Science and Mathematics Seminars
If it's a Wednesday afternoon between September and April, there's likely to be a Science and Math colloquium taking place!
All sessions in the Science and Mathematics Colloquium Series, organized by faculty in ASU's College of Integrative Sciences and Arts at the Polytechnic campus, are free and open to the public. The series features invited speakers who share their current pursuits in research and education in the areas of biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics.
The seminars occur almost weekly during the academic year, are typically scheduled from 3-4 p.m. on Wednesdays, in-person at ASU Polytechnic campus and/or via Zoom. They're promoted on CISA's social media accounts (@CISAASU on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), the ASU Events site, and ASU Sunrise at Poly e-newsletter (the weekly electronic bulletin for employees at the ASU Polytechnic campus).
As you can see from archived titles from prior years, seminars cross a broad range of disciplines, issues and expertise.
Fall 2018 Colloquia
Wed., Oct. 17, 3 pm
The Power of Citizen Science: Delivering conservation outcomes through education, research and monitoring
Tiffany Sprague, Manager, Parsons Field Institute, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy
Wed., Oct. 3, 3 pm
Altering Nature with Gene Drives: We Can, But Should We?
James P. Collins, Virginia M. Ullman Professor of Natural History and the Environment, ASU School of Life Sciences
Wed., Sept. 26, 3pm
Jumpstart your career! Go to grad school! The accelerated 4+1 combined BS/MS program and the traditional MS program in Applied Biological Sciences
Heather Bateman, associate professor, and Catherine Hart, senior lecturer, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Wed., Sept. 19, 3pm
Microbiomes and Metagenomes of Biochar-Amended Agricultural Soils
Julian Yu, Doctoral Student, Microbiology, ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Wed., Sept. 12, 3pm
Revelatory Isotopes: Using geology to identify victims of homicide, war and mass disasters
Gwyneth Gordon, Research Scientist, ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration
Wed., Sept. 5, 3pm
Community Resilience in Maricopa County: Urban green infrastructure planning and the HeatMapper citizen science project
Qunshan Zhao, Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Wed., August 29, 3pm
“Sustaining Ocean Life: Understanding the behavior of fishers for resource management”
Steven Saul, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, College of Integrative Sciences and Art
Spring 2018 colloquia
Wed., April 11
"Phenotypes in Context: Predicting behavior in a changing world"
Emilia Martins, professor, School of Life Sciences, ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Wed., April 4
"Organized Disorder: Understanding the structure, dynamics of intrinsically disordered proteins"
Wenwei Zheng, assistant professor, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, ASU College of Intetgrative Science and Arts
Wed., March 28
"Metaphors in Mathematics: Turning student thinking into curriculum design, game-based learning"
Michelle Zandieh, associate professor, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Wed., March 21
"Forecasting Epidemics: Combining networks and partial differential equations to improve predictions"
Haiyan Wang, Professor, School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
Wed., Feb. 28
“Are There Martians in Australia? How acid saline lakes can serve as a Mars analog”
Wed., Feb. 14
“Integrating movement modeling, landscape genetics to predict population connectivity”
Wed., Feb. 7
“Managing Phoenix’s Water Resource Portfolio for Resiliency, Sustainability”
Cynthia Campbell, Water Resources Management Advisor, City of Phoenix
Wed., Jan. 24
"The Saguaro Cactus: A 75-year perspective from Saguaro National Park"
Don E. Swann, Biologist, Saguaro National Park
Wed., Jan. 31
"The Spookiness of the Quantum World"
Maxim Sukharev, Associate Professor of Physics, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Fall 2017 colloquia
Wed., Oct. 25
"Aeroponic Vertical Farming: One viable alternative"
Troy Albright, Founder, True Garden
Wed., Oct. 11
"Final-Offer Arbitration: A look at multi-issue and multi-player extensions"
Brian Powers, Postodoctoral Research Associate, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Spring 2017 colloquia
Thurs., April 6
"Ecosystem consequences of riparian restoration involving removal of Tamarix spp. in the southwestern United States"
Anna Sher, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Denver
Wed., March 29
“Portulacaria afra: A study in Photosynthetic Plasticity in a Changing Climate”
Lonnie Guralnick, Professor of Biology, Roger Williams University
Mon., March 20
"New Excited State Multi-Reference Method with Application to Singlet-Triplet Gaps and Weakly Bonded Systems"
Shane Yost, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California-Berkeley
Wed., March 22
"Molecular Modeling of Atmospheric Chemistry"
Manoj Kumar, postdoctoral researcher, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Wed., March 15
"Structure and Dynamics of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins from Simulations and Experiments"
Wenwei Zheng, postdoctoral fellow, Laboratory of Chemical Physics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), NIH
Wed., March 1
"Behavioral Ecology and the Conservation, Management of Large Herbivores: From Africa to Arizona"
Adrian M. Shrader, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Wed., Feb. 22
"Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Across Global to Local Scales"
Wed., Feb. 15
“How Do We Coexist with Large Mammals in the Anthropocene? The Importance of Data-Driven Wildlife Management in a Post-Truth Society"
Jarod Raithel, Utah State University
Wed., Jan. 25
“Fisher Behavior and Fish Population Dynamics in the Gulf of Mexico: How does fisher behavior affect stock assessment?"
Steven Saul, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Fall 2016 colloquia
Wed., Aug 31
“Computational Materials Research and Applications in Nano-Electronics and Renewable Energies”
Xihong Peng, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Wed., Sept 7
“Local Conversation: Priorities and Opportunities for Sonoran Desert Research”
Helen Rowe, Field Institute Director, Scottsdale McDowell Sonoran Preserve
Wed., Sept 28
“Detecting and Phenotyping Bacterial Infections Using In-Situ Breath-Based Diagnostics”
Heather Bean, ASU School of Life Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Wed., Oct 5
“An Agent-Based Model of Fisher Behavior and Population Dynamics in the Gulf of Mexico: How Does Fisher Behavior Affect Stock Assessment”
Steven Saul, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Wed., Oct 26
“Where the Wild Things Live: How Riparian Forests Provision Amphibians and Reptiles in the Arid Southwest”
Heather Batemen, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Wed., Nov 2
“Fire's American Century”
Steve Pyne, School of Life Sciences, ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Wed., Nov 16
“Architecture and Composition of Microbial Assemblages and their Insights into the Sensitivity and Resilience of Microbial Dark Matter”
C. Ryan Penton, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts; GIOS; Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics
Wed., Nov 30
“Fall Student Research Forum”
Spring 2016 colloquia
Wed., Feb 17
“Endangered Species Recovery: Best practice or worst nightmare?”
Russell Benford, Northern Arizona University
Wed., Feb 24
“Clicker Use to Stimulate Student Participation”
Heidi McIlwraith, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, ASU
Wed., March 2
“Drought, Dispersal, and Community Dynamics in Arid-Land Streams”
Michael Bogan, University of Arizona,
Wed., March 23
“AzCATI and Algaculture: A Brief Overview" and "Recycling Nutrients: Using dairy wastewater to produce algae biomass for feed and fuel”
Milt Sommerfeld, Environmental Resource Management Program, ASU
Everett Eustance, Environmental Resource Management Program, ASU
Wed., March 30
“Study Abroad in South Africa in a Land of Contrasts and Conflicts on Elephant Conservation”
Stan Cunningham, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, ASU
Wed., April 6
“Nitrogen Deposition, CO2 Concentrations and Ozone Pollution and their Effects on Wildflower Communities in Desert Open Park Spaces Across Phoenix”
Sharon Hall, GIOS, School of Life Sciences, ASU
Wed., April 13
“Computational Materials Research and Applications in Nano-Electronics and Renewable Energies”
Xihong Peng, College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, ASU
Wed., April 20
“Challenges of Managing Orangutans”
Denise Wagner, Phoenix Zoo, Primate Collection
Fall 2015 colloquia
Wed., Sept. 2
Beyond the Meter Tape: Defining ecological boundaries using food-web metrics
Dr. Jeff Muelbauer, Grand Canyon Research and Monitoring Center, Southwest Biological Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
2:45 p.m., Cooley Ballroom, Student Union, ASU's Polytechnic campus
9-2_muelbauer1.pdf
Wed., Sept. 9
My Life As a Pharmer: Monoclonal antibodies as novel therapeutics against infectious diseases and cancer
Dr. Qiang “Shawn” Chen, associate professor, School of Life Sciences, Biodesign Institute, ASU
2:45 p.m., Cooley Ballroom, Student Union, ASU's Polytechnic campus 9-9_chen.pdf
Wed., Sept. 16
Uncovering the Cryptic World of Bats
Dr. Carol Chambers, professor of wildlife ecology
Northern Arizona University
2:45 p.m., Cooley Ballroom, Student Union, ASU's Polytechnic campus 9-16_chambers.pdf
Wed., Sept. 23
Living on the Edge: Coping and adaptation in an extreme environment
Dr. Larisa Harding, terrestrial research program lead, Arizona Game and Fish Department
2:45 p.m., Cooley Ballroom, Student Union, ASU's Polytechnic campus 9-23_harding.pdf
Wed., Oct. 7
Biological Soil Crusts: Ancient and widespread microbial communities
Dr. Ferran Garcia-Pichel, Dean of Natural Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, ASU
2:45 p.m., Cooley Ballroom, Student Union, ASU's Polytechnic campus garcia_pichel_seminar_announcement_.pdf
Spring 2015 colloquia
A quarter century of U.S. forest disturbance history mapped from Landsat
Dr. Feng Zhao, University of Maryland
Wednesday, Feb. 25
[download PDF]
North America’s vanishing bats: Methods for understanding population responses in a changing landscape
Dr. Joseph Johnson, Bucknell University
Wednesday, Feb. 25
[download PDF]
Remote sensing of terrestrial ecosystem structure and dynamics
Dr. Asim Banskota, University of Minnesota
Wednesday, March 4
[download PDF]
The quick and the dead: Fungal infection and immunity in a hibernating host
Dr. Marianne Moore, Stony Brook University
Wednesday, March 4
[download PDF]
High-energy research at the tip of a pencil
Dr. Igor Shovkovy, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and Arts
Wednesday, April 8
Wildlife corridors for carnivores: Species community conservation outside of protected areas in Arizona and Costa Rica
Dr. Jan Schipper, ASU School of Life Sciences
Wednesday, April 15
[download PDF]
Student Research Day
Wednesday, April 29
Fall 2014 colloquia
Limb Regeneration in Reptiles and Implications for Human Medicine
Dr. Kenro Kusumi, Assoc Dean and Professor, ASU School of Life SciencesDr. Rebecca Fisher, Assoc Professor, ASU School of Life Sciences and University of Arizona College of Medicine, Wednesday, Oct. 22
Summary of Sabbatical at Prescott College
Dr. Jean Stutz, Professor, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and ArtsWednesday, Nov. 5
The Spirit of the Hive: how complex social behavior evolves
Dr. Robert Page, University Provost and Foundation Chair of Life SciencesWednesday, Nov. 12
Education and Biology
Julie Murphree, Instructor, ASU College of Integrative Sciences and ArtsWednesday, Nov. 19