there’s an orgo-themed seminar this week for all you (masochistic) orgo-lovers. tea and cookies will be served!

We’re back with Science Fair, Bwog’s weekly curated list of interesting STEM-related talks, symposiums, and events happening on campus. For science and non-science majors alike, our list will bring you events that will satisfy your scientific curiosity for everything from astronomy to zoology, and everything in between.

For anyone, related-majors and non-majors alike:

• Ome Yasuni: Oil, Contact and Conservation in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador (Talk by Dr. Judith Kimerling, Queens College)
  • Event Info: Tuesday, December 4, 7:10-9pm, Faculty House, Click here for more info
  • Speaker Information: Dr. Kimerling worked with indigenous organizations in the Amazon Rainforest to document the environmental and social impacts of oil development there. Her findings and photographs first placed concerns about the impact of oil production on indigenous peoples and the environment in tropical forests on the international environmental and human rights policy agendas.
• Socioeconomic Inequality in Children’s Cognitive and Brain Development, Talk by Dr. Kimberly Noble (Columbia)
  • Event Info: Thursday, December 6, 12:30-1:30pm, School of Social Work Room C03, Register at the link
  • Event Information: Socioeconomic disparities in childhood are associated with remarkable differences in cognitive and socio-emotional development during a time when dramatic changes are occurring in the brain… The question of interventions will be addressed, along with an overview the first clinical trial of poverty reduction in early childhood.

• Size Isn’t Everything (For Telescopes), Hosted by Columbia Astronomy Public Outreach
  • Event Info: Friday, December 7, 7pm, Pupin Hall, Click here for more info
  • Event Information: Large telescope facilities cost billions in both time and money to construct and maintain, so why do we have so many of them? In this talk, I’ll tell you what it is about different telescopes that make them better or worse suited for different areas of research. Talk followed by guided rooftop stargazing, weather permitting.

For more advanced students of the given subject:

• The Gilbert Stork Lecture (Chemistry): New Metal Catalyzed Reactions for Organic Synthesis, by Dr. Melanie Sanford (University of Michigan)
  • Event Info: Thursday, December 6, 4:30pm, Click here for more info
  • Speaker Information: At Caltech, where she received her PhD, Dr. Sanford worked with Professor Bob Grubbs investigating the mechanism of ruthenium-catalyzed olefin metathesis reactions. After receiving her PhD in 2001, she worked with Professor Jay Groves at Princeton University as an NIH post-doctoral fellow studying metalloporphyrin-catalyzed functionalization of olefins.