News & Events
Friday, December 13, 2019
Stacking Van der Waals Atomic Layers: Quest for New Materials by Designing
Philip Kim, Harvard University
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Location: Hegeman 107
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Sunday, December 15, 2019
Math Study Room
SUNDAY–WEDNESDAY • HEG 308 • 7–10 PM
A place to work on math homework, study with classmates, or speak to a math tutor.
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm Location: Hegeman 308
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Monday, December 16, 2019
Math Study Room
SUNDAY–WEDNESDAY • HEG 308 • 7–10 PM
A place to work on math homework, study with classmates, or speak to a math tutor.
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm Location: Hegeman 308
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Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Chemistry Study Room
Peer-led Chemistry study space
Time: 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm Location: RCK Chemistry pods
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Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Senior Project Poster Session
Join our December graduating seniors in presenting their senior projects.
Light refreshments will be served
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Location: Reem-Kayden Center
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Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Math Study Room
SUNDAY–WEDNESDAY • HEG 308 • 7–10 PM
A place to work on math homework, study with classmates, or speak to a math tutor.
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm Location: Hegeman 308
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Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Chemistry Study Room
Peer-led Chemistry study space
Time: 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm Location: RCK Chemistry pods
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Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Math Study Room
SUNDAY–WEDNESDAY • HEG 308 • 7–10 PM
A place to work on math homework, study with classmates, or speak to a math tutor.
Time: 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm Location: Hegeman 308
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Friday, January 10, 2020
First Citizen Science Class
Location: Bard College Campus
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Friday, January 10, 2020
Citizen Science Classes Begin
Mandatory check-in 10 am – 4 pm
RKC lobby - financial clearance, materials pick up, water test tube collection
Time: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Location: Bard College Campus
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Sunday, January 12, 2020
From Crises to Solutions: Drinking Water in the 21st Century
Citizen Science keynote lecture by David Sedlak, author of Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World's Most Vital Resource
As a result of population growth, climate change, and pollution, the world’s drinking water supplies are under considerable stress. Over the past four decades, engineers and scientists working in water-stressed cities have created an array of new technologies that make it possible to purify water that would otherwise be unsafe to drink. However, the high cost and inflexibility of these systems currently prevents their use in all but the wealthiest cities. To expand access of these technologies to overcome the drinking water crises facing humanity, creative new policies and additional technological improvements will be needed. This talk will provide insight into the challenge of providing safe, affordable, and reliable drinking water in the coming decades.
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm Location: Fisher Center, Sosnoff Theater
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Monday, January 13, 2020 – Friday, January 17, 2020
Citizen Science Classes
Times vary by section. Two classes each day, approximately 2.5 hours per class. Classes will be held between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm. Location: Bard College Campus
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Tuesday, January 21, 2020 – Thursday, January 23, 2020
Citizen Science Classes
Times vary by section. Two classes each day, approximately 2.5 hours per class. Classes will be held between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm.
Location: Bard College Campus
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Wednesday, February 5, 2020
AMC 10/12B with the Bard Math Circle
A national math contest for high school students
The AMC 10/12 is a 25-question, 75-minute, multiple choice examination in high school mathematics designed to promote the development and enhancement of problem-solving skills.
Time: 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm Location: Reem-Kayden Center Website:
Event Website
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Saturday, April 25, 2020
Girls' Adventures in Math
A team-based competition for girls in grades 3–8
Girls' Adventures in Math (GAIM) is a themed mathematics competition for upper elementary and middle school girls, followed by strategy-based games. Teams of students will work on challenging problems, contextualized in a comic book containing the stories of pioneering women from history.
The competition is organized by Math-M-Addicts New York, Inc. The Bard Math Circle hosts this event to promote a culture of mathematical problem solving and mathematics enrichment in the mid-Hudson Valley.
Time: 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm Location: Reem-Kayden Center Website:
Event Website
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Past Events
- 2019
- 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.