Kiki Sanford

Personal life Sanford was born in Santa Rosa, California and raised near Stockton, California. She holds a B.S. in conservation biology and Ph.D. in Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology from U.C. Davis. She is a specialist in learning and memory. She says martial arts was "something concrete to escape to" when faced with research hardships during graduate school.

Science communication

Sanford, known as "Dr. Kiki," produces and appears in a number of science education programs. Sanford says of her work, "My shtick is: Dr. Kiki reaches out to people who don't necessarily like science to get them to see it as something enjoyable. My goal is to get people who maybe flunked chemistry or didn't do well on their science fair project to say, 'This is really interesting.'" In 2008, she began co-hosting Revision3's variety show PopSiren. PopSiren described itself as offering a "feminine perspective" on pop culture and technology.

In May 2008, Sanford along with several other skeptics and scientists created a pilot for a TV series titled The Skeptologists. The premise was that claimed experts in a field of pseudoscience or the paranormal would present their claims, which would then be investigated by the team.

On April 30, 2009, Dr. Kiki's Science Hour started broadcasting on TWiT.tv. The show, recorded live on TWiT, became a podcast with episode 24. Guests included scientists, skeptics, and science communicators such as astronomer Phil Plait and neurologist Steven Novella. The last episode aired on June 29, 2012. While at TWiT she also co-hosted Green Tech Today, a show about environmentally friendly technology, and Science News Weekly a five-minute show.

Sanford has produced and hosted various segments for The Science Channel's science program Brink.

In February 2015, Sanford launched a new company to help researchers and other scientists have better communication. The company, named Broader Impacts, does video production and social media outreach.

Awards In 2005, Sanford was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship, in recognition for her work with her radio show This Week in Science. Through the fellowship she worked as a television news producer at WNBC News in New York City, alongside noted health and science reporter Max Gomez.