Dr. Daphne Oluwaseun Martschenko (she/hers) is an Assistant Professor at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and former co-organizer of the Race, Empire, and Education Research Collective. Her scholarship identifies novel ways to examine and enhance the ethical and socially responsible conduct, translation, and interpretation of human genetic research. 

Daphne is passionate about fostering public and community engagement with controversial scientific research. She has appeared in the New York Times and on numerous podcasts including Freakonomics Radio. You can also find her work in outlets such as Scientific American and The Conversation. In 2023, Daphne was named one of 10 Scientists to Watch by ScienceNews, and in 2024 she was recognized by Scientist Spotlights Initiative as a science role model to students learning science.

Currently, Daphne is writing a book with her friend and colleague Sam Trejo, a quantitative social scientist interested in how social and biological factors jointly shape human development across the life-course. In The Acid We Inherit, they unpack various social, ethical, and policy issues related to the DNA revolution. 

In a former life, Dr. Martschenko was an internationally competitive rower, representing the United States at the Under-23 World Championships twice. She became the first Black person to ever compete in the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race in 2015 and was President of Cambridge University Boat Club in 2018. Nowadays when she’s not investigating the ethical, legal, and social implications of human genetics, you can find her at the yoga studio, in the garden with her husband Ali, or with their cat Sassy.