Academic
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Meditation and Mindfulness in the Museum
Workshop | February 11 | 11:30 a.m. | Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Jill Satterfield, of Vajra Yoga and the School for Compassionate Action, leads an ongoing series of mindfulness and meditation sessions. For all levels; no advance registration required.
Monday, February 12, 2018
Social Science and Humanities Proposal Writing Workshop for SURF Fellowship
Workshop | February 12 | 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | 9 Durant Hall
Jeff Vance Martin, SURF Advisor
Office of Undergraduate Research
In this workshop, undergraduates will receive detailed guidance on how to construct a research proposal in social science and humanities disciplines for the SURF Fellowship.
Plant and Microbial Biology Plant Seminar:: Cu homeostasis in Chlamydomonas, handling economy to excess
Seminar | February 12 | 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. | 115 Energy Biosciences Building
Sabeeha Merchant, Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, UCLA
Seismic Hazard Analysis, Capturing Uncertainty in the Post-Truth Era: SEMM and GeoSystems joint seminar
Seminar | February 12 | 12-1 p.m. | 502 Davis Hall
Dr. William Lettis, Lettis Consultants Internationsl, Inc.
Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
The earthquake engineering community and regulatory agencies are moving, at varying rates, toward risk-informed engineering decisions and design. Risk-informed decision making, in turn, requires that probabilistic seismic hazard analyses explicitly and transparently incorporate uncertainty in hazard-significant seismic source and ground motion parameters.
Combinatorics Seminar: Money changing problems on affine semigroups
Seminar | February 12 | 12-1 p.m. | 939 Evans Hall
Jesus De Loera, UC Davis
An affine semigroup is a semigroup (always containing a neutral element) which is finitely generated and can be embedded in $Z^d$ . I care about them because they are the algebraic combinatorics analogues of convex polyhedral cones and because they are at the cross-roads of convex geometry, algebraic geometry, commutative algebra and combinatorics among others (e.g., they constitute the... More >
PF Lunch Seminar:
Seminar | February 12 | 12-2 p.m. | 648 Evans Hall
Francis Wong; Jonathan Holmes
Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance
12:10pm - Francis Wong - "Persistent Financial Distress After the Great Recession"
1pm - Jonathan Holmes - "How the Price of Physician Visits Affects Patient Welfare (When the Insurer Pays)"
RSVP online by February 8.
The Link between Blur, Refractive Correction and Falls
Seminar | February 12 | 12-1 p.m. | 489 Minor Hall
David Elliot, PhD, Professor, Bradford University, UK
Neuroscience Institute, Helen Wills
Abstract: Falls are common and represent a very serious health risk for older people. They are not random events as falls are linked to a range of intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors. Vision provides a significant input to postural control in addition to providing information about the size and position of hazards and obstacles in the travel pathway and allows us to safely negotiate steps and... More >
Neural Mechanisms of the Development of Face Perception
Colloquium | February 12 | 12:10-1:10 p.m. | 5101 Tolman Hall
Kalanit Grill-Spector, Stanford University
How do brain mechanisms develop from childhood to adulthood? There is extensive debate if brain development is due to pruning of excess neurons, synapses, and connections, leading to reduction of responses to irrelevant stimuli, or if development is associated with growth of dendritic arbors, synapses, and myelination leading to increased responses and selectivity to relevant stimuli. Our... More >
Neural Mechanisms of the Development of Face Perception
Colloquium | February 12 | 12:15-1:30 p.m. | Tolman Hall, Beach Room (3105)
Kalanit Grill-Spector, Stanford University
Neuroscience Institute, Helen Wills
How do brain mechanisms develop from childhood to adulthood? There is extensive debate if brain development is due to pruning of excess neurons, synapses, and connections, leading to reduction of responses to irrelevant stimuli, or if development is associated with growth of dendritic arbors, synapses, and myelination leading to increased responses and selectivity to relevant stimuli. Our... More >
Political Economy Seminar
Seminar | February 12 | 12:30-2 p.m. | Moses Hall, Moses Hall 223
Guo Xu, Berkeley
The Political Economy Seminar focuses on formal and quantitative work in the political economy field, including formal political theory.
Econ 235, Financial Economics: Job Market Seminar
Seminar | February 12 | 12:30-2 p.m. | C320 Haas School of Business
Scott Nelson, MIT
Joint with Haas Finance Seminar and Real Estate Seminar
Plant and Microbial Biology Student/Postdoc Seminar
Seminar | February 12 | 12:30-1:30 p.m. | 338 Koshland Hall | Canceled
Jong Duk Park, PMB
Plant and Microbial Biology Student Group
Come join us to hear research going on in PMB from graduate students and post docs. There will be snacks and coffee/tea. Please bring a mug. Hosted by the Plant and Microbial Biology Student Group (PMBG).
This event is sponsored by the UCB Graduate Assembly. Event is ADA accessible. For disability accommodation requests and information, please contact Disability Access Services by phone at... More >
Probabilistic operator Algebra Seminar: Asymptotics for a class of meandric systems, via the Hasse diagram of $NC(n)$
Seminar | February 12 | 2-4 p.m. | 736 Evans Hall
Alexandru Nica, University of Waterloo
I will present a joint paper with Ian Goulden and Doron Puder (arXiv:1708.05188), concerning a family of diagrammatic objects called meandric systems. These objects have received a substantial amount of interest from mathematical physicists and from combinatorialists, and the study of the number of components of a random meandric system offers some very appealing, yet difficult problems. In... More >
Differential Geometry Seminar: Eigenvalue estimates and differential form Laplacians on Alexandrov spaces
Seminar | February 12 | 2:10-3 p.m. | 939 Evans Hall
John Lott, UC Berkeley
In S.-Y. Cheng's Berkeley thesis from 1974, he gave upper bounds on the eigenvalues of the function Laplacian on a compact Riemannian manifold, in terms of geometric data. I will give an extension of Cheng's results to the differential form Laplacian. The proof uses Alexandrov spaces, i.e. metric spaces with curvature bounded below. I will also construct differential form Laplacians on Alexandrov... More >
STROBE Seminar Series: Live Cell Fluorescence Imaging
Seminar | February 12 | 3-4 p.m. | 433 Latimer Hall
Dr. Ralph Jimenez, Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/739564101
You can also dial in using your phone:
(408) 650-3123
Access Code: 739-564-101
Novel Statistical Tools for Single Molecule Biophysics: A foray into Bayesian nonparametrics
Seminar | February 12 | 3-4 p.m. | 177 Stanley Hall
Steve Pressé, Arizona State University
QB3 - California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences
One route to modeling biophysical dynamics involves the bottom-up, molecular simulation, approach. In this approach, approximate classical potentials are used to simulate short time local motions in order draw insight on dynamics at longer time and larger length scales. Here we take a different route. Instead we present a top-bottom approach to building models of single molecule conformational... More >
Arithmetic Geometry and Number Theory RTG Seminar: The $p$-adic Jacquet-Langlands correspondence and a question of Serre
Seminar | February 12 | 3:10-5 p.m. | 748 Evans Hall
Sean Howe, Stanford University
Seminar Format: The seminar consists of two 50-minute talks, a pre-talk (3:10-4:00) and an advanced talk (4:10-5:00), with a 10-minute break (4:00-4:10) between them. The advanced talk is a regular formal presentation about recent research results to general audiences in arithmetic geometry and number theory; the pre-talk (3:10-4:00) is to introduce some prerequisites or background for the... More >
Georgina Hall - LP, SOCP, and optimization-free approaches to sum of squares optimization
Seminar | February 12 | 3:30-5 p.m. | 3108 Etcheverry Hall
Georgina Hall, Princeton University
Industrial Engineering & Operations Research
The problem of optimizing over the cone of nonnegative polynomials is a fundamental problem in computational mathematics, with applications to polynomial optimization, control, machine learning, game theory, and combinatorics, among others.
Analysis and PDE Seminar: Edge (resonant) states for 1D bi-periodic systems
Seminar | February 12 | 4-5 p.m. | 740 Evans Hall
Alexis Drouot, Columbia University
We study the bifurcation of Dirac points under the introduction of edges in certain periodic systems. For honeycomb Schrodinger operators, Fefferman, Lee-Thorp and Weinstein showed that if introducing the edge opens an essential spectral gap near the Dirac energy, then the perturbed operator has an edge-localized eigenstate. This state is associated to the topologically protected zero-mode of a... More >
The Displacement of Borders among Russian Koreans in Northeast Asia
Colloquium | February 12 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 180 Doe Library
Hyun-Gwi Park, University of Cambridge
Steven Lee, UC Berkeley
Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS), Center for Korean Studies (CKS), Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), Mongolia Initiative
Since the late nineteenth century, ethnic Koreans have represented a small yet significant portion of the population of the Russian Far East, but until now, the phenomenon has been largely understudied. Based on extensive historical and ethnographic research, this is the first book in English to chart the contemporary social life of Koreans in the complex borderland region. Dispelling the... More >
Ludmila Ulitskaya’s Daniel Stein: Teenage Translator, Trusted Tour Guide, and a Text Transfigured
Colloquium | February 12 | 4-5:30 p.m. | B-4 Dwinelle Hall
Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, Professor Emerita, Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES), Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
This is the first lecture of the Spring 2018 Slavic Graduate Colloquium lecture series.
Embracing Wikipedia-editing as a teaching and learning strategy in higher ed: The case of medical schools
Colloquium | February 12 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 2515 Tolman Hall
Amin Azzam, University of California, San Francisco; University of California, Berkeley; Samuel Merritt University
As of March 2017, Wikipedia had nearly 30,000 articles on medical topics in English that were collectively viewed more than 10 million times per day. However most of the content in Wikipedia’s health articles was created by a few hundred dedicated contributors, and approximately 75% of existing articles remain in the “start” or “stub” stage of development. However, in 2017, Wikipedia-editing... More >
A Radical S-adenosylmethionine-Dependent Enzyme that Isn’t So Radical
Seminar | February 12 | 4-5 p.m. | 106 Stanley Hall
Squire Booker, Penn State
Seminar 208, Microeconomic Theory: "Discovery and Equilibrium in Games with Unawareness"
Seminar | February 12 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 639 Evans Hall
Seminar 271, Development: "Worms and Wellbeing: 15 Year Economic Impacts from Kenya"
Seminar | February 12 | 4-5:30 p.m. | 648 Evans Hall
Edward Miguel, UCB
UROC DeCal – Demystifying the Research Process: Decolonizing Methods in Academic Research (Hosted by UROC: Undergraduate Researchers of Color)
Course | January 29 – April 30, 2018 every Monday with exceptions | 6-8 p.m. | 174 Barrows Hall
Istifaa Ahmed, UROOC
Office of Undergraduate Research
Ethnic Studies 98/198
Class Time: Mondays, 6pm-8pm, 1/22/18 - 4/30/18
Course Control Number (CCN): 24251
Units: 1-3 units
Student Instructor: Istifaa Ahmed
Welcome to our student-led organization and DeCal, Underrepresented Researchers of Color (UROC) – Demystifying the Research Process: Decolonizing Methods in Academic Research! We seek to build a community of researchers of color... More >
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Deconstructing Social Ideas
Seminar | February 13 | Barrows Hall, Radio Broadcast, ON-AIR ONLY, 90.7 FM
Caleb Luna, PhD Student, Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; Ashley Smiley, PhD Student, Department of Integrative Biology
Caleb is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.
Caleb Luna wearing heart sunglasses
Transition Metal-Catalyzed Amination and Amidation Reactions
Seminar | February 13 | 11 a.m.-12 p.m. | 120 Latimer Hall
Prof. Kami Hull, Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Carbon–nitrogen bonds are ubiquitous in pharmaceuticals, organic materials, and natural products. These C–N bonds are often incorporated as amines or amides. Despite their prominence, they are often formed in poor atom and step economy. One of the primary goals of the Hull Group is to develop alternative syntheses of this two important functionalities. Our work towards chemo-, stereo-, and... More >
A Pretensioned, Rocking Bridge Column System for Accelerated Construction and Enhanced Seismic Performance
Seminar | February 13 | 11 a.m.-12 p.m. | 542 Davis Hall
Travis Thonstad
Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
A pretensioned bridge column system has been developed that accelerates on-site construction activities, minimizes residual displacements even after large seismic events and reduces post-earthquake damage. The connections are the key to the system’s seismic performance.
Close encounters of the microbial kind: How Mycobacterium tuberculosis traverses the mucosal barrier
Seminar | February 13 | 11 a.m.-12 p.m. | 101 Life Sciences Addition
Michael Shiloh, University of Texas Southwestern
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
This seminar is partially sponsored by NIH
Innovative Genomics Institute Seminar Series: Connecting social interactions to specialized metabolism in actinomycete bacteria
Seminar | February 13 | 12-1 p.m. | 115 Energy Biosciences Building
QB3 - California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences
Matt Traxler
Department of Plant and Microbial Biology | UC Berkeley
"Connecting social interactions to specialized metabolism in actinomycete bacteria"
Energy Biosciences Building 115, Tuesday Feb 13th - 12pm to 1pm.
Lunch immediately after the seminar in the EBB lobby.
Grant Writing Workshop: Specific Aims
Workshop | February 13 | 12-1 p.m. | 401 University Hall
Erica Whitney, Berkeley Research Development Office
Presented by Erica Whitney, Associate Director of Strategy and Training, at the Berkeley Research Development Office. The presentation will focus on tips for writing a successful Specific Aims section with examples of how to address different points and messages.
Memory Loss, Dementia, and Alzheimer's Disease: The Basics (BEUHS172)
Workshop | February 13 | 12:10-1:30 p.m. | Tang Center, University Health Services, Section Club
Mary Fisher, Alzheimer’s Association
In this informative workshop, participants will learn about normal age-related memory changes, the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders, the diagnostic process, risk factors, disease stages, and treatment options. Resources offered by the Alzheimer’s Association will be provided, as well as community resources, both locally and geographically distant.
Development Lunch: "Demand-driven enforcement of labor law in Bangladesh"
Seminar | February 13 | 12:30-1:30 p.m. | 648 Evans Hall
Laura Boudreau
Africanisation and Government Intelligence: the Politics of Security in the Gold Coast, 1948 - 1957
Colloquium | February 13 | 12:30-2 p.m. | 223 Moses Hall
Chase Arnold, PhD Candidate, UC Berkeley Department of History
In 1948, the Gold Coast witnessed a week of rioting sparked by political protest and violent confrontation with police. After the riots, the British and Gold Coast governments implemented numerous political reforms, transitioning the colony toward self-rule and, eventually, independence. The riots also spurred security reform in the Gold Coast. For many in Accra and London, the riots demonstrated... More >
Using Patient Experience Data to Assess Attempts at System Transformation
Colloquium | February 13 | 12:40-2 p.m. | 104 Genetics & Plant Biology Building
Paul D. Cleary, PhD, Professor, Yale School of Public Health
The State of Connecticut recently launched a CMMI sponsored State Innovation Model program that focuses, in part, on using financial incentives to improve care. Improved Patient-centered care is one of the goals of the program and this talk will describe the initial stages of using patient surveys to assess variations in patient-centered care in CT. This will include a discussion of some of the... More >
3-Manifold Seminar: Tait colorings and instanton homology (continued)
Seminar | February 13 | 12:40-2 p.m. | 891 Evans Hall
Ian Agol, UC Berkeley
We'll continue to discuss Kronheimer and Mrowka's instanton invariants of spatial webs.
Seminar 237/281, Macro/International Seminar: Exchange Rate Disconnect in General Equilibrium
Seminar | February 13 | 2-3:30 p.m. | 597 Evans Hall
Oleg Itskhoki, Princeton
Seminar 218, Psychology and Economics: "Group Membership Magnifies the Dark Side of Human Social Behavior"
Seminar | February 13 | 2-3:30 p.m. | 648 Evans Hall
Michal Bauer, CERGE-EI and Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University
ISF 110 - Free Speech in the Public Sphere: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Course | January 16 – May 3, 2018 every Tuesday & Thursday | 2-3:30 p.m. | 102 Wurster Hall
Division of Undergraduate Education
In this spring 2018 class, we shall take up the nature of public speech from Socrates' public dissent to social media messaging today. The course reading will combine classic philosophical statements about the value of free, subversive and offensive speech; histories of the emergence of public spheres; and sociologies of technologically-mediated speech today.
On the Digital Archive and Its Uses for Japanese Humanities: A Collaborative Workshop by the Art Research Center of Ritsumeikan University and the University of California, Berkeley
Workshop | February 13 | 2-5 p.m. | 117 Dwinelle Hall
Center for Japanese Studies (CJS), East Asian Library
This workshop will examine the possibilities for new digital technologies and platforms to allow for collaboration within the humanities. Presentations will introduce collaborative projects already underway at both Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan and at the University of California, Berkeley and we will explore the promise of transnational collaboration to provide students access to... More >
Gilman Scholarship Application Workshop
Workshop | February 13 | 3:30-5 p.m. | Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union, Stephens Lounge
Are you a Pell Grant recipient and U.S. citizen who is planning to study and/or intern abroad? Attend the Gilman Scholarship Application Workshop and learn about the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, a federal scholarship which funds up to $5,000 towards a study abroad experience.
The Gilman Scholarship Application Workshop will review scholarship and eligibility requirements,... More >
Cognitive Neuroscience Colloquium: Intracranial electrophysiology of the human default mode network: Where fMRI got it wrong
Colloquium | February 13 | 3:30-5 p.m. | 5101 Tolman Hall
Josef Parvizi, Department of Neurology, Stanford University
Commutative Algebra and Algebraic Geometry: The Fellowship of the Ring: How to Count 27 Lines in Macaulay2
Seminar | February 13 | 3:45-5 p.m. | 939 Evans Hall
Mahrud Sayrafi, UC Berkeley
In a series of computational examples in Macaulay2, we will give an introduction to Chern classes and projective bundles leading to computing the number of lines on a cubic surface. Specifically, we will see how to define smooth projective varieties in Macaulay2, build vector bundles on them, and use the Schubert2 package to compute their Chern classes. If time permits, we will look at more... More >
Spatial organization of complex lipid bilayers: Emergent order across multiple scales
Seminar | February 13 | 4-5 p.m. | 120 Latimer Hall
Lutz Maibaum, Department of Chemistry, University of Washington
Cellular membranes are bilayers made of a large number of different types of phospholipids, sterols, and proteins. Their spatial organization is of fundamental importance for a large number of elementary biological processes including cell signaling and membrane trafficking. It has become clear that phospholipids and sterols contribute significantly to the lateral structure of such membranes. The... More >
Dr. Nilah Ioannidis, Departments of Biomedical Data Science and Genetics, Stanford University: Computational methods for interpreting genetic variation of unknown significance
Seminar | February 13 | 4-5 p.m. | Soda Hall, HP Auditorium 306
Center for Computational Biology, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS)
Abstract:
Understanding the clinical significance of personal genome variation is a major challenge for personalized medicine, with large numbers of variants of unknown significance discovered in next-generation sequencing studies. I will first discuss two machine learning tools that we recently developed to predict the clinical significance of individual genetic variants. REVEL is a random... More >
Design Field Notes: Jennifer Jacobs
Seminar | February 13 | 4-5 p.m. | 220 Jacobs Hall
Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation
Jennifer Jacobs, whose research examines ways to diversify participation and practice in procedural art and computational design, will speak at Jacobs Hall.
Advances in Continuous Integration Testing at Google
Seminar | February 13 | 4-5 p.m. | 540AB Cory Hall
John Micco, Google
UC Berkeley ASPIRE Lab
We are always working on improving the efficiency of our developers’ core workflows by providing better and faster tooling and processes for testing developer code submissions. This talk will describe some of the latest research we are doing on scheduling tests more effectively, reducing costs and handling flaky tests. We are on the cusp of dramatically reducing our costs while still... More >
North American Futures: NAFTA in the Balance
Panel Discussion | February 13 | 4-6 p.m. | Sutardja Dai Hall, 310 Banatao Auditorium
Christopher Sands, Professor & Director of Canadian Studies, Johns Hopkins University; Maria Echaveste, Policy and Program Development Director, Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy; Jeremy Kinsman, Diplomacy Scholar & Former Canadian Ambassador
Rana Sarkar, Consul General, Consulate General of Canada in San Francisco
Canadian Studies Program (CAN))
What is the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement? With changes to NAFTA on the horizon and negotiators gathering for a new round of NAFTA talks, this panel of experts examines the economic, political, and diplomatic aspects of NAFTA's past, present, and future.
Jean Michaud and Dan Smyer Yü | Zomia, Frictions and Multistate Margins in Modern Trans-Himalayas
Reading - Nonfiction | February 13 | 4-6 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 10 (ISAS Conf. Room)
Dan Smyer Yü, Professor and Director, Center for Trans-Himalayan Studies, Yunnan Minzu University; Jean Michaud, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Laval University
Lawrence Cohen, Professor of Anthropology and of South & Southeast Asian Studies
Institute for South Asia Studies, Himalayan Studies Program, Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS)
A talk on recent scholarship on the Trans Himalayan regions by anthropologists Jean Michaud & Dan Smyer Yü.
Digital Scholarly Editions with TEI
Workshop | February 13 | 4:10-5:30 p.m. | Barrows Hall, D-Lab, 350 Barrows Hall
Stacy Reardon, Library
The Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) offers a standard way of describing texts to make them machine readable. A flavor of XML, TEI has been used in many humanities and social sciences disciplines, and it has a dedicated vocabulary for describing literary texts. TEI may be used to create digital editions, prepare texts for research, and preserve texts in a digital format. In this workshop, we'll... More >
Commutative Algebra and Algebraic Geometry: The Fellowship of the Ring: Chern Classes and an introduction to Projective Bundles
Seminar | February 13 | 5-6 p.m. | 939 Evans Hall
Daniel Chupin, UC Berkeley
In this talk, we will characterize Chern classes of vector bundles on schemes and discuss and invoke the splitting principle as a tool for computing Chern class identities for tensor/wedge/symmetric products of bundles. Time permitting, we may either return to Grassmannians to do some computations or say some words about how Chern classes of the universal bundle generate the Chow ring, or talk... More >
What's Up With That? Making Healthy Relationships and Connections
Workshop | February 13 | 5:30-7 p.m. | International House, Home Room
Berkeley International Office(BIO))
As you spend time at Cal, you will begin to make new friends, and perhaps new relationships. Sometimes these relationships can be complex due to cultural differences. How do you handle them? How do you go about maintaining existing relationships?
We'll also discuss dating and healthy relationships within the US context. Come and share your thoughts with others who might be going through... More >
No Ban, No Wall: Confronting the Militarization of Our Borders and Communities
Panel Discussion | February 13 | 6-8 p.m. | 221 Kroeber Hall
Ofelia Ortiz Cuevas, Assistant Professor of Department of Chicana/o Studies at UC Davis; Lara Kiswani, Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC); Pierre Labossiere, Co-Founder of the Haiti Action Committee; Abraham Vela M.D., Volunteer, Clínica Martín-Baró
Berkeley Center for Social Medicine, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United
The Trump presidency has increased attacks on immigrant and marginalized communities through targeting sanctuary cities, instituting the Muslim ban, and revoking temporary protected status for thousands. Please join us for a panel discussion to analyze these intersections with some of the individuals working to defend the health and rights of immigrant communities.
Your Right to Compost: A Workshop on Berkeley Mandatory Compost
Workshop | February 13 | 7-8 p.m. | TBA Dwinelle Hall
Heidi Obermeit, Recycling Program Manager, City of Berkeley Dept of Public Works
Student Environmental Resource Center
Do you live in a building with 5+ units?
Then your housing management is required to provide you with a compost bin! Come learn with SERC, STeam, and Cal Zero Waste for an hour filled with student empowerment, games, learning how to talk to you landlord and get compost services, and how to sort your waste once you’ve got it!
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
Plant and Microbial Biology Plant Seminar: "Publishing for posterity: How to make your published data more visible, accessible and reusable"
Seminar | February 14 | 101 Barker Hall
Leonore Reiser & Lisa Harper
Laptop and Mobile Ergonomics (BEUHS409)
Workshop | February 14 | 10-11 a.m. | Tang Center, University Health Services, Class of '42
Greg Ryan, Campus Ergonomist, Be well at Work - Ergonimics
Learn how to use your laptop safely in an office and mobile setting. Recommended mobile products and best practices for using smart phones and tablets will also be provided. Enroll online
Human Organs Chips for Drug Development, Disease Modeling, and Precision Medicine: CITRIS Spring 2018 Research Exchange Series
Seminar | February 14 | 12-1 p.m. | 310 Sutardja Dai Hall
Kevin E. Healy, Jan Fandrianto and Selfia Halim Distinguished Professor, UC Berkeley
CITRIS and the Banatao Institute
Sharing a vision to reduce or eliminate the use of animals in drug discovery, and conduct ‘clinical trials’ in patient-specific organ chips that can accommodate variations in genetics, environment, and lifestyle.
Transfer Student Success Workshop: The Power of Research - Learn how research can enrich your undergraduate experience
Workshop | February 14 | 12-1 p.m. | César E. Chávez Student Center, Transfer Student Center, Room 105
Office of Undergraduate Research
The Power of Research - Learn how research can enrich your undergraduate experience
CRISPR-guided insights into the physiology and evolution of methanogenic archaea
Seminar | February 14 | 12-1 p.m. | 125 Li Ka Shing Center
**Dipti Nayak**, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A Roundtable: Understanding US Life Expectancy declines in the international context: Josh Goldstein, Ray Catalano, Ron Lee, Magali Barbieri, Andrew Noymer
Colloquium | February 14 | 12-1 p.m. | 2232 Piedmont, Seminar Room
Population Science, Department of Demography
A lunch time talk and discussion session, featuring visiting and local scholars presenting their research on a wide range of topics of interest to demography.
“Defining Microbiota and Host Resilience to Physical Perturbations: A Multi-Scale Approach”
Seminar | February 14 | 12-1 p.m. | 106 Stanley Hall
Carolina Tropini, Stanford University
Physical perturbations are prevalent in the bacterial world. Changes in the environmental mechanical properties, temperature, pH, or osmotic pressure apply broad spectrum stresses to bacterial communities and drive evolution. Specifically, in the human gut, osmotic stress is a common disturbance caused by food intolerance, malabsorption, and widespread laxative use. In my postdoctoral studies, I... More >
MVZ LUNCH SEMINAR - Christopher Martin: The cryptic origins of evolutionary novelty: From genotype to fitness landscape
Seminar | February 14 | 12-1 p.m. | Valley Life Sciences Building, 3101 VLSB, Grinnell-Miller Library
Christopher Martin (MVZ/IB Faculty Candidate)
MVZ Lunch is a graduate level seminar series (IB264) based on current and recent vertebrate research. Professors, graduate students, staff, and visiting researchers present on current and past research projects. The seminar meets every Wednesday from 12- 1pm in the Grinnell-Miller Library. Enter through the MVZ's Main Office, 3101 Valley Life Sciences Building, and please let the receptionist... More >
45 years of studying stress, social relationships and health: 8 pivotal moments that changed the course of my career
Colloquium | February 14 | 12:10-1:15 p.m. | 5101 Tolman Hall
Sheldon Cohen, Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
Institute of Personality and Social Research
This talk is a summary of Dr. Cohen’s research over the last 45 years. It is organized by “pivots” – experiences that altered the direction of his work. Work he will discuss includes studies of the effects of environmental noise (traffic and aircraft) on cognition, affect and physiology of elementary school children; of the role of social ties, social supports, and social conflicts in physical... More >
Topology Seminar (Introductory Talk): Train tracks for free group automorphisms
Seminar | February 14 | 2-3 p.m. | 740 Evans Hall
Derrick Wigglesworth, University of Utah
In this talk, I'll give an introduction to one of the main tools used in the study of Out(Fn): train tracks. These are particularly nice representatives of free group automorphisms that allow one to study their dynamical properties.
Scaling limits for percolated random planar maps
Seminar | February 14 | 3:10-4 p.m. | 1011 Evans Hall
Nina Holden, Concordia University
The Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) is a family of random fractal curves, which is the proven or conjectured scaling limit of a variety of two-dimensional lattice models in statistical mechanics. Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) is a model for a random surface which is the proven or conjectured scaling limit of discrete surfaces known as random planar maps (RPM). We prove scaling limit results for... More >
Eric Friedlander - Mean-Field Methods In Large Stochastic Networks
Seminar | February 14 | 3:30-5 p.m. | 540 Cory Hall
Eric Friedlander, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Industrial Engineering & Operations Research
Abstract: Analysis of large-scale communication networks (e.g. ad hoc wireless networks, cloud computing systems, server networks etc.) is of great practical interest. The massive size of such networks frequently makes direct analysis intractable. Asymptotic approximations using hydrodynamic and diffusion scaling limits provide useful methods for approaching such problems. In this talk, we study... More >
Molecular Technology for Improved Treatment of Disease
Colloquium | February 14 | 4-6 p.m. | 180 Tan Hall
Hadley Sikes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering
Our understanding of disease states, both communicable and non-communicable, progresses at a remarkable pace in this age of data-rich biology. Unfortunately, our current ability to make use of this knowledge on a routine basis in clinical settings is limited. The focus of this presentation will be to present examples of how chemical engineering design and biomolecular engineering can be used to... More >
Topology Seminar (Main Talk): Distortion for abelian subgroups of Out(Fn)
Seminar | February 14 | 4-5 p.m. | 3 Evans Hall
Derrick Wigglesworth, University of Utah
In this talk, we'll discuss recent a recent result which states that abelian subgroups of the outer automorphism group of a free group are quasi-isometrically embedded. This result strengthens the analogy between mapping class groups and Out(Fn), and can be thought of as a first step towards a quasi-isometric rigidity theorem for Out(Fn).
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Workplace Civility: Respect in Action
Workshop | February 15 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m. | University Hall, Room 24
Julia Horvath, Staff Ombuds Office
Learn practical steps for promoting civility at work, including guidelines for considerate conduct and ideas for creating a more inclusive work environment. Participants will also learn how to help their unit establish group norms and effective ways to respond to rudeness.
Graduate Student Workshop with Middle Eastern Studies Librarian
Workshop | February 15 | 12-2 p.m. | 340 Stephens Hall
Mohamed Hamed, Middle Eastern & Near Eastern Studies Librarian, UC Berkeley
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
This workshop is an opportunity for graduate students to meet the new Middle Eastern & Near Eastern Studies Librarian and discover the library's collections for the Middle East and North Africa.
RSVP online by February 13.
2018 ESPM Seminar Series - Angela Hodge
Seminar | February 15 | 12-1 p.m. | 132 Mulford Hall
Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy, and Mgmt. (ESPM)
Angela Hodge, Dept.of Biology, University of York (UK)
"Plastic plants, patchy soils, and ancient fungi"
Coffee will be served from 11:30 to 12:00 in 139 Mulford Hall.
This event is open to the public.
Eating Well to Energize (BEUHS641): Nutrition Events at Tang
Workshop | February 15 | 12:10-1 p.m. | Tang Center, University Health Services, Section Club
Kim Guess, RD, Wellness Program Dietitian, Be well at Work - Wellness
Balanced meals can help keep your energy steady throughout the day and as a bonus, these meals are also good for weight management and long-term health! Learn how to combine food groups in a tasty way that will help you focus on work through the morning, avoid the afternoon slump, and have the energy to do what you want to do when you get home from work. Lecture, brief cooking demonstration, and... More >
Seminar 217, Risk Management: Digitally-driven change in the insurance industry—disruption or transformation?
Seminar | February 15 | 12:30-2 p.m. | 1011 Evans Hall
Speaker: Jeffrey Bohn, Swiss Re
Center for Risk Management Research
As technology continues to insinuate itself into all facets of financial services, the insurance industry faces a slow-motion parade of promise, possibilities, prematurity, and pared-down expectations. Digitization, the birth of InsurTech, machine intelligence, and the collection & curation of (orders of magnitude) more structured & unstructured data are changing (and will continue to change) the... More >
IB Seminar: Sympatric speciation, diabolical extinction, and gene flow in some of the simplest ecosystems on earth
Seminar | February 15 | 12:30-1:30 p.m. | 2040 Valley Life Sciences Building
Christopher Martin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Econ 235, Financial Economics: Persistent Financial Distress After the Great Recession
Seminar | February 15 | 1-2 p.m. | 597 Evans Hall
Francis Wong, UC Berkeley
Seminar 251, Labor Seminar: NO Seminar
Seminar | February 15 | 2-3:30 p.m. | 648 Evans Hall | Canceled
ISF 110 - Free Speech in the Public Sphere: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Course | January 16 – May 3, 2018 every Tuesday & Thursday | 2-3:30 p.m. | 102 Wurster Hall
Division of Undergraduate Education
In this spring 2018 class, we shall take up the nature of public speech from Socrates' public dissent to social media messaging today. The course reading will combine classic philosophical statements about the value of free, subversive and offensive speech; histories of the emergence of public spheres; and sociologies of technologically-mediated speech today.
2018 College of Environmental Design Career Fair
Career Fair | February 15 | 3-7 p.m. | Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union
College of Environmental Design
The annual College of Environmental Design Career Fair brings together wide ranging employers and design firms to meet and recruit UC Berkeley students in the disciplines of architecture, planning, urban studies and other environmental design fields.
Seminar 242, Econometrics: "Three principles of data science: predictability, stability, and computability"
Seminar | February 15 | 4-5 p.m. | 597 Evans Hall
Bin Yu, UCB
More than Bystanders, Microglia Destruct Synapses in Alzheimer’s Disease
Seminar | February 15 | 4-5 p.m. | 101 Life Sciences Addition
**Soyon Hong**, Harvard University
Enabling Data Science for the Majority
Seminar | February 15 | 4 p.m. | Soda Hall, 306 Soda Hall
Aditya Parameswaran, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS)
The driving goal of our research is to help individuals and teams--regardless of programming or analysis ability--manage, analyze, make sense of, and draw insights from large datasets. Over the past three years, we've been building (with collaborators at MIT, UMD, and UChicago) a number of tools that empower individuals and teams to perform data science more effectively and effortlessly.
Testing for two-stage experiments in the presence of interference
Seminar | February 15 | 4-5 p.m. | 1011 Evans Hall
Guillaume Basse, Harvard University
Many important causal questions concern interactions between units, also known as interference. Examples include interactions between individuals in households, students in schools, and firms in markets. Standard analyses that ignore interference can often break down in this setting: estimators can be badly biased, while classical randomization tests can be invalid. In this talk, I present recent... More >
Mathematics Department Colloquium: Stark's conjectures and Hilbert's 12th problem
Colloquium | February 15 | 4-5 p.m. | 60 Evans Hall
Samit Dasgupta, UC Santa Cruz
In this talk we will discuss two central problems in algebraic number theory and their interconnections: explicit class field theory (also known as Hilbert's 12th Problem), and the special values of L-functions. The goal of explicit class field theory is to describe the abelian extensions of a ground number field via analytic means intrinsic to the ground field. Meanwhile, there is an abundance... More >
The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam - Ula Taylor
Colloquium | February 15 | 5:30-7 p.m. | Hearst Field Annex, Fannie Lou Hamer Center
Ula Taylor
The CRG Thursday Forum presents...
The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam
Ula Taylor, African American Studies More >
Friday, February 16, 2018
Qigong with Director Eric Siegel
Workshop | February 16 | 10-11 a.m. | UC Botanical Garden
Join UCBG Director, Eric Siegel, for a morning practice in Qigong (pronounced cheegong), a form of meditative exercise with repeated movements, gently stretching the core and limbs and building body awareness.
Free with Garden Admission
A Methodologically Integrative Approach to Predicting the Seismic Performance of Structures on Liquefiable Ground
Seminar | February 16 | 10-11 a.m. | 542 Davis Hall
Shideh Dashti, Ph.D
Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Dr. Dashti’s research includes the study of interactions and interdependencies among infrastructure systems during disasters; seismic performance of underground structures; and consequences and mitigation of the liquefaction hazard facing structures in isolation and in urban settings.
Representing Linguistic Knowledge With Probabilistic Models
Colloquium | February 16 | 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | 5101 Tolman Hall
Stephan Meylan, UC Berkeley
Ph.D. Exit Talk
Application of Causal Analyses for Diagnosing Environmental Problems: Environmental Engineering Seminar
Seminar | February 16 | 12-1 p.m. | 534 Davis Hall
Dr. Charles Menzie, Global Executive Director, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Yoga for Tension and Stress Relief (BEUHS664)
Workshop | February 16 | 12:10-1 p.m. | 251 Hearst Gymnasium
Laurie Ferris, Yoga Instructor, Be Well at Work - Wellness Program
Practicing yoga can release tension in your joints, give you greater range of movement, soothe your back, and grant you increased comfort in all aspects of your life. Learn how pranayama breathing can enhance your practice, and help liberate your mind in surprising ways. Yoga mats are provided, or you can bring your own. Comfortable clothing and bare feet recommended.
Solid State Technology and Devices Seminar: Silicon Quantum Photonics
Seminar | February 16 | 1-2 p.m. | Cory Hall, 521 Hogan Room
Mark Thompson, University of Bristol
Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS)
Quantum information technologies offer a new and powerful ways to processing and communicating information. Of the various approaches to quantum technologies, photons are appealing for their low-noise properties and ease of manipulation at the single qubit level; while the challenge of entangling interactions between photons can be met via measurement induced non-linearities. Historically bulk... More >
Talking About Combinatorial Objects Student Seminar: Finite Reflection Groups
Seminar | February 16 | 1-2 p.m. | 748 Evans Hall
Max Hlavacek, UC Berkeley
Exploring the Nanoworld Inside Cells: Nano Seminar Series
Seminar | February 16 | 2-3 p.m. | 60 Evans Hall | Note change in time and location
Prof. Eric Betzig, UC Berkeley / LBNL, Physics
Berkeley Nanosciences and Nanoengineering Institute
A single mammalian cell is a complex yet robust machine self-assembled from approximately 100 million copies of tens of thousands of distinct proteins, each only a few nanometers in size. Reverse engineering this system is a daunting task, not only because of the small size and shear number of components, but also because the system is exquisitely sensitive to perturbation, either by scientific... More >
Zeyu Zheng - Top-Down Statistical Modeling
Seminar | February 16 | 2-3:30 p.m. | 3108 Etcheverry Hall
Zeyu Zheng, Stanford University
Industrial Engineering & Operations Research
Abstract: In this talk, we will argue that data-driven service systems engineering should take a statistical perspective that is guided by the decisions and performance measures that are critical from a managerial perspective. We further take the view that the statistical models will often be used as inputs to simulations that will be used to drive either capacity decisions or real-time decisions... More >
Student Probability/PDE Seminar: Large Deviation Principle for Stochastic Growth Models IV
Seminar | February 16 | 2:10-3:30 p.m. | 891 Evans Hall
Fraydoun Rezakhanlou, UC Berkeley
MENA Salon: Egypt's Upcoming "Election"
Workshop | February 16 | 3-4 p.m. | 340 Stephens Hall
Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Egyptians are expected to go to the polls next month to vote in the presidential election. However, the process has already been tainted by the suppression of competitors of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi. What can Egyptians expect from this election?
Study of Private Sector Research and Data Sharing Practices
Seminar | February 16 | 3:10-5 p.m. | 107 South Hall
Elaine Sedenberg
Preliminary research results about companiesâs internal research practices in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analytics.
Coordination Chemistry of +3 Actinides
Seminar | February 16 | 4-5 p.m. | 120 Latimer Hall
Stosh Kozimor, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Actinides in the +3 oxidation state occupy central roles in many areas that are important for our quality of life. These range from developing targeted alpha therapy in treating cancer to processing spent nuclear fuel. Hence, there is pressing need to advance
fundamental understanding of +3 actinide coordination chemistry. While numerous
heroic efforts have advanced AnIII chemistry, two main... More >
Student / postdoc PDE seminar: Multivalued harmonic functions 3
Seminar | February 16 | 4:10-5 p.m. | 740 Evans Hall
Brian Krummel, UC Berkeley
Still more on how multivalued harmonic functions arise in regularity theory for minimal surfaces and on the basic theory of multivalued Dirichlet energy minimizing functions.
