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

26 March to 1 April 2007

MONDAY, 26 MARCH

"Consequences of Spatial Pattern on Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling," Erica Smithwick (faculty candidate), University of Wisconsin, 11:00 a.m., 319 Walker Building, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (8763-7091).

"Lateral Root Initiation is Correlated with the Curvature of the Primary Root in Arabidopsis Thaliana," Gregory Richter, Penn State, 12:10 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, host: Simon Gilroy, Intercollege Graduate Program in Plant Biology (863-9626).

"Genetic Diversity of Phytophthora sojae in Northeastern China Based on Single Strand Conformational Polymorphism (SSCP) Markers," Li Guo, Penn State, 3:30 p.m., 112 Buckhout Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology (865-3761).

(title to be announced), Robert Falgout, Lawrence Livermore National Labortory, 3:30 p.m., 216 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Mesh-Warping Techniques with Application to Cardiology and Nonlinear Elasticity," Suzanne Shontz, Penn State, 3:35 p.m., 203 Sackett Building, host: Lyle N. Long, Department of Aerospace Engineering (865-1172 or www.csci.psu.edu).

"Black Holes: Spins, Kicks and Consequences," David Merritt, Rochester Institute of Techology, 4:00 p.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"Hydrogen Production in Phototrophic Organisms: Characterization of the Proteins and Pathways," Matthew Posewitz, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 4:00 p.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Donald Bryant, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-1992).

"Sustainable Horticulture Research," Elsa Sanchez, Penn State, 4:00 p.m., 111 Tyson Building, Department of Horticulture (865-2571).

"The Three Principles in Social Science" (Clogg lecture #1 of 1), Yu Xie, University of Michigan, 4:30 p.m., 102 Thomas Building, Department of Sociology and Department of Statistics (865-1348).

"Maximum Principles and Generalized Solutions of Nonlinear Partial-Differential Equations" (Marker lecture #1 of 4), Lawrence Craig Evans, University of California, 8:00 p.m., 114 McAllister Building, Eberly College of Science and Department of Mathematics (865-8462 or 865-7527).

TUESDAY, 27 MARCH

"Loop Quantization of Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes," Jorge Pullin, Louisiana State University, 10:00 a.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"The Path of the Random Walkers: An Old Approach to Find a Certain Answer," Fernando Reboredo, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 3:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Jorge Sofo, Department of Physics (865-7533).

"Applications to Optimal-Mass-Transport Problems" (Marker lecture #2 of 4), Lawrence Craig Evans, University of California, 4:00 p.m., 114 McAllister Building, Eberly College of Science and Department of Mathematics (865-8462 or 865-7527).

"Challenges in Driving Towards Petascale Computing," Rama Govindaraju, IBM, 4:00 p.m., 333 Information Sciences & Technologies Building, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (865-9505).

"Reaching for Gravitational Wave Bursts," Peter Shawhan, University of Maryland, 4:00 p.m., 320 Whitmore Labortory, Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"Root (Effect) for Fish Hemoglobin," Lexan Lhu, Penn State, 4:00 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Patrick Cirino, Department of Chemical Engineering (865-5790).

(title to be announced), Christina Lopano, Penn State, 4:00 p.m., 22 Deike Building, Department of Geosciences (865-2622).

WEDNESDAY, 28 MARCH

(title to be announced), Don Wuebbles, University of Illinois, 12:00 noon, 240 Deike Building, Office of the Dean of the Graduate School and Worldwide Universities Network (863-1272).

"Dude, Where's My River?" (video), 12:15 p.m., 105 Deike Building, Earth and Mineral Sciences Library (863-7073).

"A Nanoengineering Approach to Investigate Polyvalent Biochemical Interactions," Gang-yu Liu, University of California, 2:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Paul Weiss, Department of Chemistry (865-3693).

"Searches for New Physics at the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) with Like-Sign Dilepton Events," Peter Wittich, Cornell University, 2:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Doug Cowen, Department of Physics (865-7533).

"The Discovery and Development of Alkene and Alkyne Metathesis Reactions" (Honeywell lecture #1 of 2), Richard R. Schrock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 3:00 p.m., HUB Auditorium, Penn State Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (863-4308).

"Applications to Weak Kolmogorov-Arnol'd-Moser (KAM) Theory" (Marker lecture #3 of 4), Lawrence Craig Evans, University of California, 4:00 p.m., 114 McAllister Building, Eberly College of Science and Department of Mathematics (865-8462 or 865-7527).

THURSDAY, 29 MARCH

"The Role of the Histone Tails in the Regulation of Ribonucleotide-Reductase-3 (RNR3) Expression," James Psathas, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Joseph Reese, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-1976).

"Why Does Body Size Matter? Patterns Over Space, Time, and Scale," S. Kathleen Lyons (faculty candidate), Old Dominion University, 1:00 p.m., 319 Walker Building, Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (863-7091).

"Catalytic Reduction of Dinitrogen to Ammonia at Room Temperature and One Atmosphere with Protons and Electrons" (Honeywell lecture #2 of 2), Richard R. Schrock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2:00 p.m., 112 Buckout Laboratory, Penn State Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations (863-4308).

"Applications to Sup-Norm Variational Problems" (Marker lecture #4 of 4), Lawrence Craig Evans, University of California, 4:00 p.m., 114 McAllister Building, Eberly College of Science and Department of Mathematics (865-8462 or 865-7527).

"Challenges in Driving Towards Petascale Computing," Rama Govindaraju, IBM, 4:00 p.m., 333 Information Sciences and Technologies Building, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (865-9505).

"Growth Factor, Development, and Autonomic Transmission," Susan J. Birren, Brandeis University, 4:00 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, host: Matthew Whim, Penn State Neuroscience Institute (863-3891).

"On the Generation of High Winds in Lines of Thunderstorms: Results from the Bow Echo and Mesoscale Convective Vortices (MCVs) Experiment (BAMEX), Roger Wakimoto, National Center for Atmospheric Research, 4:00 p.m., 112 Walker Building, Department of Meteorology (863-8566).

"Optical Control of a Quantum System: Where the Macro Meets the Micro" (Lannin lecture #1 of 1), Lu Sham, University of California, 4:00 p.m., 117 Osmond Laboratory, host: Moses Chan, Department of Physics (865-7533).

FRIDAY, 30 MARCH

"Classical and Quantum Features of the Gowdy Model: A Survey," Charles Torre, Utah State University, 11:00 a.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"Parasitoids and Polydnaviruses, Horses and Tent Caterpillars, Viruses and Business: The Meandering Path of an Accidental Entomologist," Bruce Webb, University of Kentucky, 11:00 a.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Entomology (865-1895).

"Shortness of Breath During Exertion in Obesity," Tony G. Babb, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 11:15 a.m., Room 127, Noll Laboratory, Noll Physiological Research Center (865-3453).

"Organic and Reduced-Herbicide Management of a Cereal-Rye Cover Crop for Weed Suppression," Steven Mirsky, Penn State, 12:20 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences (863-1601).

"On the K-Theory of Continuous Fields of C*Algebras," Marius Dadarlat, Purdue University, 2:30 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"The Elegant Universe: Einstein's Dream" (video), 3:30 p.m., 211 Davey Laboratory, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library (865-7617 or www.libraries.psu.edu/pams/filmseries.html).

(title to be announced), Kevin Zumbrun, Indiana University, 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Putting Obesity in (Its) Place: Towards an Explanation of Geographical Variation in US Fatness and Thinness," Julie Guthman, Univeristy of California, 4:00 p.m., 22 Deike Building, Department of Geography + Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology (865-3433

SATURDAY, 31 MARCH to SUNDAY, 1 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.

Reporters for Science Seminars and the areas they cover are as follows: [agriculture: Kay Moore] [agronomy: Madeline Laubach] [anthropology: Alan Walker] [astronomy and astrophysics: SherryDawn Jackson and Christine Selders] [biochemistry and molecular biology: Tamara Housel] [biology: Paula Farwell and Stephanie Gookin] [gravitational physics and geometry: Randi Neshteruk] [ceramic science and engineering: April Benson] [chemical engineering: Sandra Brown and Kathy Peters] [chemistry: Clare Eckley] [computer science and engineering: Beth Kennedy and Karen Alise Corl] [earth and mineral sciences: Debra Lambert] [energy: Kelly Jo Rhoades] [entomology: Thelma Brodzina] [life sciences: Janice Kennedy] [mathematics: Flossie Dunlop] [nutrition: Judy Jones] [physical and mathematical sciences library: Emily L. Rimland] [physics: Cheryl Wagner] [physiology: Jenny Edwards] [plant physiology: Janice Kennedy] [poultry science: Linda Houtz] [Senior Vice President for Research: Emily Rowlands] [science, technology, and society: Karen Snare] [statistics: Bonnie Cain] [veterinary science: Loretta Muchinsky].

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Penn State is an affirmative action, equal opportunity university. Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the office in charge of the seminar in advance of your attendance. U.Ed. SCI 07-104

This issue of SCIENCE SEMINARS was produced by Leta A. Krumrine and Melissa Arnett.