivy Award, the National Academy of Engineering 10th Annual Frontiers of Engineering Symposium Award, and Bell Labs President’s Gold Award.

Hosted by Professor Samuel Allen in MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Dr. Ramirez was both an MLK Visiting Assistant Professor and an MLK Visiting Associate Professor for two consecutive years. About her time at the Institute, she says: "This visiting position afforded me new collaborations in thin film shape memory research and the space to think about new directions. I expanded my research efforts by using equipment not available at my home institution; and, I expanded my pedagogy by witnessing exciting new courses in action. The electric environment and the magnitude of efforts I found at MIT encouraged me (or dare I say compelled me) to be more creative in my own research and educational pursuits. It was my awakening."

Video

As millions of viewers settle in to watch the [2012] Super Bowl, Yale scientist Ainissa Ramirez describes the physics behind the game and what gives a football its speed, drag and spin. Tune in now to this special Super Bowl edition of Science Xplained.

Q&A

TEDBlog: "Let’s fix science education: A Q&A with Save Our Science author Ainissa Ramirez"

How is it that science classes have become about memorization and filling in the right circle on a Scantron sheet, rather than about doing hands-on experiments and activities that reveal the wonder of the world around us? It’s a problem that Tyler DeWitt tackled in yesterday’s talk, “Hey science teachers — make it fun.” And it’s a warning bell that Yale professor Ainissa Ramirez has been sounding for a long time.

At TED2012, Ramirez talked about a crisis in education: The problems of our time require creativity and nonlinear thinking, and in the United States, students simply aren’t being prepared to come up with the solutions we’ll need. Now, in her new TED Book Save Our Science: How to Inspire a New Generation of Scientists, Ramirez shares what she sees as the best way to inspire new learners — a commitment to improving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. In the book, Ramirez takes a hard look at the cultural and historical reasons why STEM education has declined in the United States over the last few decades. Her plea: We need to bring it back.

Curious to hear more about what can be done to make STEM fun again, we asked Ramirez a few questions about her new TED Book.

What inspired you to write this book now?

There is a line in the poem On Crime and Punishment by Khalil Gibran that says, “He falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.”

As a scientist who has walked along this bumpy STEM pipeline, I wanted to leave clues and a map on how to navigate it. Save Our Science is the map. It’s not only for those within the pipeline, but also for the whole STEM ecosystem. Everyone feels helpless in this education crisis. Save Our Science is a manifesto to recharge and empower everyone. In it, I am acting as an on-the-ground Secretary of Education, attempting to help all Americans feel empowered to make change. This book spells out how we — teachers, parents, citizens, politicians — can use all the pieces that are working and arrange them in a way that will make the US a leader in STEM education again. It includes actions that individuals and groups can take to get the education system back on track.

Why is STEM education so vital?

First, most of the jobs of the 21st century will require people to be comfortable with science and math — not only the content and information, but the mindset that comes from these fields, such as trial-and-error and the skill of asking good questions.

Second, all the focus on testing is not allowing children to be children. That is, there are few opportunities for kids to explore something inspired by their curiosity, and few chances to get their hands dirty. Some might say that American childhood is under attack and with it all the key human development steps needed to make whole and healthy adults. STEM is like a training camp for key skills like encouraging curiosity and patience, and making friends with failure.

It has been shown that the ability to self-regulate — in other words, patience — is a better marker for success than IQ. There’s the famous marshmallow experiment, where children are given a marshmallow that they can eat now, or they’d get two if they wait 15 minutes. It was found that those who waited (less than 30% of them) actually did better in school. In this microwave era, STEM teaches children patience; you can’t rush an experiment. For example, try to quickly make rock candy from sugary water. You can’t! It takes time and requires patience. But it is so worth it! Learning to wait is a muscle that is lacking but important for human development. STEM provides human skills and virtues that will make our children successful down the road.

What key changes can we all make to improve STEM education?

Save Our Science suggests action items everyone can do to make STEM more fun and engaging. It could be a shop owner installing a 3D printer; or a mechanic having bike-repair nights in the neighborhood; or restaurants showing the chemistry of cooking. Parents can take stuff apart with their kids and learn together how things work. Show science videos at malls, in movie previews and at the dentist’s office. Of course, policymakers could learn more about what really works from other countries. The bottom line is, if we lather engaging STEM opportunities everywhere, we are going to change the cultural thinking about science.

I’ve seen it in my own town. I was having carpets cleaned in my home for Thanksgiving. The cleaning guy immediately recognized me from my science videos that play on the local cable channel in town. Our conversation moved from chitchat about the weather to an intense discussion of science. He talked about what he learned on the video, and then we started actually coming up with ideas for another video. He emphatically made suggestions. But that is not the point; the point is that he got it. He got that science was for him, and he could demand more, inspired by his curiosity. Science was part of his language now, and we were having a real conversation about real issues. Making science accessible and engaging is the first step to individual ownership of the concepts, and is the first step to making real change in STEM education.

How do you personally make STEM education more fun?

I am a STEM evangelist and try to make it fun in a number of ways. If I am at a cocktail party, I’m that person who will pull out a party trick. In my case, it is a small piece of memory wire that I store my wallet. This material changes its shape when you heat it with a match. If you want to see adults show childlike enthusiasm, this wire does it every time. After I show the wire demo, then I wait. Some people will be hooked and will ask what is going on. I’ll make analogies between atoms to members of a marching band, where each individual makes a small change, but the whole is a pronounced change. You can see this wire in action in this small TED-Ed video here.

As for younger people, at Yale I created a science lecture series for kids called Science Saturdays. Here, children get to learn about science from experts in an age-appropriate but not-dumbed-down way.

For a broader reach, I created a series of short science videos call Material Marvels, which have been seen all over the globe. I try to make science appealing with outlandish demonstrations (that often need a blowtorch), or make silly analogies — like that solar cells are sandwiches of silicon. These videos are playing on local television in my town, and I am surprised by their impact. When I go to the barbershop, gas station, or even at church, occasionally someone will come up to me to say they watched these videos. One woman recently said to me, “Hey, I saw you on TV doing science. I loved it, not because I know you, but because you made it fun. And I am an English major!” That is a huge testimonial to the impact of making science enjoyable and putting it where folks have access to it. People will come if you build it, and bring science to them in a way that is palatable.

In my classroom, I do some of the same outlandish demonstrations, but I also add lots of group discovery. Students learn better from their peers, so I’ll start a lesson and have an in-class assignment that they will do together. This is a less threatening approach for learning and, I’ve been told by my students, is fun.

Also, I’m an author. Right now I’m writing a book about American football through a science lens, called Newton’s Football, for Random House. With my collaborator, Allen St. John, we are using football as a model to describe the hot topics in science like chaos theory, the physics of football helmets, concussions, and other nuggets in a fun, big-think, non-preachy way. I think football fans will like a new way to look at the game, and non-football fans will gain a new point of entry to the game.

All in all, my joy is learning new things and translating what I’ve learned so that other people understand it too. In essence, I am acting as a science conduit and translate science so that it seems relevant to everyone. That is my mission, anyway.

Save Our Science is available for the Kindle and Nook, as well as through the iBookstore. Or download the TED Books app for your iPad or iPhone. A subscription costs $4.99 a month, and is an all-you-can-read buffet.

Publications

BOOK CHAPTERS:

"Crystallization and Microstructural Development" A.G. Ramirez et. al. in Thin Film Shape Memory Alloys Edited by S. Miyiazaki, Y. Q. Fu and W. M. Huang, Cambridge University Press, 2009.

PUBLICATIONS:

Magnetically-driven three-dimensional manipulation and inductive heating of magnetic-dispersion containing metal alloys, J.D. Calabro, X. Huang, B. G. Lewis, A. G. Ramirez, Proc. of the National Academy of Sciences  (March 1, 2010 Early Edition).
Evolution of mechanical properties with crystallization in NiTi thin film metallic glasses, X. Huang, J. San Juan, A. G. Ramirez; Scripta Materialia (submitted).
Structural Relaxation and Crystallization of NiTi Thin Film Metallic Glasses, X. Huang, A. G. Ramirez, Applied Physics Letters 95 (11) (2009) pp. 121911.
Effects of Film Dimension on the Phase Transformation Behavior of NiTi Thin Films, X. Huang, A. G. Ramirez, Applied Physics Letters 95 (11) (2009) pp. 101903.
On the Lateral Crystal Growth of Laser Irradiated NiTi Thin Films, A.J. Birnbaum, Y.L. Yao, U.-J. Chung and J.S. Im, X. Huang and A.G. Ramirez, Applied Physics Letters 94 (26) (2009) pp.261908.
Substrate Temperature Effects on Laser Crystallized NiTi Thin Films, A.J. Birnbaum, Y.L. Yao, U.-J. Chung and J.S. Im, X. Huang and A.G. Ramirez; Journal of Applied Physics Volume 105, Issue 7, pp. 073502-073502-10 (2009).
Crystallization of Amorphous NiTiCu Thin Films, Y. Xu, X. Huang, A. G. Ramirez, Journal of Alloys and Compounds Volume 480, Issue 2, (2009) pp. L13-L16.
Effects of Crystallization Temperature on the Stress of NiTi Thin Films, H. –J. Lee, X. Huang, K.P. Mohanchandra, G. Carman, A. G. Ramirez; Scripta Materialia 60 (2009) pp. 1133–1136.
Incomplete Martensitic Transformations in NiTi Thin Films, X. Huang, H. –J. Lee, A. G. Ramirez; Scripta Materialia, Vol. 59, (2008) pp. 1067-1070.
Nanoindentation of Ni-Ti Thin Films, P.D. Tall, S. Ndiaye, A.C. Beye, Z. Zong, W. O. Soboyejo H. –J. Lee, A. G. Ramirez and K. Rajan Materials and Manufacturing Process, Vol. 22, (2007) pp. 175-179.
Informatics for Combinatorial Experiments: Accelerating Data Interpretation, Stukowski, M. Suh, C.; Rajan, K.; Tall, P.D.; Beye, A.C.; Ramirez, A.G.; Soboyejo, W.O.; Benson, M.L.; Liaw, P.K. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings, v 894 (2006) p 301-306.
Crystallization of Amorphous Sputtered NiTi Thin Films, Hoo-Jeong Lee, Hai Ni and Ainissa G. Ramirez Materials Science and Engineering: A Vol. 438 (2006) pp. 703-709.
A Microstructural Map of Crystallized NiTi Thin Films Derived from in situ TEM Methods, Hoo-Jeong Lee, Hai Ni, David T. Wu, and Ainissa G. Ramirez, Materials Transactions, Vol.47 No.03 (2006) pp.527-531.
Grain Size Estimations from the Direct Measurement of Nucleation and Growth, Hoo-Jeong Lee, Hai Ni, David T. Wu and Ainissa G. Ramirez, Applied Physics Letters 87 (12) 2005 pp.124102-4.
Experimental Determination of Kinetic Parameters for Crystallizing Amorphous NiTi Thin Films, Hoo-Jeong Lee, Hai Ni, David T. Wu, and Ainissa G. Ramirez, Applied Physics Letters 87 (11) 2005 pp. 114102-5.
Compositional Effects on the Crystallization Kinetics of Nickel Titanium Thin Films, Hoo-Jeong Lee, Hai Ni, and Ainissa G. Ramirez, Journal of Materials Research 20 (7) 2005 pp.1728-1734.
A Robust Two-Step Etching Process for Large-Scale Microfabricated SiO2 and Si3N4 MEMS Membranes, Hai Ni, Hoo-Jeong Lee, and Ainissa G. Ramirez Sensors and Actuators A   119 (2005) pp. 553-558.
Combinatorial Studies for Determining Properties of Thin-Film Gold-Cobalt Alloys, Ainissa G. Ramirez and Ranjana Saha; Applied Physics Letters 85 (22), 2004 pp. 5215-5217.
Crystallization and Phase Transformations in Amorphous NiTi Thin Film for Microelectromechanical Systems, Hoo-Jeong Lee and Ainissa G. Ramirez; Applied Physics Letters   85(7) 2004 pp. 1146-1148.
Lead-Free Universal Solders for Optical and Electronic Devices, H. Mavoori, A. G. Ramirez, and S. Jin, Journal of Electronic Materials31(11), 2002 p. 1160-5.
Bonding Nature of Rare-Earth Containing Lead-Free Solders, Ainissa G. Ramirez, Hareesh Mavoori, and Sungho Jin, Applied Physics Letters Vol. 80, No. 3, 2002, p 398-400.
Universal Solders for Direct and Powerful Bonding on Semiconductors, Diamond, and Optical Materials  H. Mavoori, A. G. Ramirez, S. Jin, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 78, No. 10, 2001, p. 2976.
Intrinsic Stresses in Electroless Nickel Phosphorus Thin Films, A. G. Ramirez and R. Filas, Advances in Electronic Packaging, v 1, 2001, p 199-206.
Integration and Packaging of MEMS Relays, J. Kim, C. A. Bolle, R. A. Boie, J. V. Gates, A. G. Ramirez, S. Jin, D. J. Bishop, Proc. SPIE - Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. in Design, Test, Integration, and Packaging of MEMS/MOEMS editors: Courtois et. al. Vol. 4019, 2000, p.333-339.
Fabrication and Field Emission Properties of Carbon Nanotube Cathodes, C. Bower, O. Zhou, W. Zhu, A. G. Ramirez, G. P. Kochanski, S. Jin. Materials Research Society Proceedings, Vol. 593, p 215 in Amorphous and Nanostructured Carbon editors: J. P. Sullivan, J. Robertson, O. Zhou, T. B. Allen, B. F. Coll. 2000.
The Effects of Slider Material on the Gasification of Carbon, A. G. Ramirez, R. Sinclair, C. G. Harkins and A. R. Lin, Journal of Tribology, Vol. 124, No. 4, 2002, pp. 771-774.
Wear-Induced Modifications of Amorphous Carbon in the Presence of Magnetic Media, A. G. Ramirez, R. Sinclair, JAP, Vol. 85, No. 8, 15 April 1999, pp. 5597-5599.
Crystallization of Amorphous Carbon Thin Films in the Presence of Magnetic Media, A. G. Ramirez, T. Itoh, R. Sinclair, JAP, Vol. 85, No.3, 1 February 1999, pp. 1508-1513.
Wear Effects on the Microstructural Features of Amorphous-Carbon Thin Films, A. G. Ramirez, R. Sinclair, Surface & Coatings Technology, Vol. 94-95, 1997, pp. 549-554.
Carbon-Coated Sliders and Their Effect on Carbon Oxidation Wear, A. G. Ramirez, M. A. Kelly, B. D. Strom, and R. G. Walmsley, Tribology Transactions, Vol. 39, 3, 1996, pp. 710-714.