Kirsten "Kiki" Sanford is an American neurophysiologist and

science communicator Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...

. After working at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The inst ...

as a research scientist, she left research work to pursue a career in science communication. Her work has included multiple audio and video programs, including the '' This Week in Science'' radio program and podcast and '' Dr. Kiki's Science Hour'', a podcast involving interviews with experts in a given scientific field.

Personal life

Sanford was born in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...

and raised near Stockton, California. She holds a B.S. in conservation biology and Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology from U.C. Davis. She is a specialist in learning and memory. While attending graduate school at U.C. Davis, she found academic bureaucracy unappealing and decided to shift her career path from research to science communication. Sanford holds a black belt in

taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

. She says martial arts was "something concrete to escape to" when faced with research hardships during graduate school. Sanford lived in San Francisco with her husband until moving to Portland, Oregon in April 2015.

Science communication

Sanford, known as "Dr. Kiki," produces and appears in a number of science education programs. Sanford says of her work, "My shtick is: Dr. Kiki reaches out to people who don’t necessarily like science to get them to see it as something enjoyable. My goal is to get people who maybe flunked chemistry or didn’t do well on their science fair project to say, ‘This is really interesting.’" Sanford is the host and editor of the ''This Week in Science'' radio show/podcast, which she founded in 1999. ''This Week in Science'' is a weekly program formerly streamed live from the This Week in Tech Network (TWiT), and then rebroadcast from U.C. Davis'

KDVS KDVS (90.3 FM) is an American student and community radio station based in Davis, California. Featuring a freeform programming format, the station is owned by Regents of the University of California. Broadcasting at 13,000 watts, it is one of ...

, 90.3 FM. ''This Week in Science'' currently records every Wednesday night using Hangouts on Air which are streamed live on both Youtube and the ''This Week in Science'' live page. Starting in late 2007, Sanford expanded her work, starring in On Network's successful series ''Food Science''. The program explores the science of cooking as well as at-home experiments involving food. In 2008, she began co-hosting

Revision3 Revision3 was a San Francisco-based multi-channel television network that created, produced and distributed streaming television shows on niche topics. Founded in 2005, it operated as a subsidiary of Discovery Digital Networks since 2012. The ...

's variety show ''PopSiren''. ''PopSiren'' described itself as offering a "feminine perspective" on pop culture and technology. In May 2008, Sanford along with several other skeptics and scientists created a pilot for a TV series titled ''The Skeptologists''. The premise was that claimed experts in a field of

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable clai ...

or the

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

would present their claims, which would then be investigated by the team. On April 30, 2009, ''Dr. Kiki's Science Hour'' started broadcasting on TWiT.tv. The show, recorded live on TWiT, became a podcast with episode 24. Guests included scientists,

skeptics Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

, and science communicators such as astronomer

Phil Plait Philip Cary Plait (born September 30, 1964), also known as The Bad Astronomer, is an American astronomer, skeptic, and popular science blogger. Plait has worked as part of the Hubble Space Telescope team, images and spectra of astronomical objec ...

and neurologist

Steven Novella Steven Paul Novella (born July 29, 1964) is an American clinical neurologist and associate professor at Yale University School of Medicine. Novella is best known for his involvement in the skeptical movement as a host of '' The Skeptics' Guide ...

. The last episode aired on June 29, 2012. While at TWiT she also co-hosted ''Green Tech Today'', a show about environmentally friendly technology, and ''Science News Weekly'' a five-minute show. Sanford has produced and hosted various segments for

The Science Channel Science Channel (often simply branded as Science; abbreviated to SCI) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel features programming focusing on science related to wilderness survival, engineering, manu ...

's science program ''

Brink Brink or ''variant'', may refer to: Places * Brink, Virginia, United States * Brink, West Virginia, an unincorporated community, United States * Brink, Greenbrier County, West Virginia, a ghost town, United States * Brink (norra delen), a loca ...

''. In February 2015, Sanford launched a new company to help researchers and other scientists have better communication. The company, named ''Broader Impacts'', does video production and social media outreach.

Awards

In 2005, Sanford was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship, in recognition for her work with her radio show ''This Week in Science''. Through the fellowship she worked as a television news producer at

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo stati ...

News in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, alongside noted health and science reporter Max Gomez.

References

External links

The Bird's Brain
Sanford's blog
''This Week in Science''

''Dr. Kiki's Science Hour''

''PopSiren''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanford, Kirsten University of California, Davis faculty American physiologists American radio personalities American science writers Science bloggers American science journalists Women physiologists University of California, Davis alumni 1974 births Living people American women journalists American women bloggers American bloggers Women science writers Neurophysiologists TWiT.tv people 21st-century American women writers Science communicators