Ramblings of a Graduate Student

Tonight was the second installment of Science Cafe Norman.  Tonight’s talk (title is the same as the title of this post) was given by me.  We had a fairly large turnout of around 20-30 people and the talk lasted about an hour.  While I was originally planning on talking more about climate change and less about severe thunderstorms, however the severe thunderstorm portion of the talk took a little longer than expected.  This was fine though, I think everyone enjoyed the talk and learned something new.  Next month the talk is given by my officemate, Melissa Bukovsky, and will focus on regional climate change.  As of right now the talk is scheduled to be on January 8th, but may have to be moved since quite a few people will be at a joint meeting of the mathematical societies and the NCAA College Football National Championship.  Stay tuned!

Tonight I attended the first “Science Cafe” in Norman, OK. Science cafes are live events that involve a face-to-face conversation with a scientist about current science topics. They are open to everyone, and take place in casual settings like pubs and coffeehouses.  The Norman Science Cafe takes place at Hastings (in the coffee shop) on the first Thursday following the first Wednesday of the month at 7PM.  These events are a great way for the general public to understand local research and scientific topics and allows scientists the opportunity to explain their research to a more general audience.  Tonight’s talk was given by Sean Crowell, a mathematics PhD student at the University of Oklahoma.  His talk was titled, “Climate change:  What We Know”.  It was a great first meeting.

I encourage people to check it out!  I give the next talk at the Norman Science Cafe on 4 December 2008 at 7PM.  My talk is titled, “What the Hail?!?  Climate Change and Severe Thunderstorms”.  Check it out!