If you aren’t familiar with Stephanie Curley, chances are you at least know her dog, Yeti.

An English cream golden retriever, Yeti is one of the most popular dogs on campus, racking up more than 1,100 likes on Union’s Dogs of Instagram.

“He loves making friends with everyone,” says Curley, the Mary H. '80 and Richard K. Templeton '80 Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering. “I’m sure that more people know him than me, because my students take him for walks around campus.”

Yeti is not the only love of Curley, who joined Union in 2022. She’s also a huge fan of everything Disney – the parks, the movies, the songs. As a child, her grandparents lived in Fort Lauderdale, so she would go to Disney World every year when she visited them.

“I grew up when all of the movies were being re-released on VHS, and so they took up a large part of my childhood,” said Curley. “My first movie-theater movie was ‘The Lion King.’ I love the ingenuity and creativity of the Imagineers, integrating engineering and humanities (I am a Templeton faculty, after all!) and the teamwork involved to make the magic happen.”

Curley received a B.S. in biological engineering at Cornell University and a Ph.D. in nanoscale engineering from the University at Albany. She did postdoctoral training in biomedical engineering at Cornell. During her time at both institutions, she authored multiple peer-reviewed publications and attained numerous awards, including an Innovation Corps award from the National Science Foundation with her Cornell colleagues.

Last spring, she presented at the Materials Research Society meeting, where she won best poster in her symposium and was nominated for best overall poster. This fall, her abstract was accepted to the Biomedical Engineering Society’s annual meeting.

Curley’s research is focused on drug delivery and immunoengineering, specifically development of novel vaccines and drug carriers.

She was recently awarded an Engineering Research Initiation grant by the National Science Foundation for her project titled “Evaluation of the Immune Response to Lyme Disease Antigens Using Bacterially-Derived Outer Membrane Vesicles.” This work is directed toward studying the impact of Lyme disease proteins on the immune response using a novel carrier system called outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). It aims to provide guidance for better understanding and tailoring the immune response to Lyme disease, with the long-term goal directed toward development of a vaccine.

Curley grew up in Millbrook, N.Y., a small village in Dutchess County. The actor Liam Neeson was a neighbor. She now lives not far from campus, in Niskayuna.

FIRST APP YOU LOOK AT IN THE MORNING:

My clock app, so I can turn off my alarm! Next up is usually my mail, to check for any research lab emergencies.

THE LAST GREAT BOOK YOU READ:

I avoid reading non-fiction as much as possible because I have to read a lot of journal papers for my research. I just finished the “Inheritance Games” series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, and it was excellent. I love books that answer all of the readers’ questions and tie up the ending into a nice little bow. I have a Goodreads account, so feel free to follow me and see what I find interesting!

BEST ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED:

Whenever you feel like you’re torn between two decisions, and you don’t know which one to make, flip a coin. When it’s in the air, you’ll be rooting for one of the options. Regardless of how the coin lands, pick the choice you were rooting for.

WHAT ARE YOU WATCHING RIGHT NOW:

Halloween movies (not scary ones) for the spooky season. Just watched the new “Haunted Mansion” movie and “Hocus Pocus.” Next up are “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” the “Halloweentown” series and a Scooby Doo marathon.

ONE SKILL YOU WISH YOU HAD:

Gymnastics/the ability to do a backflip. I think I could do anything I put my mind to, but I do not think my body was built for flips.

THREE DINNER PARTY GUESTS (living or deceased):

First would have to be Robert (Bob) Langer. He’s widely considered to be the father of drug delivery and tissue engineering, two massive fields in biomedical engineering. He’s also my post-doc grandpa (my postdoctoral advisor, Dave Putnam, was a postdoc under Bob), and I’ve heard so many great things about him personally. It would be amazing to sit down and talk to Bob about research, science and his life.

Second would be Walt Disney. Being able to sit down with the man who started it all to discuss the changes to the parks and animation since he died would be something extraordinary.

Third would be my man Robert Downey Jr. Because he is Iron Man.

FIRST CONCERT:

Brad Paisley at Bethel Woods in 2007. One of his opening acts was just a girl and her guitar…I’m not sure, but some people may have heard of her? I think her name was Taylor Swift.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT YOU:

I am a huge fan of dressing up in costume. I used to be an actor during my youth at a local haunted house where I grew up. I have a nearly $1,000 outfit that I wear for Renaissance festivals, and I have been known to go all out for Halloween.

FAVORITE UNION MEMORY/EXPERIENCE:

During my first year, I invited my post-doc advisor Dave to come give a talk at Union. He was an undergraduate student here during the time of Union University, which included a pharmacy school. He had never seen the inside of the Nott Memorial before,and he was dying to check it out, so we did. It was also my first time seeing the inside of the Nott! Dave’s absolute joy and experiencing that together was something I’ll never forget.

ONE THING YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT:

My Order of the Engineer Ring. It’s one of the few pieces of jewelry I have been able to keep for as long as I have (11 years). I almost lost it on campus last year during the ESC 100 demo days but was able to find it when I retraced my steps from the Nott.