Noah Green

Transforming Complex Scientific Ideas into Engaging Experiences

Below is a short Bio video created for The Explorer’s Guide to Biology.

I received my bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Virginia and my PhD in biological sciences specializing in neuroscience from Vanderbilt University.

During my graduate career I studied how developmental photoperiod (the amount of light an organism receives during development) can affect the serotonergic system in the brain and affective behaviors in mice in Dr. Douglas McMahon’s lab. That is a very scientific way of saying that we were trying to figure out if changing the amount of light a mouse gets during development (in the womb and while growing into an adult) can affect the activity of serotonin neurons in the brain. Since serotonin is a neurochemical that is associated with mood in humans, we also wanted to know if there were changes in behaviors related to depression and anxiety in these mice. We found that a long photoperiod during development (16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness) increased the activity of serotonin producing neurons in the brain compared to a short photoperiod (8 hours of light and 16 hours of darkness) and an equinox photoperiod (12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness). We also found that this long photoperiod seemed to curtail depression and anxiety related behaviors compared to short and equinox photoperiods. These results sparked interest within the community on what other mood-related systems in the brain could be affected by photoperiod. Though I left the lab about a decade ago, the work continues and they are producing very interesting results.

While conducting my graduate research I became enthralled with the neuroscience behind how people learn and what the best evidence-based teaching practices were for conveying knowledge to those who wish to learn. Therefore, after I defended my dissertation, I split my postdoc between my graduate research lab and the Vanderbilt center for teaching, helping develop a suite of open-access online courses to train educators in evidence-based teaching practices.

This experience led me to start my own digital science and education consulting business once my postdoc was complete. Over the course of 5 years, I worked on 9 different grant funded or nonprofit projects aimed at improving undergraduate education, science communication, scientific training, and scientific professional development.

Then I decided to join one of the projects I had been working on as a consultant full time which is how I became the Associate Director of The Explorer’s Guide to Biology. My responsibilities on this project included: digital content development, scientific writing, author recruitment, funding acquisition, partner development and support, and outreach/marketing around the project goals.

After my time at the Explorer’s Guide I moved on to lead another science communication and outreach project at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute called Beautiful Biology. Beautiful Biology is an open science initiative that strives to engage the public, educators and students in the life sciences by utilizing microscopy and macrophotography images and videos as a hook to inspire a sense of awe and curiosity in users. This is a completely free and open access initiative allowing the public and educators access to high-quality research visuals, and accessibly written information about those visuals, for educational or entertainment purposes.

My responsibilities as head of the project are: develop and implement the overall strategic goals for the initiative, find and solicit visual content to host on the website (including acquiring and storing usage agreements for content from contributors outside the HHMI network), draft and refine accessibly written text that accompanies the visuals on the website and social media, manage the internal Beautiful Biology team as well as a large number of external contractors, develop and manage program partners, develop social media content for HHMI channels, manage the digital database, collaborate with other HHMI initiatives such as BioInteractive to create educator focused content on the website, manage outreach and promotion.

Unfortunately, I was part of a reduction in force at HHMI and therefore I am currently back to my consulting work. I am currently acting as a life science subject matter expert for Ohlinger Studios, helping to develop assessments for life science educators and students. I am also using AI-assisted coding to create interactive visualizations of large microscopy datasets (featured here).

Publications

  1. Winter WC, Hammond WR, Green NH, Zahng Z, Bliwise DL, Measuring circadian advantage in Major League Baseball: a 10-year retrospective study. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. 2009; 3: 394-401.
  2. Green, Noah H., Jackson, Chad R., Iwamoto, H., Tackenberg, Michael C. & McMahon, Douglas G. Photoperiod Programs Dorsal Raphe Serotonergic Neurons and Affective Behaviors. Current Biology. 2015; 25 (10): 1389-1394.
  3. Ran Ye, Meagan A. Quinlan, Hideki Iwamoto, Hsiao-Huei Wu, Noah H. Green, Christopher
    S. Jetter, Douglas G. McMahon, Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, Pat R. Levitt and Randy D. Blakely. Physical Interactions and Functional Relationships of Neuroligin 2 and Midbrain Serotonin Transporters. Frontiers of Neuroscience. 2015; 7: 20.
  4. Steven Wyler, William Spencer, Noah Green, Benjamin Rood, LaTasha Crawford, Caryne Craige, Paul Gresch, Douglas McMahon, Sheryl Beck, and Evan Deneris. Pet-1 switches transcriptional targets postnatally to regulate maturation of serotonin neuron excitability. Journal of Neuroscience. 2015; 36 (5): 1758-1774.
  5. Noah Green, Cynthia Brame, Douglas McMahon. Using Online Active Learning Techniques to Convey Time Compensated Sun Compass Orientation in the Eastern North American Monarch. Journal of Microbiology and Biological Education. 2016; 17(3): 430-435.
  6. Justin K. Siemann, Noah H. Green, Nikhil Reddy, Douglas G. McMahon. Sequential Photoperiodic Programing of Serotonin Neurons, Signaling and Behaviors During Prenatal and Postnatal Development. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 2019; 13.
  7. Justin K. Siemann, Piper Williams, Turnee N. Malik, Chad R. Jackson, Noah H. Green, Ronald B. Emeson, Pat Levitt, Douglas G. McMahon. Photoperiodic effects on monoamine signaling and gene expression throughout development in the serotonin and dopamine systems. Nature Scientific Reports. 2020; 10: 15437.
  8. Noah H. Green, Mike Walter, Brittany N. Anderton. The Explorer’s Guide to Biology: A Free Multimedia Educational Resource to Promote Deep Learning and Understanding of the Scientific Process. Journal of Microbiology and Biology Education. 2022; 23: e00257-21.
  9. Celine Young, Olivia M. Chesniak, Denise Drane, Henry Campa III, Noah Green, Robin Greenler, Jessica Middlemis Maher, Richard McGee, Antonio Nunez, Bennett B. Goldberg, Sarah Chobot Hokanson. Improving the design of an online course with virtual focus group feedback. F1000 Research. 2020; 9:1191
  10. Goldberg BB, Bruff DO, Greenler RM, Barnicle K, Green NH, Campbell LEP, Sandra L. Laursen, Matthew J. Ford, Amy Serafini, Claude Mack, Tamara L. Carley, Christina Maimone, Henry (Rique) Campa III. Preparing future STEM faculty through flexible teaching professional development. PLoS ONE. 2023; 18(10): e0276349.
  11. Alexandra M. Schnoes, Noah H. Green, Thi A. Nguyen, Ronald D. Vale, Sarah S. Goodwin, Shannon L. Behrman. Bridging gaps in traditional research training with iBiology Courses. PLoS Biology. 2024; 22(1): e3002458.
  12. Susanna Calkins, Anna Conway, Tazin Daniels, Regina F. Frey,Donald L. Gillian-Daniel, Bennett Goldberg, Robin McC. Greenler, Lucas B. Hill, Sarah Chobot Hokanson, Vanessa Johnson-Ojeda, Tershia Pinder-Grover, Sara Armstrong, Diamond Buchanan, Diane Codding, Schnaude Dorizan, Noah H. Green, Ivan A. Hernandez, Lisa Himelman, Tim Immelman, Omari W. Keeles, Haley Lewis, SuYeong (Sophie) Shin, Veronica Womack, Sara E. Woods, Alessandra M. York. Scaling Inclusive Teaching: A National STEM Teaching Initiative Centering Identity, Power, and Privilege. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 2024; 56(5), 31–40

Lectures and Presentations

  1. Noah H. Green, W. Christopher Winter. Associated Professional Sleep Societies: Annual Meeting: Poster: “Seasonal Effect on Apnea-Hypopnea Index and Continuous Positive Pressure Airway Level” Salt Lake City, Utah, June 2006.
  2. Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Vanderbilt University: Biological Sciences Annual Retreat: Poster: “Influence of the Molecular Clock on the Firing Pattern of Serotonergic Neurons in the Raphe Nucleus” Nashville, Tennessee, October 2011.
  3. Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Silvio Conte Center: Annual Symposium: Poster: “Influence of the Molecular Clock on the Firing Pattern of Serotonergic Neurons in the Raphe Nucleus” Nashville, Tennessee, October 2011.
  4. Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Vanderbilt University: Biological Sciences Annual Retreat: Presentation: “Melatonin’s role in the photoperiodic programming of serotonergic neuronal physiology and affective behaviors” Nashville, Tennessee, October 2012.
  5. Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Silvio Conte Center: Annual Symposium: Poster: “Melatonin’s role in the photoperiodic programming of serotonergic neuronal physiology and affective behaviors” Nashville, Tennessee, October 2012.
  6. Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Society for Neuroscience: Annual Meeting: Poster: “Melatonin’s role in the photoperiodic programming of serotonergic neuronal physiology and affective behaviors” New Orleans, Louisiana, November 2012.
  7. Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Rhythms in the Southeastern Region (RISER): Semi-Annual Meeting: “Melatonin’s role in the photoperiodic programming of the serotonergic system and affective behaviors” Birmingham, Alabama, May 2013.
  8. Noah H. Green, Chad R. Jackson Douglas G. McMahon. Silvio Conte Center: Annual Symposium: Poster: “The role of melatonin in the photoperiodic programming of the serotonergic system and affective behaviors” Nashville, Tennessee, October 2013.
  9. Noah H. Green, Chad R. Jackson Douglas G. McMahon. Society for Neuroscience: Annual Meeting: Nanosymposium: “Developmental Photoperiodic Programming of the Serotonergic System” San Diego, California, November 2013.
  10. Chad R. Jackson, Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Society for Neuroscience: Annual Meeting: Nanosymposium: “Serotonergic cell firing rates in the dorsal raphe nucleus are influenced by retinal function” San Diego, California, November 2013.
  11. Chad R. Jackson, Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Gordon Research Conference: Pineal Cell Biology: Presentation: “Retinal dopamine mediates multiple dimensions of light- adapted vision” Galveston, Texas, January 2014.
  12. Chad R. Jackson, Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. Northern Kentucky University: Presentation: “Seasonal light impacts retinal physiology” Highland Heights, Kentucky, February 2014.
  13. Noah H. Green, Chad R. Jackson Douglas G. McMahon. Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR): Semi-Annual Meeting: Poster: “Perinatal Photoperiod Affects the Serotonergic System” Big Sky, Montana, June 2014.
  14. Chad R. Jackson, Noah H. Green, Douglas G. McMahon. FASEB Summer Research Conference on Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing: Presentation: “Circadian light cycles influences retinal physiology and downstream brain loci” Saxtons River,
    Vermont, June 2014.
  15. Noah H. Green, Chad R. Jackson Douglas G. McMahon. Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR): Semi-Annual Meeting: Data Blitz Presentation: “Perinatal Photoperiod Affects the Serotonergic System” Big Sky, Montana, June 2014.
  16. Noah H. Green, Chad R. Jackson Douglas G. McMahon. Society for Neuroscience: Annual Meeting- Poster: “Perinatal Photoperiod Affects the Serotonergic System” Washington DC, November 2014.
  17. Noah H. Green, Cynthia Brame, Douglas G. McMahon. Vanderbilt Center for Teaching Celebration of Learning: Oral Presentation: “Using Online Active Learning Techniques to Convey Time Compensated Sun Compass Orientation in the Eastern North American Monarch” Nashville, Tennessee, May 2016.
  18. J.K. Siemann, N. Green, H. Iwamoto, D.G. McMahon. Investigating a critical period needed for perinatal photoperiod effects on the serotonergic system. Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA USA, November 2016.
  19. H. Campa III, B. Goldberg, D. Bruff, L. Campbell, N. Green, T. Mack, T. Carley, R. Mathieu, R. Greenler, and K. Barnicle. Beyond the campus: using massive open online courses (MOOCs) for advancing the use of evidence-based teaching practices across the nation/world. The Wildlife Society Annual Conference, Raleigh, NC, 2016.
  20. Siemann Justin K, Green Noah, McMahon Douglas G. Evaluating photoperiodic effects on the serotonergic system during a sensitive developmental period. International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, Hiroshima, Japan, June 2017.
  21. Alexandra Schnoes, Shannon Behrman, Nina Griffin, Daniel McQuillen, Elliot Kirschner, Elizabeth Cohon, Noah Green, Sarah Goodwin, Ron Vale. Planning Your Scientific Journey: An Innovative Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to Address Gaps in Life Science Training. Graduate Career Consortium, Houston, Texas, June 2017.
  22. Shannon Behrman, Alexandra Schnoes, Nina Griffin, Daniel McQuillen, Elliot Kirschner, Elizabeth Cohon, Noah Green, Sarah Goodwin, Ron Vale. Outcomes from a Novel Online Course, “Planning Your Scientific Journey”. GREAT Group and Postdoctorate Leaders Section Annual Professional Development Meeting, Orlando, Florida, September 2017.
  23. Gb Kim, Noah Green, Mike Walter. The Explorer’s Guide to Biology: Virtual Exhibit. Science Talks ’22. Virtual. March 2022.