San Diego Mesa College’s School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences’ welcomes students,
staff, faculty and the community to attend the STEM lecture series this fall semester.
Originally created as a Physical Sciences Lecture series in 2014, the wider categorization
of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics allows for a greater range of
subjects to be featured during the lecture series.
Don Barrie, professor of geology at Mesa College and STEM Lecture Series coordinator,
said that attending the lectures can be beneficial for the general campus population
in that it helps to show people how science works. The speeches are set in a non-technical
tone, making the information easier to absorb for both science and non-science majors.
“The main purpose [of the STEM Lecture Series] is to make science accessible to the
wider campus community,” Barrie said. “What we really try to do is get speakers who
can engage the audience.”
Previously, polar explorer Robert Swan came to speak to the campus, both inspiring and inviting then Mesa College student
Hermes Castro to join him on an expedition to Antarctica in March 2009.
“We really hope that by bringing in lecturers and speakers from industry that we can
serve as an inspiration for students,” Barrie said. “The idea is to give them experiences
that they wouldn’t necessarily get inside the classroom.”
This semester’s series features lectures on subjects like the Philosophy of Science
by Mary Gwin; “The Rise of the Machines” and artificial intelligence by Brad Hughes;
and “Chemistry and the Chemical Value Chain” by Kim Albizati. Barrie said that as
a geological scientist, the lecture he is most excited about is Sasha Gershunov’s
on global climate change.
“It’s such an important idea these days, and it’s such an important issue,” Barrie
said. “In particular, what Dr. Gershunov is going to focus on is how it’s affecting
California from water resources to food supply to human health.”
All events in the STEM Lecture Series take place in the Auditorium, room G-101. The
full schedule can be found below, and more information can be found online.
Upcoming Lectures
Insights into our Sixth Sense: How a new understanding of the immune system leads
to new approaches that can defeat cancer and autoimmune disease
Carl Ware, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Date: Thursday, Oct. 27
Time: 7-8:30 p.m.
Chemistry and the Chemical Value Chain
Kim Albizati, University of California San Diego (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry)
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 1
Time: 7-8:30 p.m.
Rise of the Machines: How artificial intelligence is being used in phones, computers
and the human brain
Brad Hughes, San Diego Mesa College (Department of Physical Sciences, Astronomy Adjunct Professor)
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 15
Time: 7-8:30 p.m.
Global Climate Change: Evidence and Implications for California
Sasha Gershunov, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Date: Thursday, Dec. 1
Time: 7-8:30 p.m.
Tags: STEM Lecture Series, STEM
