Biography
Cara Santa Maria is an award winning journalist, science communicator, television presenter, producer, and podcaster. She moved from Texas, where she worked in academia, to Los Angeles to launch a career in science communication working on various mediums including television, podcast, radio, and news outlets. Some of them include: Neil deGrasse Tyson’s podcast Star Talk, FabLab on Fox, SoCal Connected on KCET, America’s Greatest Makers on TBS, Brain Surgery Live on NatGeo Channel, and Hacking the Planet to name a few. She also has published research spanning various topics including clinical psychological assessment, the neuropsychology of blindness, neuronal cell culture techniques, and computational neurophysiology.
Cara is the creator and host of a weekly science podcast called Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria which typically revolves around those involved in STEM fields. Cara also cohosts the popular Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, is a founding member of the Nerd Brigade, and cofounded the annual science communication retreat, #SciCommCamp.
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Fast Facts
- Earned a M.S. in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience from the University of North Tex
- Founding member of the Nerd Brigade and cofounded the annual science communication "unconference”; #SciCommCamp.
- Won a Los Angeles Area Emmy Award for a story about a citizen science insect labeling project at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
- Enjoys bringing her Celestron NexStar Evolution 8 on camping trips so she can observe deep sky objects. Her favorite are globular clusters like M5 and M13.
- Hosts star parties at her home in Los Feliz where she and her guests take turns marveling at the Moon, Saturn, and Jupiter (along with its Galilean moons).
- NexStar Evolution 8
- Cosmos 5 MP LCD Desktop Digital Microscope
- Nature DX 8x56 binoculars