Washington University in St. Louis


			Previous Events: March 4, 2020 The Anthropocene Era: Have Humans Become a Greater Force Than All of Nature? Tristram R. Kidder, Ph.D. Chair and Professor of Anthropology Professor of Environmental Studies Edward S. and Tedi Macias Professor November 6, 2019 Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution Jonathan B. Losos, Ph.D. William H. Danforth Distinguished University Professor Professor of Biology October 2, 2019 Aviator Charles Lindbergh's Surprising Venture into the Science of Organ Culture Bryan F. Meyers, M.D., M.P.H. Patrick and Joy Williamson Professor of Surgery Chief, Thoracic Surgery February 27, 2019 Tenacious Ticks and the Spread of Disease: Despite the Polar Vortex, They Keep On Ticking! Solny Adalsteinsson, Ph.D. Staff Scientist, Tyson Research Center January 30, 2019 How to Win the Lottery and Commit the Perfect Crime: Using Data to Your Advantage Liberty E. Vittert, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics October 31, 2018 Can Plastics Be Sustainable? William B. Tolman, Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry September 26, 2018 Medical Ethics and Frankenstein's Monster Ira J. Kodner, M.D. Emeritus Professor of Surgery May 30, 2018 Threatened Bats and Gifted Bugs: Can natural cave bacteria help stop White-Nose Syndrome? Joshua A.V. Blodgett, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biology April 25, 2018 Bird Bonds: How People Connect to Birds and how birds connect us to each other Joseph T. Steensma, Ed.D., M.P.H., C.I.H. Professor of Practice, Public Health and Social Entrepreneurship March 28, 2018 Zymurgy: The Art and Science of Beer Brewing Raymond A. Ehrhard Senior Research Associate in Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering February 28, 2018 Serial Bonds: 007 Storytelling since Casino Royale (2006) Colin Burnett, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies January 31, 2018 Milk with Altitude: At the Intersection of Biology and Culture in the Himalayas E.A. Quinn, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biological Anthropology Geoff Childs, Ph.D. Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology October 25, 2017 The New Moon: Recent and Future Exploration of Earth's Nearest Neighbor Bradley L. Jolliff, Ph.D. Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences September 27, 2017 How Animals Respond to Climate Change Carlos A. Botero, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biology May 31, 2017 Clover's Poison Pill: Cyanide, Plants and Evolution in Your Backyard Kenneth Olsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biology April 26, 2017 Digital Privacy and Other Civil Liberties Neil M. Richards, J.D., M.A. Thomas and Karole Green Professor of Law March 29, 2017 What Goes Down Must Come Up: The Mariana Trench and the Earth's Deep Water Cycle Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D. Robert S. Brookings Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences February 22, 2017 Wetlands, Heavy Metals and Climate Change Jeffrey G. Catalano, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences January 25, 2017 Graphene: Particle Physics in Pencil Lead Erik Henriksen, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Physics October 26, 2016 Corn: The American Crop Eric Hamilton, Ph.D. Candidate Graduate Fellow in Biology September 28, 2016 Understanding—and Hijacking—the Insect's Sense of Smell Barani Raman, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering May 25, 2016 Earth on the Move! Why We Can't Seem to Shake Earthquake Hazards Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences April 27, 2016 Another 200 Year Flood? What Missouri Can Do to Stop Repeated Flooding Robert E. Criss, Ph.D. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences March 30, 2016 Nature and the Nazi Diet Corinna A. Treitel, Ph.D. Associate Professor of History February 24, 2016 Where Have the Birds Gone? Update on West Nile Virus Joseph A. Lamanna, Ph.D. Tyson Postdoctoral Research Associate Department of Biology January 27, 2016 Compressed Ultrafast Photography Lihong Wang, Ph.D. Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor Department of Biomedical Engineering October 28, 2015 Update on New Horizons and Pluto: Battle of the Dwarf Planets William B. McKinnon, Ph.D. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences September 30, 2015 Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Squishing Rocks to Study the Earth's Interior Philip A. Skemer, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences May 27, 2015 What Beer Bottles & Violins Say About the Evolutionary Forces that Shape Us and Our Culture Daniel H. Chitwood, Ph.D. Assistent Member, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Honorary Adjunct Professor of Biology April 29, 2015 Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall? Why the one near your hand is better Richard A. Abrams, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology March 25, 2015 What Is Happening to the Honey Bees? Eirik Søvik, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Research Associate Department of Biology February 25, 2015 Where Does the Solar System End? William B. McKinnon, Ph.D. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences January 28, 2015 Early Mars: Warm, Wet, and Habitable Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D. James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences October 29, 2014 Flicker: Your Brain On Movies Jeffrey M. Zacks, Ph.D. Professor and Associate Chair of Psychology Professor of Radiology September 24, 2014 A CRISPR Look at Genome Engineering Shondra Miller, Ph.D. Director, Genome Engineering and iPSC Center (GEiC) May 28, 2014 Inorganic Enzymology: the Role of Metals in Biology and Drug Discovery Holden Thorp, Ph.D. Provost Professor of Chemistry and Medicine April 30, 2014 Life and Death Among Early Modern Humans Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D. Professor of Anthropology Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor in Arts & Sciences March 26, 2014 It's Element-ary: soil composition and genetic effects on plant growth Ivan Baxter, Ph.D. USDA Research Scientist Assistant Member, Danforth Plant Science Center Honorary Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biology February 26, 2014 Facility closed for renovation January 29, 2014 Battery Tech: From Flashlights to Teslas and Beyond Venkat Subramanian, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Energy, Environment & Chemical Engineering October 30, 2013 Mysteries of Human Evolution Glenn Conroy, Ph.D. Professor of Physical Anthropology Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology September 25, 2013 Cahokia‘s Woodhenge: an Ancient Calendar? Michael W. Friedlander, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Physics May 29, 2013 Using Statistical Modeling to Fight Terrorism Jefferson M. Gill, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science April 24, 2013 Meteorites and Moon Rocks Randy L. Korotev, Ph.D. Research Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences March 27, 2013 The Science of Baseball David A. Peters, Ph.D. McDonnell Douglas Professor of Engineering Director of the Center for Computational Mechanics February 27, 2013 Why Do We Keep Burning Coal? Should We? Richard L. Axelbaum, Ph.D. The Stifel & Quinette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Science Director of the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization January 30, 2013 The Maya End of the World: The Ninth Century Collapse and Climate Change David Freidel, Ph.D. Professor of Archaeology October 31, 2012 The Lady Anatomist: From Household Dissections to Enlightenment Science Rebecca Messbarger, Ph.D. Professor of Italian and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Director of Undergraduate Studies in Italian September 26, 2012 You Probably Think This Talk Is About You: Self-delusion and Self-insight in Everyday Life Simine Vazire, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology and Rosenzweig Chair in Personality Science May 30, 2012 Air Quality in St. Louis and Beyond Jay R. Turner, D.Sc. Associate Professor of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering April 25, 2012 The Arab Spring and Global Democratization: The Eclipse of the West? R. Ewan Harrison, Ph.D. Assistant Dean, College of Arts & Sciences March 28, 2012 Into the Wild: Behavioral and Biological Studies of the Baboons of Eastern and Southern Africa Jane E. Phillips-Conroy, Ph.D. Professor of Anthropology February 29, 2012 Einstein's Warped Ideas Clifford M. Will, Ph.D. James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences January 25, 2012 Muddy Rivers, Clean Drinking Water, Beer and Sewage: Engineering Water Quality at the Confluence Daniel E. Giammar, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering October 26, 2011 Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Geysers and Fires: A Geological Tour of Yellowstone National Park Robert F. Dymek, Ph.D. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences September 28, 2011 Mathematics and Music David L. Wright, Ph.D. Professor and Chair of Mathematics May 25, 2011 Citizen Science: How You Can Find Aliens, Fold Proteins, Measure Galaxies, and More... Robert B. Pless, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Computer Science & Engineering April 27, 2011 Subversive Science, Architecture and Sustainability Bruce Lindsey, AIA E. Desmond Lee Professor of Community Collaboration Dean, College of Architecture/Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design March 30, 2011 Medicinal Plants Toni M. Kutchan, Ph.D. Principal Investigator and Member, Danforth Plant Science Center Adjunct Professor of Biology February 23, 2011 Seismology in Antarctica: Listening to the Sounds of Climate Change Douglas A. Wiens, Ph.D. Professor and Chair of Earth and Planetary Sciences January 26, 2011 Discovering the Roots of Civilization Using GIS and Remote Sensing Michael Frachetti, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Anthropology October 27, 2010 The Truth About Chimps Crickette M. Sanz, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Anthropology David B. Morgan, Ph.D. Research Associate Professor of Anthropology September 29, 2010 Who Is Behind the Internet? Patrick J. Crowley, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering May 26, 2010 Hot Lasers, Fast Particles, and Snapshots of Quantum Cats Richard A. Loomis, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Chemistry April 28, 2010 Judicial Independence — An International Comparison John O. Haley, LL.M. William R. Orthwein Distinguished Professor of Law March 31, 2010 Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rover Mission: Six Years and Counting Raymond E. Arvidson, Ph.D. James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor February 24, 2010 It's Hot Down There! Measuring the Temperature of the Earth's Crust Anne M. Hofmeister, Ph.D. Research Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences January 27, 2010 Michelangelo: Artist, Aristocrat and Engineer William E. Wallace, Ph.D. Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History October 28, 2009 MirthBusters: Facts and Fiction of Happiness Randy J. Larsen, Ph.D. William R. Stuckenberg Professor of Human Values and Chair Department of Psychology September 30, 2009 The Technology of War Reporting... with Tales from the Bunker Robert Wiener Journalist, former CNN Executive Producer Richard Chapman Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting, Department of Film and Media Studies May 27, 2009 St. Louis Flooding 2008: From Spring Rains to Hurricane Ike Robert E. Criss, Ph.D. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences April 29, 2009 Black Holes Carl M. Bender, Ph.D. Wilfred R. and Ann Lee Konneker Distinguished Professor of Physics March 25, 2009 Mechanics of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Philip V. Bayly, Ph.D. Lilyan and E. Lisle Hughes Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering February 25, 2009 The Compositional Process: From Infants to Jazz to Film William J. Lenihan Lecturer in Music, Director of Jazz Performance January 28, 2009 Collateral Damage: Houses, Finance and the Economy Gaetano Antinolfi, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Economics October 29, 2008 As Time Glows By: Watching Biological Clocks Tick in the Brain Erik D. Herzog, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biology September 24, 2008 Climate Change and Human Response: Past, Present and Future Jennifer R. Smith, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences May 28, 2008 Composers at Work Hugh Macdonald, Ph.D. Avis H. Blewett Professor of Music April 30, 2008 The Impact of Human Activity on Biodiversity Alan Templeton, Ph.D. Professor of Biology March 26, 2008 Space Mission Failures... or When Rocket Science, Politics and Human Nature Collide Michael Swartwout, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering February 27, 2008 Video Surveillance: Fact and Fiction Robert Pless, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering January 30, 2008 King Corn Ken Olsen, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biology November 28, 2007 Quarks in the Universe Mark Alford, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Physics October 31, 2007 Donkeys from the Land of the Dead: The Skeletons of Abydos Fiona B. Marshall, Ph.D. Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology May 30, 2007 Cognitive Illusions: How the Mind Bends Reality Henry L. Roediger, III, Ph.D. James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Psychology April 25, 2007 Robotic Exploration of Mars and Revisiting the Moon Bradley Jolliff, Ph.D. Research Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences March 28, 2007 Muslims in the West: Taking Europe as an Example John Bowen, Ph.D. Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor In Arts and Sciences Department of Sociocultural Anthropology February 28, 2007 Einstein: What Did He Do? How Did He Do It? Who Was He? John Rigden, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor of Physics January 31, 2007 Is it Natural to be Moral? Ursula Goodenough, Ph.D. Professor of Biology November 29, 2006 The Upside of Being Upright Herman Pontzer, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Anthropology October 25, 2006 “Corpus Delicti: Just Desserts” Performance by Local Infinities: Visual Theater Company, Chicago May 31, 2006 Cosmic Rays: Adventures in Antarctica W. Robert Binns, Ph.D. Research Professor of Physics April 26, 2006 Chernobyl Twenty Years Later - the Tragic Fallout in Belarus Richard Chapman Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting, Department of Film and Media Studies March 29, 2006 Man, The Hunted Robert Sussman, Ph.D. Professor of Anthropology February 22, 2006 Solar Energy and Nuclear Energy: Promise for the 21st Century? Mark Wrighton, Ph.D. Chancellor, Washington University in Saint Louis January 25, 2006 Minerals that Harm, Minerals that Help Jill Pasteris, Ph.D. Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences November 30, 2005 Plants and People—Is Your Beer Green? Barbara A. Schaal, Ph.D. Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor of Biology October 25, 2005 Chaos John E. M^cCarthy, Ph.D. Professor of Mathematics September 28, 2005 The Sumatra Earthquake, Could It Happen Here? Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences