Atom Lesiak

Background

About Atom Lesiak

I am a scientist and educator, usually both. I strongly identify as multi-passionate, and am an experienced game and activity designer, edu-tainer, speaker, group facilitator, mentor, advocate, and program manager. As the Director of Genome Sciences Education and Outreach at University of Washington, I develop lessons, games, and activities for science education. I also design equitable and inclusive professional development trainings and conduct education research. I conduct DEI and mentor trainings for faculty and trainees, and serve as a mentor in many capacities. I am an active member of the Faculty Allies leadership council and provide career advice and coaching for trainees across campus. As a laboratory scientist, I studied the brain for 15 years from various angles, measuring human brainwaves, animal behavior, neuronal function, and gene expression in vitro and in vivo. My expertise is in using a plethora of tools to understand brain function, having utilized viral-mediated gene expression, cell-types specific gene expression analysis (RiboTag), measuring signaling pathway dynamics, pharmacology, and neuronal morphology measurements. Most of my career has been in academic environments, but outside the laboratory I regularly volunteered for with the Pacific Science Center, and done advocacy work for the LGBTQ community.