Campus Community
Posted: Thursday, February 4, 2010Women in Science and Math Spring 2010 Lecture Series
By Mary A. Durlak
Three speakers are scheduled for the spring 2010Women in Science and Math Lecture Series. Each lecture will be held during Bengal Pause (12:15–1:30 p.m.) in Science Building 272.
The first speaker is Martha Muñoz, who will present on Thursday, February 18. Muñoz is a doctoral student attending Harvard, where she is studying entomology in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Muñoz graduated in 2006 from Boston University, where she studied the population genetics of Anolis lizards. In April 2007, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study phylogeography in Spain. In addition to discussing her research, she will discuss how she developed an interest in science and the role that research programs and field opportunities played in her undergraduate career. She will also explain the process of applying to graduate school.
The second speaker is Libby Jewett, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who will present on Tuesday, March 16.
Jewett earned her Ph.D. in marine ecology at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2005. Her expertise is in harmful algal blooms (HABs) and hypoxia (severe oxygen depletion), which have been affecting an increasing number of coastal and Great Lakes communities, economies, and ecosystems. Jewett has noted that every coastal state has reported recurring blooms, and more than half the nation’s estuaries experience hypoxic conditions. With other NOAA scientists, Jewett is leading efforts to understand, predict, and ultimately mitigate HABs and their impacts on ecosystems and coastal communities.
Carolyn Hurley is a professor in the departments of Oncology and Microbiology & Immunology and a member of the Genetics and Epidemiology Division at the Georgetown University Medical Center. She will present on Thursday, April 8.
Hurley earned her Ph.D. in genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her current research interests involve the role of polymorphism in immune response genes, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and unrelated volunteer donor registries. Hurley is researching killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) and their diversity in the human population. Her lab also focuses on cytokines, which normally regulate a wide variety of cellular functions, but also can play many different roles in cancer.
A reception will follow each presentation. The lecture series is sponsored by the Equity and Campus Diversity Office Minigrant program, the Auxiliary Services Grant Allocation Committee, and the Faculty-Student Association. The lectures are free and open to all students, faculty, and staff.
