College of Science Seminar
Upcoming Seminar
The College of Science seminars are back for Fall 2025! Starting from September 12th until December 5th, we have 7 college speakers, 1 AI-focused seminar (details to come), and more! Our first speaker is Dr. Phil Heller, Associate Professor of Computer Science. Please see below for more details.
When: Friday, September 12th from 3:00PM - 4:00PM
Where: ISB 130 (near the lobby on the ground floor)
Presenter: Dr. Phil Heller, Associate Professor of Computer Science
Title of talk:
"Coral Vision: Re-terraforming Planet Earth, One Reef at a Time"
Abstract:
Coral reefs support marine ecosystems and provide livelihood to hundreds of millions
of people. Reef degradation is well known and well under way, but restoration efforts
throughout the world are producing results. Many region-specific projects seek to
breed resilient corals that will be able to withstand the 21st century. In order to
determine best cultivation practices, scientists periodically photograph corals, producing
image data sets from which growth rates and other outcomes can be computed. As data
sets grow, the problem of analyzing thousands or tens of thousands of images remains
largely unsolved. In this talk I will preset Coral Vision, a software analysis tool
that is helping restoration efforts in Hawai'i, Guam, Florida, Costa Rica, and Qatar.
Calendar
Please feel free to add and share the College of Science seminars calendar to stay up to date on both college and department seminars. The shareable link is .
Past Seminars
Please see below for information and video recordings of past seminars. If a video recording link is not shown, then please contact the college analyst, .
Spring 2025
May 9, 2025, Dr. Sogol Jahanbekam, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, presented "Spanning Trees with Many Leaves"
May 2, 2025, Dr. Betsy Skovran, Professor of Biology, presented "From landfills to laptops: Engineering methylotrophic bacteria to recover rare earth metals from electronic waste"
April 11, 2025, Dr. Betsy Madden, Assistant Professor of Geology, presented "Earthquakes! Investigating seismic hazard across timescales using field methods and numerical modeling",
Fall 2024
December 6, 2024, Dr. Maxime M. Grand, Associate Professor at 91猎奇 Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, presented "Towards a New Era in Chemical Oceanography: Developing Miniaturized Systems for Nutrient and Trace Metal Monitoring"
November 22, 2024, Dr. Sayma Akther, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, presented "AI-Powered Smart Health Tracker using Wearable Sensor Technology"
November 15, 2024, Dr. Gina Quan, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, presented "Improving Pathways for Undergraduate Transfer Students in Physics",
November 8, 2024, Dr. Genya Ishigaki, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, presented "Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence for Network Automation",
November 1, 2024, Dr. Annalise Van Wyngarden, Associate Professor of Chemistry, presented "Aging of organic species in atmospheric aerosol particles: Implications for climate"
October 11, 2024, Dr. Adam Kochanski, Associate Professor of Meteorology & Climate Science and core faculty at the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center, presented "The Role of Wildfires in Modifying Local Weather and Shaping Fire Behavior"
Spring 2024
May 10, 2024, Dr. Cristina Tortora, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics presented "Cluster analysis: discover homogeneous groups of units in a data set"
May 3, 2024, Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Deputy Director for Climate & the Environment, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy and University Distinguished Professor & Valley Professor of Marine Biology, Oregon State University presented "The Future is Ours To Create: An Ocean of Opportunities Brilliantly Disguised as Insoluble Problems"
April 26, 2024, Dr. Melissa Pickett, Assistant Professor of Biology presented "What's up? How epithelial cells establish and maintain polarity in two PAR(t)s"
March 22, 2024, Dr. Mike Wood, Assistant Professor at 91猎奇 Moss Landing Marine Labs and Computer Science presented "Ice melt and biological productivity at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet"
March 8, 2024, Dr. Saptarshi Sengupta, Assistant Professor of Computer Science presented "Predicting Hard Drive Failures with Multi-Aspect Transformers"
February 16, 2024, Dr. Kim Blisniuk, Associate Professor of Geology presented "What is earthquake geology? A journey through earthquake hazard and faults of the Bay Area through the eyes of an earthquake geologist"
February 9, 2024, Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, Professor of Biology presented "The Muscle Spindle: The Most Important Sensory Organ You鈥檝e Never Heard Of"
Fall 2023 Seminars
November 3, 2023, Dr. Leila Khatib, Assistant Professor of Biology, titled: "Viral Surrogates and One Water California"
October 13, 2023, Dr. Siri Veland, Assistant Professor of Geology, titled: "Phasing out coal in carbon and coal intensive regions in Europe 鈥� where are the tipping points?"
September 29, 2023, Dr. Fred Larabee, Assistant Professor of Biology, titled: "Collections-based research on insect form and function at the J. Gordon Edwards Insect Museum"
September 15, 2023, Dr. Nick Esker, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, titled: "91猎奇 Targetry: Thin film chemistry to investigate nuclear reactions far from stability"
September 8, 2023, Dr. Fabio Di Troia, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, titled: "Generating Synthetic Malware Data for Zero-Day Detection"
August 25, 2023, Dr. Yan X Zhang, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, titled: "91猎奇 Student Success in Blockchain Research"
Spring 2023 Seminars
May 5, 2023, Dr. Ardem Patapoutian, Department of Neuroscience and an Investigator Howard Hughes Medical Institute, titled: "Grilione Seminar: How Do You Feel? The Molecules That Sense Touch"
April 14, 2023, Dr. Faranak Abri, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, titled: "Deception Detection and Social Engineering Attacks"
April 7, 2023, Dr. Carlie Pietsch, Assistant Professor of Geology, titled: "30 years of darkness and the long dawn of marine life鈥檚 recovery after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction"
March 10, 2023, Dr. Jon Jenkins, NASA Ames Research Center, titled: "Chasing Shadows in the Night: How NASA鈥檚 Kepler and TESS Missions Are Revolutionizing Exoplanet Science"
March 3, 2023, Dr. Brianne Gutmann, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, titled: "Reframing physics student preparation: supporting conversation about ethics, science, and society in the classroom"
February 24, 2023, Dr. Susan Lambrecht, Professor of Biological Sciences, titled: "Rapid evolution in California native plants during a historic drought"
February 17, 2023, Dr. Minghui Diao, Associate Professor of Meteorology and Climate Science, titled: "Clouds and Aerosols 鈥� the Wildcards of Climate Change"
February 3, 2023, Dr. David Ensminger, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, titled: ""
Fall 2022 Seminars
December 2, 2022, Dr. Michael Graham, Professor and Department Chair at 91猎奇 Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, titled: "Food, clean oceans, and jobs: Is aquaculture our key to a sustainable future?"
November 18, 2022, Dr. Ellen Metzger, Professor in the Department of Geology and Science Education, titled: "The Geology of Henry Coe State Park: Combining Scientific Research with Public Outreach"
November 4, 2022, Dr. Chandralekha Singh, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh, titled: "Promoting equity and inclusion in STEM teaching and learning". Please contact Jon (jonathan.espinoza@sjsu.edu) for a link to the recording and additional resources of the seminar.
October 21, 2022, Dr. Maya deVries, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, titled: ""
October 14, 2022, Dr. Hilary Hurst, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, titled: ""
September 30, 2022, Dr. Nate Bogie, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology, titled: 鈥淧lant Feedbacks on Soil Hydrology in Agroecosystems from the Sacramento Valley to the Sahel鈥�
September 23, 2022, Dr. Gianmarc Grazioli, Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, titled: 鈥淓xploring mechanisms of molecular assembly and disassembly using computer simulations and machine learning鈥�
September 9, 2022, Dr. Katerina Potika, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science, titled: "Easy breezy network analysis: community detection".
September 2, 2022, Dr. Ben Carter, Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, title: "".
August 26, 2022, Dr. Julio Soto, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, title: "".
Spring 2022 Seminars
May 13, 2022, Dr. Kassahun Betre, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, presents "Combinatorial Spacetime and Gravity".
May 6, 2022, Dr. Jessica Castillo-Vardaro, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, presents "".
April 29, 2022, Dr. Ray Hong, Professor of Biology at CSU Northridge, presents "The Genetic Basis for Host Seeking Behavior".
April 22, 2022, Dr. Manny Gabet, Professor in the Department of Geology, presents "".
March 25, 2022, Dr. Bonnie Ludka, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geology, presents "".
March 11, 2022, Dr. James Harvey, Professor Emeritus and former director of Moss Landing Marine Labs, presents "鈥�.
February 18, 2022, Dr. William Andreopoulos, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, presents "Deep Learning for Identifying Mobile Genetic Elements鈥�.
February 11, 2022, Dr. Alex Payumo, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, presents .
February 4, 2022, Dr. Daryl Eggers, Professor in the Department of Chemistry, presents 鈥淭he Underappreciated Role of Water in Biochemistry and Cell Biology鈥�.
Fall 2021 Seminars
December 10, 2021: Dr. Sarah Smith, Assistant Professor in the Department of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, presents "Nutrient-sensitive transcripts as biomarkers of in situ physiological state in marine phytoplankton".
December 3, 2021: Dr. Frank Huynh, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, presents "Emerging roles for mitochondrial sirtuin 4 in regulating nutrient metabolism and fertility".
November 19, 2021: Ralph Simpson. His talk will be about the , the secret encryption device the Germans used to encode messages in WW2 and which was cracked by the Allies. Ralph is a retired computer industry professional who authored the book and runs his own :
November 12, 2021: Dr. Kate Wilkin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and a member of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center, presents .
November 5, 2021: Dr. Miri VanHoven, Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Associate Dean for Research, presents .
October 29, 2021: Dr. Ivano Aiello, Interim Director, Moss Landing Marine Labs, presents .
October 22, 2021: Dr. Stefanie Milam, Astronomer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, presents .
October 15, 2021: Dr. Jordan Schettler, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics, presents .
October 8, 2021: Dr. Jennifer Avena, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, presents .
October 1, 2021: Dr. Robert Miller, Professor in the Department of Geology, presents .
September 24, 2021: Dr. Liam Stanton, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics
& Statistics, presents
September 17, 2021: Dr. Susan D. Blum, Professor of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, presents "Ungrading in a Pandemic, and the Rest of the Time, Too".
September 10, 2021: Dr. Wendy Lee, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, presents .
September 3, 2021: Dr. Christopher Smallwood, Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, presents .
Spring 2021 Seminars
May 21, 2021: Dr. Aaron Romanowsky, Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, presents .
May 14th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Bree Grillo-Hill - Assistant Professor from Department of Biology and Sciences, entitled
April 30th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Natasha Batalha - Associate Professor from Physics & Astronomy, entitled
April 16th, 2021 at 4pm with a talk by Dr. Eugene C Cordero - Professor from Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, entitled
April 4th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Thomas Connolly, Assistant Professor from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, entitled
March 26th, 2021 with a talk by B-G Andersson, Principal Scientist, SOFIA/USRA, NASA Ames, entitled
March 19th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Jonathan S. Miller, Professor and Chair of Department of Geology, entitled
March 12th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Elizabeth Skovran, Associate Professor from Department of Biological Sciences, entitled
March 5th, 2021 with a talk by David J. Des Marais, Senior Space Scientist, NASA 鈥� Ames Research Center, entitled
February 26th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Resa Kelly - Professor from the Department of Chemistry & Science Education, entitled
February 19th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Sonia Singhal - Assistant Professor from Department of Biological Sciences, entitled
February 12th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Thomas Madura - Assistant Professor from Department of Physics and Astronomy, entitled
February 5th, 2021 at 4pm with a talk by Dr. Navrati Saxena - Assistant Professor from Department of Computer Science, entitled
January 29, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Laura C. Miller Conrad, Associate Professor of Department of Chemistry, entitled
January 15th, 2021 with a talk by Dr. Cassandra Paul, Associate Professor of Physics & Astronomy and Science Education, entitled
Fall 2020 Seminars
December 4th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. David Brook -Professor from the Department of Chemistry, entitled
November 20th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Sogol Jahanbekem - Assistant Professor from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, entitled .
November 6th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Ryan Portner - Assistant Professor from the Geology Department, entitled
November 6th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Rachael French - Assistant Professor from Biological Sciences, entitled
October 30th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Tammie Visintainer - Assistant Professor from Science Education, entitled:
October 23rd, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Scott Shaffer -Professor from the Department of Biological Sciences, entitled:
October 16th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Madalyn Radlauer - Assistant Professor from the Department of Chemistry, entitled:
September 25th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Elly Walsh - Associate Professor from the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, entitled:
September 18th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Cristina Tortora - Assistant Professor from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, entitled:
September 11th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Ehsan Khatami -Associate Professor from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, entitled:
September 2nd, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Melody Moh - Professor from the Department of Computer Science, entitled:
August 21st, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Carlie Pietsch - Assistant Professor from the Department of Geology, entitled:
Summer 2020 Seminars
August 14th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Walter Adams - Assistant Professor from the Department of Biological Sciences, entitled:
August 7th, 2020 with a talk by Dr. Ningkun Wang - Assistant Professor from the Department of Chemistry, entitled:
July 31st with a talk by Dr. Minghui Diao - Assistant Professor from the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, entitled:
July 24th with a talk by Dr. Ben Reed - Professor from the Department of Computer Science, entitled:
July 17th with a talk by Dr Birgitte McDonald - Assistant Professor from Moss Landing Marine Lab, entitled:
July 10th with a talk by Dr. Gina Quan from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, entitled:
June 26th with Dr Kimberly Blisniuk from the Department of Geology, entitled:
June 19th, 2020 with Dr. Lionel Cheruzel from Chemistry Department, entitled:
June 12th, 2020 with Dr. Katie Wilkinson from Department of Biological Sciences, entitled:
June 5th, 2020 with Dr. Craig Clements from Department of Meteorology, entitled:
Spring 2020 Seminars
May 22th, 2020 with Dr. Marion Campisi from Department of Mathematics & Statistics, entitled,
May 1st, 2020 with Dr. Philip Heller from Department of Computer Science, entitled,
April 24th, 2020 with Dr. Amanda Kahn from Moss Landing Marine Laboratory, entitled,
April 17th, 2020 with Dr. Alejandro Garcia from Department of Physics, entitled,
