Past Grand Seminars
Fall 2024
How Quantum Gravity Became an Arena for Art, Mathematics, & Science
Sylvester James "Jim" Gates, Ph.D.
Theoretical Physicist at the University of Maryland and Winner of the National Medal
of Science
Fall 2023
Life's code: the 30-year quest to read the human genome
Adam Phillippy, Ph.D.
Senior Investigator at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland
Fall 2022
The re-engineered 'waste' cycle: Pathways, protagonists, and processes
Kartik Chandran, Ph.D.
Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University,
2015 MacArthur Fellow, and a 2013 Fellow for the Water Environment Federation
Spring 2022
What's New and Good Under the Sun
Nicola Fox, Ph.D.
Heliophysics Division Director in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters
in Washington, D.C.
Fall 2020
Leana Wen, M.D.
Emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University
Fall 2019
(Microbial) Networking Going Viral
Elodie Ghedin, Ph.D.
Professor of epidemiology and global public health, director of the Center for Genomics
and Systems Biology at New York University, and 2011 MacArthur Fellow
Fall 2018
Modern Math in Medieval Islamic Architecture
Peter Lu, Ph.D.
Physics Research Fellow in the Department of Physics in the School of Engineering
and Applied Sciences at Harvard University
Fall 2017
Green Chemistry: The Missing Elements
John Warner, Ph.D.
Co-Founder of Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, LLC
Founder of Beyond Benign, a non-profit dedicated to sustainability and green chemistry
education and winner of the 2014 Perkin Medal
Spring 2017
The History of the Universe from Beginning to the End: "Where Did We Come From, Where
Can We Go?”
Dr. John Mather
Senior Astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
2006 Nobel Prize in Physics
2016
Tiny Conspiracies: Cell-to Cell Communication in Bacteria
Dr. Bonnie Bassler
Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology and chair of the department of molecular biology
at Princeton University
2015 Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine
2015
The Accelerating Universe
Dr. Adam Riess
2011 Nobel Prize in Physics
Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the Johns Hopkins University
Senior member of the Science Staff at the Space Telescope Science Institute
2014
Jobs and Security, Pikas and Penguins: The Big Surprisingly Optimistic Story on Energy
and the Environment
Dr. Richard Alley
Earth Scientist, Professor, and Contributor to the United Nations Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007 Nobel Prize
2013
The Greatest Scientific Achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope
Dr. Mario Livio
Astrophysicist
2012
The Art of Mental Calculation
Arthur Benjamin, Ph.D.
Professor of Mathematics and Mathemagician
2011
From Loyola to Outer Space
Colonel Timothy "T.J." Creamer, ’82
Flight Engineer and NASA Science Officer on International Space Station Expedition
22/23