Eryn Brennan
In Motion Staff
A crowd of about 70 people gathered on Oct. 19 to listen to Dr. Thomas H. Mareci, a Biochemistry Professor from the University of Florida lecture on “Measuring the Structural Connectivity of the Brain,” one in a series of STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics, seminars.
Dr. Thomas Mareci explains brain activity functions to the audience.
Dr. Gajendra Tulsian, a Physics professor at Daytona State runs the weekly seminars and books speakers, who are mostly from the universities of Florida and Central Florida. Seminars are a chance for those interested in STEM subjects to listen for free to experts lecture about their fields. Some science professors at Daytona State also offer extra credit for attending the lectures.
“It’s something a college should have,” Dr. Tulsian said. “The students seem to enjoy it quite a bit.”
One such student is Emily Reyes, an Environmental Science and Technology major. “They’re really nice, especially because they’re free. You learn something new every time you come here,” she said.
Seminars are not just for students. Anyone is welcome to attend. In fact, according to IT department member Scott Reed who does a head count of every seminar, about 20 percent of the 60 to 80 people that come each week are from the community. People like Bill Phinney, who comes to almost all of the seminars with his wife.
“They’re very educational. I wish more people would come, just for adult education,” he said.
Upcoming seminars this fall include: “Novel Genes and the Evolution of Diversity,” by Leslie Babonis from UF Marineland on Nov. 2; “Responsive Block Polymers Using Polypeptides: Bottom-up Design in Macromolecular Materials,” by Daniel A. Savin from UF on Nov. 9; “Epigenetics: Our Molecular Response to Our Environment,” by Thomas Yang from UF College of Medicine on Nov. 16; “From Spacecraft Formation Flight to Human-space Robot Interaction,” by Riccardo Bevilacqua from UF on Nov. 23; and “A Renewable Energy Rich Future: Are We There Yet?,” by Prabir Barooah from UF on Nov. 30.
The STEM seminars are held every Monday in the Madorsky Theater at the Mori Hosseini Center from 5 p.m to 6 p.m. For more information on the series, you can visit Dr. Tulsian’s website drtulsian.com/seminars, e-mail him at tulsiag@daytonastate.edu or call him at 506-3779.