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About

Hi, I'm Darrell

I’ve spent my career turning emerging science and technology into shared experiences where people can discover, create, and ask big questions together. It all started after watching way too much science fiction as a kid, then training as a neuroscientist at Bowdoin and Stanford. I originally trained as an electrophysiologist working with lobsters, later joining an epilepsy lab to research genetic knockout mice. After years of lab work, I realized my most fulfilling moments weren’t in the lab, but in Palo Alto classrooms, telling stories and answering middle schoolers’ questions about the human brain. Those moments reminded me of the wonder I felt visiting museums as a kid, and I knew that was where I wanted to go next after finishing my Ph.D.

I started at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science as a post-doc and eventually rose to become Chief Technology Officer. With the help of some amazingly creative developers and designers, we quickly grew the technology group from building K-12 interactives to creating new exhibits, websites, and apps. While at the museum, I was incredibly proud to have co-founded Howtosmile.org, which has grown into the web’s largest free collection of STEM activities. I also led the creation of apps that took learning beyond museum walls, bringing science and health experiences to millions of learners in their homes. I secured major grants from the NSF, NIH, NASA, and IMLS to fund these projects and my team’s innovative work. This period was a time of rapid professional growth for me, meeting lifelong collaborators and beginning partnerships with consequential national networks that deepened my work in the science museum world.

While at the Lawrence Hall of Science, I began my work with the National Informal STEM Education (NISE) Network, serving as a thinking partner at its inception before becoming the regional hub leader for California and the Southwest. Much like my work with Howtosmile.org, I found instant alignment in the network’s powerful approach of using multi-institution teams and shared development to create practical resources that museums and educators could pick up and use immediately. I carried this mindset to my new role of Director of STEM Networks at the Children’s Creativity Museum, joining the NISE Network’s management team for the NASA-funded Space and Earth Informal STEM Education project. Together, we distributed hundreds of hands-on activity kits and exhibitions, reaching millions of learners with NASA science.

Darrell, a bearded instructor, kneels on the floor holding a launch tube while a young girl stomps on an air bladder during a science workshop.

Working at a museum with creativity at its core broadened my horizons, revealing how individuals and communities can amplify their imagination to navigate complexity. I incorporated more storytelling and art into STEM learning experiences for space science and wireless technology, and had a chance to give back to my home in San Francisco by collaborating with local artists to use AR technology to bring downtown neighborhood narratives to life. This focus on creativity also guided my return to neuroscience, where I co-founded the NISE Network’s Changing Brains initiative and began working closer with the Institute for Neuroethics Think & Do Tank (IoNx). Developing engagement experiences with the neuroethics and legal experts of IoNx has resulted in new tools for global dialogue with partners in Japan and the EU, highlighting and inviting discussion on the gray areas at the frontiers of brain science and technology.

Today, I focus my energy on the question of ‘what’s next,’ applying futures thinking to my continued neuroscience engagement work with IoNx and communities throughout the world, exploring AI with the NISE Network and other museums, and developing methods at the Children’s Creativity Museum for art and imagination to empower us all to create a more responsible future. In some ways, I never stopped being inspired by the science fiction of my youth. If you want to talk to me about any of these projects or ideas on these pages, please contact me below.

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Photo credits

Many of the photos on this website showing people interacting with hands-on activities or exhibits are Creative Commons licensed images from the NISE Network, and can not be reused for commercial purposes or without attribution. In many cases these photos were taken by Emily Maletz over the years for various NISE Network projects and meetings. Apart from the photos listed in the detailed photo credits below, all other photos on this website page are provided by me and cannot be reused without permission. 

Homepage

  • Slider: 2 panel image with peoplen working with space activities, Emily Maletz for the NISE Network; people with AR Mars, Emily Maletz for Sciencenter; and 2 panel of people dong outdoor activities, Emily Maletz for the Lawrence Hall of Science (top) and NISE Network (bottom).
  • Two children holding a tablet, Emily Maletz for the Lawrence Hall of Science
  • Adult pointing to a illustration for a child, Brad Herring for BSCS Making Waves with Radio
Work page
  • Adult and children working with a wi-fi router, Emily Maletz for BSCS Making Waves with Radio
  • Whispers in the Wind screenshot, Wilma Miranda for BSCS Making Waves with Radio
  • Two children with AR Earth, Emily Maletz for Sciencenter;
  • I Got This screenshot, Jerrold Connors for the Lawrence Hall of Science
  • Adult and child with a frozen orb, Emily Maletz for the NISE Network
  • Collage for howtosmile.org, individual photos are from Emily Maletz for the Lawrence Hall of Science
  • Exhibit overhead shot, Science Museum of Minnesota for the NISE Network
  • Adults and children working with a wi-fi router, Emily Maletz for BSCS Making Waves with Radio
Writing+Talks page
  • Adults and kids using a strainer, Marbles Kids Museum / Tierney Farrell for the NISE Network
  • Children play a game, Emily Maletz for the NISE Network;