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Joanne Pavlak

As a child, Pavlak was aware that the sky was big and wondered if it ever ended. In her reachable, touchable world, she looked at details, collected 'specimens' and played with worms. As an adult, Pavlak worked in the Biological Sciences Department at USC and gained a basic understanding of nature's complex systems, and through an electron microscope, saw the secret world of organisms and plants. She still looks at details, collects specimens, star gazes and imagines beyond the visible.