2025 Programs

Good sleep habits are important in many ways, yet humans keep trying to avoid it. This talk will describe sleep, talk about why sleep is necessary, and the many benefits of good sleep habits. The talk will also include tips for good sleep.

Dr. Pilcher is the Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology (awarded in 2009) at Clemson University. She earned her Ph.D. in Biopsychology from the University of Chicago in 1989. She enlisted in the U.S. Navy prior to completing her undergraduate degree and an officer as a research psychologist in the U.S. Army after completing her Ph.D. degree, Dr. Pilcher was named a Fellow in the Association of Psychological Science in 2010. She has also earned a variety of awards at Clemson University including being named the 2015 recipient of the class of 1939 Award for Faculty Excellence. She was the Fulbright-Freud Visiting Scholar from 2011 to 2012 in Vienna, Austria and a Fulbright Specialist in Global Health in 2017 in Oulu, Finland. In 2018 to 2019, she served as a Jefferson Science Fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, D.C.  Her research is broadly based on the effect of stress on performance, health and well-being. Her research incorporates many occupational health topics including sleep and sleep loss, physical activity, and sedentary behavior and thermal stress. She has given over 200 invited talks nationally and internationally.

The best-selling book about an astronaut stranded on Mars was brought to life in Ridley Scott’s film, The Martian. Before production started, Ridley called NASA to obtain information about NASA’s plans for human exploration of Mars in addition to what scientific knowledge about Mars would contribute to a realistic look and feel of the film in keeping with the approach laid out in Andy Weir’s book. An intense period of interaction over several months followed between Ridley’s design team and NASA’s journey to Mars personnel on everything from habitats, vehicles, spacesuits, ion engines, radioisotope power systems, and Mars terrains. The result was a tremendously popular and award-winning film. Having been NASA’s leading consultant on the film, Dr. Green will discuss what NASA’s real plans and challenges are to sending humans to Mars as compared to this fictional account. 

Dr. Green worked at NASA for 42 years before retiring in December 2022. During his distinguished career, he has been NASA’s Chief Scientist and the longest serving director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division with the overall programmatic responsibility for the New Horizons spacecraft flyby of Pluto, the Juno spacecraft to Jupiter, and the landing of the Curiosity Rover on Mars, just to name a few. He has received the Exceptional Achievement Medal for New Horizons flyby of the Pluto System and NASA’s highest honor, The Distinguished Service Medal.    

Pair-bonding and monogamy in primates are topics of considerable debate. While there is some consensus on the importance of pair-bonding for human and nonhuman primate evolution, the existence of monogamous relationship is puzzling given the profound difference in male and female biology. Dr. Fernandez-Duke will consider various hypotheses for the evolution of monogamy and pair bonding relying on data collected from titis and owl monkeys both in the lab and in the forests of Ecuador, Peru and Argentina for almost 30 years. He is Professor of Anthropology at the School of Environment at Yale University. He is a co-founder of ECO, a not-for-profit organization promoting education in northern Argentina, a corresponding member of the Argentine Council for Science and Technology, a National Geographic Explorer and an Invited Professor of the Universidad National de Formosa and the Universidad San Francisco de Quito of Ecuador. His research program, which bridges the fields of anthropology, psychology and primatology focuses on examining the behavioral, physiological and ecological correlates of male-female relationships, pair-bonding and paternal care. He studies monogamous primates (titis, sakis and owl monkeys) at field sites in the Ecuadorian and Peruvian Amazon, the Argentinian Chaco and Primate Centers in the U.S.     Besides several other prestigious awards, he received the “Premio Raices” award from the Argentine Ministry of Science and Technology.