Sharon STEM Talks

Big thank you to ASCB and Sharon Education Foundation for continued funding and support!

Sharon STEM Talks

Join us for science and snacks at 7pm in the Sharon High School Library!
Sponsored by the SHS Science Olympiad Team and the SHS Science and Library/Media Departments

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2/8/19 News: Sharon STEM Talks was spotlighted by ASCB Post! Read here

Next STEM Talk: January 16th - Christopher Blessen (Tappé Architects)
Meet the architect designing our new school!

October 10, 2019
Dr. Alan Marscher, Boston University
Super-Massive Black Holes at the Centers of Galaxies

The recent Event Horizon Telescope image of the black hole in the galaxy M87 confirmed what astronomers had suspected: super-massive black holes reside in the centers of all large galaxies. The speaker will discuss how these extreme objects, which trap any matter or light that gets too close, actually create the most luminous phenomena in the universe. This apparent contradiction involves ultra-hot gas that has not yet been swallowed by the black hole monster, as well as near -light-speed jets of high-energy particles and strong magnetic fields.

Date TBA
Dr. Thomas Rünger, Lahey Health
The Sun’s Dark Side –
How Solar Radiation Causes Skin Cancer

Dr. Thomas Ruenger, Professor of Dermatology, received his MD degree from Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany in 1985. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD from 1986 – 1989, he completed his dermatology residency training at the Julius Maximilian University in Würzburg, Germany in 1992 and a fellowship in allergology in 1994. In 1995, he was recruited to the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany to serve as Vice-Chair of the Dermatology Department. In 1999, he came to the US and was appointed to the faculty of Boston University School of Medicine as Professor of Dermatology and joined the Dermatology Department, where he served in many leadership roles, including Medical Director, Director of the International Graduate Training Program, and Vice-Chair, and also ran a research laboratory. From 2014 – 2016, he was Chair of the Dermatology Department at the BU-affiliated Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence, RI. Dr. Ruenger is an internationally recognized expert in photobiology and photodermatology and has published more than 100 original articles, reviews, and book chapters. He also served as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Photodermatology, Photoimmunology & Photomedicine from 2013 to 2018. Dr. Ruenger’s areas of special clinical expertise include photodermatology, phototherapy, psoriasis, vitiligo, complex medical dermatology, and cutaneous oncology. He is currently working at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, MA, of Beth Israel Lahey Health.

February 13th, 2020
Dr. Michael Merport
S, T, E and M of Medical Interventioning

Dr. Merport will touch upon the physical, chemical and biological aspects of medical imaging, including radiography, computed tomography, ultrasound, magnetic resonance, and nuclear imaging, as well as engineering aspects of imaging devices. He will also explain how imaging helps to guide therapeutic interventions (interventional radiology)

November 14, 2019
Dr. Avital Rodal, Brandeis University
Finding your way inside of a nerve cell

Avital Rodal grew up in Ottawa, Canada. She attended MIT for her undergraduate studies in Biology and Chemical Engineering, and then University of California Berkeley for her doctoral studies in Molecular and Cell Biology. She then did her postdoctoral work back at MIT, in the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory. She is currently an associate professor at Brandeis University, where she studies intracellular transport in neurons. She has been the recipient of NIH Pathway to Independence and NIH Director's New Innovator awards, a Pew scholar award, and recently the NINDS Landis Award for mentorship. Outside of the lab, she enjoys gardening, hanging out with her dogs and teenaged kids, and getting running tips from her husband.

January 16, 2020
Christopher Blessen, Tappé Architects
Meet the Architect Helping to
Design Our New High School!

Christopher Blessen is committed to building places that contribute to the development of communities. He is interested in how learning grows communities and the various places where learning can take place. His practice for the last 13 years has largely been focused on K-12 design and Libraries. In the coming years Chris plans to travel throughout the world "seeking the horizon of all that is education related to understand what really will be the future of think places and how should they be designed."

March 19, 2020
Michael Macoritto
Bioinformatics
Analysis of large data has multiple applications, both within and outside of health sciences. This offers many opportunities and career paths that can use similar methodologies for completely different goals.
For the talk, Mr. Macoritto will briefly recount his own career path, discuss the modern opportunities to follow this path, then focus on the broader spectrum of interesting careers that can stem from this type of work.

April 30, 2020
Dr. Andrew Murray, Harvard University
What sets the speed limit of evolution?

Andrew Murray did his Ph.D. with Jack Szostak constructing artificial chromosomes and a postdoc with Mark Kirschner showing that cyclin synthesis and destruction regulates the cell division cycle. His group works on experimental evolution using the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. They use genetic and physiological perturbations, synthetic biology, and collaborations with theorists to try to understand the “rules of the game” that explain how cells reproduce, respond to their environment, and evolve. In education, he is interested in breaking interdisciplinary barriers without sacrificing discipline.

Summer Research Opportunities!
Search the list for category "HS"to find programs available to high school students...

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