We're celebrating Women's History Month by highlighting female scientists! Each Friday of the month on the blog (also featured on our Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn), we'll feature a new female scientist whom we have named one of our animal ambassadors after to honor them and allow our visitors to learn about scientists of all kinds. In this blog we are highlighting Dax Ovid; learn about their work and accomplishments below!
Dax Ovid (they/she) is a biology and data science education researcher who studies interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning for STEM graduate and undergraduate students. Dax's work strives to identify challenges that impede systemic pedagogical innovation in the sciences and investigate inclusive practices in higher education that foster belonging. Their research aims to expand the defining features of "being a scientist" in the 21st century for current and future scientists. Dax has a B.A. in Integrative Biology, a B.A. in Italian Studies, and a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology all from the University of California, Berkley.
Dax has joined the University of Georgia, Athens, College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology to support the new undergraduate program in Biomedical Physiology and leads the CORPUS Education Lab. The CORPUS Education Lab stands for "Collaborative Opportunities for Research in Physiology and Under/Graduate Science,” conducting Discipline-Based Education Research. They work across the academic pathway and are open to exploring all levels of schooling (formal and informal, curricular and extra-curricular) to meet community needs, support our whole selves, and fulfill undergraduate and graduate student interests and motivations.
Dax has a variety of publications, recent ones include She Blinded Me with Science: Post-Curriculum and the New Scientific Education in the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (2022) with Zeus Leonardo, and Idwi, Xenopus laevis, and African clawed frog: Teaching counternarratives of invasive species in postcolonial ecology in The Journal of Environmental Education (2022) with Fortunate Mafeta Phaka.
Interested in learning more about Dax Ovid? Visit https://vet.uga.edu/person/dax-ovid/! Come back next Friday for a blog where you can learn about another female scientist whom we have named one of our animal ambassadors after to honor them and allow our visitors to learn about scientists of all kinds.