Suzanne Franks

Suzanne E. Franks is a chronically educated engineer, scientist, and feminist geek (B.S. engineering science, Pennsylvania State University; M.S. nuclear engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; women’s studies graduate certificate and Ph.D. biomedical engineering, Duke University; MEd secondary ed mathematics, Arcadia University). Franks has worked as a research associate at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg , Germany and the Fox Chase Cancer Institute in Philadelphia , PA. Her research focused on applications of magnetic resonance spectroscopy to the study of phospholipid metabolism and mechanisms of resistance to chemotherapeutics in cancer cells, particularly lymphoma and colon carcinoma. She has worked in the pharmaceutical industry and has held positions as medical writer and manager at Covance Clinical and Periapproval Services, Hoechst Marion Roussel, Quintiles, and Pharmion. Franks was the founding Director of the Women in Engineering and Science Program at Kansas State University. As director, she developed recruitment and retention programs for women in engineering and the sciences from the middle school through post-graduate levels. She helped bring a five-year NSF ADVANCE institutional transformation grant to K-State. Franks is an American Association of University Women (AAUW) Selected Professions Fellow and is a member of the AAUW, the Society of Women Engineers, the Association for Women in Science, the Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network, and several honors societies including Tau Beta Pi (engineering) and Pi Mu Epsilon (mathematics). She has numerous publications, conference presentations, and invited talks in her list of professional credits. Currently, she writes Thus Spake Zuska, a science, engineering and gender blog for Scienceblogs.com, published by Seed Media Group.