Meet Some Staff Scientists

Luigi Anzivino wants to live in a world where people can learn by doing in messy, unusual, and inventive ways, without fear of failure. With that aim in mind, he works as a content developer in the Tinkering Studio, where he helps design, prototype, and facilitate hands-on making activities.

After 24 years of formal education culminating in a PhD in behavioral neuroscience, Luigi discovered informal education, constructionism, and tinkering; he never looked back to academia. In his work at the Exploratorium, Luigi focuses on developing, documenting, and sharing rich learning experiences, with the goal of creating a physical, cultural, and social space that is safe for trying out tentative ideas, not knowing the right answer, and developing the skill of posing—even more than solving—interesting problems.

Isabel Hawkins grew up in Córdoba, Argentina, where the beauty of the night sky and a childhood visit to the Planetario charted the course of her career as an astronomer and science educator. Before joining the Exploratorium in 2009, she spent 20 years as an astrophysics researcher and science educator at the University of California, Berkeley, Space Sciences Laboratory.  Isabel’s work at the Exploratorium is focused on NASA, NSF, and museum-funded efforts related to Latinx audience engagement, such as Solar Eclipse, GENIAL: Generating Engagement and New Initiatives for All Latinos, and Cambio, a professional development approach for building Latinx-focused cultural competence in museums. Through cultural astronomy, she fosters science pluralism by making visible the cultural roots of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The Astronomical Society of the Pacific bestowed on her the prestigious Klumpke-Roberts Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy, an honor that she shares with fellow awardees Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Julieta Fierro, and Tim Ferris, among others. Isabel is also a consultant for the Smithsonian Institution, a volunteer coordinator for the YAKANAL, Indigenous Youth Cultural Exchange program, and a 2018 to 2022 Fulbright US Global Scholar. Her interests include salsa and bachata dancing, yoga, drawing Maya classic period glyphs, and the study of native languages.

Sebastian Martin grew up in a small town in Germany with a rich tradition in toy making, and he attributes his interest in learning through experimentation and play to this early experience. Before coming to the United States, he studied earthquakes in the Chilean Andes, satellite imaging in the boreal forests of Ontario, and physics and math in Erlangen, Germany. He earned a PhD in geophysics from the University of Potsdam. Throughout his studies, he retained a playful approach to science and research, and he developed interactive exhibits at Phenomenta, a science center dedicated to inquiry and direct contact with phenomena. In 2005 he joined the Exploratorium, where he found a happy symbiosis among science teaching, playing, and making things. An exhibit developer at the museum, Sebastian also enjoys teaching physics and interactive design at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University.

Bay Area native Hilleary Osheroff is the Teacher Institute’s Staff Biologist and resident expert in carbon-based life forms. She holds a PhD in neurobiology and developmental biology from the Rockefeller University. Before joining the Exploratorium, she taught high school students at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where she learned a lot about evolution and phylogenetics; worked with paleontologists, conservation biologists, and anthropologists to provide research experiences for students; and was generally swept off her feet by teaching science in museums.

Her favorite things in San Francisco include the Bernal Hill hawks, Ocean Beach, sea lions, dumplings on Balboa, burritos on Mission, and her two small children.

Robert Semper coordinates the museum’s overall content-related R&D development and manages the institution’s relations with the external science, education, and funding communities. His areas of responsibility include the museum’s science and art development, public understanding of research activities, and creative application development. He provides oversight for the Museum Experience, and has also guided the development of the award-winning Exploratorium website. Rob is the author of many journal articles and invited papers, and he has been the principal investigator on projects that include developing new Internet resources, experiments using technology to enhance the museum visitor experience, and programs for teachers and museum educators. Awards include AAAS Fellow, 2006, and the NSTA 2006 Faraday Science Communicator Award. Before joining the Exploratorium in 1977, Rob taught physics and conducted solid state and nuclear physics research. He received his PhD in solid state physics from the Johns Hopkins University.

Rob Semper's CV

A Southern California native, Desiré earned an AS from Antelope Valley College, a BS in chemical engineering from UCLA, and an MS and PhD in chemical and material physics from UC Irvine. Her research focused on developing very fast laser and microscope systems that could capture molecules vibrating and rotating in real time. She was a postdoc at UC Berkeley, where she designed and built attosecond lasers (the fastest laser pulses, which emit x-ray light, ever measured). At the Lawrence Hall of Science she wrote an all-digital K–8 science curriculum (Amplify Science), which aligned to the NGSS, with the Learning Design Group (LDG). Desiré left LDG to teach hands-on laser technology and physics courses at Irvine Valley College before joining the TI staff. She is the proud mom of Stella, a four-year-old boxer-pit mix. In her spare time, Desiré is restoring her 1967 VW bug.

Kristina Yu is the Director of the Exploratorium’s Living Systems Department. In this position, she oversees the biology laboratory and the staff who support the Exploratorium’s unique collection of life sciences exhibits, and she has curatorial oversight over the collection. The laboratory includes the Microscope Imaging Station (MIS), a facility that allows museum visitors to control research-grade microscopes to explore living biological samples and provides high quality imagery for educators. Kristina also collaborates with researchers in the San Francisco Bay Area, and she is building an archive of microscopic movies and images that are available on the Web. She earned a PhD in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Kristina spent her childhood on her parents’ organic pear farm in rural northern California.