News & Events

Thursday, September 6, 2018

Biology Seminar Information Session

Attend this information session to learn about the biology speaker series for fall 2018, including the requirements for students registered for the course.Attendance is mandatory for registered students.

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Thursday, September 13, 2018

Imaging Microbial Activity through a Macro Lens

Scott Chimeleski, Harvard University

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Thursday, September 20, 2018

Bacterial Regulatory Networks Controlling Both Host and Microbe Metabolism: A Tale in Two Vibrios

Alexandra Purdy, Amherst College

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Friday, September 21, 2018 – Saturday, September 22, 2018

From Thales to Higgs, a Very Physical Promenade

A Show by Massimo Schuster

Description: I wanted to share with an audience my love for physics, but I couldn't find the way to do it. I met various physicists in France and Italy, but even if every one of them seemed interested in my project, with none did I feel the spark I was seeking.

The breakthrough happened when I met Carlo Rovelli, author of the best-selling Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. With his help I succeeded in preparing this piece of narrative theater that deals with the birth and development of scientific thinking in Europe, from Thales of Miletus to the famous Higgs boson.

Through various anecdotes, some true, some made up, but always plausible, I start with Thales, move on to Empedocles and Aristarchus, spend some time with Plato and Aristotle, then jump all the way to Einstein. All along, I use a simple language, understandable to everyone and hopefully entertaining. My goal is to explain how the world in which we live is at the same time simpler and more complex, but most of all more marvelous and fascinating, than most people think.

Without trying to sell myself as a specialist of scientific thinking, which I'm not, my goal is to explain why physics is for me a constant source of inspiration and wonder.

General Information: The show is free and open to the public. However, we ask that you reserve a seat by emailing Hal Haggard (haggard@bard.edu). The show will be in Olin Hall and doors will open at 6:30 pm. The show will begin promptly at 7:00 pm.
 
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Location: Olin Hall
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Thursday, October 4, 2018

Salt and Water Balance in Fishes: Endocrine Mechanisms of Environmental Adaptation

Jason Breves, Skidmore College

The maintenance of salt and water balance is a critical requirement for life. The integrity of cells, tissues, and the macromolecules that carry on the business of life requires the maintenance of a narrow range of physical and chemical conditions. In turn, identifying how organisms regulate the movements of ions and water at the subcellular, cellular, and organismal levels represents an important and fundamental line of biological inquiry. Aquatic organisms, such as the one I will describe today, experience a formidable challenge in maintaining homeostasis in the presence of a strong, and sometimes fluctuating, osmotic gradient with the external environment. Accordingly, these organisms have evolved efficient mechanisms for detecting changes in osmotic conditions, which will in turn direct appropriate physiological responses.
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Thursday, October 4, 2018

Bard Summer Research Institute: 2018 Poster Session

Join faculty and students who participated in this year’s program in presenting their work.
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center
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Thursday, October 18, 2018

Who are the Species in Your Neighborhood?
Density-dependent Interactions in a Tropical Tree Community

Liza Comita, Yale School of Forestry

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Thursday, October 25, 2018

Evolutionary Responses to Climate Change Revealed by the Resurrection Approach

Steven Franks, Fordham University

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Thursday, November 8, 2018

Identifying Genes that Enhance Neuronal Health with Age

Vanisha Lakhina, Princeton University

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Thursday, November 15, 2018

Ants, Art, Science Education, and Environmental Conservation: A Bardian’s Story

Grace Barber ’07, Albany Pine Bush Preserve

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Thursday, November 29, 2018

How to Plan a Meaningful Summer

Felicia Keesing, Biology Program

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
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Past Events

• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011
• 2010
• 2009
• 2008



2012

Senior Project Poster Session

December 13
Reem-Kayden Center

Students Presenting:
Stephanie Dunn

Adviser: Felicia Keesing

Justin Gero

Adviser: Felicia Keesing

Liza Miller

Adviser: Brooke Jude

Keaton Morris-Stan

Adviser: Philip Johns

Megan Naidoo 

Adviser: Philip Johns

Jonah Peterschild 

Adviser: Felicia Keesing

Damianos Lazaridis Giannopoul

Adviser: John Cullinan



Chaos and Network Synchronization

December 12
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium

A lecture by
Lucas Illing
Candidate for the position in Physics
Time-delayed coupling and self-feedback occurs in many systems and is particularly important at high speeds, where the time it takes signals to propagate through device components is comparable to the time scale of the signal fluctuations. A fascinating feature of systems with delay is that even seemingly simple devices can show exceedingly complex dynamics such as chaos.  I will talk about the generation of high-speed chaos using optoelectronic time-delayed feedback oscillators and discuss a particularly intriguing form of collective behavior that arises when several such oscillators are coupled to form a network. Under certain conditions the entire network will oscillate in synchrony, in spite of the signal propagation delays in the coupling links.



Collecting Electrons from Bacteria with Microbial Fuel Cells

December 5
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium

A lecture by
Emily Gardel
Candidate for the position in Physics
The energy for all forms of life comes from the flow of electrons in energetically favorable pairings of oxidation and reduction reactions. While humans can only use oxygen as an electron acceptor, bacteria have the ability to use a variety of compounds, including solid materials, such as metal oxides. This metabolic diversity makes these micron-sized organisms dominant members of our biosphere and opens possibilities for biotechnological applications, including electricity production, bioremediation, and wastewater treatment. In my research, I focus on bacteria that are capable of transferring electrons outside the bacterial cell to a solid-phase electron acceptor. I will discuss how this phenomenon can be studied by separating the locations of the oxidation and reduction reactions while providing an electrode as an electron acceptor for the bacteria. These microbial fuel cells (MFCs) produce an electrical current and there is interest in understanding the limiting factors governing overall power performance in these systems. Using an environmental MFC, I have found that current production decreases when the system is mass-transfer limited. By allowing the electrode to rest disconnected from electron flow, any necessary nutrients or electron donors diffuse to the bacteria on the electrode and allow for increased current production upon reconnecting the electrode. These findings demonstrate a method for determining an optimal way for operating MFCs used for electricity generation as well as raise additional questions about bacteria-electrode electron transfer.



Bring Disease to Light: Medical Diagnostics for Low-Resource Settings

November 29
RKC 111

A lecture by
Neil Switz
Candidate for the position in Physics



Quasichemical Consideration of the Effect of Osmolytes in Protein Solution Thermodynamics CANCELED

November 6
RKC 102

**This lecture has been canceled and will be rescheduled at a later date**

A lecture by
Dilip Asthagiri
Johns Hopkins University
 




Bard Summer Research Poster Session

September 27
Reem-Kayden Center

Students presenting:Michael Anzuoni, Tedros Balema, Amanda Benowitz, Cara Black, Sheneil Black, Max Brown, Celeste Cass, Matteo Chierchia, Nikesh Dahal, Francesca DiRienzo, Leila Duman, Jose Falla, David Goldberg, Sumedha Guha, Nabil Hossain, Linda Ibojie, Lena James, Seoyoung Kim, Thant Ko Ko, Lila Low-Beinart, Yuexi Ma, Keaton Morris-Stan, Mark Neznansky, Matthew Norman, Ian Pelse, Liana Perry, Min Kyung Shinn, Olja Simoska, William Smith, Nathan Steinauer, Xiaohan Sun, James Sunderland, Weiqing Wang, Michael Weinstein, Clare Wheeler, Sara YilmazAdvisers: Craig Anderson, Christian Bracher, John Cullinan, Swapan Jain, Philip Johns, Brooke Jude, Tanay Kesharwani, Christopher LaFratta, Barbara Luka, Emily McLaughlin, Keith O’Hara, Lauren Rose





So You Want to Become an Engineer?

September 14
Hegeman 102

Nicole Ross graduated from RPI in 2011 with a BS in chemical engineering. Her first job was with Schlumberger, “the world’s largest oilfield services company.” She’ll talk about the engineering curriculum and her work experience.

Her talk will be illuminating to students interested in pursuing a degree any field of engineering through the joint programs with Columbia University and Dartmouth College.




Senior Project Poster Session

May 17
Reem-Kayden Center

Graduating Seniors:
Daniela Anderson, Lilah Anderson, Nadya Artiomenco, Conor Beath, Rachel Becker, Jeannette Benham, Matthew Boisvert, Samantha Brechlin, Ke Cai, Nicole Camasso, Curtis Carmony, Deven Connelly, Shellie Ann Dick, Sara Doble, Siyao Du, Madison Fletcher, Briana Franks, Abigail Fuchsman, Kira Gilman, Erin Hannigan, Lucas Henry, Andrew Hoffman-Patalona, Maxwell Howard, Yunxia Jia, Adriana Johnson, Axel Kammerer, Nicole Kfoury, Sankalpa Khadka, Youseung Kim, Sining Leng, Emily Mayer, Stergios Mentesidis, Mariya Mitkova, Samantha Monier, Jessica Philpott, Jega Jananie Ravi, Laura Schubert, Lindsey Scoppetta, Evan Seitchik, Hannah Shapero, Abhimanyu Sheshashayee, Eli Sidman, Gabriella Spitz, Veronica Steckler, Joshua Tanner, Emma Taylor-Salmon, Isabelle Taylor, Giang Tran, Will Wisseman, Kimberly Wood, Zhiwei Wu, Dimin Xu, Jing Yang, Yongqing Yuan, Changwei Zhou



All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Triangles

March 15
Hegeman 308

Joshua Bowman
SUNY Stony Brook
Flat surfaces (such as a cube or tetrahedron with the vertices removed) show up in a variety of mathematical areas. Their structure can be studied using Delaunay triangles, which in most cases are uniquely determined by the surface. As a surface is deformed, its Delaunay triangles change, and the way in which they change can give us a surprising amount of information about the surface. The only prerequisites for this talk are knowing what a
2x2 matrix is, and a certain level of comfort with abstract constructions.



Orthogonal Maximal Abelian Subalgebras of the n x n Matrices

March 8
Hegeman 308

A lecture by
Jan Cameron
Vassar College
Though the terminology may be unfamiliar, you have certainly seen a maximal abelian self-adjoint subalgebra (masa) of the complex matrices in your linear algebra course: the algebra of diagonal matrices. The notion of orthogonality for a pair of masas in M_n(C) is simple to describe, but surprisingly deep and relates to many areas of mathematics. In this talk, we'll consider the fascinating and important open problem of nding complete sets of pairwise orthogonal masas in the n x n complex matrices. We'll look at a few dierent ways to think about the problem, as well as why one might be interested in a solution, and an assortment of related questions. If time permits, I'll talk a bit about how orthogonal masas have come up in current research on structure theory of nite von Neumann algebras.This talk will be accessible to anyone who has had a course in linear algebra



Making the Most of Euler's Formula

March 1
Hegeman 308

Kristin Camenga
Department of Mathematics
Houghton College
Most people remember working with polyhedra in elementary and high school: cubes, prisms, tetrahedra, pyramids, etc. Euler's formula states that if V is the number of vertices, E the number of edges and F the number of faces of a polyhedron, V + F = E + 2. This is a beautiful and useful formula - but can't we do more? Can we get a similar theorem if we change some of our hypotheses? How does Euler's formula change if we allow polyhedra to be in dimension 4 or 5 or n? What if we look at angles of polyhedra instead of the number of faces? We will look at a number of examples as we generalize Euler's formula in these directions and others. We will end with a glimpse of open questions about angles in polytopes. No specific math background will be assumed, but curiosity is expected!



Symmetries of Julia Sets

February 23
Hegeman 308

James Belk
Mathematics Program
Bard College
A fractal is a mathematical shape that exhibits the same structure at a range of different scales. Among the most famous fractals are the Julia sets, which arise in a simple way from polynomials and complex numbers. In this talk, I will introduce Julia sets and discuss some of their basic properties. I will then indicate a connection between Julia sets and certain groups of functions on the unit circle. This talk should be accessible to students who have taken Proofs and Fundamentals. Some familiarity with groups would be helpful, but is not necessary.




The History and Arithmetic of Legendre Polynomials

February 16
Hegeman 308

A lecture by
John Cullinan
Mathematics Program

The Legendre Polynomials are orthogonal polynomials that have deep connections to mathematical physics. For example, they arise when solving the Laplace equation in spherical coordinates. It is also the case that the Legendre Polynomials are extensively studied for their number-theoretic properties. In this talk we will describe some of these properties as well as discuss some open questions surrounding the Legendre Polynomials. This talk should be accessible to students who are currently taking Proofs and Fundamentals (though some group theory will be used at the end).

**MATH TEA**The weekly Math Tea will immediately follow the seminar.  Join us for tea and refreshments at 4:30 in the Albee 3rd floor Math Lounge.