Moira Gunn is both an academic and a professional journalist. She is perhaps best known as the host of the public radio progra

its regular segment BioTech Nation, as well as the weekly tech-sci commentary, Five Minutes. It airs on the

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

"NPR Now" channel at SiriusXM 122, public radio stations both nationally and internationally, and the Internet in a number of podcast syndication outlet
podcast
A former NASA computer scientist and engineer, Dr. Gunn is an associate professor at the University of San Francisco, where she is the Director of Bioentrepreneurship, where her work on BioTech Nation dovetails with academic, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of moving scientific breakthroughs on the lab bench through to the commercial products. On Tech Nation, Gunn's focus has always been on the societal impact of technology and science, understanding the nature of innovation, and giving everyday listeners a sense of how to deal with the technological tsunami around them. The BioTech Nation segments, in particular, explore the new vision of humanity with afforded by the information of DNA, the evolution of medical treatments, the expanded capabilities of Digital Health, and the challenge of protecting individual privacy while the collective information of all may be necessary to address many of the challenges we face today. Media contact information is available on the Tech Natio

Academically, Bioentrepreneurship courses are throughout the university as they require the successful collaboration of multi-disciplinary expertise. This includes science, intellectual property, venture capital, bioenterprise finance, bioenterprise law, strategic market insights, regulatory expertise, biostrategic media relations, bioethics, bioenterprise information systems, social policy and multinational expertise. Gunn's graduate courses include: Legal-Social-Ethical Impact of Biotech, Global & US Regulatory Affairs, Bioinnovation Management, and Local-National-Global Bioenterprise, as well as study tours to leading global bioclusters, including Washington, DC, London-Oxford-Cambridge, Switzerland, Ireland/Northern Ireland, Australia, Montreal/Quebec, Puerto Rico and San Diego. A new course is scheduled for Spring, 2021 - Biotech's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Personal life

Moira Gunn was born on

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, and moved with her family to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

at the age of 10, settling in Menlo Park, just as

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

was becoming prominent, and Sand Hill Road was open space - now the haunt of world-renowned venture capitalists. Technology start-ups were everywhere, and even decades later, the Gunn family's bungalow on Santa Margarita Avenue was just three doors down from another modest home, this one owned by

Susan Wojcicki Susan Diane Wojcicki ( ; July 5, 1968 – August 9, 2024) was an American business executive who was the chief executive officer of YouTube from 2014 to 2023. Her net worth was estimated at $765 million in 2022. Wojcicki worked in the te ...

, who rented her garage to

Sergey Brin Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (; born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and businessman who co-founded Google with Larry Page. He was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on D ...

and

Larry Page Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American businessman, computer engineer and computer scientist best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin. Page was chief executive officer of Google from 1997 until August 2001 when ...

as Google's first office. Dr. Gunn currently lives in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Education

Dr. Gunn's degrees include a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from the University of San Francisco, a master's degree in computer science from Purdue University and a Doctor of Philosophy in mechanical engineering from Purdue. She was the first woman to earn a PhD in mechanical engineering from the university, where she more recently was awarded an honorary doctorate in science.

Career

Gunn's early career included work at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

on large-scale scientific computation and global communications, with special emphasis in infrared satellite image processing, computational fluid dynamics, and global climate and weather modeling. She also did work in

robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

engineering at

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Morton Thiokol Thiokol was an American corporation concerned initially with rubber and related chemicals, and later with rocket and missile propulsion systems. Its name is a portmanteau of the Greek words for sulfur () and glue (), an allusion to the company's ...

United Technologies United Technologies Corporation (UTC) was an American multinational corporation, multinational list of conglomerates, conglomerate headquartered in Farmington, Connecticut. It researched, developed, and manufactured products in numerous are ...

Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aerospace manufacturer with global service operations. It is a subsidiary of RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Pratt & Whitney's aircraft engines are widely used in both civil aviation (especially ...

Lockheed-Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North Bethesda, Mary ...

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

, and the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Honors

Dr. Gunn was awarded the ''Public Service Award to the Individual'' by the

National Science Board The National Science Board (NSB) of the United States establishes the policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF) within the framework of applicable national policies set forth by the President of the United States, president and the United ...

, for her contributions to the public understanding of science and engineering. Gunn was also awarded an honorary doctorate in science by Purdue University, url=https://www.cs.purdue.edu/news/articles/2009/gunn-phd.html, website=Purdue University, publisher=Purdue University, accessdate=24 March 2022, date=18 May 2009,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunn, Moira Living people American technology podcasters Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Journalists from Staten Island University of San Francisco faculty University of San Francisco alumni Purdue University alumni NPR Roboticists Infrared imaging Computational fluid dynamicists American women academics American women podcasters 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American journalists