Let’s celebrate International Women’s Month with our friends at 500 Women Scientists who will turn Nerd Nite into a Spring Science Salon! Topics will range from Hurricanes to the communication of Climate Change, to spooking Parrots in South America. Part of the proceeds for the night will support Ciencia Puerto Rico in their efforts to transform STEM education in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. As always, we encourage you to be there and be square on Saturday, March 10, 2018.
To learn more about Ciencia Puerto Rico: https://www.cienciapr.org/
Climate Communications: Stop talking, start listening by Kimberly Duong
All too often, environmental stewardship surrounding climate change calls upon society’s moral obligation to give a damn about polar bears. The rhetoric of sacrifice for the sake of conservation leads to “green fatigue.” I’m here to teach you how to have a productive conversation about climate change with just about anyone. And it starts with listening.
Bio: Kimberly Duong is a PhD student in civil engineering at UC Irvine. She is currently in Washington DC as a science and technology policy fellow at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Her nerdy interests include urban drought management, meteorology, climate change communications, and STEM outreach. Fun fact: she doesn’t drink any caffeine or alcohol. Yes, you heard that right.
Scaring birds to save them: Behavior-based management and reintroduction science by Jess Roberts
Did you know that Halloween costumes play a part in endangered species conservation? This talk will focus on the lengths reintroduction scientists go to create natural environments in captivity. These efforts are to ensure the animals released into the wild have the behaviors required for survival.
Bio: Jess is an Environmental Science and Policy PhD student at George Mason University researching the effectiveness of captive breeding and reintroducing threatened avian species back into the wild. Previously she has worked on the Red-browed Amazon Recovery Project with Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo and the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation. Jess has been pooped on by over 50 endangered species.
Hunting for Exoplanets: Can we find another planet to call home? by Junellie Gonzalez Quiles
Have you ever looked up at the sky at night and wondered about what is out there? Have you ever asked yourself if we are alone in the universe? If you have answered yes to any of these questions, this talk will give an insight about what astronomers have found in the universe! More specifically, I will be talking about the possibility of finding planets similar to ours outside of our Solar System, and how we can possibly even start to understand such planets.
Bio: Junellie is an astronomy and physics undergraduate student at University of Maryland, College Park pursuing research in the field of exoplanets. She aims to fully understand these planets by connecting atmospheric data with our current knowledge of planetary interiors. She has done research at NASA GSFC, Carnegie Institution for Science, Cornell University and Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany, and is currently doing research at Johns Hopkins University. She also enjoys playing the trombone in her university’s marching band, and the trombone was once bigger than she was.
