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Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ to speak at Augsburg for Valentine’s Day

Bill Nye

 

Bill Nye “The Science Guy” will share his love for science when he speaks February 14 at Augsburg College’s Scholarship Weekend in an address that is open to the general public. Nye, who will talk about “How Science Can Save the World,” will speak with academic depth and humor about planetary science, climate change, evolution, environmental awareness, and more.

“We’re excited to host Bill Nye during our Scholarship Weekend when bright students from across the United States visit campus to compete for our top academic scholarships,” said Augsburg College President Paul Pribbenow. “We want to give these scholarly, prospective Auggies the chance to grapple with some of the world’s deepest questions so they can experience what Auggies are called to do each and every day.”

During the 2014 Scholarship Weekend, nearly 100 students and the public had the opportunity to be challenged by deep questions of compassion and humanity posed in a talk by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Nye, a mechanical engineer and seven-time Emmy Award winner as host and head writer of “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” will speak from 11:30 a.m. -12:30 p.m., Feb. 14, in Augsburg College’s Si Melby Gymnasium.

Ticket Information: Ticket information will be made available as soon it is finalized. Members of the Augsburg College community will have the opportunity to purchase tickets during a presale and that will be announced via A-mail as soon as details are available. Following the presale, tickets will be made available to the general public.

Biography: Bill Nye is a mechanical engineer who wants the world to know and appreciate the passion, beauty, and joy (the P, B & J) of science. Nye’s show, Bill Nye The Science Guy, has garnered 18 Emmy awards. Nye won seven of them as host and head writer. These days, Nye travels the globe exhorting audiences to change the world. He has a day job as the CEO of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest non-governmental space interest organization. Nye’s newest book, “Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation,” is slated for release in November.

Local STEM Event

How to Use Geometry to Get Rich Playing the Lottery*

Who: Jordan Ellenberg, University of Wisconsin at Madison
When: 7:00 P.M., Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Where: 2-650 Moos Tower
515 Delaware St SE
East Bank, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

For seven years, a group of students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology exploited a loophole in the Massachusetts State Lottery’s Cash WinFall to win game after game, eventually pocketing more than $3 million. Jordan Ellenberg will talk about how they did it, why they got away with it, the mathematical notions of expected value and variance, and the surprising relationship of all this with projective geometry.

Ellenberg is the author of the New York Times bestseller How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking and the novel The Grasshopper King. Both books will be available for purchase and signing at the lecture.

*Sadly, will not actually help you get rich playing the lottery.

This event is free and open to the public. The IMA Public Lecture Series features distinguished mathematicians and scientists who illuminate the role of mathematics in understanding our world and shaping our lives. The purpose of these talks is to give the public a better understanding about how contemporary mathematical ideas are applied to important technological and scientific problems, conveying the significance and excitement of these applications. These engaging and informative lectures are designed for a broad audience, appropriate for middle-school students and older. This well-established series regularly draws diverse audiences of several hundred people. For additional information, please call (612) 624-6066 or download the event PDF.

Women in STEM

Women in Science BannerDr. Elodie Ghedin speaks about her career in biology in the first installment of a series of interviews with women who are currently working in cutting-edge science fields.

Watch the video

Zyzzogeton 2014

ZyzzogetonAuggie’s who have participated in undergraduate research in the past year were invited to share their findings with the community in an open forum at the Oren Gateway Center hosted by the UGRO, McNair, and LSAMP programs.  This year’s Zyzzogeton was a huge success with almost half of the sixty-seven poster presenters representing STEM fields. Continue reading “Zyzzogeton 2014”

Bonnie Bassler Visits Augsburg

Bonnie Bassler at Chapel This week Augsburg’s students and faculty were honored to host two talks by molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler of Princeton University. She explained her ongoing research which focuses on how bacteria communicate by chemical means (watch her TED talk) and also spoke about how breakthroughs in this area of biology may lead to new antibiotics and new methods to improve human health.

Brooke Story of Medtronic

Dinner with Brooke StoryBrooke Story visited Augsburg to lead an open forum on her life experiences, her success in STEM careers, and how she has used her degree.  Brooke is passionate about empowering other women and underrepresented students to pursue their goals in STEM.  In her talk, she encouraged students to use all available resources, to be tenacious, and to be flexible in their career choices. Continue reading “Brooke Story of Medtronic”