Science Seminars is a weekly list of science-related seminars sponsored by colleges, research institutes, and other organizations throughout Penn State. Science Seminars is published by the Penn State Eberly College of Science as a service to Penn State and its surrounding communities

Science Seminars

28 April to 4 May 08

MONDAY, 28 APRIL

"Coordination of Endoplasmic-Reticulum (ER) Signaling During Maize Seed Development," Rebecca Boston, North Carolina State University, 12:10 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, host: Dawn Luthe, Intercollege Graduate Program in Plant Biology (863-7655).

"Death Be Not Proud: Modulation of Programmed Cell Death for Disease/Stress Tolerance in Plants," Marty Dickman, Texas A&M University, 3:30 p.m., 112 Buckhout Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology (865-6761).

"Centrally Located Body Fat in Relation to Inflammatory Markers and Appetitive Hormones in Healthy Post-Menopausal Women" (Ruth Pike lecture), D. Lee Alekel, Iowa State University, 4:00 p.m., S-209 Henderson Building, Graduate Program in Nutrition (865-3448).

ADDED AFTER EMAIL DISTRIBUTION:
"Energy and Security: Grand Engineering Challenges," William Perry, U. S. Department of Defense, 4:00 p.m., HUB Auditorium, host: Darryl Farber, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering (865-3047 or 863-6383).

"Translating the Histone Code: A Tale of Tails" (Marker lecture #1 of 2), C. David Allis, Rockefeller University, 6:00 p.m., 100 Life Sciences Building (Berg Auditorium), host: Yanming Wang, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-3775).

TUESDAY, 29 APRIL

TIME CHANGED AFTER EMAIL DISTRIBUTION:
"Gene Regulation by the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor: New Targets and Mechanism," Rushang Patel, Penn State, 9:30 a.m., 324 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences (865-3155).

"Computer Simulations of Polyelectrolytes at Surface and Interfaces," Andrew Dobrynin, University of Connecticut, 10:00 a.m., 301 Steidle Building, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (865-4992).

"Partition Functions of Three-Dimensional Quantum Gravity," Alex Maloney, McGill University (Canada), 10:00 a.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"The 'Marriage' of Covalent and Non-Covalent Mechanism of Chromatin Remodeling: Until Gene Activation Do Us Part" (Marker lecture #2 of 2), C. David Allis, Rockefeller University, 11:30 a.m., 100 Life Sciences Building (Berg Auditorium), host: Yanming Wang, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-3775).

"Learning Outcomes Assessment: What Is It, and Why Should I Care?" Tanya Furman, Penn State, 12:10 p.m., 114 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Cracks in the Clay: The Role of Fractures and Macropores in Critical-Zone Hydrology," Larry McKay, University of Tennessee, 12:15 p.m., 114 Earth-Engineering Sciences Building, Deparment of Geosciences (865-2622).

"What We Tell You Three Times Is True," Art Degraw + Brandt Kronholm + Gabe Holmes, State University of New York, 1:25 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Semistable (Principal) Higgs Bundles," Ugo Bruzzo, International School for Advanced Studies (Italy), 2:30 p.m., 315 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Averaging in Dynamical Systems, Part Two: Some Classical and New Results," Yuri Kifer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), 3:30 p.m., 216 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Friction, Magnetism, and Superconductivity: Are They Interrelated?" Jacqueline Krim, North Carolina State University, 3:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Milton Cole, Department of Physics (863-0165).

"Control of the Tumor-Suppressor Protein p53 and Caspases for Cell Proliferation and Apoptosis," Xiaolu Yang, University of Pennsylvania, 4:00 p.m. (refreshments at 3:45 p.m.), 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Zhi-Chun Lai, Department of Biology (863-0479).

"Of Domains and Boundaries: Phase Behavior in Biological Membrane Models," Tobias Baumgart, University of Pennsylvania, 4:00 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Christine Keating, Department of Chemistry (863-7832).

"The Economic Geology of Carbon-Dioxide Capture and Storage," Kurt House, Harvard University, 4:00 p.m., 22 Deike Building, Department of Geosciences (865-2622).

"Whole System Thinking and Radical Energy Efficiency," Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, 5:00 p.m., HUB-Robeson Center Auditorium, Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment + Office of the Physical Plant (863-0037).

WEDNESDAY, 30 APRIL

"Webtap and Secure Virtual File System (SVFS): Detecting and Tolerating Host Intrusions," Atul Prakash, University of Michigan, 10:00 a.m., 113 Information Sciences and Technologies Building (the Cybertorium), Department of Computer Science and Engineering (865-9505).

"Something in the Air (Endless Voyage)" (video), 12:15 p.m., 105 Deike Building, Earth and Mineral Sciences Library (863-7073).

"From Pixels to Parcels: The Anatomy of Household and Parcel-Based Methods for Urban Social-Ecological Research and Applications," Morgan Grove, USDA Forest Service and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, 1:30 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Intercollege Graduate Program in Ecology (867-0371).

"Enriching the Analytical Toolbox for Biomedical Research," Lin He, North Carolina State University, 2:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Christine Keating, Department of Chemistry (863-7832).

"New Light on the Dark Side of the Universe: Doing Physics with a Noble Element," Elena Aprile, Columbia University, 2:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Stephane Coutu, Department of Physics (865-2015).

"Nonconvergence Examples in Averaging," Yuri Kifer, Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

SEMINAR CANCELLED AFTER EMAIL DISTRIBUTION:
"Context and Episodic Memory," Michael Kahana, University of Pennsylvania, 4:00 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory (with videoconferencing to Room CG623 at College of Medicine), host: John Collins, Penn State Neuroscience Institute (863-0783).

"The Mechanism of Mismatch Repair and Its Role in Cancer," Richard Fishel (department-head candidate), Ohio State University, 4:00 p.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Ross Hardison, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (863-0113).

THURSDAY, 1 MAY

"Protein Function: Inferences from Sequence and Structure," Vineet Sangar, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Arthur Lesk, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-4743).

(title to be announced), Frits Beukers, Utrecht University (Netherlands), 11:15 a.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

(title to be announced), Mark Ratner, Northwestern University, 12:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, hosts: Lasse Jensen and Will Noid, Department of Chemistry (865-6553).

"The Spectral Invariants and Homological Area of Hamiltonian Diffeomorphisms with Applications to Ham(M,\omega)," Peter Spaeth, Penn State, 2:15 p.m., 216 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Mineral Reaction Kinetics During Geological Carbon-Dioxide Sequestration," Li Li, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 4:00 p.m., 22 Deike Building, Department of Geosciences (865-2622).

"Ordering in Red Abalone Nacre," Susan Coppersmith, University of Wisconsin, 4:00 p.m., 117 Osmond Laboratory, host: Moses Chan, Department of Physics (865-9606).

"Length-Minimizing Paths in Ham(M,\omega).," Peter Spaeth, Penn State, 5:00 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

FRIDAY, 2 MAY

"Freely Moving Structures Interacting with Thermal Convection," Jun Zhang, New York University, 12:15 p.m., 114 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Uptake of Arsenate and Perchlorate by Anionic Clays," Kanchan Grover, Penn State, 12:20 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences (865-6541).

"The Duflo Isomorphism and Classification of Representations: Part Three," Nigel Higson, Penn State, 2:00 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Drosophila Olfaction: Function and Evolution," Bill Hansson, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Germany), 2:30 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, host: Tom Baker, Department of Entomology (865-1895).

"The Role of the Kar2p Chaperone in Stress Tolerance at Single-Gene Analysis," Chia-Ling Hsu, Penn State, 3:00 p.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Davis Ng, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-3072).

"Anomalous Behavior of Flexible, Flapping Bodies in Fluid," Jun Zhang, New York University, 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

SATURDAY, 3 MAY and SUNDAY, 4 MAY

(none)

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Cancellations and additions will be noted on weekly Science Seminar listings on the Web at
< www.science.psu.edu/scisem/scisem.htm > or
< www.events.psu.edu/cgi-bin/cal/webevent.cgi?cmd=opencal&cal=cal250& >.

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Science Seminars is a weekly list of science-related seminars sponsored by colleges, research institutes, and other organizations throughout Penn State. Science Seminars is published by the Penn State Eberly College of Science as a service to Penn State and its surrounding communities.

For more information about Science Seminars, or for instructions on how to SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE, visit the links at http://www.science.psu.edu/scisem/scisemData.htm

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This issue of SCIENCE SEMINARS was produced by Sara LaJeunesse and Kristen Devlin.