STEM Shoutout: Dr. Judy Cannon
Dr. Judy Cannon awarded as a 2018 Women in STEM winner
Dr. Judy Cannon, an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology with a secondary appointment in the Department of Pathology, and Dr. Melanie Moses, an Associate Professor in UNM Computer Science with a secondary appointment in the UNM Department of Biology, have been named 2018 Women in STEM award winners for their research on swarms.
Swarms are a very important part of nature, Cannon said, as they are known to complete complex tasks. Swarms of insects, cells, and even people in social media interact in similar ways.
“We are interested in using immune cells interacting to clear infection as a model to understand how swarms interact,” Cannon said.
Cannon works as principal investigator in The Cannon Laboratory to understand how this behavior of T-cells affects immune responses in living organisms. Cannon hopes that her research on how immune cells behave will help predict how other types of swarms interact and cooperate within their systems.
Cannon and Moses have also have earned a research grant from the National Institutes of Health and a grant from the Air Force Research Labs to continue their research.