»Science Forum Series Archive

Armin Sorooshian
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
The University of Arizona

Argyros Forum 119A, Student Union
12 - 1pm

Atmospheric aerosol particles range in size from a few nanometers up to several micrometers in diameter and can be composed of tens of thousands of species. Although they are so small, they have very important effects. For example, they directly interact with solar radiation and act as cloud condensation nuclei, which are the seeds of clouds. Consequently, particles influence the earth’s radiation balance, atmospheric visibility, the hydrologic cycle, and the biogeochemical cycling and transport of nutrients and contaminants. Particles also negatively impact public health and welfare. This talk will report on recent measurements focused on aerosol-water interactions in both maritime and continental atmospheres, with a focus on how aerosol perturbations modify cloud properties and precipitation generation. Results will be presented from surface, aircraft, and satellite remote sensing studies.

About the Speaker:

Armin is an Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Arizona with a joint appointment in Atmospheric Sciences. His research focuses on the effect of aerosol particles on environmental and climate change, public health, and the hydrologic cycle. He uses a suite of synergistic methods for his research, including laboratory experiments, ground and airborne field measurements, modeling, and remote sensing observations. He has been involved with seven major aircraft field campaigns, including most recent the 2012 Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry Experiment with the NASA DC8. Armin has a BS in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from the University of Arizona and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Argyros Forum 119A, Student Union
12 - 1pm

Throughout the world communities are experiencing the twin pressures of institutional failure and environmental stress. Many trends suggest that these interactive pressures will intensify in the years ahead, resulting in public health setbacks, population displacement and violence on unprecedented scales. Informed by many years of fieldwork in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, this talk reviews the forces contributing to crisis and looks at the prospects for transformation towards more sustainable—economically robust, fair and ecologically sound-practices.

About the Speaker:
Richard A. Matthew (BA McGill; PhD Princeton) is a Professor in the Schools of Social Ecology and Social Science at the University of California at Irvine, and founding Director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (www.cusa.uci.edu). He is also a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development in Geneva; a Senior Fellow at the Munk School for International Affairs at the University of Toronto; a senior member of the UN Expert Group on Environment, Conflict and Peacebuilding; and a member of the World Conservation Union’s Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy. He has carried out fieldwork in conflict zones throughout South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, and has consulted widely with government agencies and the private sector. He has served on several UN missions, including two that he led to Sierra Leone, and he was the lead author of the UN technical report, Sierra Leone: Environment, Conflict and Peacebuilding Assessment. He has over 140 publications.
 

Satish C. Singh
Professor, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France
University of Cambridge, England

Argyros Forum 119A, Student Union
12 - 1pm

Over 70% of the Earth’s crust is created in the middle of oceans along %7e55000 km of volcanic chains, called mid-ocean ridges or ocean spreading centers, the birth place of oceanic crust. At ocean spreading centers the plate separates causing the mantle to move upwards, reducing the pressure and causing the melting of the mantle. Since the melt is lighter than the surrounding mantle material, it moves upwards towards the surface of the Earth. Part of the melt is erupted on the seafloor as lava, which cools very rapidly forming a cap of solid extrusive layer. As there is a significant amount of water present at mid-ocean ridges, the water circulates deep in the crust. Therefore, a significant amount of melt stays in the middle of the crust and erupts along thin dikes. Below the dikes, the melt could reside for a long period, forming a steady state melt lens, called axial melt lens or axial magma chamber. The magma cools and crystallises in this melt lens, forming the lower crust. The water can circulate down to the melt lens, brings rich minerals, and forms black smokers on the seafloor. The water rich in minerals and the heat (up to 350° C) provide food for many deep-sea habitat (such as shrimps, clams etc.) and millions of other form of lives. It has been suggested that the life on earth started at ocean spreading centers around these smokers.

As plate moves away from the spreading centers, it cools and forms a thick lithosphere. This cold oceanic lithosphere subducts (or disappears) beneath the continents enveloping it by 60 000 km long up to 11 km deep trench system. As the oceanic plate subducts, it get locked for a long time (10-1000 years) by the overriding plate, producing large earthquakes. These Earthquakes initiate at 20-30 km depth but arrive on the seafloor uplifting the 4-5 km water column producing devastating tsunamis. 

The birth of the oceanic crust at ocean spreading center provides lives whereas during its destruction at the subduction zone, it takes lives, and cycle of the creation and destruction continues for millions of years. 

About the Speaker:
Professor Satish Singh completed his MS from Banaras Hindu University and Ph.D. from University of Toronto, Canada. After spending two years at the Institute de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), he joined University of Cambridge in 1990, where he led the development of a strong theoretical seismology and marine seismology groups. He moved to IPGP in 1999, while keeping his position in Cambridge, and led the creation of new Marine Geosciences Department that he directed until 2008. He has published over 120 papers including 10 in Nature and Science. He has supervised over 50 Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers. He was elected AGU Fellow in 2010 and was awarded the Grand Prix by the French Academy of Sciences in 2011. Recently, he was awarded the Chair of Excellence by the French National Research Agency.
 

Fred Caporaso, Ph.D.
Professor of Food Science

"Lonesome George is gone, but remarkable tortoise conservation things are happening in the Galapagos!"

Beckman Hall 104
7:30pm

This presentation details the challenging natural history of a number of species of giant tortoise from the Galápagos Islands. From the late 1500s to the 1800s pirates, whalers, sealers and other early visitors removed as many as 200,000 giant tortoises, mainly as a source of fresh meat. The plight and 45+ year recovery effort for the Española, Pinta, Pinzon and Floreana island tortoises will be highlighted.  

The extraordinary conservation program conducted jointly by the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) and the Galápagos National Park Service (GNPS) to bring these animals back from the brink of extinction will be discussed.  As of 2007, more than 4,700 young tortoises have been returned to the wild in Galápagos, and many of them are now reproducing and increasing their population numbers.

Farhad Mafie
President & CEO, Savant Company, Inc.

“The Dick Tracy Watch – Finally a Reality? Trends & Excitement in an Electronic Engineering Career"

Argyros Forum 209C
1:00pm - 2:00pm

Farhad Mafie, President and CEO of Savant Company Inc., has over 20 years of experience in semiconductor and computer businesses and more than 10 years of university-level teaching experience.  A seasoned technical executive with extensive global experience in Semiconductor IC & IP businesses with hands-on experience in sales, marketing and engineering.

Farhad has a track record of success in large and start-up organizations, building and leading strong sales, marketing and engineering teams, and in improving traction and revenue with major international customers. He enjoys developing business plan and go-to-market strategies for innovative and disruptive technologies, deal making, developing strategic alliances and partnerships.

Farhad established Toshiba's on-line Tech-Support System as well as Toshiba's on-line System Solution Selling methodologies for all Toshiba's products in the North American markets. These on-line systems were adopted by Toshiba on a worldwide basis.  He also developed Toshiba's ASSP Business Unit and Technical Sales Engineering Team as two brand new organizations for the company that were also adopted by Toshiba on a worldwide basis.  

Farhad has also worked at Lucent Technologies on marketing communications ICs (Modem chipset, Video Conferencing solutions), Toshiba Information Systems on product definition for Toshiba's notebooks PCs and handheld products, Unisys on designing new processors and computer systems, and MSI Data on designing data collection products.  He has a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering from California State University, Fullerton.

His combined business and academic experience has given Farhad a unique ability to effectively communicate complex new technologies to business professionals at all levels, as well as the ability to foresee emerging leading-edge technologies.  

Dr. Brennen Peterson
Associate Professor of Psychology, Chapman University

"Infertility: When Psychology Intersects with the Science of Reproduction"

Argyros Forum 209C
12:00pm - 1:00pm

Dr. Peterson began teaching at Chapman in 2003.  In addition to teaching undergraduate courses, he serves as the Program Director for the school’s graduate grogram in Marriage and Family Therapy. He teaches courses in Family Therapy, Marital Therapy and Domestic Violence, Life-Span Development, Marital and Family Diversity, and clinical supervisor.

Dr. Peterson is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) in the state of California and Utah.  Dr. Peterson received his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Virginia Tech in 2003, and his Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Graduate Center in 2001. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Brigham Young University in 1995. Between 1995 and 2000, Dr. Peterson worked for the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in Washington, D.C., where he helped develop a nationwide practice-based network. 

Dr. Karen Setty
Science Writer, Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

"Clean Water? A 40-Year Retrospective Analysis of Southern California Coastal Ocean"

Beckman Hall 404
1:00pm - 2:00pm

Karen Setty joined SCCWRP as a Science Writer in November 2007. Her responsibilities include writing and producing documents, presentations, and other communication materials. She also manages website development and planning for the annual SCCWRP Symposium. Setty received her Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Biology from the University of Dayton and her Master’s degree focusing on Water Resources Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management.

Dr. Paul Umhoefer
Professor, Northern Arizona University

"How Plate Tectonics Works in the Southern Gulf of California: A Rapid Birth in a Hot Setting"

Argyros Forum 209 C
1:00pm - 2:00pm

Dr. Umhoefer's research is focused on tectonics, especially active and young tectonics of Late Cenozoic time. My main research interest is in the tectonic evolution of, and processes that form, oblique plate boundaries. More specifically, I study basins and related faults that form in these settings, and the processes and evolution of areas with mixed strike-slip and dip-slip faulting. My research is field based and my students and I use the methods of structural geology, stratigraphy, and related disciplines to understand tectonic problems. The research I conduct is inevitably collaborative with researchers in many other fields, but especially in paleontology, sedimentology, geochronology, petrology, marine seismology, geodesy, and paleomagnetism.

"Earthquakes from the Top to the Bottom of the Magnitude Scale: Insights Into Earthquake Physics from EarthScope"

Argyros Forum 209C
1:00pm - 2:00pm

Bill Ellsworth is a seismologist interested in problems of seismicity, seismotectonics, probabilistic earthquake forecasting, and earthquake source processes. After graduating with a B.S. in Physics and M.S. in geophysics from Stanford University in 1971 he joined the earthquake research group at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, which has been his professional home for the past 40 years. In 1974 he travelled east to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his PhD in geophysics in 1977. Bill's research focuses on questions of fault structure and earthquake source processes over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Over the course of his career, he has balanced his personal research with community service that has expanded opportunities and resources for seismology in the U.S. and around the world. He was a founder of the PASSCAL Program of IRIS, co-principal investigator of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) component of EarthScope, and currently serves on the steering committee of the Advanced National Seismic System (ANSS) and the National Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council. Bill is a past President of the Seismological Society of America, a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the Department of the Interior.