2024 Programs

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SCIENCE IN YOUR LIFE 2024

January 31st, February 7th & February 14th

7:30 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.


The 2024 series will be at 7:30 p.m. on January 31st, February 7th & February 14th, 2024.  As in the past, each program will consist of an understandable talk by a scientist involved in research on the topic, and an opportunity for questions from the audience. The purpose of these lectures is to bring together the general public and scientists to explore topics of interest and importance to everyone. Admission is free.

2024 Science in Your Life will be an on-line virtual presentation through Zoom

2024 Science In Your Life Programs

Register in advance with the button under the title of EACH webinar

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Webinar


7:30 PM “Why our brains need wildlands

Speaker:  Professor Susan Masino

Trinity College

Hartford, Connecticut

Protecting our brains and protecting nature are both important for our long-term wellbeing. Professor Masino will share how these two goals are mutually reinforcing, and how common-sense actions can benefit individual and collective health. The growing evidence for brain health benefits of nature span across all age groups and levels of activity, and range among beneficial changes in brain activity, improved cognition and emotional regulation and decreased depression and anxiety. The good news is these benefits do not require a wilderness trip; they can be achieved right here in our communities.  In addition to practical information on brain health, the presentation will feature local data and   implications of the recent regional report titled, “Wildlands in New England: Past, Present and Future”.   


Susan Masino is the Vernon D. Roosa Professor of Applied Science at Trinity College, a member of the Science and Technology Working Group of the Connecticut Governor’s Council on Climate Change (GC3), the Hartford County Coordinator for the Old Forest Network and recently a Charles Bullard Fellow in Forest Research at Harvard University. Her laboratory-based research focuses on mechanisms of brain health and disease, and her scholarship outside the lab focuses on nature and brain health, and the critical role of climate-regulating ecosystems.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Webinar


7:30 PM “Finding the Good News on Climate and Energy

Speaker: Professor Richard Alley

Penn State University

State College, Pennsylvania

Professor Richard Alley is the Evan Pugh University Professor of Geosciences at Penn State University. He studies the great ice sheets to help predict future changes in climate and sea level, and has made four trips to Antarctica, nine to Greenland and more to Alaska and elsewhere. He has been honored for research (including election to the National Academy of Sciences and Foreign Membership in the Royal Society), teaching and service. He participated in the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize) and has provided requested advice to numerous government officials from both major political parties including a U.S. Vice President, multiple Presidential Science advisors, and committees and individual members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.  He has authored or coauthored over 300 refereed scientific papers. He was presenter for the PBS miniseries Earth: The Operators’ Manual and author of the book. His popular account of climate change and ice cores, The Two-Mile Time Machine, was Phi Beta Kappa’s science book of the year.


He will discuss Finding the Good News on Climate and Energy.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Webinar

7:30 PM “A glimpse into the canine mind:  What your dog is thinking

Speaker: Professor Angie Johnston

Boston College 

Boston, Massachusetts

Professor Angie Johnston is an assistant professor at Boston College where she directs the Canine Cognition Center and the Social Learning Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale University and her B.S. in Child Development from the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research on canine cognition and child development has received numerous awards from sources such as the National Science Foundation, and her work has been featured on NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, and Scientific American.  

The primary goal of her lab is to understand how dogs think and see the world. Dogs are a ubiquitous part of our lives, yet we know surprisingly little about their psychology. Her lab’s research is designed to tap into dogs’ minds by creating fun scenarios (e.g., searching games, puzzles, and magic shows) in which to observe dogs’ behavior. Although her lab is interested in answering many questions about dogs’ minds, much of her work investigates how dogs learn from and interact with humans. Through this work, her lab hopes to gain insight that can help facilitate service and working dog training, bolster human-dog bonds, and enhance the welfare of pet dogs. Finally, although dogs are interesting to study in-and-of-themselves, her lab also studies dogs because of the insight they provide into our own human psychology.

2024 Science In Your Life Brochure.pdf

Officers 2023-2024

Maung S. Htoo, President, Ph.D.

Robert Brickner, Secretary

Arne C. Christensen, Treasurer


Board of Trustees

Robert Brickner

Arne C. Christensen

James Holmgren

Maung S. Htoo, Ph.D.

Naomi Htoo-Mosher

Steven C. Johnson

David Pfirman