Stories that connect art and discovery

Danielle Wood is an artist who uses ceramics to create installations and sculptures that abstract forms found in nature. She views the ocean as a metaphor for the subconscious and explores the dynamics of social relationships through her artwork. Her artwork is always made in relation to itself, and there are always multiples interacting with each other. In her installations, she is interested in creating spaces that surround the viewer and make them a participant in the surroundings by removing the artwork from the still pedestal and placing it in the viewer’s environment. Surrealism and creating a suspended liminal space much like the ocean is an inspiration for her.

Associate Dean of Research Initiatives, Support, and Engagement and Professor in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation at ASU. He also serves as the director of the Center for Innovation in Healthy & Resilient Aging. Dr. Coon designs and evaluates interventions, such as CarePRO (Care Partners Reaching Out) and EPIC (Early-stage Partners in Care), that focus on culturally diverse groups of midlife and older adults facing chronic illnesses (e.g., dementia, cancer, depression) and their family caregivers.

Denise Yaghmourian is a mixed media and installation artist who works with a variety of materials, including paper pulp, paint, thread, fabric, vinyl and found objects. Her works are hybridized forms, with methodological roots in past movements like Minimalism and Post-Minimalism, and a conceptual grounding in contemporary practices. The simplicity of her surfaces reveal a material-based sensibility. Conjoining the repetitive process inherent in machine-made items with laboriously repetitious handwork, Yaghmourian embraces the hypnotic and the meditative.

Derek Cridebring, Ph.D. is the Vice President, Molecular Medicine Division and Clinical Partner Relations at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen). He was born and raised in Phoenix and earned his B.S. in biochemistry at the University of Arizona. During his time at the UArizona he joined the Army Reserves and earned the distinction of Soldier of the Year of the 7220th Reserve Unit. After finishing his bachelor＊s degree, Dr. Cridebring attended Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, obtaining his Ph.D. for his work on the neurodegenerative disease ALS. Also, during his time in graduate school, his reserve unit was called to active duty and he served a year in Iraq as a Preventive Medicine Specialist during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Dr. Cridebring is a leader for TGen＊s most novel molecular medicine and early detection initiatives. He is responsible for surveying the global scientific landscape, nurturing collaborations with impactful goals and developing biopharma initiatives. Overseeing more than 250 trials and translational research strategies, he is heavily involved in coordinating strategic partnerships, including grants, philanthropy and commercializations.

Dr. Evan Darzi (U of Oregon, PhD 2016) is the CEO of Phoenix-based ElectraTect. Darzi performed a NIH funded postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA from 2017-2020. Working in collaboration with Dr. Garg at UCLA, Dr. Darzi co-authored four publications and was named an inventor on one patent and one provisional patent application. He received the prestigious UCLA Chemistry & Biochemistry Postdoctoral Research Award in 2019.

Dr. Frederic Zenhausern is Endowed Chair Professor, and Director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering – Phoenix, and Director of the Center for Applied NanoBioscience and Medicine (ANBM) at The University of Arizona College of Medicine- Phoenix. He is also Professor in Biomedical Engineering, Radiation Oncology, Clinical Translational Sciences, Translational Neurosciences and BIO5 Institute. Prior to joining The University of Arizona, professor Zenhausern was Director of the Center for Applied NanoBioscience at the Arizona State University’s (ASU) Biodesign Institute.