
Moira Gunn, PhD
Host, TechNation+BioTech Nation
Dr. Moira Gunn is both a professional journalist and an academic. She is best known as the host of Tech Nation, and its regular segment BioTech Nation, on domestic and global public radio networks, with numerous podcasting venues, including NPROne, Apple, Spotify, Pandora and Stitcher. In biotech, Gunn is approaching some 1,000 interviews with biotech CEO’s, chief scientists, and global industry leaders, each year airing some 50 new interviews. Topics range from emerging biopharmaceuticals and biomedical devices to networked digital healthcare. A former NASA computer scientist and engineer, Dr. Gunn is also a professor at the University of San Francisco, where she is the Director of Bioentrepreneurship (BioE). Her BioEcourses are accessible across the university to both science and non-science graduate students alike. To be sure, these two endeavors overlap: On the Academic side, it is reflected in the Bioenterprise Innovation Expertise Model and several Science-Business Media Models, all published in the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology; on the Communications side, her focus is on communicating the process and promise of Bioentrepreneurship to mainstream audiences.
The National Science Board has awarded Gunn its Public Service Award to the Individual for her contributions to “Increasing the Public Understanding of Science and Engineering”, while her book, “Welcome to Biotech Nation: My Unexpected Odyssey into the Land of Small Molecules, Big Ideas, and Lean Genes” was named to the Library Journal’s Annual Best Book List. After several degrees in Computer Science, Dr. Gunn was the first woman to receive a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, where she was ultimately awarded an honorary doctorate in Science.