Science and Mathematics Colloquium Series

The Science and Mathematics Colloquium Series invites distinguished speakers from related disciplines to present current, exciting scientific research to Columbia College Chicago's faculty, staff and students, as well as to Chicago's broader community. Talks are intended to introduce a general audience to a wide variety of important advances in science and mathematics, their potential applications and their implications for public policy. Reflecting Columbia's emphasis on the arts, select talks examine the intersections among science, mathematics, arts and the media.

All Fall 2022 Colloquium Series events take place via Zoom.

Speakers include: 

The Electric Vehicle (EV): A Disruptive Innovation That Is Here to Stay
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 623 S. Wabash Ave., Room 203 5–6 PM

Marcelo Caplan Associate Professor Science and Mathematics Columbia College Chicago Our society is immersed in what is being called, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution,” in which disruptive technologies and trends change how modern people live and work. At the same time, we are witnessing in real-time the effects of climate change. The effects of human-caused global warming are happening now and will worsen in decades. One of the contributing factors to global warming is the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by Internal Combustion Vehicles (ICV). In this age, electric vehicles have emerged as one way to apply innovation and experimentation to respond to the climate crisis. During the presentation, we will discuss the myths and truths related to electric vehicles and their impact as one of the tools to reduce human-caused global warming.

Moving Wild Animal Welfare Forward
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19 623 S. Wabash Ave., Room 203 5–6 PM

Dr. Sathya Chinnadurai Senior Vice President of Animal Health and Welfare Chicago Zoological Society Brookfield Zoo We will discuss the challenges of assessing and improving welfare for wild animals, both in their home ranges and in managed care. Decades of collaborative work has helped professionals and the public conceptually understand the importance of analgesia, behavioral enrichment, social structure, and welfare-based management in the health of wild animals. The on-going challenge is now finding ways to objectively quantify good and poor welfare and to raise the discussion beyond conflicting opinions to the level of scientific discussion. This discussion comes at the intersection of clinical medicine, welfare, analgesia, and animal management and may lead to a better understanding of an animal’s quality of life

The Multiple Evolutions of Dinosaurian Flight
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16 623 S. Wabash Ave., Room 203 5–6 PM

Dr. Jingmai O’Connor Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago For a long time birds were thought to be the only flying dinosaurs and the question “how did birds evolve from dinosaurs” was considered synonymous with the question “how did flight evolve in dinosaurs.” However, spectacular discoveries from Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous deposits in northeastern China have recently revealed that flight evolved in dinosaurs at least four times and that birds only represent the most successful of these lineages. Like flying mammals, flying dinosaurs evolved both powered and gliding styles of flight. Structures associated with flight in birds today, like feathers and “wings” first evolved in dinosaurs for some other purpose, which paleontologists are beginning to understand through rarely fossilized soft tissues.

Recent past speakers include:

• Dr. Suzanne Sindi; Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics, University of California, Merced
• Dr. Serita Frey, Professor, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of New Hampshire
• Dr. Keith Kostecka, Associate Professor, Science and Mathematics, Columbia College Chicago
• Dr. Zhaotian Luo, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, the University of Chicago
• Dr. Mark Hammergren, Astronomer, Adler Planetarium Dr. Keith Kostecka, Associate Professor, Science and Mathematics, Columbia College Chicago
• Julia Pettas, Art and Materials Conservation program student, Columbia College Chicago</p Dr. Ka Yee Lee, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago
• Dr. Bruce Patterson, MacArthur Curator of Mammals, Field Museum of Natural History
• Dr. Rachel Santymire, Director, Davee Center for Epidemiology and Endocrinology, Lincoln Park Zoo
• Dr. Denis Hirschfeldt, Professor of Mathematics, University of Chicago
• Dr. Grace Wolf-Chase, Astronomer, Adler Planetarium
• Miriam Centeno, Collections Care Coordinator, University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign
• Lydia M. Hopper, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes, Lincoln Park Zoo
• Luis Nasser, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics, Columbia College Chicago
• Zhe-Xi Luo, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago
• Cathy Pfister, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago
• Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged, Ph.D., Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago
• Jahred Adelman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Northern Illinois University
• Allison Bormet, Adjunct Faculty, Science and Mathematics Department, Columbia College Chicago
• Thomas Sanger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Loyola University Chicago
• Seth Magle, Ph.D., Director, Urban Wildlife Institute, and Executive Director, Urban Wildlife Information Network
• Nicholas Hatsopoulos, Professor, Department of Neurology, University of Chicago
• Michelle Nichols, Master Educator, The Adler Planetarium
• David Dolak, Full-Time Lecturer, Science and Mathematics Department, Columbia College Chicago

• Liberal Arts and Sciences

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