Andrew Carnegie established a unique organization dedicated to scientific discovery &ldquo;to encourage, in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research, and discovery and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind...&rdquo; The philosophy was and is to devote the institution&rsquo;s resources to &ldquo;exceptional&rdquo; individuals so that they can explore the most intriguing scientific questions in an atmosphere of complete freedom. Carnegie and his trustees realized that flexibility and freedom were essential to the institution&rsquo;s success and that tradition is the foundation of the institution today as it supports research in the Earth, space, and life sciences.

Carnegie Institution for Science

This program will highlight the research and accomplishments of Conny Aerts, a pioneer in Asteroseismology. Professor Aerts revolutionized the study of starquakes, bringing an entirely new way to learn about the stars. She will discuss how starquakes allow us to size, weigh, and age-date stars with unprecedented and impressive precision. Asteroseismology of host stars is the only way to determine the ages of exoplanets. Thus, asteroseismology and the search for habitable worlds outside our solar system, and perhaps even extraterrestrial life in the Universe, go hand-in-hand.<h2>Speaker Bio</h2>Dr. Conny Aerts is a professor in astrophysics at the&nbsp;University of Leuven's Institute of Astronomy. She has carried out a wide range of research on the structure and evolution of stars, especially the heaviest and brightest ones, including studies of stellar rotation, convection, and chemical-element transport. She has developed mathematical methods to identify non-radial stellar oscillations in spectroscopic data, and used machine-learning techniques to classify many kinds of variable stars using observations from the CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS space missions. Among these objects she has detected numerous so-called gravity-mode pulsators. She has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from&nbsp;Antwerp University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from&nbsp;the University of Leuven.

This program will highlight the research and accomplishments of Conny Aerts, a pioneer in Asteroseismology. Professor Aerts revolutionized the study of starquakes, bringing an entirely new way to learn about the stars. She will discuss how starquakes allow us to size, weigh, and age-date stars with unprecedented and impressive precision. Asteroseismology of host stars is the only way to determine the ages of exoplanets. Thus, asteroseismology and the search for habitable worlds outside our solar system, and perhaps even extraterrestrial life in the Universe, go hand-in-hand.<figure class="image"><img src="https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/2023-06/ConnyAerts-with-Schoolkids-Oslo%20%281%29.png.webp?itok=rOFHj9Za" alt="Conny Aerts Headshot"></figure><h2>Speaker Bio</h2>Dr. Conny Aerts is a professor in astrophysics at the&nbsp;University of Leuven's Institute of Astronomy. She has carried out a wide range of research on the structure and evolution of stars, especially the heaviest and brightest ones, including studies of stellar rotation, convection, and chemical-element transport. She has developed mathematical methods to identify non-radial stellar oscillations in spectroscopic data, and used machine-learning techniques to classify many kinds of variable stars using observations from the CoRoT, Kepler, and TESS space missions. Among these objects she has detected numerous so-called gravity-mode pulsators. She has an undergraduate degree in mathematics from&nbsp;Antwerp University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from&nbsp;the University of Leuven.

The Story of Starquakes, Exoplanets, and Extraterrestrial Life

This program will update and engage the audience about the rapidly evolving opportunities and challenges of deploying hundreds of advanced nuclear reactors in the U.S. and globally. The panel of experts will address the state-of-the-art technology and future directions for its deployment, necessary policies, and potential paths to risk mitigation.<h2>Greg Gershuny</h2>(Moderator)Greg Gershuny is the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program (EEP) and Co-Director of Aspen Ideas: Climate, a public forum focused on climate solutions. &nbsp;The Energy and Environment Program works with people, organizations, and governments to take greater action on solving climate change. Prior to joining the Aspen Institute in 2016, Greg served as the Chief of Staff for Energy Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy, and in several roles at the White House, including Director of Energy and Environment at Presidential Personnel and as a Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy advisor under President Barack Obama.<h2>Dr. Kathryn Huff</h2>Dr. Kathryn Huff leads the Office of Nuclear Energy as the Assistant Secretary. Prior to her current role, she served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary. Dr. Huff also led the office as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. Before joining the Department of Energy, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she led the Advanced Reactors and Fuel Cycles Research Group. She was also a Blue Waters Assistant Professor with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. She was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow in both the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium and the Berkeley Institute for Data Science at the University of California - Berkeley.She is an active member of the American Nuclear Society, a past Chair of the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Policy Division as well as the Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division, and recipient of both the Young Member Excellence and Mary Jane Oestmann Professional Women's Achievement awards. Through leadership within Software Carpentry, SciPy, the Hacker Within, and the Journal of Open Source Software she also advocates for best practices in open, reproducible scientific computing.She received her PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 and her undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Chicago. Her research focused on modeling and simulation of advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycles.<h2>Dr. Melissa Lott</h2>Dr. Melissa C. Lott is the Director of Research and a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy. She currently serves as a member of the United Nations Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET) and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Economics of Equitable Transition.Dr. Lott has worked as an engineer and advisor for nearly 20 years in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work focuses on increasing our understanding of the impacts of energy systems on climate change and public health. She applies this understanding to help decision-makers mobilize solutions to support the transition to net-zero. Dr. Lott has authored hundreds of publications and been featured in media outlets including the New York Times, PBS, the BBC World Service, The Guardian, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, and the Wall Street Journal. She currently hosts The Big Switch podcast.&nbsp;Dr. Lott previously served in roles at the Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre, International Energy Agency, and the U.S. Department of Energy. She holds degrees from the UC Davis (B.S.), UT Austin (M.S. and MPAff), and University College London (Ph.D.).<h2>Jeff Navin</h2>Jeff Navin is Director of External Affairs, and oversees TerraPower’s government affairs, public policy, communications, and stakeholder engagement efforts. He is a co-founder and is currently a partner at Boundary Stone Partners, a government affairs and communications firm advising companies, advocacy organizations, and public policy think tanks working to solve the world’s most challenging problems.Navin has a deep background in government and communications. After serving in the federal government for over 15 years, he co-founded Boundary Stone Partners, a public policy, government affairs, and communications consulting firm specializing in clean energy and transportation. In government, he served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretaries Steven Chu and Ernest Moniz. In those roles, he helped manage the Department of Energy’s research and deployment efforts, climate and energy policy initiatives, and nuclear national security missions.Navin received his B.A. from the University of South Dakota, and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a Harry S Truman Scholar and serves as Chair of the Center on Rural Innovation, 501(c)3 organization that supports economic development in rural areas.

This program will update and engage the audience about the rapidly evolving opportunities and challenges of deploying hundreds of advanced nuclear reactors in the U.S. and globally. The panel of experts will address the state-of-the-art technology and future directions for its deployment, necessary policies, and potential paths to risk mitigation.<figure class="image"><img src="https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/2023-07/Greg%20headshot%202022.jpg.webp?itok=seN1G2jM" alt="Aspen Institute "></figure><h2>Greg Gershuny</h2>(Moderator)Greg Gershuny is the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program (EEP) and Co-Director of Aspen Ideas: Climate, a public forum focused on climate solutions. &nbsp;The Energy and Environment Program works with people, organizations, and governments to take greater action on solving climate change. Prior to joining the Aspen Institute in 2016, Greg served as the Chief of Staff for Energy Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy, and in several roles at the White House, including Director of Energy and Environment at Presidential Personnel and as a Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy advisor under President Barack Obama.<figure class="image"><img src="https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/2023-06/Kathryn%20Huff%20DOE.jpg.webp?itok=MlVJcfBY" alt="Kathryn Huff"></figure><h2>Dr. Kathryn Huff</h2>Dr. Kathryn Huff leads the Office of Nuclear Energy as the Assistant Secretary. Prior to her current role, she served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary. Dr. Huff also led the office as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. Before joining the Department of Energy, she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she led the Advanced Reactors and Fuel Cycles Research Group. She was also a Blue Waters Assistant Professor with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. She was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow in both the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium and the Berkeley Institute for Data Science at the University of California - Berkeley.She is an active member of the American Nuclear Society, a past Chair of the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Policy Division as well as the Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division, and recipient of both the Young Member Excellence and Mary Jane Oestmann Professional Women's Achievement awards. Through leadership within Software Carpentry, SciPy, the Hacker Within, and the Journal of Open Source Software she also advocates for best practices in open, reproducible scientific computing.She received her PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 and her undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Chicago. Her research focused on modeling and simulation of advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycles.<figure class="image"><img src="https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/2023-06/MelissaLott_PhD_7163_Final_rdsz%20%281%29.jpg.webp?itok=2i8l9QWb" alt="Melissa Lott"></figure><h2>Dr. Melissa Lott</h2>Dr. Melissa C. Lott is the Director of Research and a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy. She currently serves as a member of the United Nations Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET) and the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Economics of Equitable Transition.Dr. Lott has worked as an engineer and advisor for nearly 20 years in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work focuses on increasing our understanding of the impacts of energy systems on climate change and public health. She applies this understanding to help decision-makers mobilize solutions to support the transition to net-zero. Dr. Lott has authored hundreds of publications and been featured in media outlets including the New York Times, PBS, the BBC World Service, The Guardian, Good Morning America, National Public Radio, and the Wall Street Journal. She currently hosts The Big Switch podcast.&nbsp;Dr. Lott previously served in roles at the Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre, International Energy Agency, and the U.S. Department of Energy. She holds degrees from the UC Davis (B.S.), UT Austin (M.S. and MPAff), and University College London (Ph.D.).<figure class="image"><img src="https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/default/files/styles/square_small/public/2023-06/Jeff%2BNavin%2BHeadshot%2B2023.jpg.webp?itok=IaRYDyUp" alt="Jeff Navin"></figure><h2>Jeff Navin</h2>Jeff Navin is Director of External Affairs, and oversees TerraPower’s government affairs, public policy, communications, and stakeholder engagement efforts. He is a co-founder and is currently a partner at Boundary Stone Partners, a government affairs and communications firm advising companies, advocacy organizations, and public policy think tanks working to solve the world’s most challenging problems.Navin has a deep background in government and communications. After serving in the federal government for over 15 years, he co-founded Boundary Stone Partners, a public policy, government affairs, and communications consulting firm specializing in clean energy and transportation. In government, he served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretaries Steven Chu and Ernest Moniz. In those roles, he helped manage the Department of Energy’s research and deployment efforts, climate and energy policy initiatives, and nuclear national security missions.Navin received his B.A. from the University of South Dakota, and his J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a Harry S Truman Scholar and serves as Chair of the Center on Rural Innovation, 501(c)3 organization that supports economic development in rural areas.

Advanced Nuclear Energy: Opportunities and Challenges

Until recently, biologists had viewed microbes principally as pathogenic symbionts that compromise the health and fitness of an animal or plant. But the application of new genomic methods over the last decade has revealed that beneficial, co-evolved&nbsp;partnerships that are critical for the host's health are actually much more prevalent.These essential relationships often share a set of common characteristics. They are re-established in each host generation, remain stable throughout the host's lifetime, and occur as interactions at the surfaces of cells, such as those that line the human gut or comprise the leaves of plants.The new findings afforded by advances in biotechnology prompt the questions:<ul><li>How do hosts initially recognize their appropriate partners during development?</li><li>How do microbes&nbsp;maintain a&nbsp;balance between overgrowing the host's&nbsp;tissues and elimination by the immune system?</li></ul>Biomedical researchers who are interested in the human microbiome are taking a variety of approaches to address these questions. Because in humans and other vertebrates these alliances involve hundreds to thousands of microbial species, these researchers take advantage of simpler systems, using them as "experiments" presented by evolution.&nbsp;These model systems provide a window into the mechanisms underlying interspecies communication and co-existence, which are conserved across the tree of life.In her presentation, Dr. McFall-Ngai will describe work on one such model, the association between the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes, and its bioluminescent bacterial partner, Vibrio fischeri. The study of this binary association continues to reveal the "diplomatic relations" that maintain the stability of a life-long colonization of animal tissues by beneficial bacterial symbionts.

Feb 8: Squid Pro Quo: Insights from a Hawaiian Denizen about Living with Our Microbial Partners

Jan 23: Squid Pro Quo: Insights from a Hawaiian Denizen about Living with Our Microbial Partners

The Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory (EPL) invites you to join astrobiologist, mineralogist, and author&nbsp;Dr. Robert M. Hazen,&nbsp;for a special presentation entitled,&nbsp;“Minerals: Earth’s Ultimate Time Capsules.” The free public lecture will take place on December 8, 2022, at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Broad Branch Road Campus in NW Washington, D.C.The presentation will begin at 6:30 PM EST in the Greenewalt Auditorium of the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Broad Branch Road Campus in NW, Washington, DC. Doors open at 6:00 PM EST. There will be light refreshments from 6-6:30 PM EST.

Neighborhood Lecture | Minerals: Earth's Ultimate Time Capsules

In this lecture, Professor Lee Berger will explore some of the greatest discoveries of the last two decades in the search for human origins, discoveries he has been instrumental in and intimately involved with. These discoveries have led us to re-evaluate the story of human origins on the continent of Africa. With lessons from what has been described as one of the most challenging sciences on earth, Berger will explore why he believes we are in the midst of the greatest age of exploration and relate the importance of lessons he has learned during his search for understanding human origins that he believes are applicable to all areas of scientific endeavor and to our daily lives.

December 1: The Future of Exploration

Join the Earth and Planets Laboratory as we go where no Neighborhood Lecture has gone before! The virtual lecture will be led by Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Michael L. Wong, astrobiologist and host of the Strange New Worlds podcast.&nbsp;From the Drake equation in Star Trek's original 1964 outline to gravitational waves in Star Trek: Discovery, we'll examine how scientific discoveries underpin this legendary science-fiction franchise's 55-year history.Want to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life? No need to wait 'til the 23rd century—tune in to learn how Carnegie scientists are contributing to these monumental quests today!

The Science of Star Trek

Professor Andrew Fabian OBE FRS is a Professor in the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, where he leads the Insitute's X-Ray research group. The group's research focuses on active galaxies, clusters of galaxies, elliptical galaxies, galactic black holes, neutron stars and the X-ray background. He is one of two UK members on ESA's Athena Science Study Team and Chair of the Science Advisory Committee for the Japanese mission ASTRO-H. He has previously held the role of Director of the Institute of Astronomy.Before becoming its Director, Professor Fabian was a Royal Society Research Professor in the Institute of Astronomy. Between 2008 and 2013 he was President of the Royal Astronomical Society, and from 1997 to 2012 he was Vice-Master of Darwin College, Cambridge. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1996, he was awarded the American Astronomical Society's Bruno Rossi Prize in 2001, and he was appointed an OBE in 2006.In conversation with Emmy Award-winning journalist&nbsp;Frank Sesno (photo on the left),&nbsp;the Director of Strategic Initiatives at George Washington University's&nbsp;School of Media and Public Affairs.Dr. Andrew Fabian, Institute of Astronomy, University of CambridgeThe Kavli Prize&nbsp;is a partnership between&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://english.dnva.no/">The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://kavlifoundation.org/">The Kavli Foundation (United States)</a>, and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/kd/id586/">The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research</a>.This event is co-hosted by the Carnegie Institution for Science with&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://kavlifoundation.org/">The&nbsp;Kavli Foundation</a>, the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.norway.no/en/usa">Royal Embassy of Norway</a>, and the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://english.dnva.no/">Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters</a>.&nbsp;

Professor Andrew Fabian OBE FRS is a Professor in the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, where he leads the Insitute's X-Ray research group. The group's research focuses on active galaxies, clusters of galaxies, elliptical galaxies, galactic black holes, neutron stars and the X-ray background. He is one of two UK members on ESA's Athena Science Study Team and Chair of the Science Advisory Committee for the Japanese mission ASTRO-H. He has previously held the role of Director of the Institute of Astronomy.Before becoming its Director, Professor Fabian was a Royal Society Research Professor in the Institute of Astronomy. Between 2008 and 2013 he was President of the Royal Astronomical Society, and from 1997 to 2012 he was Vice-Master of Darwin College, Cambridge. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1996, he was awarded the American Astronomical Society's Bruno Rossi Prize in 2001, and he was appointed an OBE in 2006.<figure class="image"><img src="https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/carnegiescience.edu/files/Sesno_Photo_SuperCrop-200x254_0.jpg" alt=""></figure>In conversation with Emmy Award-winning journalist&nbsp;Frank Sesno (photo on the left),&nbsp;the Director of Strategic Initiatives at George Washington University's&nbsp;School of Media and Public Affairs.Dr. Andrew Fabian, Institute of Astronomy, University of CambridgeThe Kavli Prize&nbsp;is a partnership between&nbsp;<a href="http://english.dnva.no/">The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters</a>, <a href="https://kavlifoundation.org/">The Kavli Foundation (United States)</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/kd/id586/">The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research</a>.This event is co-hosted by the Carnegie Institution for Science with&nbsp;<a href="https://kavlifoundation.org/">The&nbsp;Kavli Foundation</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.norway.no/en/usa">Royal Embassy of Norway</a>, and the&nbsp;<a href="http://english.dnva.no/">Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters</a>.&nbsp;

Black Holes at Work - Kavli Prize Laureate Lecture

Join us to learn about cell biology&nbsp;from Carnegie scientist Brittany Belin.Over-reliance on synthetic fertilizers for crop plants can have disastrous environmental consequences. A natural and sustainable alternative to this practice is the application of microbes that can help plants better access the nutrients in their environment. A major category of plant-fertilizing microbes contains the rhizobia, soil bacteria that can sustainably provide nitrogen fertilizer to legumes, including major commercial crops such as soybeans and peanuts, cover crops such as alfalfa and clovers, and leguminous trees such as acacias. Dr. Belin uses diverse quantitative microscopy and modeling approaches to understand the cell biology of rhizobia and other nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and the genetic factors that drive their productive interactions with plant hosts.

A Virtual Conversation with Cell Biologist Brittany Belin

A Virtual Conversation With Cell Biologist Brittany Belin

Join us to learn about materials physics from Carnegie scientist Sally Tracy. Tracy uses cutting-edge experimental and analytical techniques to understand the fundamental physical behavior of materials at extreme conditions.&nbsp;She&nbsp;uses dynamic&nbsp;compression techniques&nbsp;with high-flux X-ray sources to probe&nbsp;the&nbsp;structural changes&nbsp;and phase transitions in materials at conditions that mimic&nbsp;impacts and the interiors of terrestrial and exoplanets. She&nbsp;is&nbsp;also an expert in&nbsp;nuclear resonant scattering&nbsp;and synchrotron X-ray diffraction.&nbsp;She uses these techniques&nbsp;to understand novel behavior at the electronic&nbsp;level. &nbsp;Tracy received her Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology&nbsp;in 2016 and was then&nbsp;a Postdoctoral Scholar at Princeton University prior to arriving at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory.&nbsp;

A Virtual Conversation with Materials Physicist Sally Tracy

Professor Hell received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy," and the Kavli Prize in nanoscience that same year for his "transformative contributions to the field of nano-optics that have broken long-held beliefs about the limitations of the resolution limits of optical microscopy and imaging.”The discussion will be moderated by Emmy Award-winning journalist Frank Sesno, the Director of Strategic Initiatives at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs.Dr. Stefan Hell:&nbsp;Director, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research &amp;&nbsp;Head, Department of Optical Nanoscopy; 2014 Kavli Prize Laureate in Nanoscience; 2014 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry.&nbsp;The Kavli Prize&nbsp;is a partnership between&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="http://english.dnva.no/">The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters</a>, The Kavli Foundation (United States), and&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/kd/id586/">The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research</a>.This event is co-hosted by the Carnegie Institution for Science with&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kavlifoundation.org/">The&nbsp;Kavli Foundation</a>, the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.norway.no/en/usa">Royal Embassy of Norway</a>, and the&nbsp;Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.&nbsp;

Professor Hell received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy," and the Kavli Prize in nanoscience that same year for his "transformative contributions to the field of nano-optics that have broken long-held beliefs about the limitations of the resolution limits of optical microscopy and imaging.”<figure class="image"><img src="https://carnegiescience.edu/sites/carnegiescience.edu/files/resize/Sesno_Photo_SuperCrop_0-200x254.jpg" alt=""></figure>The discussion will be moderated by Emmy Award-winning journalist Frank Sesno, the Director of Strategic Initiatives at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs.Dr. Stefan Hell:&nbsp;Director, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research &amp;&nbsp;Head, Department of Optical Nanoscopy; 2014 Kavli Prize Laureate in Nanoscience; 2014 Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry.&nbsp;The Kavli Prize&nbsp;is a partnership between&nbsp;<a href="http://english.dnva.no/">The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters</a>, The Kavli Foundation (United States), and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/kd/id586/">The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research</a>.This event is co-hosted by the Carnegie Institution for Science with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kavlifoundation.org/">The&nbsp;Kavli Foundation</a>, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.norway.no/en/usa">Royal Embassy of Norway</a>, and the&nbsp;Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.&nbsp;

Fluorescence Microscopy: The Resolution Revolution - Kavli Prize Laureate Lecture

Join us for an hour-long conversation between Carnegie Science President, Eric Isaacs, and science evangelist, Ainissa Ramirez.Often when we discuss the development of chemicals and substances, the conversation usually focuses on how scientists and inventors synthesized them. In this fireside chat, materials scientist and science writer Ainissa Ramirez will highlight how simple materials and the inventions they enabled shaped society. Based on her new book The Alchemy of Us, she will show how everyday inventions had a hand in fashioning language, politics, and even our bodies.Ainissa Ramirez, Ph.D. is an award-winning scientist and science communicator, who is passionate about getting the general public excited about science. A graduate of Brown University, she earned her doctorate in materials science and engineering from Stanford. Dr. Ramirez started her career as a scientist at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and later worked as an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Yale. She authored the books The Alchemy of Us and Save Our Science, and co-authored Newton’s Football. She has written for Forbes, Time, The Atlantic, Scientific American, American Scientist, and Science and has explained science headlines on CBS, CNN, NPR, ESPN, and PBS.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Ramirez speaks widely on the topics of science and technology and gave a TED talk on the importance of science education. She has been awarded prizes from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the American Institute of Physics. She speaks internationally on the importance of making science fun and has served as a science advisor to the American Film Institute, WGBH/NOVA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and several science museums. She also hosts a science podcast called Science Underground.

How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another

Lord of Ludlow Martin Rees will discuss his vision for the future of humanity and science as articulated in his new book "On the Future."Martin Rees is the UK's Astronomer Royal. He is based at Cambridge University where he is a Fellow (and Former Master) of Trinity College. He is a former President of the Royal Society and a member of many foreign academies. His research interests include space exploration, high energy astrophysics, and cosmology. He is co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risks at Cambridge University (CSER), and has served on many bodies connected with education, space research, arms control and international collaboration in science. In addition to his research publications he has written many general articles and articles and ten books, most recently "On the Future: Prospects for Humanity."

The World in 2050 and Beyond

Finding and evaluating diamond deposits is one of the hardest tasks in mineral resource development. In this talk, we will delve a little into the techniques used to find diamonds and how to evaluate the deposits. We will then examine why diamonds—the deepest derived of all natural materials—are unique in their ability to illuminate processes taking place over 700 km beneath Earth's surface, and up to 3.5 billion years back into its history.&nbsp;About the speaker:Dr. Graham Pearson is a former postdoc at the Earth and Planets Laboratory (then the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism) and the current Canada Excellence Research Chair at the University of Alberta.&nbsp;As one of the world's leading scientists in diamond studies, Dr. Pearson uses diamonds as a window into the Earth's past. He aims to understand the formation of diamond-forming roots beneath continents. His&nbsp;research is focused on the cratonic mantle lithosphere, kimberlites, and diamonds. Read more about Graham Pearson on&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/gdpearso">his website.</a>

Finding and evaluating diamond deposits is one of the hardest tasks in mineral resource development. In this talk, we will delve a little into the techniques used to find diamonds and how to evaluate the deposits. We will then examine why diamonds—the deepest derived of all natural materials—are unique in their ability to illuminate processes taking place over 700 km beneath Earth's surface, and up to 3.5 billion years back into its history.&nbsp;About the speaker:Dr. Graham Pearson is a former postdoc at the Earth and Planets Laboratory (then the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism) and the current Canada Excellence Research Chair at the University of Alberta.&nbsp;As one of the world's leading scientists in diamond studies, Dr. Pearson uses diamonds as a window into the Earth's past. He aims to understand the formation of diamond-forming roots beneath continents. His&nbsp;research is focused on the cratonic mantle lithosphere, kimberlites, and diamonds. Read more about Graham Pearson on&nbsp;<a href="https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/gdpearso">his website.</a>

Exploring for Diamonds and What They Tell Us about How the Earth Works

It is perhaps a huge understatement to say that our human footprint upon planet Earth is creating a host of challenges for all of us—as individuals, organizations, broader societies, and species of all kinds.&nbsp; We're losing biodiversity at a rapid rate. Our destruction of habitat is becoming more closely linked to the appearance of disease pandemics. We're facing the challenges of water and food shortages. Unconstrained development, as projected into the near future, is just not sustainable. The clock is against us on the climate change front. Hence, it is under the rubic of “use-inspired” that many of us undertake science today, believing in its mandate to assist in solving the world’s biggest problems and&nbsp;fostering resilience along the way. At the same time, our digital technologies are enabling us as humans&nbsp;to make huge advancements in science, communication, and connectivity—&nbsp;accelerating everything andreshaping our very existence. This talk will focus on the category of&nbsp;geospatial&nbsp;digital technologies as an enabler of science—providing continually better frameworks for measurement, visualization, predictive mapping, and interpretation—but also of intelligent planning, systematic decision-making, and collaborative action.

Why the World Needs Geospatial Now More than Ever

Thousands of exoplanets are known to orbit nearby stars and small rocky planets are common. Now, observations of exoplanet atmospheres looking for water vapor or gases that might signify the existence of life put the ambitious goal of identifying a habitable or inhabited exoplanet within reach. The field has accelerated with the realization that upcoming telescopes—including the James Webb Space Telescope, large ground-based telescopes now under construction (such as the Giant Magellan Telescope at Carnegie's Las Campanas Observatory), and potential future space-based observatories—offer distinct opportunities for observing the atmospheres of small exoplanets. Dr. Seager will discuss what it will take to identify or infer using the telescopes available to us that a planet is habitable or inhabited.

Exoplanets and the Search for Habitable Worlds

Join us to learn&nbsp;about how scientists define what it means to be alive from Carnegie Plant Biology staff scientist Devaki Bhaya and Carngie Earth and Planets Laboratory staff scientist Andrew Steele. This is the fifth&nbsp;virtual program in a series of online conversations with several of our exciting investigators.&nbsp;&nbsp;How do viruses and prions fit into our definition of life? What can extremophiles living in some of Earth's most inhospitable environments teach us about how life originated on this planet? Could Mars have once hosted life and, if so, what's the best way to find evidence of its existence?&nbsp;Bhaya's research on the&nbsp;hot spring bacteria living in Yellowstone National Park is providing insights into how microbial populations communicate, evolve, and share resources. Steele studies the&nbsp;prebiotic molecules and chemical pathways that could have formed under the conditions found on early Earth, as well as the possible sources of Mars' organic carbon. Together they will guide us through some of these fundamental questions about existence as we know it.&nbsp;Bhaya&nbsp;earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University, training with plant biochemist Andre Jagendorf. She returned to India and helped develop the master&rsquo;s program at the Center for Biotechnology, Nehru University, Delhi. She joined Carnegie's staff in 2001, after a stint as a visiting Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. She is a courtesy Professor at Stanford University and recently spent a sabbatical as a Program&nbsp;Director, Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at the National Science Foundation. She was recently elected a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.&nbsp; Steele received his Ph.D. from the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. Before joining Carnegie, he was a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Johnson&nbsp; Space Center, a researcher at Oxford University, a lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, and an assistant professor at Montana State University. He is a member of the&nbsp;2011 Mars Science Laboratory mission's Sample Analysis Team.&nbsp;

Join us to learn&nbsp;about how scientists define what it means to be alive from Carnegie Plant Biology staff scientist Devaki Bhaya and Carngie Earth and Planets Laboratory staff scientist Andrew Steele. This is the fifth&nbsp;virtual program in a series of online conversations with several of our exciting investigators.&nbsp;&nbsp;
How do viruses and prions fit into our definition of life? What can extremophiles living in some of Earth's most inhospitable environments teach us about how life originated on this planet? Could Mars have once hosted life and, if so, what's the best way to find evidence of its existence?&nbsp;Bhaya's research on the&nbsp;hot spring bacteria living in Yellowstone National Park is providing insights into how microbial populations communicate, evolve, and share resources. Steele studies the&nbsp;prebiotic molecules and chemical pathways that could have formed under the conditions found on early Earth, as well as the possible sources of Mars' organic carbon. Together they will guide us through some of these fundamental questions about existence as we know it.&nbsp;
Bhaya&nbsp;earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University, training with plant biochemist Andre Jagendorf. She returned to India and helped develop the master&rsquo;s program at the Center for Biotechnology, Nehru University, Delhi. She joined Carnegie's staff in 2001, after a stint as a visiting Rockefeller Foundation Fellow. She is a courtesy Professor at Stanford University and recently spent a sabbatical as a Program&nbsp;Director, Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences at the National Science Foundation. She was recently elected a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences.&nbsp; Steele received his Ph.D. from the University of Portsmouth in the U.K. Before joining Carnegie, he was a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Johnson&nbsp; Space Center, a researcher at Oxford University, a lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, and an assistant professor at Montana State University. He is a member of the&nbsp;2011 Mars Science Laboratory mission's Sample Analysis Team.



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A Virtual Conversation With Devaki Bhaya And Andrew Steele

Join us to learn&nbsp;about the microbiome living inside all of us from William Ludington, a staff scientist at Carnegie&#39;s Department of Embryology.&nbsp; This is the third virtual program in a series of online conversations with several of our exciting investigators.&nbsp;&nbsp;The gut microbiome is an ecosystem of hundreds to thousands of microbial species living within the human body. The sheer diversity within the human gut presents a challenge to cataloging and understanding the affect these communities have on our health, including longevity and the effectiveness of antibiotics. Biologists are particularly interested in determining whether or not the microbiome as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. &nbsp;In other words, to what extent do individual species influence our health and physiology, and to what degree are these impacts determined by interactions between the species present in our microbiomes?&nbsp;&nbsp;So, the Ludington lab investigates the&nbsp;ecological dynamics of microbial&nbsp;interactions using the fruit fly&nbsp;Drosophila melanogaster.&nbsp;The fruit fly gut carries far fewer microbial species. Using these insects to understand&nbsp;species-species interactions in the gut microbiome could drive improvements in precision medicine and guide the development of regenerative therapies.Ludington earned his Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of California San Francisco in 2011. Before joining Carnegie as a staff scientist in 2018, he was the Bowes Fellow at UC Berkeley.

Join us to learn&nbsp;about the microbiome living inside all of us from William Ludington, a staff scientist at Carnegie&#39;s Department of Embryology.&nbsp; This is the third virtual program in a series of online conversations with several of our exciting investigators.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The gut microbiome is an ecosystem of hundreds to thousands of microbial species living within the human body. The sheer diversity within the human gut presents a challenge to cataloging and understanding the affect these communities have on our health, including longevity and the effectiveness of antibiotics. Biologists are particularly interested in determining whether or not the microbiome as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. &nbsp;In other words, to what extent do individual species influence our health and physiology, and to what degree are these impacts determined by interactions between the species present in our microbiomes?&nbsp;&nbsp;

So, the Ludington lab investigates the&nbsp;ecological dynamics of microbial&nbsp;interactions using the fruit fly&nbsp;Drosophila melanogaster.&nbsp;The fruit fly gut carries far fewer microbial species. Using these insects to understand&nbsp;species-species interactions in the gut microbiome could drive improvements in precision medicine and guide the development of regenerative therapies.

Ludington earned his Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of California San Francisco in 2011. Before joining Carnegie as a staff scientist in 2018, he was the Bowes Fellow at UC Berkeley.

A Virtual Conversation With William Ludington

Each summer, a volume of water equivalent to 10 Chesapeake Bays melts off of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Much of this meltwater reaches the ocean, but its path is neither direct nor simple. On its way, the meltwater interacts with the glacier itself in ways that can affect ice flow and further sea-level rise. Dr. Poinar uses numeric models and remotesensing observations to understand the water-ice interactions that affect the glacier’s long-term behavior. She will discuss her analyses of water systems—including large meltwater lakes and rivers that form on top of the ice, aquifers within the ice, deep crevasses that move water from these systems through the glacier to its base, and the water flow networks that develop under the glacier—which change the flow speed and patterns of the ice on its slow, or sometimes not-so-slow, journey to the ocean. Ultimately, Dr. Poinar wants to discover: how much is the Greenland Ice Sheet likely to raise sea levels and how fast will it happen?Dr. Kristin Poinar: Assistant Professor, Department of Geology and RENEW Institute, University at Buffalo, New York#Greenland

Each summer, a volume of water equivalent to 10 Chesapeake Bays melts off of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Much of this meltwater reaches the ocean, but its path is neither direct nor simple. On its way, the meltwater interacts with the glacier itself in ways that can affect ice flow and further sea-level rise. Dr. Poinar uses numeric models and remotesensing observations to understand the water-ice interactions that affect the glacier’s long-term behavior. She will discuss her analyses of water systems—including large meltwater lakes and rivers that form on top of the ice, aquifers within the ice, deep crevasses that move water from these systems through the glacier to its base, and the water flow networks that develop under the glacier—which change the flow speed and patterns of the ice on its slow, or sometimes not-so-slow, journey to the ocean. Ultimately, Dr. Poinar wants to discover: how much is the Greenland Ice Sheet likely to raise sea levels and how fast will it happen?
Dr. Kristin Poinar: Assistant Professor, Department of Geology and RENEW Institute, University at Buffalo, New York
#Greenland