October Science Cafe: Some Mathematical Characters, Crackpots and Crazies - Dr. Charles Groetsch

Our next Science Cafe will be this upcoming Tuesday, October 23, at 7pm at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble.

Dr. Charles Groetsch, the Traubert Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Citadel in Charleston, SC, will speak on the topic of

"Some Mathematical Characters, Crackpots and Crazies" 

 
Are mathematicians different than other people? Are they crazier or just eccentric? Is there a mathematical personality? Is mathematics hazardous? Are mathematicians a danger to society? No answers to any of these questions are offered in this talk. My purpose is to illustrate, in the lives of some famous (and infamous) mathematicians, instances where breathtaking talent and creativity co-existed with astonishing wackiness, doleful tragedy, or dangerous fanaticism. 

From the SIAM website: "His main teaching interest is the integration of mathematics, history and physical science in the classroom. He is the author of several books, some of which have been published in Japanese and Chinese language editions, and numerous research papers in this area."

On November 27, Dr. Mark Monmonier of Department of Geography and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University will speak about his new book, "Lake Effect: Tales of large Lakes, Arctic Winds and Recurrent Snows", and we will have a book signing immediately afterwards.

As always, refreshments will be provided courtesy of a NASA grant, and ASL interpretation available for our deaf and hard of hearing guests. We hope to see everyone there.

Fall 2012 Science Cafes announced

It is my pleasure to announce the fall schedule for the Rochester Science cafe, now entering its fourth year. We have an exciting run of visiting speakers ready for the fall, and hope to see everyone there starting in a week. As always, Cafes will be held on the fourth Tuesday of each month, in the Community Room of the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble, starting at 7pm, with refreshments provided and ASL interpretation available for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Here is the lineup for the fall:


September 25: Dr. Beverly Berger
Former head of the National Science Foundation's Gravitational Physics Division

Title: Vignettes from Einstein's Theory of General Relativity: Examples of How Science Progresses

Abstract: I will briefly discuss up to five examples from Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. In each case, as appropriate, I will discuss the problem or issue, a (possibly funny) story from my own experience, the resolution or breakthrough, and the current state-of-the-art. The focus will be on lessons learned for the progress of science with the approach (I hope) cultural rather than technical.
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On October 23, Dr. Charles Groetsch, the Traubert Chair of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Citadel in Charleston, SC. From the SIAM website "His main teaching interest is the integration of mathematics, history and physical science in the classroom. He is the author of several books, some of which have been published in Japanese and Chinese language editions, and numerous research papers in this area."


On November 27, Dr. Mark Monmonier of Department of Geography and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University will speak about his new book, "Lake Effect: Tales of large Lakes, Arctic Winds and Recurrent Snows", and we will have a book signing immediately afterwards.

April Science Cafe

On Tuesday, April 24, we will have a talk by Dr. Craig Henriquez of Duke University on "The future of brain-machine interfaces".

Dr Henriquez is the head of Duke's Center for Neuroengineering, whose mission is the following:

The Center for Neuroengineering brings together engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, neurologists and psychologists to advance the methodologies for the recording, imaging and analyzing normal and abnormal brain activity. The center brings new capabilities to the community of Neuroscientists on campus but will house state-of-the-art computational and fabrication facilities for developing novel technologies for the brain.

By partnering with existing departments, the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center and their outstanding faculties and facilities, the Center for Neuroengineering will become the intellectual hub for neuro-based technologies such as neurochips, system-level computational modeling, and in the application of electrophysiological and functional imaging techniques to both monitor and treat neurological diseases.

February Science Cafe

On Tuesday, February 28, we will have a talk by Dr. Arie Bodek of the UofR on "The Search for the Higgs Boson".

The discovery of the Higgs boson has been, for many years, considered one of the so-called holy grails in particle physics. From the Exploratorium website run by the CERN Laboratory:

The question of mass has been an especially puzzling one, and has left the Higgs boson as the single missing piece of the Standard Model yet to be spotted. The Standard Model describes three of nature's four forces: electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces.... the search for the Higgs particle(s) is some of the most exciting research happening, because it could lead to completely new discoveries in particle physics. Some theorists say it could bring to light entirely new types of strong interactions, and others believe research will reveal a new fundamental physical symmetry called "supersymmetry."

Quoting wikipedia:

Bodek was awarded the 2004 American Physical Society W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics "for his broad, sustained, and insightful contributions to elucidating the structure of the nucleon, using a wide variety of probes, tools, and methods at many laboratories.... His doctoral thesis provided some of the evidence of the quark's existence that was the basis for the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics."

January Science Cafe

Hi everyone,
We are returning in the winter/spring of 2012 with talks from January thru May. To lead off, we are excited to present a talk by Dr. Sukanta Bose, who is visiting us from Washington State University. The talk will be this coming Tuesday, January 24, 7pm at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble:

Gravitational Wave Astronomy: The Next Generation
Dr. Sukanta Bose (Washington State University)

The coming years are expected to yield the first direct detections of gravitational wave (GW) signals and plant the first steps in an entirely new branch of astronomy. Plans are already underway for the followup advances in detector technology (third generation, or "3G"), and we are already envisaging the maximal GW science potential that may be realizable with an earth-based detector within a decade. These detectors will probe the dark energy seemingly making up most of the universe's mass, independent of any other type of observations, explore the properties of the black holes thought to lie at the centers of all galaxies, and peer inside neutron stars where no current telescope can see, and we will describe all these potential results and many more.

November Cafe

We are excited to announce the final Science Cafe for the Fall 2011 series. On Tuesday, November 22, 7pm at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble's Community Room, we will have a talk by Dr. Richard Aslin from the University of Rochester"

"The brain and cognitive science of early child development:
How smart is your baby (and how can you tell)?"

Dr. Richard Aslin
William R. Kenan Professor, Brain & Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science
Director, Rochester Center for Brain Imaging
November 22, 7pm
Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble

Richard Aslin received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in child psychology and has been a professor of psychology and then of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester since 1984. His research examines the perceptual and learning abilities of infants and young children using detailed measures of where they look when viewing complex visual stimuli and how their brain responds to both visual and auditory (language) structures. His research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and by the McDonnell Foundation. In 2006 he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2010 was awarded an honorary degree from Uppsala University (Sweden).


We look forward to seeing everyone there! As always, ASL
interpretation will be available and refreshments provided for all of
our guests, thanks to NASA. We'll be off in December, but resume
from January-May, with a whole new series of talks spanning the scientific world.

October Cafe this Tuesday

Hi everyone,
This coming Tuesday the Rochester Science Cafe will have a talk and then a book signing:

"About Time: Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang"
Dr. Adam Frank
Assistant Prof. of Astrophysics
University of Rochester

The Cafe will be at 7pm, October 25, at the Pittsford Plaza Barnes and Noble. Adam Frank is also a popular science blogger, so check out his work at 13.7: Cosmos and Culture, or the website for his previous book, The Constant Fire.

In November, our talk will be on November 22:

"The brain and cognitive science of early child development: How smart is your baby (and how can you tell)?"

Dr. Richard Aslin
William R. Kenan Professor, Brain & Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science
Director, Rochester Center for Brain Imaging
University of Rochester