Fanuel Muindi

Fanuel Muindi is a former neuroscientist turned civic science scholar-journalist and entrepreneur.

He is the Founder and Chief Resident of the Sai Resident Collective (SRC), a non-profit incubator that funds emerging civic science entrepreneurs to launch new ventures that connect science to society. Within the collective, he leads the Civic Science Media Lab which conducts investigative civic science journalism to interrogate and unravel ongoing progress and shed light on important issues across the field. The lab’s insights have been published in journals such as Nature Biotechnology, Trends in Molecular Medicine, SciDev, bioRxiv, Elsevier, and have also resulted in the launch of several platforms including SciReach, Journal of Stories in Science, and the lab’s flagship project, the Civic Science Television Network.

Dr. Muindi has also taught civic science entrepreneurship to graduate students and postdocs from around the world via the Sai Fellows Program which he also founded within the collective in 2018. Dr. Muindi received his Bachelor’s degree in Biology and PhD in Organismal Biology from Morehouse College and Stanford University respectively. He completed his postdoctoral training in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. His professional experiences include stints at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and Research!America.

At Northeastern, he is co-leading the development of a new effort called the Public Engagement with Science Hub (PESH).

Research/Publications Highlights

1. Muindi FJ. The Growing Imperative for Civic Science Journalism. Medium. 2023. https://medium.com/civic-science-times/opinion-the-growing-imperative-for-civic-science-journalism-fe920ee395a1
2. Muindi FJ, Holesovsky CM, Tsai JW. SAi: an experimental incubator for informal science learning
   initiatives. Trends in Cell Biology. 2022;32(7):557-560.
3. Houzenga HM, Muindi FJ. Distribution of the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM
   Learning Awards (AISL) between 2006-21. Scientific Communication and Education; 2022. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.02.18.480415v1.full
4. Mach RQ, Tsai JW, Muindi FJ. Evolving Structure and Diversity of Human Narratives in the Journal of
   Stories in Science. BioRxiv., 2020.12.08.417071. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.08.417071v1
5. Muindi FJ, Ramachandran L, Tsai JW. Human Narratives in Science: The Power of Storytelling. Trends
   Mol Med., 2020;26(3):249-251, 2020.
6. Tsai JW., Vanderford N., Muindi FJ. Optimizing the utility of the individual development plan for trainees
   in the biosciences. Nature Biotechnol 36, 552–553, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4155, 2018.
7. Muindi, FJ., Tsai, JW. Journeys in Science: Inspiring the Next Generation. Academic Press, Elsevier,
   ISBN: 9780128130902, 2017.