Kristina Yu: Staff Scientists

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.