STEM Scholar Lecture Series '06 -'08
Connecting Californians and Environmental Change
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
To paraphrase Mark Twain, everybody talks about the environment,
but nobody does anything about it.
Perhaps that was true some years ago, but Professors Jim Baxter and Jeffrey White of the California Environmental Legacy Project are working to preserve the state’s changing environment by looking to the past to explore California’s future.
Baxter and White are co-founders and co-directors of the Legacy Project, a statewide collaborative effort among scientists, educators and media professionals to enhance public understanding about California’s environment using artful storytelling and interactive digital media.
Baxter is a biology professor and chair of Sacramento State’s Department of Biological Sciences Graduate Program. White is a biology professor and director of the Redwood Science Project at Humboldt State University.
View the world through... Disaster-Vision!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Remember those paper 3-D glasses people wore to watch a disaster movie? 
Gerald Bawden from the USGS
will show how high-tech 3-D glasses are being used to visualize real world disasters.
Bawden uses laser and virtual reality technology to produce ultra-high resolution three-dimensional imagery that can detect changes in the earth that cause floods, dam failures, mine collapses, beach erosion, glacier retreat and debris flows.
Bawden’s the chief scientist of the USGS’s Western Remote Sensing and Visualization center located at Sacramento State.
The Science Of Computer Games
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
The popularity of computer games have grown at an astounding rate. Games are rapidly moving beyond entertainment, appearing with 
increasing frequency as tools in fields such as medicine, public service, corporate business, education and the military. But are the games a serious topic for scientific interest?
This presentation delves into the computer game phenomenon from the point of view of the scientific and technical aspects that make such games candidates for serious academic study.
Childhood Obesity
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
According to the American Obesity Association, 30% of children age 6–19 are overweight and 15% are obese. Overweight children are more 
likely to become overweight adults, which could put them at increased risk of heart disease and other illnesses.
Sacramento State professor Wendy Cunningham (Family and Consumer Sciences) will discuss the causes of childhood obesity and the challenges faced by children, their parents and society as America’s youth continue to tip the scales.
Is Agricultural Biotechnology Safe?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Join Sacramento State biologist Nick Ewing for an overview of genetically modified organisms and their use in agriculture today.
This timely discussion is geared to lay audiences and experts alike and covers:
» How are plants genetically modified?
» How they are used in agriculture, and to what extent?
» How safe are genetically modified organisms, and what are the risks?
Sustainable Energy: Challenges and Solutions
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Americans burn more than 320 billion gallons of 
petroleum, 1 billon tons of
coal and 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas each year. What is being done to develop energy
sources that protect the planet and its population?
Sacramento State Mechanical Engineering professor Tim Marbach conducts research on clean-burning combustion. Join him for a look at current energy consumption and a glimpse of technologies being developed to address this problem.
Volcanoes In Our Backyard?
Tuesday, November 14th, 2006
Clear Lake California is located approximately 80 miles from Sacramento and it is the closest volcanically active site. There has been considerable interest in determining the likelihood of future eruptions at Clear Lake and the area has recently been identified by the US Geological Survey as a High Threat volcano.
Dr Lisa Hammersley, from the Department of Geology, will present her analysis of geochemistry and crust structure of the site indicating that future eruptions may be more explosive than any of that have occured over the past 100,000 years.
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