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Polka was a founder of ASAPbio which began in 2015 after [[Ronald Vale|Ron Vale]] showed that [[University of California, San Francisco]] students were taking a long time to publish and proposed that [[Preprint|preprinting]] might mitigate the issue.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vale|first=Ronald D.|date=2015-07-11|title=Accelerating Scientific Publication in Biology|url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/07/11/022368|journal=bioRxiv|language=en|pages=022368|doi=10.1101/022368}}</ref> Vale recruited Polka, Daniel Colon-Ramos and [[Harold Varmus]] which led to the first ASAPbio meeting in February 2016 attended by scientists, representatives from funding agencies, journals and preprint servers.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://asapbio.org/meeting-information/attendees|title=Attendees (2016 preprint meeting)|work=ASAPbio|access-date=2018-08-15|language=en-US}}</ref> The meeting was featured in ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'',<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/02/the-rainbow-unicorn-trying-real-hard-to-transform-biology-publishing/|title=Biologists are working on a replacement for slow, stodgy peer review. It's a rainbow unicorn.|work=WIRED|access-date=2018-08-15|language=en-US}}</ref> the [[The New York Times|New York Times]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/science/asap-bio-biologists-published-to-the-internet.html|title=Handful of Biologists Went Rogue and Published Directly to Internet|access-date=2018-08-15|language=en}}</ref> and ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewen|last2=Powell|first2=Kendall|date=2016-02-16|title=Biologists urged to hug a preprint|url=https://www.nature.com/news/biologists-urged-to-hug-a-preprint-1.19384|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=530|issue=7590|pages=265–265|doi=10.1038/530265a|issn=0028-0836}}</ref> Polka began working full time at ASAPbio in 2016 after funding was granted from the [[Simons Foundation]], [[Sloan Foundation]], [[Arnold Foundation]], and [[Moore Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2016/06/20/foundations-announce-support-for-scientist-driven-effort-to-promote-use-of-preprints-in-the-life-sciences/|title=Foundations Announce Support for Scientist-Driven Effort to Promote Use of Preprints in the Life Sciences {{!}} Simons Foundation|website=www.simonsfoundation.org|language=en-US|access-date=2018-08-15}}</ref>
Polka was a founder of ASAPbio which began in 2015 after [[Ronald Vale|Ron Vale]] showed that [[University of California, San Francisco]] students were taking a long time to publish and proposed that [[Preprint|preprinting]] might mitigate the issue.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vale|first=Ronald D.|date=2015-07-11|title=Accelerating Scientific Publication in Biology|url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/07/11/022368|journal=bioRxiv|language=en|pages=022368|doi=10.1101/022368}}</ref> Vale recruited Polka, Daniel Colon-Ramos and [[Harold Varmus]] which led to the first ASAPbio meeting in February 2016 attended by scientists, representatives from funding agencies, journals and preprint servers.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://asapbio.org/meeting-information/attendees|title=Attendees (2016 preprint meeting)|work=ASAPbio|access-date=2018-08-15|language=en-US}}</ref> The meeting was featured in ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'',<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.wired.com/2016/02/the-rainbow-unicorn-trying-real-hard-to-transform-biology-publishing/|title=Biologists are working on a replacement for slow, stodgy peer review. It's a rainbow unicorn.|work=WIRED|access-date=2018-08-15|language=en-US}}</ref> the [[The New York Times|New York Times]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/science/asap-bio-biologists-published-to-the-internet.html|title=Handful of Biologists Went Rogue and Published Directly to Internet|access-date=2018-08-15|language=en}}</ref> and ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Callaway|first=Ewen|last2=Powell|first2=Kendall|date=2016-02-16|title=Biologists urged to hug a preprint|url=https://www.nature.com/news/biologists-urged-to-hug-a-preprint-1.19384|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=530|issue=7590|pages=265–265|doi=10.1038/530265a|issn=0028-0836}}</ref> Polka began working full time at ASAPbio in 2016 after funding was granted from the [[Simons Foundation]], [[Sloan Foundation]], [[Arnold Foundation]], and [[Moore Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2016/06/20/foundations-announce-support-for-scientist-driven-effort-to-promote-use-of-preprints-in-the-life-sciences/|title=Foundations Announce Support for Scientist-Driven Effort to Promote Use of Preprints in the Life Sciences {{!}} Simons Foundation|website=www.simonsfoundation.org|language=en-US|access-date=2018-08-15}}</ref>


In 2016 Polka was described in the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' as an "agent of change" because she explains how junior researchers can increase the impact of their work. For instance ASAPbio encourages preprints within biology.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Gewin|first=Virginia|date=2016-10-26|title=Agents of change|url=https://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7626-543a|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=538|issue=7626|pages=543–545|doi=10.1038/nj7626-543a|issn=0028-0836}}</ref> ASAPbio tries to mitigate the effect of lengthy waiting times before publications are reviewed and published. Physics, computer science and maths have already adopted preprints. In 2017 Polka was interviewed for [[PLOS|PLOScast]] about her work.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://blogs.plos.org/plospodcasts/2017/10/24/episode26/|title=How ECRs like Jessica Polka are reinventing science publishing {{!}} PLOScast|date=2017-10-24|work=PLOScast|access-date=2018-08-14|language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2016 Polka was described in the journal ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' as an "agent of change" because she explains how junior researchers can increase the impact of their work. For instance ASAPbio encourages preprints within biology.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Gewin|first=Virginia|date=2016-10-26|title=Agents of change|url=https://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7626-543a|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=538|issue=7626|pages=543–545|doi=10.1038/nj7626-543a|issn=0028-0836}}</ref> ASAPbio tries to mitigate the effect of lengthy waiting times before publications are reviewed and published. Physics, computer science and maths have already adopted preprints. She has also taken an interest in sexual harassment at work.<ref name="MedicineAffairs2018">{{cite book|author1=National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine|author2=Policy and Global Affairs|author3=Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine|coauthors=Committee on the Impacts of Sexual Harassment in Academia|title=Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uyZnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR12|date=1 September 2018|publisher=National Academies Press|isbn=978-0-309-47087-2|pages=12–}}</ref> In 2017 Polka was interviewed for [[PLOS|PLOScast]] about her work which contributes to the changing way that science is published.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://blogs.plos.org/plospodcasts/2017/10/24/episode26/|title=How ECRs like Jessica Polka are reinventing science publishing {{!}} PLOScast|date=2017-10-24|work=PLOScast|access-date=2018-08-14|language=en-US}}</ref>


=== Awards and honors ===
=== Awards and honors ===

Revision as of 13:34, 16 August 2018

Jessica Polka
File:Jessica Polka.jpg
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJ. K. Polka
Alma materUniversity of California, San Francisco (BS)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ( (PhD)
AwardsScience Careers People of the Year (2015)
Harvard Medical School Office for Postdoctoral Fellows Outstanding Service Award (2015)
Scientific career
InstitutionsASAPbio
Whitehead Institute
Harvard Medical School
ThesisDiversity in the bacterial cytoskeleton: Assembly, structure, and cellular mechanisms of AlfA, a plasmid segregating actin from B. subtilis (2015)
Doctoral advisorDyche Mullins
Other academic advisorsPamela Silver
Websitejessicapolka.com

Jessica Polka is a biochemist and the Director of ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in biology), a non-profit initiative promoting innovation and transparency via preprints and open peer review.[1] Polka is quoted in articles in Nature and Science.

Education

Polka received a BS in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007. She obtained a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco under the supervision of Dyche Mullins in 2012.[2]

Career

In 2013 Polka became a research fellow in the department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School with Pamela Silver as advisor.[3] She was also held a visiting scholar at the Whitehead Institute in Massachusetts. Polka conducted research in the assembly, function, and applications of protein polymers in bacteria, such as membrane-breaking protein needles called R bodies.[4] Polka's work on R bodies was discussed in the American magazine The Atlantic,[5] and covered by the American Chemical Society.[6] Polka discovered that carboxysome, a protein organelle in cyanobacteria, grows like a crystal until it is coated by a layer of shell proteins.[3]

Negatively stained electron micrograph of purified R bodies in their extended (low pH) state, taken by Polka.

Polka was co-chair of the American Society for Cell Biology's COMPASS (Committee for Postdocs and Students) between 2013-2014.[2]

Improving research culture

Polka is on the steering committee for Rescuing Biomedical Research, an initiative to discuss solutions to problems addressed in the April 2014 PNAS article entitled Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws.[7][2]

Polka is recognised as having insight into issues surrounding open peer review, preprint and early career progression, and has been quoted in numerous articles by Nature and Science on these topics.[8][9][10][11][12][13] In 2015 Polka and Viviane Callier wrote an article for the careers column in Nature where they argue that funding agencies should support more than 16% of postdocs through fellowships. This would allow postdocs to "strike out away from the beaten path [and] will bring fresh ideas and approaches to the table".[14]

Future of Research

Polka was one of the organisers of the first Future of Research Symposium in Boston in 2014. She was on then executive committee until she became President of the Board of Directors in 2016.[15] Polka is involved in creating debate amongst early-career scientists about the financial, historical and political influences on academic research. Future of Research was awarded the People of the Year award in 2015 by Science journal for their "efforts to empower early-career and aspiring scientists...".[16] In order to raise funds to support the 2015 Boston meeting, Future of Research sold “Riffraff” T-shirts that satirise a 2014 comment by Steven McKnight, president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology criticising the current generation of young scientists.[17]

ASAPbio

Polka was a founder of ASAPbio which began in 2015 after Ron Vale showed that University of California, San Francisco students were taking a long time to publish and proposed that preprinting might mitigate the issue.[18] Vale recruited Polka, Daniel Colon-Ramos and Harold Varmus which led to the first ASAPbio meeting in February 2016 attended by scientists, representatives from funding agencies, journals and preprint servers.[19] The meeting was featured in Wired,[20] the New York Times,[21] and Nature.[22] Polka began working full time at ASAPbio in 2016 after funding was granted from the Simons Foundation, Sloan Foundation, Arnold Foundation, and Moore Foundation.[23]

In 2016 Polka was described in the journal Nature as an "agent of change" because she explains how junior researchers can increase the impact of their work. For instance ASAPbio encourages preprints within biology.[24] ASAPbio tries to mitigate the effect of lengthy waiting times before publications are reviewed and published. Physics, computer science and maths have already adopted preprints. She has also taken an interest in sexual harassment at work.[25] In 2017 Polka was interviewed for PLOScast about her work which contributes to the changing way that science is published.[26]

Awards and honors

References

  1. ^ "About ASAPbio". ASAPbio. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Bio: Jessica Polka - Rescuing Biomedical Research". Rescuing Biomedical Research. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  3. ^ a b "Jessica Polka - Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund". Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  4. ^ "Jessica Polka • iBiology". iBiology. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  5. ^ Yong, Ed (2016-02-17). "Biologists Steal Nanospear Technology From Bacteria". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  6. ^ "Punchy proteins could help advance drug delivery, MEMS devices (video) - American Chemical Society". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  7. ^ Alberts, Bruce; Kirschner, Marc W.; Tilghman, Shirley; Varmus, Harold (2014-04-22). "Rescuing US biomedical research from its systemic flaws". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111 (16): 5773–5777. Bibcode:2014PNAS..111.5773A. doi:10.1073/pnas.1404402111. ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 24733905.
  8. ^ "NIH tweaks plan to award more grants to younger researchers". Science | AAAS. 2017-12-15. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  9. ^ McKenzie, Lindsay (2017-06-16). "Biologists debate how to license preprints". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2017.22161. ISSN 1476-4687.
  10. ^ "New fellowship aims to increase diversity in the life sciences". Science | AAAS. 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  11. ^ Callaway, Ewen (2017-04-26). "BioRxiv preprint server gets cash boost from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative". Nature. 545 (7652): 18–18. doi:10.1038/nature.2017.21894. ISSN 0028-0836.
  12. ^ Smaglik, Paul (2016-02-24). "Activism: Frustrated postdocs rise up". Nature. 530 (7591): 505–506. doi:10.1038/nj7591-505a. ISSN 0028-0836.
  13. ^ Dolgin, Elie (2016-11-30). "Big biology projects warm up to preprints". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.21074. ISSN 1476-4687.
  14. ^ Callier, Viviane; Polka, Jessica (2015-12-02). "Fellowships are the future". Nature. 528 (7580): 155–156. doi:10.1038/nj7580-155a. ISSN 0028-0836.
  15. ^ "Board of Directors". Future of Research. 2016-04-30. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  16. ^ "People of the Year: Future of Research's postdoc activists". Science | AAAS. 2015-12-17. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  17. ^ "What well-dressed riffraff are wearing this season". Science | AAAS. 2015-05-11. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  18. ^ Vale, Ronald D. (2015-07-11). "Accelerating Scientific Publication in Biology". bioRxiv: 022368. doi:10.1101/022368.
  19. ^ "Attendees (2016 preprint meeting)". ASAPbio. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  20. ^ "Biologists are working on a replacement for slow, stodgy peer review. It's a rainbow unicorn". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  21. ^ "Handful of Biologists Went Rogue and Published Directly to Internet". Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  22. ^ Callaway, Ewen; Powell, Kendall (2016-02-16). "Biologists urged to hug a preprint". Nature. 530 (7590): 265–265. doi:10.1038/530265a. ISSN 0028-0836.
  23. ^ "Foundations Announce Support for Scientist-Driven Effort to Promote Use of Preprints in the Life Sciences | Simons Foundation". www.simonsfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-08-15.
  24. ^ Gewin, Virginia (2016-10-26). "Agents of change". Nature. 538 (7626): 543–545. doi:10.1038/nj7626-543a. ISSN 0028-0836.
  25. ^ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Policy and Global Affairs; Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (1 September 2018). Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. National Academies Press. pp. 12–. ISBN 978-0-309-47087-2. {{cite book}}: |author2= has generic name (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ "How ECRs like Jessica Polka are reinventing science publishing | PLOScast". PLOScast. 2017-10-24. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  27. ^ "2017–2018 Honor Roll of Giving - Morehead-Cain". Morehead-Cain. 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  28. ^ "The $5,000 ASCB Kaluza Prize—And The Winner Is… - ASCB". ASCB. 2013-11-20. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  29. ^ "Jessica Polka - Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund". Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
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