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Samantha Yammine

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Samantha Yammine
NationalityCanadian
Alma materUniversity of Toronto (PhD)
Occupation(s)Science communicator, neuroscientist
Websitesamanthayammine.com

Samantha Yammine is a Canadian neuroscientist and science communicator. She completed her PhD in 2019 at the University of Toronto.

Education

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Yammine earned her PhD in the Department of Molecular Genetics researching in Derek van der Kooy's neurobiology lab at the University of Toronto.[1][2] She investigated activation and quiescence of neural stem cells and the fate specification of their progeny using clonal lineage tracing and single cell transcriptomics strategies.[3][4][5][6]

Career

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Yammine is a science communicator. On social media, she goes by the name Science Sam. Her primary platform is Instagram, where she shares photographs, neuroscience news and facts, and items pertaining to daily life as a scientist.[7][8]

In August 2017, she joined a group of science communicators to launch the Scientist Selfies project, a crowd-funded experiment using social media to test whether scientists sharing science through selfies on Instagram are rated differently in terms of warmth, trustworthiness, and competency.[9][10][11] Using the hashtag "#ScientistsWhoSelfie", the international and interdisciplinary team raised over $10,000 and collected over one thousand images from across the world.[12] Yammine was given a bursary as an 'emerging producer' by the World Congress for Science and Factual Producers in 2017.[13] She was an invited speaker at the 2018 USA Science and Engineering Festival and the 2018 Science Writers and Communicators of Canada.[14][15]

In March 2018, Science magazine published a personal essay by a PhD candidate that critiqued academia's readiness to celebrate Yammine's and others' use of Instagram as a way to correct for systemic gender biases in STEM fields.[16][17] Yammine and three coauthors replied with a letter in Science the following month.[18][19]

With co-producers Shawn Hercules, Geith Maal-Bared, Daniel Celeste, and Carrie Boyce, she created the event Science is a Drag, during which scientists give lip sync performances and speak about their scientific research while wearing drag. The first event was held in Toronto in 2019 with support from the Royal Canadian Institute.[20] In March 2019, Yammine and television host Pierre-Yves Lord conducted an interview of Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques live while he was at the International Space Station.[21][22]

Beginning in January 2020, Yammine began publishing short videos on the science of COVID-19.[23][24] The following year Toronto Life magazine named her "The Covid queen of TikTok" for her videos covering "big-picture concepts" concerning COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates in Ontario. The magazine reported that her videos on social media were viewed more than five million times a month and that she was the "go-to Covid news source for the TikTok gen."[23] She is one of the spokespersons for ScienceUpFirst, a science communication initiative aiming at reducing the impact of COVID-19 misinformation online.[25][26]

Selected publications

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  • Paige Brown Jarreau, Imogene A Cancellare, Becky J Carmichael, Lance Porter, Daniel Toker, Samantha Z Yammine. 2019. Using selfies to challenge public stereotypes of scientists. PLoS ONE; 14(5): e0216625. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216625.
  • Samantha Z Yammine, Christine Liu, Paige B Jarreau, Imogen R Coe. 2018. Social media for social change in science. Science; 360(6385): 162-163. doi:10.1126/science.aat7303.
  • Rachel L Reeve, Samantha Z Yammine, Cindi M Morshead, Derek van der Kooy. 2017. Quiescent Oct4 + Neural Stem Cells (NSCs) Repopulate Ablated Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein + NSCs in the Adult Mouse Brain. Stem Cells; (9): 2071-2082. doi: 10.1002/stem.2662.
  • Samantha Yammine. 2020. Fight coronavirus misinformation. Nature; 581: 345-346.

References

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  1. ^ "Derek van der Kooy Lab | Neurobiology | Research University of Toronto". sites.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  2. ^ "PhD Research". Samantha Yammine (Science Sam). Retrieved 2019-10-29.
  3. ^ Reeve, Rachel L.; Yammine, Samantha Z.; Morshead, Cindi M.; van der Kooy, Derek (September 2017). "Quiescent Oct4+Neural Stem Cells (NSCs) Repopulate Ablated Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein+NSCs in the Adult Mouse Brain". Stem Cells. 35 (9): 2071–2082. doi:10.1002/stem.2662. ISSN 1549-4918. PMID 28733998.
  4. ^ "My PhD Research". samantha yammine. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  5. ^ Reeve, Rachel L.; Yammine, Samantha Z.; DeVeale, Brian; van der Kooy, Derek (2016). "Targeted activation of primitive neural stem cells in the mouse brain". The European Journal of Neuroscience. 43 (11): 1474–1485. doi:10.1111/ejn.13228. ISSN 1460-9568. PMID 26946195. S2CID 6554773.
  6. ^ Samantha Y (2016-10-28), Samantha Yammine OIRM Pitchfest 2016 Audition, retrieved 2018-04-09
  7. ^ "Meet the PhD student who makes science accessible through social media". CBC Radio. 2018-03-18. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  8. ^ Krishna, Yasmin (2018-06-30). "Science Sam discusses discrimination in STEM and Instagram as a tool for science communication". Syfy Wire. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  9. ^ "This U of T PhD student is fostering public trust in science, one selfie at a time". University of Toronto News. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  10. ^ "To Selfie or Not to Selfie - How Can Scientists Foster Public Trust on Instagram?". Experiment - Moving Science Forward. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  11. ^ Qaiser, Farah (2019-05-09). "How Scientists Are Using Selfies To Challenge Stereotypes". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  12. ^ "Building trust in scientists one selfie at a time | University Affairs". University Affairs. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  13. ^ "World Congress of Science & Factual Producers". www.wcsfp.com. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  14. ^ "Science Writers and Communicators of Canada - 2018 Program". sciencewriters.ca. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  15. ^ "Samantha Yammine | USASEF". USASEF. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  16. ^ Wright, Meghan (2018-03-14). "Why I don't use Instagram for science outreach". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  17. ^ Chen, Angela (2018-03-16). "Scolding female scientists for embracing Instagram doesn't solve the gender gap in STEM". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
  18. ^ Yammine, Samantha; Liu, Christine; Jarreau, Paige B.; Coe, Imogen R. (2018-03-18). "Social media for social change in science". Science. 360 (6385): 162–163. doi:10.1126/science.aat7303. PMID 29650665.
  19. ^ Strapagiel, Lauren (2018-04-23). "These Women Scientists Refuse To Stop Taking Selfies For Science". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 2019-08-06.
    Burgess, Kaya (2018-04-25). "Rise of lab 'cutie' provokes storm in a Petri dish". The Times. Retrieved 2019-08-07.
  20. ^ Brown, Desmond (5 July 2022). "'Island boy and hot girl': McMaster valedictorian speaks on homophobia and how to be authentic". CBC News. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  21. ^ Harvey-Pinard, Katherine (22 March 2019). "David Saint-Jacques répondra aux questions de personnalités Web". Le Courrier du Sud (in French). Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  22. ^ "Astronaut David Saint-Jacques answers questions from social media personalities". Canada.ca. 22 March 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  23. ^ a b "The 50 Most Influential Torontonians of 2021". Toronto Life. 18 November 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  24. ^ Ebrahim, Nadia; Singh, Katherine; Shea, Courtney. "The 29 Game-Changers Who Made The World Better In 2021". Refinery29. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  25. ^ "Who are ScienceUpFirst". ScienceUpFirst. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  26. ^ Norman, Pippa (5 July 2022). "Debunked: Common COVID-19 booster myths". North Shore News. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
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