Welcome back to Columbia and to Science Fair, Bwog’s weekly roundup of science events happening around campus. Have a fun snow day! As always, email maggie@bwog.com if you want your event featured.

Strategic Investments for Resilient Agrifood Systems: Driving SDG Progress through Partnerships

• Monday, January 27, 9:30 am to 11:00 am.
• Online only (in-person cancelled due to severe weather). Register here for Zoom link.
• Co-organized by CCSI, AIIB, FAO, GDPRD, IFAD, and WMO, this ECOSOC Partnership Forum side event tackles how to fix fragmented investment in agriculture. With extreme heat threatening 1.2 billion livelihoods and outdated systems costing $12 trillion annually, panelists will explore how strategic agrifood investments can deliver tenfold returns while advancing multiple SDGs. Learn how public, private, and multilateral actors can coordinate to unlock $4.5 trillion in annual business opportunities. Concept note and agenda.

Data Club: Starting a Python Research Project in 2026

• Wednesday, January 28, 4:10 pm to 5:20 pm.
• International Affairs Building, 420 W. 118 St., Room 215 (DSSC – Lehman Library).
• Kicking off the semester with a practical guide to starting a Python research project from scratch in 2026. Learn about using UV for dependency management, GCP for storage, and potentially containerization for databases. All skill levels welcome to explore. Bring a laptop! More information.

Mending the Living World

• Wednesday, January 28, 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm.
• Buell Hall, 515 W. 116 St. Registration not Required.
• Columbia and Villa Albertine launch a new ecology conversation series with this panel featuring French philosopher Corine Pelluchon, Ana Porzecanski from AMNH, Cyrille Barnerias from the French Office for Biodiversity, and Kristina Douglass from Columbia Climate School. What does a “New Enlightenment” look like in the Anthropocene? Explore emerging forms of interdependence among humans, animals, and plants, and how responsibility toward “the other” can shape policy and action. More information.

Get to Know Your Computer

• Thursday, January 29, 4:00 pm to 5:15 pm.
• Butler Library, 535 W. 114 St., Room 208B.
• Why might you need more RAM or a GPU? What’s the BIOS? How does “the cloud” actually work? This workshop demystifies your computer’s capabilities and limitations, whether you’ve got a PC, Mac, Chromebook, or something else. Learn the terminology and how to get the most out of your machine. Laptops encouraged but not required. More information.

Workshop on Knowledge and the State (Spring 2026, Session 1)

• Thursday, January 29, 4:20 pm to 6:30 pm.
• Fayerweather Hall, 1180 Amsterdam Ave., Room 413.
• Sponsored by the Center for Political Economy at Columbia World Projects, this workshop explores how public officials select and deploy expert knowledge, and how that expertise gets shaped by political demands. This year’s focus is the role of philanthropy in shaping knowledge and the state. This reading session will discuss selected books to frame the semester’s considerations. Texts are available electronically on Clio. More information.

Being Treely

• Thursday, January 29, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
• Lenfest Center for the Arts (8th Floor), 615 West 129 Street. Registration required.
• An interdisciplinary conversation rethinking our relationship to trees and plants through the lenses of temporality, history, space, and materiality. Trees become a common thread connecting research and artistic practice, opening up new ways to imagine being and existing in the world. Hosted by the Lenfest Center for the Arts. Email arts-events@columbia.edu with questions. More information.

Science Fair via Madeline Douglas