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

16 to 22 April 2007

MONDAY, 16 APRIL

"Genetic and Genomic Analyses of Leaf Development in Maize," Michael Scanlon, Cornell University, 12:10 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, host: Paula McSteen, Intercollege Graduate Program in Plant Biology (863-3892).

"New Methods and Strategies for the Synthesis of Complex Peptides and Alkaloids," Steve L. Castle, Brigham Young University, 2:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Steve Weinreb, Department of Chemistry (863-0189).

"Approaches to Broad-Spectrum, Durable Plant-Disease Resistance" (Nelson lecture), Jan E. Leach, Colorado State University, 3:30 p.m., 112 Buckhout Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology (865-3761).

(title to be announced), Jesse Barlow, Penn State, 3:30 p.m., 216 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Entropy Bounds for Hyperbolic Inducing Systems," Jerome Buzzi, Ecole Polytechnique (France), 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Patterns, Sources, and Ecological Impacts of Decadal-to-Multidecadal Climate Variability," Julio Betancourt, U.S. Geological Survey, 3:35 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Intercollege Graduate Program in Ecology (865-5557).

"Scalable Fuzzy-Logic Networks for Data Fusion," Jeff Weinschenk, Penn State, 3:35 p.m., 203 Sackett Building, host: Lyle N. Long, Department of Aerospace Engineering (865-1172 or www.csci.psu.edu/springsem.html).

"Improving Genebank Efficiency Through Molecular Markers: The Case of Theobroma cocoa," Dapeng Zhang, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 4:00 p.m., 111 Tyson Building, Department of Horticulture (865-2571).

"Structural, Spectroscopic, and Mutagenic Studies of a Ferredoxin-Dependent Chloroplast-Nitrite Reductase," David Knaff, Texas Tech University, 4:00 p.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Greg Ferry, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (863-5721).

TUESDAY, 17 APRIL

"Tissue Engineering of Cell Self-Assembly and Differentiation Potential," Kim C. O'Connor, Tulane University, 10:00 a.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering (865-2577).

"Green-Tao Work on Arithmetic Progressions in Primes: Methods and Techniques, Part Two," Izabella Laba, University of British Columbia (Canada), 3:30 p.m., 216 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Interaction Effects in a Two-Dimensional Electronic Liquid in the Presence of Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling," Gabriele F. Giuliani, Purdue University, 3:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Jainendra Jain, Department of Physics (865-7533).

"Dissecting Fundamental Components of Enzymatic Catalysis: Electrostatic Versus Geometric Catalysis," Dan Herschlag, Stanford University, 4:00 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Steve Benkovic, Department of Chemistry (865-2882).

"Erosion and Transport Time Scales Based on U-Series Isotopes," Francois Chabaux, University of Strasbourg (France), 4:00 p.m., 22 Deike Building, Department of Geosciences (865-2622).

WEDNESDAY, 18 APRIL

"Universally-Composable Multi-Party Computation Using Tamper-Proof Hardware," Jonathan Katz, University of Maryland, 10:00 a.m., 333 Information Science and Technology Building, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (865-9505).

"Biotic Recovery from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum: Implications for Carbon Sequestration," Tim Bralower, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 541 Deike Building, Earth Systems Science Center (865-0478).

"Solar Roadways Project," Scott Brusaw, Solar Roadways, 11:15 a.m., 301 Steidle Building, Materials Research Institute (863-8407).

"Healthy Indulgences: The Benefits of Chocolate and Wine" (Research Unplugged), Penny Kris-Etherton, Penn State, 12:00 noon, Penn State Downtown Theatre Center (127 S. Allen Street), Office of the Senior Vice President for Research (865-3477 or www.rps.psu.edu/unplugged/)

"Volcano" (video), 12:15 p.m., 105 Deike Building, Earth and Mineral Sciences Library (863-7073).

"The Worldsheet S-Matrix of Planar N=4 Gauge Theory," Niklas Beisert, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Germany), 2:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Radu Roiban, Department of Physics (865-7533).

"The Fractal Dimension of the Spectrum of the Fibonacci Operator," David Damanik, Rice University, 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Chemopreventive Effects of a Bioadhesive Berry Gel on Lesions of Oral Epithelial Dysplasia, Susan Mallery, Penn State, 4:00 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, host: Jeff Peters, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences (863-1387).

"Neuroscience/Neural Engineering 2007: The Fusion of Touch and Position Signals for the Localization of Sensation in Body-Centered Coordinates," David Kleinfeld, University of California, 4:00 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, host: Steven Schiff, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences + Penn State Neuroscience Institute + Department of Neurosurgery + Department of Engineering Sciences and Mechanics + Department of Physics (863-4210 or 321-4884).

THURSDAY, 19 APRIL

"Active Control of Surfactants," Nicholas Abbott, University of Wisconsin, 10:00 a.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering (863-1375).

"Bounded Reduction of Invertible Matrices Over Polynomial Rings by Addition Operations," Leonid Vaserstein, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Globalization and Career Paths at U.S. Steel," Lisa A. Roudabush, United States Steel Corporation, 11:15 a.m., 26 Hosler Building, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (865-4992).

"Spectroscopic Characterization of PscB, an Iron-Sulfur Protein from the Photosynthetic Reaction Center of Chlorobium vibrioforme," Bharadwaj Jagannathan, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: John Golbeck, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-1163).

"Protein Folding: Inverting the Paradigm," George D. Rose, Johns Hopkins University, 12:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Ron Davis, Department of Chemistry (863-3556).

"Intermediate Electronic Phases: Between the Fermi Liquid and the Wigner Crystal" (Mueller lecture), Steven Kivelson, Stanford University, 4:00 p.m., 117 Osmond Laboratory, host: Jinwu Ye, Department of Physics (865-7533).

"Model-Based Clustering for Social Networks," Mark Handcock, University of Washington, 4:00 p.m., 201 Thomas Building, Department of Statistics (865-1348).

"Molecular Control of Central-Nervous-System (CNS) Myelination," Yue Feng, Emory University, 4:00 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, host: Doug Cavener, Penn State Neuroscience Institute (863-4210).

"Urban-Landscape Water Use: Runoff from Residential Areas," Robert L. Mazalewski, University of California, 4:00 p.m., 108 Tyson Building, Department of Horticulture (865-2571).

FRIDAY, 20 APRIL

"New Insights Into Essential-Amino-Acid Biosynthesis in Arabidopsis," Georg Jander, Cornell University, 11:00 a.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Entomology + Chemical Ecology Center (865-1895).

"Longitudinal Proteomic Analysis of a Weight-Loss Intervention in Humans Using Isotope-Coded Affinity Tags," Christopher J. Lynch, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 127 Noll Laboratory, Noll Physiological Research Center (865-3453).

"Characterization of Hydrogen-Producing Bacterial Communities from Soil and Isolation of Dominant Clostridium spp.," Yonghua Luo, Penn State, 12:20 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences (863-1601).

"The Positive Scalar-Curvature Problem in Nonspin Manifolds," Stanley Chang, Wellesley College, 2:30 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Newton’s Dark Secrets" (video), 3:30 p.m., 211 Davey Laboratory, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library (865-7617 or www.libraries.psu.edu/pams/filmseries.html).

"On the Homogenization of Conservation Laws with Oscillatory Source," Debora Amadori, University of L'Aquila (Italy), 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

SATURDAY, 21 APRIL and SUNDAY, 22 APRIL

(none)

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Additions or cancellations will be noted on weekly Science Seminar listings on the Web.

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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. Click here for additional information about Science Seminars, or for instruction on how to SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE.

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This issue of SCIENCE SEMINARS was produced by Leta A. Krumrine and Kristen Devlin.