LSMSA Science Speaker Series
Many scientists say that one day as a young student, they just stumbled across a machine or a natural phenomena or a particular aspect of nature that was so incredible that it caused them to pursue that field of study. The speaker series helps students find that field of science that grabs their passions and fires them up for a lifetime of study.
The LSMSA Science Speaker Series consists of talks given by university professors and other professionals from around the state. The speakers describe the research being done in their departments so that our students would know what sort of research they would be doing if they choose to attend that university. This helps our students pick a college. Some speakers also give general advice on picking a college. The speakers are often looking for students to help do research in their laboratory. The speaker series helps arrange summer internships for students and builds connections between LSMSA and these other institutions.
Talks are held on Friday's from 4-5 pm. Speakers for the 2008-2009 school year include:
Sep 19: Jon R. Geiger, Ph.D. will discuss the Jackson Laboratory, in Bar Harbor Maine, and the summer research opportunity for our juniors.
Oct 31: Dr. Sumeet Dua of LA-Tech discusses data mining in “What more can your data do for you”
Nov 7: Dr. Laura Whitlock of LSUS presents “Black holes and the infinite universe”
Dec 5: Mark McKelvy, who is an LSMSA alum, will discuss Team CajunBot's experiences developing a completely autonomous vehicle for the DARPA Urban Challenge. Mark is assisted by project leader Dr. Suresh Golconda.
Jan 16: Jan Dean will discuss electrofishing measurements
Jan 23: "Louisiana Builds a Satellite" by Dr. Paul Darby, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UL Lafayette. The ULL team designed and built the CubeSat Pico Satellite -- completed in 2007 and called Cape I -- Cajun Advance PicoSatellite Experiment. The satellite was launched from Russia and successfully communicated with our earth stations and other earth stations, globally. It's only mission was to be a proof of concept and to test the satellite health. UL EECE is now designing and building Cape II -- which is intended to have an expanded mission of an educational parrot repeater, support of ground initiated DTMF control, and to communicate with ocean buoys around the globe to accumulate data on water temperature, currents, and salinity, to name a few.
Feb 6: Dr. Julie Delabbio presents "Biosecurity"
Feb 13: “Pharmacogenomics” by Jeff Evans, Pharm.D., professor from the ULM College of Pharmacy.
Mar 6: Dr. Steven Hall from LSU will talk with us about “Drinking like a fish: Water quality in aquaculture”
Mar 13: Dr. Margaret Hodge presents “From webs to body armor: the beauty and benefits of spiders”
May 8: Leslie Birke is a Clinical Veterinarian. She will discuss Laboratory Animal Veterinarians and opportunities at LSU Health Sciences Center.