Politics

Barack Obama’s Sister Maya Is Like Him, but Funnier

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Maya Soetoro-Ng is a local Oahu girl, a schoolteacher and the mother of a four-year-old girl, Suhaila. She’s also Barack Obama’s half-sister. Barack and Maya share the same mother, Ann Dunham, who died from ovarian cancer in 1995. Maya’s father was Indonesian.

(Photo by George Waialeale)

Soetoro-Ng has helped Obama campaign in Hawaii throughout the election process. Maya attended several fundraisers on his behalf, including two on Maui. One attendee to a Maui event reported that she is really smart, funny, down-to-earth and personable–a lot like her brother, but even funnier.

Soetoro-Ng teaches at La Pietra School for Girls, where she offers instruction in World Cultures to ninth graders, eleventh grade U.S. History and an elective called Peacemakers and Non-Violence for grades 9-12. She has been married for six years to Konrad Ng, a teacher in the University of Hawaii’s new film school and a Chinese-Canadian, who just gained his U.S. citizenship. Their family is, if nothing else, diverse.


Career, Science

“Ready, Set, Hire” in Nature

For junior faculty members and staff, hiring other researchers is an important way to boost career success. But without management training, it’s a guessing game.

For young scientists, hiring the first postdoc or lab tech is critical but daunting. In an article entitled “Ready, Set, Hire” in this week’s edition of Nature, I explore some of the issues around hiring, proven ways to deal with them, strategies to manage a research team. There are also links to free training in scientific management.