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

30 October to 5 November 2006

MONDAY, 30 OCTOBER

"Halocline Catastrophes and Other Such Matters," John Wettlaufer, Yale University, 11:15 a.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Advances in the Creation, Development, and Application of Patterned Neurotransmitter-Functionalized Surfaces," T.J. Mullen + M. Shuster + A. Vaish, Penn State, 12:00 noon, S-5 Osmond Laboratory, host: Paul Weiss, Department of Chemistry (863-9637).

"Overcoming Biomass Recalcitrance: Enabling U.S. Department of Energy’s 2030 Goals," Mike Himmel, National Renewal Energy Lab, 12:10 p.m., 108 Wartik Laboratory, hosts: Daniel Cosgrove and Tom Richard, Biomass Energy Center and Intercollege Graduate Program in Plant Biology (863-3892).

"Environmental Regulation of Seed Phenolics and Their Implication on Seed-Bank Persistence and Plant Fitness in Avena fatua," Robert Gallagher, Penn State, 1:25 p.m., 118 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Intercollege Graduate Program in Ecology (865-5557 or 862-0797).

"Polymer Grafts from Metal, Non-Metal, and Metalloid Substrates via Atom-Transfer Radical Polymerizations (ATRP)," Arlin Weikel, Penn State, 2:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Harry Allcock, Department of Chemistry (865-3527).

"Enantioselective Catalysis of the Carbonyl-Ene Reaction," Wei Li, Penn State, 3:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Xumu Zhang, Department of Chemistry (865-4221).

"Genetic Engineering of Plums for Resistance to Plum-Pox Virus: Development, Testing, and the Road to Deregulation," Ralph Scorza, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Penn State, 3:30 p.m., 112 Buckhout Laboratory, Department of Plant Pathology (865-3761).

(title to be announced), Yakov Pesin, Penn State, 3:35 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Science-Based Organic Apple Production," J.W. Travis, Penn State, 4:00 p.m., 111 Tyson Building, Department of Horticulture (865-2571).

"Structure-Function Analyses of the Phosphagen Kinases," Mark J. Snider, College of Wooster, 4:00 p.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Squire Booker, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-8793).

TUESDAY, 31 OCTOBER

"Inhomogeneous Quantum Cosmology: The Gowdy-T3 Model," Guillermo Mena Marugan, Spanish National Research Council (Spain), 10:00 a.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

(title to be announced), James Sellers, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Maximal-Entropy Measures for Symmetric and Non-Symmetric Spaces of Non-Positive Curvature," G. Knieper, Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Germany), 3:30 p.m., 216 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Why Should We Worry About Gas Adsorption in Solid-Solid Adhesion, Friction, and Wear?" Seong H. Kim, Penn State, 3:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Milton Cole, Department of Physics (863-5343).

"Interactions of Faults and Dikes on Plate-Spreading Centers," Roger Buck, Columbia University, 4:00 p.m., 22 Deike Building, Department of Geosciences (865-2622).

WEDNESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER

"Neural Engineering 2006: Voltage-Sensitive Dye Imaging of Neuronal Population Activity," Jian-young Wu, Georgetown University, 10:00 a.m., S-5 Osmond Laboratory, host: Steven Schiff, Department of Neurosurgery and Department of Engineering Sciences and Mechanics (863-4210 or 321-4884).

(title to be announced), Ray Najjar, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 529 Walker Building, Earth Systems Science Center (865-0478).

"Research Unplugged: Emerging Viruses--Past, Present, and Future," Eddie Holmes, Penn State, 12:00 noon, Penn State Downtown Theatre Center (127 S. Allen Street), Office of the Vice President for Research (865-3477 or www.rps.psu.edu/unplugged).

"Magnetic Storm" (video), 12:15 p.m., 105 Deike Building, Fletcher L. Byrom Earth and Mineral Sciences Library (863-7073).

"Determining the Energy Calibration of the Pierre Auger Observatory," Bruce Dawson, University of Adelaide (Australia), 2:30 p.m., 339 Davey Laboratory, host: Paul Sommers, Department of Physics (865-2015).

"Microwave-Accelerated Metal-Enhanced Fluorescence" by Donna Omiatek and "Surface-Plasmon-Resonance Imaging: Walk into the Biomolecular Interactions" by Dan Mao, Penn State, 2:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, hosts: Andrew Ewing and Nicholas Winograd, Department of Chemistry (863-4653 and 863-0001).

"Deciphering the Biology of Apolipotrotein B-Editing Catalytic Polypeptide-3G (APOBEC3G): More Than an Anti-HIV Factor," Warner Greene, University of California, 4:00 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, host: Amy Strasner (863-8523 or email: abs182@psu.edu).

"Selected Results From the Glimpse Survey," Ed Churchwell, University of Wisconsin, 4:00 p.m., 538 Davey Laboratory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics (865-0418).

THURSDAY, 2 NOVEMBER

"Workshop in Dynamical Systems and Related Topics," multiple speakers, 9:00 a.m., 114 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"A Chemical-Solution Method for the Deposition of Metal-Oxide Films," Quanixi Jia, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 10:10 a.m., 26 Hosler Building, Department of Materials Science and Engineering (865-4992).

"Generalized Euler Constants and a Question about Monotonicity," Harold Diamond, University of Illionois, 11:15 a.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Role of Post-Translational Modifications and Inner-Membrane Interactions of Death-Associated-Protein-3 (DAP3) and/or Mitochondrial Ribosomes in Apoptosis," Jennifer Miller, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 101 Althouse Laboratory, host: Emine Koc, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (865-8300).

"Chemistry in Biological Adhesion," Deborah Leckband, University of Illinois, 11:30 a.m., 111 Wartik Laboratory, Department of Chemical Engineering (863-1375).

"Patterned Bilayers and Tethered Vesicles: Soft Nanoscience," Steve Boxer, Stanford University, 12:30 p.m., 102 Chemistry Building, host: Erin Sheets, Department of Chemistry (863-0044).

"Water on Mars," John Mustard, Brown University and Libby Hausrath, Penn State, 2:00 p.m., 240 Deike Building, Penn State Astrobiology Research Center (865-4074).

(title to be announced), Nikita Netsvetaev, St. Petersburg University (Russia), 2:30 p.m., 113 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Designing a High-Performance Commercial Compiler: Challenges, Solutions, and Results," Dhruva Chakrabarti, Hewlett-Packard Company, 4:00 p.m., 113 Information Sciences and Technologies Building (Cybertorium), Department of Computer Science and Engineering. (865-9505).

"The Assessment of Multivariate Bioequivalence," Thomas Mathew, University of Maryland, 4:00 p.m., 201 Thomas Building, Department of Statistics (865-1348).

"The Fall and Rise of Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD): High-Precision," Peter Lepage, Cornell University, 4:00 p.m., 117 Osmond Laboratory, host: John Collins, Department of Physics (865-3721).

"The Ozone Hole and its Recovery," Paul Newman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 4:00 p.m., 112 Walker Building, Department of Meteorology (863-8566).

FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER

"Finite Element Circus," multiple speakers, 9:00 a.m., Days Inn Penn State (240 S. Pugh Street), Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Workshop in Dynamical Systems and Related Topics," multiple speakers, 9:00 a.m., 114 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"Black-Hole Evaporation and the Issue of Information Loss," Abhay Ashtekar, Penn State, 9:45 a.m., 320 Whitmore Laboratory, Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry (863-9605 or www.gravity.psu.edu).

"Effects of Weight Loss on Bone Turnover," Jennifer Ward, Penn State, 11:15 a.m., 127 Noll Laboratory, Noll Physiological Research Center and Department of Kinesiology (865-3453).

"New Insights into Malaria-Mosquito Management Gained Through Studies of Insect Behavior: Do We Really Know This Mortal Enemy?" Jim Miller, Michigan State University, 12:20 p.m., 112 Forest Resources Building, College of Agriculture (865-1895).

"Using Stage-Structured Matrix Models for Developing Weed-Suppressive Cropping Systems," Steven Mirsky, Penn State, 12:20 p.m., 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences (863-1601).

"The Cuntz Semigroup: Part Two," Nate Brown, Penn State, 2:30 p.m., 106 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

"The Publicity of Oxygen" and "Home Star: The Sun, the Planets, and Mercury" (videos), 3:30 p.m., 211 Davey Laboratory, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library (865-7617 or www.libraries.psu.edu/pams/filmseries.html).

"Geospatical Technology: Tools, Weapons, and Unintended Consequence," Mark Monmonier, Syracuse University, 4:00 p.m., 112 Walker Building, Department of Geography (865-3433).

SATURDAY, 4 NOVEMBER

"Workshop in Dynamical Systems and Related Topics," multiple speakers, 9:00 a.m., 114 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

SUNDAY, 5 NOVEMBER

"Workshop in Dynamical Systems and Related Topics," multiple speakers, 9:00 a.m., 114 McAllister Building, Department of Mathematics (865-7527).

 

**********

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

**********

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] [neural engineering: Steven J. Schiff] [nutrition: Judy Jones] [physical and mathematical sciences library: Emily L. Rimland] [physics: Sherri Taylor] [physiology: Jenny Edwards] [plant physiology: Janice Kennedy] [poultry science: Linda Houtz] [Vice President for Research: Emily Rowlands] [science, technology, and society: Karen Snare] [statistics: Bonnie Cain] [veterinary science: Loretta Muchinsky].

NOTICE: PRESS RELEASES AVAILABLE
Press releases occasionally are written for some of the lectures sponsored by the Eberly College of Science. If you would like to receive copies of these press releases in the future, send a note to Barbara K. Kennedy at SCIENCE@PSU.EDU. Your e-mail address will be added to a distribution list.

This publication is available in alternative media on request.

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 07-38

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