Energy (and Other) Events is a weekly mailing list published most Sundays covering events around the Cambridge, MA and greater
Boston area that catch the editor's eye.
Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com is the web version.
If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to Energy (and Other) Events email gmoke@world.std.com
What I Do and Why I Do It: The Story of Energy (and Other) Events
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Index
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Full event information follows the Index and notices of my latest writings.
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Monday, March 21
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11:30am Analyzing Possible Human Trafficking Activity Using Large-Scale Information Extraction
12pm Electricity Market Developments in Mexico
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Tuesday, March 22
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8am Fundamentals of Social Media
9:30am Toward an Ethic of Social Justice in Information
12pm Linda Greenhouse - The Post-Scalia Supreme Court
12pm Niches, Invasions, and Climate Change
12pm Reconceptualizing the Right to Be Forgotten to Enable Transatlantic Data Flow
12pm GSD TALKS. Knoll Studio: Florian Idenburg and Benjamin Pardo on the Future of Work
1pm 4th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum: Water on My Mind
3:30pm World Water Day: How will water impact your career?
4pm 2016 Norton Lecture 4 of 6: "Configurations of Blackness”
4pm Rebuilding The Cornerstone of American Democracy: Leveraging Digital Tools to Reach Today’s Voters
5pm World Water Day Connector 2016
6:30pm Rethinking Occupy: 99 Percent Politics, 1 Percent Power, and the Future of Protest
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Wednesday, March 23
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11:30am TORCH Fest & Innovations Faire
12pm Peace Education during Violence: Exploring the Historical Narrative of the Other
6pm Bring on the Joy: New Strategies for Citizen Engagement
6:30pm Cataclysmic Boston: The Nature of Urban Change
6:30pm Food + Tech Mystery Speaker Series: Eli Feldman from Clothbound
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Thursday, March 24
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12:15pm Taming the Financial Furies? Cooperation and Compliance in the Counter-Terrorism Financing Regime
12:30pm Environmental Challenges and Socio-Economic Conditions in Gaza: A Livable Place?
1pm We Are All Trayvon: Difficult Dialogs with Sybrina Fulton, Mother of Trayvon Martin
3:30pm The Urban Consumption of the ‘Green’ Countryside: the Politics of Environmental Research in Contemporary China
5:30pm Megacities Asia
6pm Envision Cambridge Public Workshop
6pm Rebuilding the American City: Author Conversation
6pm 7th Annual Challenge for Sustainability Awards
6pm Delivering on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Promise
6pm Design of resource-effective materials, processes and systems
6:15pm CRISPR, Are We Ready to Rewrite the Human Genome?
7pm Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
7pm Poverty, Violence, and the Developing Mind
7:30pm Cleantech Open's 2016 Boston Kickoff Party!
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Friday, March 25
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JUST FOOD? FORUM ON LAND USE, RIGHTS AND ECOLOGY
11am Robot Self Sufficiency Through On-the-fly Fabrication
12pm Comprehensive measurements of atmospheric organic carbon: Laboratory and field studies
2pm Doing Practical Data Science for Social Impact
2pm Wealth, Poverty & Opportunity in the 21st Century: A Symposium on Facilitating Financial Inclusion
7pm Is Massachusetts undoing years of progress towards more renewable energy sources by expanding Natural Gas and putting Solar Incentives on the chopping block?: Renewable Energy Panel Co-Sponsored by the Sierra Club
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Saturday, March 26
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9:30am Botany Blast: Clues to Climate Change
11am 41st Annual Gardeners Gathering
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Sunday, March 27
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3pm Concert by the Kazakh Folk Orchestra
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Monday, March 28
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12pm MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Climate Phase Space
12pm Renewable Power Integration in China
4pm Rethinking the Place of People in Sustainable Development: Well-Being, Population, Education, Health, and Agency
4pm Energy Prices, Pass-Through, and Incidence in U.S. Manufacturing
4pm Technology and the Commodification of Agricultural Risk
4:45pm The Paris Agreement and the Race of Our Lives
5pm Tiling the Genome: Naming the Parts of Your Genome That Make You You
5pm Intersections of Irrelevance: Violence Against Women's Intellect in a Knowledge Based Economy
5:30pm 21st Century: Security vs. Privacy, with PayPal CEO Dan Schulman and Eli Sugarman of the Hewlett Foundation
6pm Irit Rogoff / Infrastructure
6pm Film Screening of Dan Ariely's (Dis)Honesty
6:30pm Mobilizing the Energy Revolution
7pm Catalyst Conversations Tod Machover & Kevin Esvelt
7:30pm Ethics, Engineers, and Emissions: A multifaceted look at the VW incident
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Tuesday, March 29
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8:30am COP21 Paris Climate Talks unConference
8:30am Making A Difference In A Complex World: Reimagining The Social Change Toolkit
12pm Sarah Kliff
3:30pm Irreversibility, information and the second law of thermodynamics at the nanoscale
4pm Building Civic Tech at the Middle of the Venn: Lessons Learned From a Co-founder and CEO
4:15pm Migration Crisis in the Mediterranean Region: A Humanitarian Perspective
6pm Learning From Elinor Ostrom: A Case on the Actors and Incentives that Shape Household Waste Management in Muzaffarnagar, India
6pm Women and Climate Change
6pm Boston Green Drinks - March Happy Hour
6pm Urban Identity Quest: A conversation with the Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville
6:30pm Making a Global Plan for Climate Change
6:30pm Climate Café: Exploring Your Place in the Climate Movement
7pm The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters
7pm Maria Sibylla Merian: The First Ecologist?
8pm Brunella Alfinito Wearable Technology, MassArt & MIT Embr Labs
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
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Monday, March 21
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Analyzing Possible Human Trafficking Activity Using Large-Scale Information Extraction
Monday, March 21
11:30am to 1:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin 119, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Michael Cafarella, University of Michigan
Online text advertisements for sex work constitute a large trove of data about potential human trafficking activity. If the information embedded in these advertisements --- price, location, service details, and so on --- could be analyzed using traditional data tools, it might be possible to build tools and models to identify and attack trafficking activity. We extracted structured data from natural language text from more than 80 million online ads posts over a four-year period. We used this data to build a novel search tool for law enforcement officers to identify potential trafficking victims.
We also used the database to obtain novel insight into illicit sex markets. These findings include the quantifying the price premium for services performed at a location of the buyer’s choosing, and determining what portion is due to travel costs or risk of violent crime. We also show that there is negative correlation between wage increase for women and advertised prices once locality-specific factors are accounted for. That correlation is driven by mid-priced providers entering the market at lower rates when wages go up.
This talk will include results relevant to both the computational and social science communities.
Speaker Bio: Michael Cafarella is the Morris Wellman Faculty Development Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. His research interests include databases, information extraction, data integration, and data mining. He has published extensively in venues such as SIGMOD, VLDB, and elsewhere. Mike received his PhD from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 2009 with advisors Oren Etzioni and Dan Suciu. He received the NSF CAREER award in 2011 and is a 2016 Sloan Research Fellow. In addition to his academic work, he costarted (with Doug Cutting) the Hadoop open-source project, which is widely used at Facebook, Yahoo!, and elsewhere.
Center for Research on Computation and Society
Contact: Carol Harlow
Email: harlow@seas.harvard.edu
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Electricity Market Developments in Mexico
Monday, March 21
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Fainsod Room, 3rd Floor, Littauer Building, 79JFK Street, Cambridge
Jeffrey Pavlovic, Managing Director of Electric Industry Coordination in the Undersecretary of Electricity in the Mexican Ministry of Energy
HKS Energy Policy Seminar Series
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
(617) 495-8693
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Tuesday, March 22
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Fundamentals of Social Media
Tuesday, March 22
8:00 AM to 11:00 AM (EDT)
Harvard Ed Portal, 224 Western Avenue, Allston
Fundamentals of Social Media will offer tips and ideas for managing your company’s brand on the biggest social platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn. When successful, social media can help create a strong brand message using these tools to reach a wide range of audiences, measuring the results, and thereby improving your business marketing.
Susan LaPlante-Dube is a Partner in Precision Marketing Group, based in Framingham that delivers services to B2B entrepreneurial companies. Susan has been published in many local and national publications and speaks on various marketing topics at industry conferences. For the past year she has been teaching a series of social media classes at Harvard University for their Center for Workforce Development.
PMG has been recognized by its peers for excellence in marketing with 8 international MarCom Awards and recently won the International Stevie Award for Best Women-Run Workplace
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Toward an Ethic of Social Justice in Information
WHEN Tue., Mar. 22, 2016, 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.
WHERE Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
CATEGORY Lecture
DETAILS The landscape of information is rapidly shifting as new imperatives and demands push to the fore increasing investment in digital technologies. Yet, critical information scholars continue to demonstrate how digital technology and its narratives are shaped by and infused with values that are not impartial, disembodied, or lacking positionality. Technologies consist of a set of social practices, situated within the dynamics of race, gender, class, and politics, and in the service of something—a position, a profit motive, a means to an end. In this talk, Safiya Umoja Noble, Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA, will discuss the importance of the academic-activist library community to offer models of intervention and resistance through research, practice and teaching. Her research examines the linkages to power struggles over representation on the web and in the digital library, and the consequences of marginalization and misrepresentation in commercial information platforms like Google search.
Refreshments are at 9:30 am; the program begins at 10 am.
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Linda Greenhouse - The Post-Scalia Supreme Court
Tuesday, March 22
12:00-1:00pm
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Linda Greenhouse is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. She covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times between 1978 and 2008 and writes a biweekly op-ed column on law as a contributing columnist. Ms. Greenhouse received several major journalism awards during her 40-year career at the Times, including the Pulitzer Prize (1998) and the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Kennedy School (2004). In 2002, the American Political Science Association gave her its Carey McWilliams Award for “a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics.” Her books include a biography of Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Becoming Justice Blackmun; Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court’s Ruling (with Reva B. Siegel); and The U.S. Supreme Court, A Very Short Introduction, published by Oxford University Press in 2012. A new book, The Burger Court and the Rise of the Judicial Right, with Michael J. Graetz, will be published in 2016. Ms. Greenhouse is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where she serves on the council, and is one of two non-lawyer honorary members elected to the American Law Institute, which in 2002 awarded her its Henry J. Friendly Medal. She is a vice president of the Council of the American Philosophical Society, which in 2005 awarded her its Henry Allen Moe Prize for writing in the humanities and jurisprudence. She has been awarded eleven honorary degrees. She is a 1968 graduate of Radcliffe College (Harvard), where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and she currently serves on the Phi Beta Kappa national senate. She earned a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School (1978), which she attended on a Ford Foundation fellowship.
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Niches, Invasions, and Climate Change
Tuesday, March 22
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Harvard, Seminar Room 125, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Daniel Park, Postdoctoral Fellow
Herbaria Seminar
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Reconceptualizing the Right to Be Forgotten to Enable Transatlantic Data Flow
WHEN Tue., Mar. 22, 2016, 12 – 1:15 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C - Room 2036 (second floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person.
Event will be live webcast at 12:00 pm
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Berkman Center for Internet & Society
SPEAKER(S) Sanna Kulevska and Michael L. Rustad
CONTACT INFO candersen@cyber.law.harvard.edu
DETAILS Based on the authors’ recent Harvard Journal of Law and Technology article, Reconceptualizing the Right to be Forgotten to Enable Transatlantic Data Flow, Sanna Kulevska and Michael Rustad will lay out the legal dilemmas that flow from the European Union’s far-reaching right to be forgotten (RTBF). Google Spain v. AEPD (May 2014) and Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which will go into effect in 2018, are already driving a significant legal, economic and cultural wedge between the U.S. and its EU trading partners. In October 2015, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) struck down the U.S./EU Safe Harbor agreement that enabled data to be freely transferred from Europe to the United States and in February 2016, the EU/U.S. Privacy Shield was proposed as a replacement. Sanna and Michael will lead the discussion of the legal dilemmas that policymakers face in walking the tight rope between the Scylla of constraining the right of expression and the Charybdis of diminishing an individual’s right to control their personal data. The authors will use current case studies of takedown requests from Google to provide context for their discussion of how a Safe Harbor 2.0 might achieve the proper balance between expression and privacy.
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GSD TALKS. Knoll Studio: Florian Idenburg and Benjamin Pardo on the Future of Work
WHEN Tue., Mar. 22, 2016, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Loeb Library, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Graduate School of Design
SPEAKER(S) Florian Idenburg and Benjamin Pardo
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office in advance at 617.496.2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu
DETAILS This event will celebrate the launch of a studio report documenting the investigations and projects of Work Environments 1: Campus and Event. Work Environments is a three studio series at Harvard GSD, sponsored by the furniture company Knoll, to examine through research and design the disruptive transformations that occur globally in environments where work takes place. Given the unique position of the office to register changes within society and to actively reshape traditional hierarchies, tomorrow's workplace must arrive with a clear attitude and outlook. The studio series seeks to explicate existing cultural trends and perspectives, using this knowledge to speculate on future scenarios and potential responses within the worksphere. Benjamin Pardo, director of design at Knoll, and Florian Idenburg, associate professor in practice of architecture, will analyze radical shifts in the workspace, discussing the state of today's office environments and speculating on the potential challenges and transformations that will affect them in the near future. The conversation will reexamine the first edition of this studio series, Work Environments 1: Campus and Event, looking at the work produced, with its focus on the nomadic worker and the would be corporate utopia, as well as debating the questions that emerged from the students' research and scenarios.
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4th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum: Water on My Mind
Tuesday, March 22
1:00 PM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street #200, Boston
The 4th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum, hosted by the Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. in honor of World Water Day, will rethink water management as the Commonwealth prepares for a changing climate.
The Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) will present a game-changing plan to transform the way we manage water in our urban and suburban spaces. The forum will encourage all participants to pose questions, add their insights, and think about new designs, systems and resource uses.
Participants may join us for one or more segment of this program.
4th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum Program
1:00 pm Secretary Matthew Beaton will open the 4th Annual Water Forum
1:10 pm Brief greeting by Youth Representatives from the morning's Youth Summit led by Green Schools
1:15 pm Panel Discussion: Transforming Our Water and Energy Systems
3:00 pm Panel Discussion ends. Short coffee break.
3:15 pm Breakout Sessions
Breakout Session 1: Infrastructure for a Livable Future
Breakout Session 2: Design and Legislation
Breakout Session 3: Resilient Water Systems
5:00 pm Breakout Sessions end.
5:30 pm Keynote speaker, Wenonah Hauter and Cocktail Reception.
The 4th Annual Massachusetts Water Forum is brought to you thanks to our partners:
The Office of Representative Chris Walsh
Boston Society of Architects
Charles River Watershed Association
City of Boston
MWRA (Massachusetts Water Resources Authority)
Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC)
Massachusetts Rivers Alliance
Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
Green Schools
FORUM PARTICIPANTS:
We have the privilege of welcoming the Commonwealth's Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Matthew Beaton.
Matthew BEawton
Representative Chris Walsh of the 6th Middlesex District will serve as Moderator.
Chris Walsh
Panelists include:
Bob Zimmerman, Executive Director of Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA)
Bob will present a game changing way of treating water in our cities and towns which will be set up through CWERCs - Community Water and Energy Resource Centers. The Forum continues into two breakout sessions. The first will delve more deeply into the establishment of CWERCs and the second will look at ways our legislators and designers can support this transformative process.
Austin Blackmon, City of Boston's Chief of Energy,Environment and Open Space
Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Watch
Bradley Campbell, Executive Director, Conservation Law Foundation
Carter Craft, Sr Economic Officer|Water and Resilience, Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York
Breakout Session 1: Infrastructure for a Livable Future
Led by Julie Wood, Director of Projects, Charles River Watershed Association
Julie Wood
Charlie Jewell, Director of Planning and Sustainability, Boston Water and Sewer Commission
Charlie Jewell
Kenneth Moraff, Director of the Office of Ecosystem Protection for EPA New England
Ken Moraff
Travis Sheehan, Policy and Strategy Fellow, Boston Redevelopment Authority
Travis Sheehan
Breakout Session 2: Design and Legislation
Led by Senator Jamie Eldridge of the 5th Middleesex and Worcester District and
Jamie Eldridge
Representative Carolyn Dykema of the 8th MIddlesex District
Carolyn Dykema
Breakout Session 3: Resilient Water Systems
Led by Julie Conroy, Senior Environmental Planner, Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Julie Conroy
GUEST KEYNOTE SPEAKER from Washington,DC: "Water and Energy"
Wenonah Hauter,Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, author of Frackopoly
Wenonah Hauter
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World Water Day: How Will Water Affect Your Career?
Tuesday, March 22
3:30–5 pm
Harvard Business School, Aldrich 110, Allston
How will water impact your career?
Join the Harvard Business School Business and Environment Initiative for a World Water Day Panel with:
Kate Clopek, Executive Director of Saha Global, an NGO that provides access to clean water and electricity to rural communities in West Africa;
Reese Tisdale, President of Bluefield Research, an insight firm focused on strategic analysis of water markets and strategies;
Earl Jones, Partner at Liberation Capital, with an investment strategy focused on clean water, and Chairman of NEWIN, a non-profit committed to helping solve global water resource challenges;
moderated by:
John Macomber, HBS Senior Lecturer in the Finance unit
Co-sponsors: Agribusiness Club, Africa Business Club, Energy & Environment Club, VCPE Club, Food and Beverage Club
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2016 Norton Lecture 4 of 6: "Configurations of Blackness"
WHEN Tue., Mar. 22, 2016, 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mahindra Humanities Center
SPEAKER(S) Toni Morrison
TICKET INFO Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
DETAILS
2016 Norton Lectures. "The Origin of Others: The Literature of Belonging"
Lecture One: Romancing Slavery
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Lecture Two: Being and Becoming the Stranger
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Lecture Three: The Color Fetish
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Lecture Four: Configurations of Blackness
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Lecture Five: Narrating the Other
Monday, April 11, 2016
Lecture Six: The Foreigner's Home
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Events are free, but tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting at noon on the day of each lecture. Tickets will be available in person at Sanders Theatre or online (handling fees apply). Limit of two tickets per person. Tickets valid until 3:45 p.m.
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Rebuilding The Cornerstone of American Democracy: Leveraging Digital Tools to Reach Today’s Voters
Tuesday, March 22
4:00 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Harvard, Ash Center for Democractic Governance and Innovation, 124 Mount Auburn Street 2nd Floor North, Cambridge
Tiana Epps-Johnson, Founder and Executive Director, Center for Technology and Civic Life
Tiana Epps-Johnson will share her experience working on technology instruction and capacity building with the thousands of local government offices responsible for voting. Civic tech is at the frontier of the franchise: from connecting voters to election information to making the voting process more accessible. Participants will apply this new knowledge by rethinking the process of voting from the “user’s” perspective--writing in plain language and designing a website that prioritizes the information that is most pressing to avid, infrequent, and non-voters.
Part of the Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
About the Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
The Ash Center’s non-resident Technology and Democracy Fellows will design and lead a series of hands-on workshops for Harvard Kennedy School students, co-sponsored by Tech4Change. Each workshop will help participants develop their “technological intelligence” and learn skills related to understanding, managing, or creating digital technologies with the potential to improve the quality of democratic governance. Visit ash.harvard.edu to read more. RSVP is required. Space is limited.
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World Water Day Connector 2016
Tuesday, March 22
5:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Impact Hub Boston, 50 Milk Street, 17th Floor, Boston
You're probably aware that water is a HOT topic.
But did you know that Greater Boston is home to some of the world's leading water organizations?
Join us at the World Water Day Connector to find job, internship, and volunteer opportunities within the field of water.
The Cause
Since the United Nations enacted World Water Day in 1993, the day has been recognized as an opportunity to celebrate Earth's most precious resource that is often taken for granted.
In honor of UN World Water Day 2016's theme of "Water & Jobs", BeCause Water Inc., a Boston-based 501(3)(c) nonprofit, and co-host New England Water Innovation Network(NEWIN), are connecting the Greater Boston community to jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities at local nonprofits, corporations, and governmental organizations focused on improving our relationship to water.
Delicious and sustainable food and drinks will be provided. Please take note that this is a zero-waste event and no outside food or drinks are allowed in the event space, especially bottled water!
Tickets are free with a suggested donation to benefit BeCause Water Inc. 501(3)(c) non-profit, and New England Water Innovation Network (NEWIN).
Whether it's finding a job or supporting the cause, Greater Boston is home to a rich community of organizations with opportunities for you to #GetYourFeetWet!
List of Exhibitors
Ceres
Initiative EAU
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC)
Nu Ecological Engineering & Design
New England Water Innovation Network (NEWIN)
Oasys Water
Resolute Marine Energy
Saha Global
UNICEF U.S. Fund
Water for Good
Water Hero
**MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON
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Rethinking Occupy: 99 Percent Politics, 1 Percent Power, and the Future of Protest
WHEN Tue., Mar. 22, 2016, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Malkin Penthouse, Littauer Building 4th Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
SPEAKER(S) Speaker: Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky
Moderator: Timothy P. McCarthy
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO nimesha_perera@hks.harvard.edu
617-495-5819
DETAILS Please join the Carr Center for a discussion with Michael Gould-Wartofsky, author of The Occupiers: The Making of the 99 Percent Movement, and a sociologist focused on the dynamics of direct action, the challenges of direct democracy, and the policing of urban protest. He was one of the first social scientists on the ground at Occupy Wall Street on Sept. 17, 2011, beginning his inquiry then and continuing uninterrupted ever since.
This event will be moderated by Timothy P. McCarthy, with time for Q&A with the audience.
RSVPs are not required, but welcome.
Refreshments will be served.
About the book: Occupy Wall Street burst onto the stage of history in the fall of 2011. First by the tens, then by the tens of thousands, protesters filled the streets and laid claim to the squares of nearly 1,500 towns and cities, until, one by one, the occupations were forcibly evicted.
In The Occupiers, author and sociologist Michael Gould-Wartofsky traces the occupation of Zuccotti Park--and some of its counterparts across the United States and around the world--from inception to eviction and beyond.
Painting a vivid picture of everyday life in the square through the use of material gathered in the course of two years of on-the-ground investigation, he takes up the challenges the occupiers faced, the paradoxes of direct democracy, and the dynamics of direct action and police action, and explores the ways in which occupied squares became focal points for an emerging opposition to the politics of austerity, restricted democracy, and the power of corporate America.
Even if the movement fails to achieve radical reform, Gould-Wartofsky maintains, its offshoots may well accelerate the pace of change in the United States in the years to come.
Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky is the author of the new book, The Occupiers: The Making of the 99 Percent Movement (Oxford University Press, 2015). Gould-Wartofsky is a Ph.D. fellow in sociology at New York University, and holds a B.A. in government from Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2007. His research has been featured on PBS and NPR, and his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Nation, Mother Jones, Jacobin, Salon, and Le Monde Diplomatique.
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Wednesday, March 23
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TORCH Fest & Innovations Faire
Wednesday, March 23
11:30 AM to 2:30 PM (EDT)
Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, 415 Summer Street, Boston
Part science fair, part competition, and part something entirely new, the TORCH Fest & Innovations Faire is a gathering of tech enthusiasts, educators, engineers, STEM clubs and societies, colleges and universities, non-profit organizations, and commercial exhibitors. This unique learning event will inspire participants to become innovators, garner interest in STEM fields, showcase incredible projects and provide hands-on learning.
PCI Permission Slip and Medical Form
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Peace Education during Violence: Exploring the Historical Narrative of the Other
WHEN Wed., Mar. 23, 2016, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Graduate School of Education, Larsen G01, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Civic and Moral Education Initiative, Harvard Graduate School of Education
SPEAKER(S) Natalia Gutkowski, fellow at the Edmund J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University; doctoral candidate in the School of Environmental Studies and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University
Discussant: Jonathan Hampton, Ed.D. candidate, Harvard Graduate School of Education
CONTACT INFO Brent Maher (bdm784@mail.harvard.edu)
DETAILS Education has been understood as a tool for the state to reinforce its national priorities and perceptions. Thus, in Israel/Palestine, school curricula were criticized for de-legitimizing and demonizing “the other.” In other cases of conflicted histories, the processes of rewriting educational curricula occurred years after the politics have been resolved.
In this talk we will consider how education can promote a greater understanding of “the other side” during a violent conflict and an occupation. We will explore the educational dilemmas and obstacles of promoting post-conflict education that challenges the “national canon” when the conflict is still heated.
The lecture will concentrate on the recent attempt to write and teach a parallel history of Israel/Palestine in the formal school system in the region as developed in the book “Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine”. As a co-author and co-developer of this book and its educational materials through PRIME (Peace Research Institute in the Middle East), I will discuss the educational approach, the process of Israelis and Palestinians writing the book and its teaching and implementation dilemmas. Finally, I will discuss the institutional-political barriers the book has encountered in the local realities of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
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Bring on the Joy: New Strategies for Citizen Engagement
Wednesday, March 23
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Northeastern University, West Village F, Room 20, 40A Leon Street, Boston
In Boston, urban planning can be a slow and tedious endeavor. But why can’t imagining the future of our neighborhoods be a joyful experience? Inspired by the city’s comprehensive Imagine Boston 2030 process, panelists will explore new methods of engagement that go well beyond the traditional meeting in a church basement, working at the intersection of planning, placemaking, design, and development.
Editorial Comment: Both Boston and Cambridge are hosting multiple community meetings to determine the future of their cities. With the spur of climate change and community resilience, these planning processes may be quite different from previous efforts. My sense is that, eventually, such citizen engagement in development and planning will have to become ongoing and the fundamental basis to how we build and rebuild our cities.
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Cataclysmic Boston: The Nature of Urban Change
Wednesday, March 23
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Old North Church - 193 Salem Street, Boston
Speaker: Peter Vanderwarker
Co-sponsored by the Boston Society of Architects
Boston, a historic city with an extremely unique built environment, is again trying to reinvent itself without self-destruction. Beloved architectural photographer Peter Vanderwarker will examine this phenomenon, with extensive reference to maps and his award-winning photographs. Please join us for a reception and conversation with the speaker after the lecture.
Peter Vanderwarker is a photographer and author. His books include "The Big Dig: Reshaping an American City" and "Cityscapes of Boston" co-authored with Robert Campbell. His photographs are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Houston Museum of Fine Art. His work has won Institute Honors from the American Institute of Architects, and he was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University in 1997. He is represented by Gallery NAGA in Boston.
Through its Speaker Series, the Old North Foundation seeks to provide historically-based educational opportunities for the general public, foster community interaction and insight within a framework of freedom and liberty, attract new visitors to Old North Church, and promote regional and national history luminaries.
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Food + Tech Mystery Speaker Series: Eli Feldman from Clothbound
Wednesday, March 23
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
CIC Boston, 50 Milk Street, Boston
Cost: $10
Every Wednesday in March, Branchfood will host an entrepreneur to tell the story of how they launched a successful food tech enterprise.
Our lineup of cutting-edge entrepreneurs will dive deep into the challenges and lessons learned of launching a food tech company. We’ll be covering early pitfalls of starting a biz, obtaining partners and funding, and reaching buyers and users.
Do not miss the opportunity to learn from these savvy founders! Hear their #BOSFoodStory, network with them, and soak in some of their #hustle.
Mystery speakers will be announced the Friday before each event. In the meantime, can you guess these innovators?
Tickets are sold on Eventbrite. Buy individual event tickets ($10 each) or buy the ALL ACCESS PASS – $30 for all four events (that’s one free!). Bonus: attendees will get to munch on samples from local food companies and drink Sam Adam craft beers.
Intrigued? See you there!
Organizer Branchfood
Email: lauren@branchfood.com
Website: www.branchfood.com
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Thursday, March 24
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Taming the Financial Furies? Cooperation and Compliance in the Counter-Terrorism Financing Regime
WHEN Thu., Mar. 24, 2016, 12:15 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Belfer Center Library, Littauer-369, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Law, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR International Security Program
SPEAKER(S) Carlotta M. Minnella, St. John's College, University of Oxford
CONTACT INFO susan_lynch@harvard.edu
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Environmental Challenges and Socio-Economic Conditions in Gaza: A Livable Place?
WHEN Thu., Mar. 24, 2016, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland St, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR CMES Middle East Forum
SPEAKER(S) Wesam Al Madhoun, assistant professor of environmental engineering, Islamic University of Gaza; Visiting Scholar, MIT; MIT-Malaysia Sustainable Cities Program
CONTACT INFO elizabethflanagan@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS Unless otherwise noted in the event description, CMES events are open to the public (no registration required), and off the record. Please note that events may be filmed and photographed by CMES for record-keeping and for use on the CMES website and publications.
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We Are All Trayvon: Difficult Dialogs with Sybrina Fulton, Mother of Trayvon Martin
Thursday, March 24
1 p.m.
Bunker Hill Community College Building A Room 300 (Building A is the closest to the Orange Line T Stop)
RSVP at http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/dd/
Sybrina Fulton is dedicating her life to transforming family tragedy into social change. Since the death of her 17 year old son, Trayvon Martin, during the violent confrontation in 2012, Fulton has become an inspiring spokesperson for parents and concerned citizens across the country.
The publicity surrounding Trayvon?s death and the ensuing trial catapulted the country into national debate. Despite the intense struggle of losing a child, Fulton has become a role model to many by turning her grief into advocacy. Remaining strong throughout the trial and ensuing months, she lends her voice to speak against violence towards children and the need to build better, safer communities for all.
Her message not only appeals to people?s hearts as it relates to children, but is also one of hope and change, exemplified by her personal experiences and endeavors. As a mother, she inspires audiences to continuously educate their children about civil rights and to help them feel accepted as part of an ever changing society. An honest and relatable speaker, Fulton always looks forward sharing her powerful message with everyone from colleges and legal professionals to community and family organizations, and all other proponents of social justice.
A Miami native, Fulton graduated from Florida Memorial University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English. A proud mother, Fulton worked for the Miami-Dade County Housing Development Agency for over 25 years, and is a member of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of Miami Gardens.
Free and Open to the Public - Online registration is required.
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The Urban Consumption of the ‘Green’ Countryside: the Politics of Environmental Research in Contemporary China
Thursday, March 24
3:30PM TO 4:45PM
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Elizabeth Lord, University of Toronto
China Project Seminar
Sponsored by the China Project, Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Contact Name: Chris Nielsen
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Megacities Asia
WHEN Thu., Mar. 24, 2016, 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Auditorium, Arthur M. Sackler Building, 485 Broadway, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Music, Religion, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard South Asia Institute, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Harvard’s Asia Center, Department of Art and Architecture, Fairbanks Center for Chinese Studies, Korea Institute, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, and Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
SPEAKER(S) 5:30 – 6 pm Megacities Asia
Introduction: Tarun Khanna, director, South Asia Institute; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School
Al Miner, assistant curator of contemporary art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Laura Weinstein, Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
With towering masses of stainless steel vessels, vast quantities of colorful plastic wares, crowded arrangements of discarded architectural elements, and other such accumulations, artists in Megacities Asia including Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Delhi, and Mumbai are creating work that reflects the unprecedented wave of urbanization that has swept the region over the last fifty years.
6 – 7 pm Modern – Vernacular, City – Nature: Imaginations of the New India
Anu Ramaswami, Charles M. Denny, Jr., Chair of Science, Technology, and Public Policy, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota; Professor, College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Sciences, University of Minnesota
Chitra Venkataramani, South Asian Studies Fellow, Harvard South Asia Institute
Asim Waqif, Artist and Architect
Chair: Sai Balakrishnan, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Responding to the examples in the Megacities Asia exhibit, this conversation will focus on the politics and pluralities of architecture and urban planning in Delhi and Mumbai
7 – 7:15 pm Break
7:15 – 8:30 pm Inhabiting Asian Cities
Theodore C. Bestor, Reischauer Institute Professor of Social Anthropology, Director, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
Martha Chen, Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, Affiliated Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, International Coordinator of the global research-policy-action network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)
Hu Xiangchen, Artist
Chair: Laura Weinstein, Ananda Coomaraswamy Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
This panel will explore the dynamism of urban life in Asia, both its material and immaterial aspects, in comparative perspective. Panelists will discuss urban planning in relation to the lives and livelihoods of city dwellers in South Asia, China, and Japan
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO sainit@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS In collaboration with the upcoming “Megacities Asia” exhibition on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from April 3 to July 17, 2016, this event will bring together artists and academics to examine contemporary Asian megacities including Beijing, Delhi, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Discussions will focus on the built environment in these cities, how we think about concepts of modern versus vernacular, formal versus informal, and the impact of rapid urbanization on inhabitants of cities from Mumbai to Shanghai.
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Envision Cambridge Public Workshop
Thursday, March 24
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Kennedy Longfellow School Cafeteria, 158 Spring Street, Cambridge
Envision Cambridge, the citywide planning process, wants to hear from you! Join us at a public workshop to tell us what matters most to you and what you want Envision Cambridge to address.
Translation and childcare can be provided with prior request. The City of Cambridge does not discriminate on the basis of disability. The City will provide auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative format, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures to individuals with disabilities with prior request.
Please notify us at envision@cambridgema.gov at least 48 hours before the event with any requests.
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Rebuilding the American City: Author Conversation
Thursday, March 24
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
RSVP at rsvp@architects.org
Price: Free and open to the public.
Urban redevelopment in the United States can be neither easy nor quick. Spearheaded by architects, urban designers, planners, academics, and public officials, redevelopment requires a delicate alignment of goals, leadership, and advocacy to meet the challenges of achieving livable, sustainable, and equitable cities.
Join David Gamble AIA and Patty Heyda, authors of the new book Rebuilding the American City: Design and Strategy for the 21st Century Urban Core (Routledge, 2015), as they highlight 15 urban design and planning projects that have been catalysts for their respective downtowns. Implemented during the start of the 21st century, the projects embody not just a period marked by a renewed interest in cities, but also by social, economic, and environmental challenges. Landscape practices are leading the discourse about natural systems and landscape architects are increasingly being called upon to resolve large scale urban design and planning challenges.
Co-sponsored by the BSLA and organized by the BSA Urban Design Committee, this discussion will feature an introduction by Alex Krieger, Professor of Urban Design at Harvard GSD and principal at NBBJ, and will be followed by a light reception. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
This event coincides with a small exhibition of the same name Mapping Rebuilding the American City, on view March 24 through April 29 at BSA Space.
David Gamble AIA is a principal at Gamble Associates in Cambridge and a lecturer in the Department of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard GSD.
Patty Heyda is an Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
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7th Annual Challenge for Sustainability Awards
Thursday, March 24
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
100 Summer Street 21st Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/7th-annual-challenge-for-sustainability-awards-tickets-22237763750
We invite you to join us for the 7th Annual Challenge for Sustainability Awards Ceremony on March 24th, 2016. Each year the Challenge for Sustainability program recognizes Participants who have demonstrated the highest level of success and commitment in sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Challenge participants work at the forefront of commercial real estate sustainability and contribute greatly to reaching organizational and municipal GHG emissions reduction goals.
Please join us as we celebrate and honor the organizations and facilities who have excelled in 2015 in the following categories:
Greatest Greenhouse Gas Reduction from Baseline
Greatest Electricity Reduction in 2015
Greatest Waste Reduction in 2015
Greatest Water Reduction in 2015
Peer Recognition Award 2015
Additionally we will add several facilities to our Target 2020 Leaders plaque which recognizes participants who have already achieved the 25% GHG emissions reduction by 2020 goals established by the City of Boston and State of Massachusetts.
Kenneth Kimmell, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists, will be providing our Keynote Address. With over 30 years of experience in government, environmental policy, and advocacy, Ken Kimmell is an expert in energy issues. Through his work as Commissioner of MassDEP and chairman of the board of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Ken helped push forward ambitious measures to reduce power plant carbon emissions. Ken has also served as general counsel at the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs in Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick's administration and spent 17 years as the director and senior attorney specializing in environmental, energy, and land-use issues.
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Delivering on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Promise
Thursday, March 24
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Cost: Free for students; Members $20; nonmembers $45
Speaker: Catherin Havasi, CEO, Luminoso Technologies ; Rob May, CEO, Talla; Jeff Orkin, CEO, Giant Otter
The promise of Artificial Intelligences seems limitless and all powerful.
Nearly every day there are dramatic new announcements about advances in artificial intelligence from smarter digital assistants, to driverless cars to innovations affecting every aspect of our lives. Visionaries like Ray Kurzweil predict a world radically changed by AI over the next two decades; pretty heady stuff.
Opportunities for AI based entrepreneurial activity are equally limitless. But where do you start, how do you wade into this vast space; how do you begin to identify what to work on and how to move your AI idea from a concept to product? Ideas create a vision of the future but execution makes it happen.
On March 24th we'll be talking to a panel of pioneering companies working on natural language processing and machine learning who are forging ahead on this path.
Sponsor(s): MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
For more information, contact: Amy Goggins
617-253-3937
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Design of resource-effective materials, processes and systems
Thursday, March 24
6pm - 8:30pm
Hyatt Regency Cambridge, 575 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.asmboston.org
Cost: $0 - $30
Elsa Olivetti, MIT, Thomas Lord Assistant Professor of Materials Science & Engineering
Global demand for materials is immense and rapidly growing: extraction and processing of materials counts for more than one-third of global carbon flows for human-related activities, on the order of 5.5 Gigatons/year. Direct materials production represents approximately 7% of total US energy consumption. This talk will describe the development of analytical and computational tools that consider the economic and environmental impacts of design, systems, and process choices relevant to materials use. The talk will specifically focus on a case of beneficial use of industrial byproducts in building materials.
Schedule:
6:00 PM Social
6:30 PM Dinner
7:30 PM Presentation
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CRISPR, Are We Ready to Rewrite the Human Genome?
WHEN Thu., Mar. 24, 2016, 6:15 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE Instituto Cervantes at Harvard University, Room #430, 2 Arrow Street, 4th floor, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Ethics, Health Sciences, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Organizer: ECUSA Boston
Sponsor: Instituto Cervantes at Harvard and Fundacion Ramon Areces
SPEAKER(S) Marc Güell, Wyss Technology Development Fellow, Wyss Institute for Biological Inspired Engineering, Harvard University
Rosario Fernández-Godino, Senior Postdoctoral Researcher, MEEI-Harvard Medical School
César de la Fuente, Postdoctoral Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Rachel E. Sachs, Academic Fellow, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School
COST Free
TICKET WEB LINK ecusabostonmarch2016.eventbrite.com
CONTACT INFO boston@ecusa.es
DETAILS The gene editing tool CRISPR has revolutionized biological science and has a powerful therapeutic potential ranging from inherited diseases to Alzheimer’s, cancer or bacterial infections. The biggest advantage of CRISPR technology is its simplicity to implement changes in DNA that remain stable, resulting in a truly edited genome. However, the implications of CRISPR are well beyond experimental science: are we ready to rewrite the human genome?
Join us for an interactive panel discussion about CRISPR applications, promises, technical challenges, and ethical boundaries. Submit questions for the panelists at boston@ecusa.es
Registration is required. RSVP at ecusabostonmarch2016.eventbrite.com
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Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
Thursday, March 24, 2016
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter CHARLES DUHIGG, the author of The Power of Habit, for a discussion of his latest book, Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, a fascinating new book that explores the science of productivity, and why, in today’s world, managing how you think—rather than what you think—can transform your life.
About Smarter Faster Better
A young woman drops out of a PhD program and starts playing poker. By training herself to envision contradictory futures, she learns to anticipate her opponents’ missteps—and becomes one of the most successful players in the world.
A group of data scientists at Google embark on a four-year study of how the best teams function, and find that how a group interacts is more important than who is in the group—a principle, it turns out, that also helps explain why Saturday Night Live became a hit.
A Marine Corps general, faced with low morale among recruits, reimagines boot camp—and discovers that instilling a “bias toward action” can turn even the most directionless teenagers into self-motivating achievers.
The filmmakers behind Disney’s Frozen are nearly out of time and on the brink of catastrophe—until they shake up their team in just the right way, spurring a creative breakthrough that leads to one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.
What do these people have in common?
They know that productivity relies on making certain choices. The way we frame our daily decisions; the big ambitions we embrace and the easy goals we ignore; the cultures we establish as leaders to drive innovation; the way we interact with data: These are the things that separate the merely busy from the genuinely productive.
At the core of Smarter Faster Better are eight key concepts—from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making—that explain why some people and companies get so much done. Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics—as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters—this painstakingly researched book explains that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don’t merely act differently.
They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways.
In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Charles Duhigg explained why we do what we do. In Smarter Faster Better, he applies the same relentless curiosity, deep reporting, and rich storytelling to explain how we can improve at the things we do. It’s a groundbreaking exploration of the science of productivity, one that can help anyone learn to succeed with less stress and struggle, and to get more done without sacrificing what we care about most—to become smarter, faster, and better at everything we do.
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Poverty, Violence, and the Developing Mind
Thursday, March 24
7:00-8:30 pm
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Bornstein Amphitheater, 75 Francis Street 2nd Floor, Boston
Concentrated poverty is on the rise, and an increasing number of children are at risk for exposure to severe violence and dangerous living conditions. What are the implications of trauma exposure for healthy brain development?
During this panel event, Dr. Kerry Ressler (of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School) will discuss the risks poor, urban environments pose for post-traumatic stress disorder, while Dr. Charles A. Nelson (of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School) will discuss the effects of “toxic stress” on early childhood development. Carey Goldberg of WBUR will facilitate the conversation and host the Q&A session with the audience.
Make sure to RSVP before the event!
This event is free and open to the public. A brief reception will precede the event from 6:30-7:00 PM.
Moderator:
Carey Goldberg, Reporter/Co-Host, CommonHealth, WBUR
Panelists:
Charles A. Nelson, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School; Director, Bucharest Early Intervention Project; Director of Research, Developmental Medicine Center, Boston Children’s Hospital
Kerry Ressler, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, McLean Hospital; Director, Grady Trauma Project; Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director, Neurobiology of Fear Laboratory
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Cleantech Open's 2016 Boston Kickoff Party!
Thursday, March 24
7:30 PM to 10:00 PM (EDT)
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
Cost: $10 - $20
Join us for an awesome night of cleantech community networking leading up to the Cleantech Open 2016 Accelerator program.
Entrepreneurs, students, savvy technologists, investors, professionals, and other interested parties all welcome!
At the launch party you'll be able to:
Connect with Boston's top innovators, supporters, and thought leaders in the cleantech space.
Get exposure by giving your 1 minute elevator pitch in front of judges and potential teammates (if you're ready!).
Listen to past competitors as they share their experience with Cleantech Open.
Celebrate our amazing community!
Are you a cleantech entrepreneur?
Attend this event for free! Please contact Chelsea at ne_semifinalist@cleantechopen.org to receive your promo code. In addition, come prepared to pitch your company. We will be hosting an elevator pitch competition and the top three winners receive free applications to the Cleantech Open (worth $100+).
Learn more and submit your application!
Early Bird Deadline is April 1st, Final Deadline is May 1st.
Emily Reichert, Ph.d., MBA. CEO of Greentown Labs. As its first employee, Emily transformed Greentown Labs from a band of entrepreneurs sharing prototyping space into the nation’s largest cleantech incubator. She sets Greentown Labs’ strategic direction, focusing on increasing the organization’s impact on clean and energy efficient technology commercialization through entrepreneurship.
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Friday, March 25
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JUST FOOD?
FORUM ON LAND USE, RIGHTS AND ECOLOGY
A CONFERENCE EXPLORING LAND AND THE FOOD SYSTEM: HOW LAND AFFECTS WHAT WE EAT, WHO WE ARE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT WE LIVE IN
Friday, March 25–Saturday, March 26
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge,
This year's Just Food? conference will examine the relationship between people and land, primarily through agriculture and food. Conference events will explore the legal, moral, policy, health, historic and environmental aspects of our modern domestic and international food system, with a focus on the intersection of land and justice. The conference will bring together scholars, farmers, activists, practitioners, and other authorities to discuss the growing concerns about who has access to land, how agriculture changes land, and who is marginalized or dispossessed by our current system. Our goal is to educate attendees, empower them to make changes, and engage them in a larger dialogue about food.
A full conference schedule, when it becomes available, will be posted. But please feel free to register here now!
TENTATIVE CONFERENCE FEATURES:
Three keynote talks, including:
A keynote panel, Racial Legacies: Land of the Oppressed and Dispossessed, featuring:
Jo Guldi, Assistant Professor of History, Brown University;
Janie Hipp, Director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative, University of Arkansas School of Law;
Debora Nunes Lino Da Silva, MST Member from Northern Brazil; and
Tess Desmond Lowinske, Director of the Committee on Migration, Ethnicity, and Rights, Harvard University (moderator).
A keynote talk, Land Rights, by Smita Narula, human rights attorney, advocate, and academic from the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College; and
A final keynote reflection panel.
Concurrent panel and workshop sessions throughout Saturday;
Lunchtime documentary film screenings;
A diverse posterand exhibit session, highlighting academic and community research;
An exhibit hall, highlighting the work of food social entrepreneurs and organizations; and
A Friday evening reception for informal conversation, featuring live music and local food.
Questions?: harvard.justfood@gmail.com
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Robot Self Sufficiency Through On-the-fly Fabrication
Friday, March 25
11:00 am to 12:00 pm
BU, 110 Cummington Street, Room 245, Boston
Liyu Wang, University of California, Berkeley
Editorial Comment: I for one welcome our new robot overlords.
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Comprehensive measurements of atmospheric organic carbon: Laboratory and field studies
Friday, March 25
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Jesse Kroll, MIT
Speaker Bio: http://krollgroup.mit.edu/index.htm
Atmospheric Sciences Seminar
Email: sssa@seas.harvard.edu
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Doing Practical Data Science for Social Impact
Friday, March 25,
2:00pm to 3:00pm
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin G115, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Rayid Ghani, Research Director, Computation Institute, University of Chicago
IACS Seminar Series
Contact: Natasha Baker
Phone: 617-496-2623
Email: iacs-info@seas.harvard.edu
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Wealth, Poverty & Opportunity in the 21st Century: A Symposium on Facilitating Financial Inclusion
Friday, March 25
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM (EDT)
BU Questrom School of Business, Rafik B. Hariri Building, Room 240, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Boston University Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program
Boston University Center for Finance, Law & Policy
Boston University Questrom School of Business
Bunker Hill Community College
Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Ph.D.
Senior Academic Researcher
Center for Finance, Law & Policy
Boston University
53 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215
617.358.6772 | rodima@bu.edu
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Is Massachusetts undoing years of progress towards more renewable energy sources by expanding Natural Gas and putting Solar Incentives on the chopping block?: Renewable Energy Panel Co-Sponsored by the Sierra Club
WHEN Fri., Mar. 25, 2016, 7 – 9 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, One Brattle Square, Room 201, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education, Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Extension Environmental Club
Sierra Club
SPEAKER(S) Larry Aller
Mark Sandeen
John Livermore
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK https://www.eventbrite.com/e/renewable-energy-panel-co-sponsored-by-massachusetts-sierra-club-tickets-22571334469
CONTACT INFO heecpr@gmail.com
DETAILS “Is Massachusetts undoing years of progress towards more renewable energy sources by expanding Natural Gas and putting Solar Incentives on the chopping block?”
Come listen to three experts in Massachusetts’ Energy Sector. Hear what is happening, who is influencing it, and how you can make a difference!
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Saturday, March 26
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Botany Blast: Clues to Climate Change
Saturday, March 26
9:30–10:30am
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
Richard Primack, PhD, Biology, Boston University
Richard Primack has used Henry David Thoreau’s notes among other data to confirm the effects of a changing climate on flowering and leafing times, bird migrations, and other animal behavior. Hear how he uncovered clues from a variety of historical sources to analyze and investigate the ecological impacts of climate change. Richard recently received an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award and is the author of Walden Warming: Climate Change Comes to Thoreau’s Woods.
Fee Free, by registration requested
Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.
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41st Annual Gardeners Gathering
Saturday, March 26
11:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Northeastern University, 116 Forsyth Street, Boston
RSVP for keynote at http://www.thetrustees.org/things-to-do/greater-boston/event-23323.html
Join Trustees and the City of Boston to kick off the growing season! Enjoy a day full of learning, networking and fun. Choose from more than two dozen workshops covering an array of topics including seed starting, composting, urban beekeeping, making sauerkraut, and community and youth organizing, and celebrate the winners of the ever-popular Community Garden Awards. Meet other gardeners (or wannabe gardeners) and learn about Boston-area agriculture, gardening, and environmental organizations through the information gallery.
Walk-in registration starts at 11:00, opening plenary at noon. Keynote Address & Breakfast:
Dimensions of Change through Community Gardening
(New this year!)
9:30 – 10:30 AM, Trustees members: $15; nonmembers: $25
We are excited to welcome leading social entrepreneur Daniel Ross to this year's Gathering. Daniel is the CEO of Daisa Enterprises, specializing in supporting development of food and environmental enterprises and programs in underserved communities. He is also a Visiting Assistant Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at Hampshire College.
As the Executive Director of Nuestra Raices in Holyoke, MA he spent sixteen years developing projects relating to food, agricultue and the environment. He also served as the Chief Operating Officer of the Wholesome Wave Charitable Foundation Ventures where he worked to reinvent the world we eat in with innovative programs and policy solutions.
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Sunday, March 27
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Concert by the Kazakh Folk Orchestra
Sunday, March 27
3:00p
MIT, Building 14w-111, Killian Hall
Concert by the Kazakh Folk Orchestra from the Nazarbayev Intellectual School at Nazarbayev University
They will be playing in old Kazakh instruments: kobyz, zhetygen, Sybyzgy, dombra, Saz syrnai.
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact: Clarise Snyder
617-253-3210
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Monday, March 28
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Climate Phase Space
Monday, March 28
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Tobias Bischoff (Caltech)
I use mathematical models combined with computer simulations to study the physics of climates. My goal is to uncover physical principles that can help us understand the spatial and temporal structures of atmospheric and oceanic circulations. More specifically, I think it would be great to have a set of sound physical principles that can be used to explore and understand the "phase space" of all possible climates, or in more mathematical terms, which climate states are realizable for a given set of planetary boundary conditions. I believe that in order to achieve this, we need to use a hierarchy of models that ranges from simple analytical models to complex general circulation and climate models. MORE
About the Series
MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar [MASS] is a student-run weekly seminar series. Topics include all research concerning the atmosphere and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars usually take place on Mondays in 54-915 from 12.00-1pm unless otherwise noted (term-time only). Talks are generally followed by a lunch with graduate students. Besides the seminar, individual meetings with professors, postdocs, and students are arranged. The seminar series is run by graduate students and is intended mainly for students to interact with individuals outside the department, but faculty and postdocs certainly participate. 2015/2016 Coordinator: Marianna Linz (mlinz@mit.edu).
Event website: http://bit.ly/1P33yOq
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Renewable Power Integration in China
Monday, March 28
12:00PM TO 1:30PM
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Chen Xinyu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard China Project
China Project Seminar
The Harvard China Project is an interdisciplinary research program on China's atmospheric environment, energy system, and economy based at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, collaborating across Harvard and partner universities in China
The China Project is a co-sponsor of this event, sponsored by the Consortium of Energy Policy Research and the Energy Technology Innovation Policy program at the Harvard Kennedy School in their Monday seminar series. Lunch is provided.
Contact Name: Chris Nielsen
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Rethinking the Place of People in Sustainable Development: Well-Being, Population, Education, Health, and Agency
WHEN Mon., Mar. 28, 2016, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, 9 Bow Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Pop Center Seminar, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
SPEAKER(S) William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
COST Open to faculty, researchers, post-docs, and students
CONTACT INFO ksmall@hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS Frameworks for understanding sustainable development have begun to treat “people” in more nuanced and multi-dimensional ways.Dr. Clark will sketch the state of play in this conceptual progress, discuss its implications for policy and research, and highlight some of the most problematic questions that remain about the role the people should play in our thinking about sustainability.
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Energy Prices, Pass-Through, and Incidence in U.S. Manufacturing
Monday, March 28
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E62-450, 100 Main Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Reed Walker (UC-Berkeley)
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Microeconomic Applications
For more information, contact: economics calendar
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Technology and the Commodification of Agricultural Risk
Monday, March 28
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E51-095, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Shane Hamilton, York U, and David Lucsko, Auburn U
MIT STS Speaker Series Colloquium
Web site: http://web.mit.edu/sts/index.html
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): HASTS
For more information, contact: Gus Zahariadis
617-253-3452
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The Paris Agreement and the Race of Our Lives
Monday, March 28
4:45p–6:30p
MIT, Building E51-7th Floor, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Speaker: Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund
The Paris climate agreement represents an enormous breakthrough in the long struggle to come to grips with global climate change. For the first time, developed and developing nations - 195 in all - agreed to cut the pollution that is causing rapid and dangerous changes to our environment. But now the hard work begins in earnest. If the Paris Agreement acts as a catalyst for a transformational change in the way we power the world economy, success is within our grasp. If, however, nations treat their commitments as an end in themselves, we will fall short. Fred Krupp, president of Environmental Defense Fund and a preeminent U.S. climate leader, assesses the post-Paris landscape, including the Supreme Court's decision to stay the EPA's Clean Power Plan, and outlines the keys to getting where we need to go: momentum toward clean energy in the United States, the rise of China as a climate problem solver, and the necessary ingredients for comprehensive climate policy.
Reception to Follow
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
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Tiling the Genome: Naming the Parts of Your Genome That Make You You
WHEN Mon., Mar. 28, 2016, 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, CambridgeGAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Alexander Wait Zaranek, chief scientist, Curoverse Inc., and director of informatics, Harvard Personal Genome Project
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS Almost every cell in your body has about six billion characters (As,Cs, Gs, and Ts) of nearly identical DNA that make up your genome. A particular sequence of As, Cs, Gs, or Ts can indicate a growing tumor, a predisposition to a serious disease much later in life, or nothing at all. As millions of people get their genome sequenced, physicians and researchers as well as the individuals themselves will want to ask questions of these data. To ask questions, a consistent naming scheme is needed for parts of the genome. This lecture examines a naming process called tiling—a DNA sequencing technique—and how it supports simple and consistent names, annotation, queries, machine learning, and clinical screening.
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Intersections of Irrelevance: Violence Against Women's Intellect in a Knowledge Based Economy
WHEN Mon., Mar. 28, 2016, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Agassiz Theater, Radcliffe Yard, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Health Sciences, Humanities, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Harvard College Women's Center
SPEAKER(S) Melissa Harris-Perry, Maya Angelou Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University, executive director of the Pro Humanitate Institute, and founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center
Introduction by Anita Hill, University Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women's Studies, Brandeis University
COST Free and open to the public; tickets required
TICKET WEB LINK http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/boxoffice
TICKET INFO Tickets are available at the Harvard Box Office. Limit 2 per person.
CONTACT INFO duffy@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS 4th Annual Anita Hill Lecture on Gender Justice
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21st Century: Security vs. Privacy, with PayPal CEO Dan Schulman and Eli Sugarman of the Hewlett Foundation
Monday March 28
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM
Tufts, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford
SPEAKER
Dan Schulman, President and CEO of PayPal and Eli Sugarman, Program Officer, Cyber Initiative The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Lindsey Kelley
617-627-3086
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Irit Rogoff / Infrastructure
Monday, March 28, 2016
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Irit Rogoff
Curation: Agencies + Urgencies
ACT's Spring 2016 lecture series Curation: Agencies + Urgencies addresses the contexts and forces shaping the practice of curation today. Bringing together a cast of influential curators, critics, and educators operating across institutional boundaries and political scales- from the book to the biennial- these lectures consider the curator- as diplomat, as researcher, as (para-)artist, as speculator, as provocateur, as censor- and the varying roles and forms curation itself: What defines spaces of curation today? What are the politics pressurizing the practice? What role does the emerging discipline of curatorial studies play in the institutionalization of art? What are the limits and possibilities of curation as a mode of publicity?
In many ways, these are timely questions for an evolving artistic research program such as ACT. Indeed, ACT is in the midst of its own curatorial moment: The program is currently reconceiving the accessibility and presentation of its archive, experimenting with new forms of publication, and developing lines of pedagogy and research that naturally overlap with the basic associative impulse of curatorial praxis- that is, the drive to find new forms and spaces of relief, to form new associations and ecologies of works, people, venues, and sites.
Web site: http://act.mit.edu/projects-and-events/lectures-series/2016-spring/fall-2016-about-series/
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and Open to the Public
Sponsor(s): Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, Department of Architecture, Arts at MIT, School of Architecture and Planning, Council for the Arts at MIT (CAMIT)
For more information, contact: Marion Cunningham
617-253-5229
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Film Screening of Dan Ariely's (Dis)Honesty
Monday, March 28
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Pivotal, 145 Broadway, 3rd Floor, Cambridge
Join us for a free film screening of (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies: a documentary feature film that explores the human tendency to be dishonest. Inspired by the work of behavioral economist, Dan Ariely, the film interweaves personal stories, expert opinions, behavioral experiments, and archival footage to reveal how and why people lie.
Dan Ariely teaches at Duke University and is the founder of The Center for Advanced Hindsight and the co-founder of BEworks. Ariely's talks on TED have been watched over 7.8 million times. He is the author of Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality, both of which became New York Times best sellers, as well as The Honest Truth about Dishonesty.
*Space is limited to 85 people. Please RSVP. And... wait for it... be *honest* if you can't make it so that we can give your spot to someone on the waiting list*
Here's the schedule:
6:00 - 6:30 Free food & drink while networking
6:30 - 8:00 Film screening of (Dis)Honesty
8:00 - 9:00 Folks are free to stick around for a short discussion of the film and networking
Event Sponsor: Pivotal Labs is a software development consultancy helping startups and enterprise build software applications using proven agile methods including extreme programming, lean product development, and balanced teams. Pivotal Labs has been a leader in agile philosophies for 20 years, helping small and large organizations transform their development practices by collaborating to build and launch market-tested, innovative products.
Pivotal Labs has generously donated the space in which the screening and event will take place, food, and drinks.
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Mobilizing the Energy Revolution
Monday, March 28
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Brookline Public Library, 361 Washington Street, Hunneman Hall, Brooklin
How do we convert our entire energy supply to renewables? Mara Prentiss, author of Energy Revolution: The Physics and the Promise of Efficient Technology, tells us about the opportunities and choices that must be made. “Most people aren’t aware of the enormous positive opportunities for change. I wrote the book to encourage people to embrace some of those changes.”
For more information about Brookline Climate Week see http://www.brooklineclimateweek.org
Event Contact: david.pantalone@verizon.net
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Catalyst Conversations Tod Machover & Kevin Esvelt
Monday, March 28
7:00p–8:30p
MIT, Building E-15, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Catalyst Conversations is pleased to present a conversation between composer Tod Machover and evolutionary biologist Kevin Esvelt. In a world capable of destroying itself, both speakers are interested in helping our society make big and imperative changes: Machover with his crowd-sourced City Symphonies and Esvelt with Sculpting Evolution, which invents new ways to study and influence the evolution of ecosystems. They ask many questions, among them are these: Can the boundaries of hatred be broken? Can art do this? Can science do this? Can music be a way to radically break down boundaries? Can changes be made by tweaking nature itself? Their conversation will explore issues they are both passionate about and compelled by in their respective projects.
The conversation will be followed by a reception in the Lower Atrium. Arrive early for the conversation and visit the List galleries, open specially at 6 pm.
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Tickets: https://socialseam.org/events/145
Sponsor(s): List Visual Arts Center
For more information, contact: Mark Linga
617-253-4680
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Ethics, Engineers, and Emissions: A multifaceted look at the VW incident
Monday, March 28
7:30pm to 9:00pm
Harvard Law School's Langdell South, Room 272, Kirkland and Ellis Hall
Register for your free ticket today! Please note there is limited seating.
The panel will include the following scholars:
Wai Cheng, Professor of Mechanical Engineering; Director, Sloan Automotive Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
David Keith, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Lynn Paine, John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School.
Jonathan Zittrain, George Bemis Professor of International Law, Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources, Faculty Director, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Professor of Computer Science, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Professor, Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Host: Center for Research on Computation & Society
Contact: Kimia Mavon
Phone: 617-384-9466
Email: kmavon@seas.harvard.edu
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Tuesday, March 29
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COP21 Paris Climate Talks unConference
Tuesday, March 29
8:30 AM to 11:30 AM (EDT)
50 Milk Street, 17th Floor, "Milky Way" conference room, Boston
Cost: $15 - $35.00
More than 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions are related to the built environment. Emissions could double by 2050 if we carry on with business as usual. Failure to change increases the vulnerabilities of countries, regions and local communities to climate change. Yet:
The buildings sector offers one of the most cost-effective and economically beneficial paths for reducing energy demand and associated emissions, while at the same time supporting adaptation and resilience to climate change.
Many low-energy, renewable and deep- renovation solutions are available. Proven policy, finance and technology actions exist.
The economic, health, and social benefits of sustainable buildings are significant. Buildings provide shelter, places to live, work, learn and socialize, directly affecting our daily lives.
Buildings are long-term ventures. Today’s new buildings are tomorrow’s existing stock. Failure to act now will lock in growth in GHG emissions for decades.
Please join us as a community of advocates and practitioners as we explore how to leverage the public awareness and policy momentum generated by COP21 to drive policy gains in Massachusetts.
Agenda:
8:30 - 9 Registration and networking
9 - 9:15 Keynote and opening
9:15 - 10:30 Breakout with Discussion Leaders (unConference)
10:30 - 10:40 Break + Networking
10:40 - 12:00 Paris Panel with questions from audience
Our Paris Panelists:
Michael Green, Executive Director, Climate Action Business Association
Christopher Mackey, Building Scientist, Payette Architects
John Sterman, Jay W. Forrester Professor of Management & Director, MIT System Dynamics Group
Our unConference Discussion Leaders:
Elizabeth Saunders, Massachusetts Director, Clean Water Action
Josh Craft, Program Director, Environmental League of Massachusetts
Henrietta Davis, former Mayor of the City of Cambridge
Quinton Zondervan, Climate Action Business Association
This event will gather our community of experts from a variety of organizations and firms. Panelists who attended the Paris climate talks will be present, with break-out groups led by local issue experts.
Both the panel and breakout sessions will focus on the following topics and will provide perspectives from various professional backgrounds:
Value Chain Transformation: is the building sector capable of massive deployment of low emitting buildings and deep renovations? How will building sector stakeholders better work together to scale up solutions adapted to local circumstances.
Bridging the investment gap: how ready is the financial sector to increase investment in building efficiency? How will we address the critical need to scale up the public and private financing of EE and sustainable buildings? We will explore how buildings and EE can contribute to realizing MA's carbon goals and how the financial sector can help support that.
Public Policies: what is the readiness to implement long term action plans to address the key role of local jurisdictions to organize and facilitate integrated policy packages and collaborative approaches that shift to a low carbon and resilient built environment?
Building rating & reporting systems: how do they support the COP21 momentum?
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Making A Difference In A Complex World: Reimagining The Social Change Toolkit
Tuesday, March 29
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM (EDT)
Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston
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Sarah Kliff
Tuesday, March 29
12:00-1:00pm
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Sarah Kliff is an experienced health care reporter who spent six years covering the Affordable Care Act debate in Washington for outlets including Vox, the Washington Post, Politico, and Newsweek. Since 2009, she’s had a front row seat to the tumultuous Congressional battle over the law’s passage and the White House’s ensuing implementation struggle. The Supreme Court cited Kliff’s work in its 2011 decision upholding the health care. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Association of Health Care Journalists. She is currently the deputy managing editor for visuals at Vox, where she makes sure that every graphic and interactive on the news site tells a great story.
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Irreversibility, information and the second law of thermodynamics at the nanoscale
Tuesday, March 29
3:30PM to 4:30PM
BU, SCI 109, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Speaker: Christopher Jarzynski, University of Maryland, College Park
What do the laws of thermodynamics look like, when applied to microscopic systems such as optically trapped colloidal particles, single molecules manipulated with laser tweezers, and biomolecular machines? In recent years it has become apparent that the fluctuations of small systems far from thermal equilibrium satisfy strong and unexpected laws, which allow us to rewrite familiar inequalities of macroscopic thermodynamics as equalities. These results in turn have spurred a renewed interest in the feedback control of small systems and the closely related Maxwell’s demon paradox. I will describe some of this progress, and will argue that it has refined our understanding of irreversibility, the second law, and the thermodynamic arrow of time.
This event is part of the Physics Department Colloquia Series. Refreshments will be served at 3:00 in the 1st Floor Lounge.
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Building Civic Tech at the Middle of the Venn: Lessons Learned From a Co-founder and CEO
Tuesday, March 29
4:00 PM to 7:00 PM (EDT)
Harvard, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, 124 Mount Auburn Street 2nd Floor North, Cambridge
Marci Harris, Co-founder and CEO, POPVOX
Marci Harris will share frank lessons from her experience launching and scaling one of the first civic tech startups. The workshop will examine the leadership and strategic challenges facing a mission-driven, for-profit enterprise, from comparing funding models to measuring impact. Participants will apply these lessons to their own civic startup idea, through time-boxed brainstorming, stacking and prioritizing ideas, developing a mission statement, and more. This workshop is for future startup founders who care about the distinctions between GovTech, Advocacy Tech, Political Tech, Media Tech, and Civic Tech.
Part of the Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
About the Technology and Democracy Workshop Series
The Ash Center’s non-resident Technology and Democracy Fellows will design and lead a series of hands-on workshops for Harvard Kennedy School students, co-sponsored by Tech4Change. Each workshop will help participants develop their “technological intelligence” and learn skills related to understanding, managing, or creating digital technologies with the potential to improve the quality of democratic governance. Visit ash.harvard.edu to read more. RSVP is required. Space is limited.
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Migration Crisis in the Mediterranean Region: A Humanitarian Perspective
WHEN Tue., Mar. 29, 2016, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Lower Level Conference Room, Busch Hall, Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The CES Director's Seminar; The Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
SPEAKER(S) Peter Maurer, President, International Committee of the Red Cross; Discussant: Melani Cammett, Professor of Government, Harvard University; Discussant: Jennifer Leaning, Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights; Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Introduction by: Michael VanRooyen, Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; Chaired by: Grzegorz Ekiert, Director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Professor of Government, Harvard University
COST free
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Learning From Elinor Ostrom: A Case on the Actors and Incentives that Shape Household Waste Management in Muzaffarnagar, India
Tuesday, March 29
6pm-7pm
MIT, Building E19-319, 400 Main Street, Cambridge
RSVP at
Kate Mytty, Waste Instructor, D-Lab
e4Dev Weekly Speaker Series
Editorial Comment: Elinor Ostrom studied common pool resources and documented the ways in which people have managed them sustainably for hundreds and even thousands of years. For her work she won the Nobel Prize for economics and laid out a method by which all of us can preserve and even restore the world through the considered management of the commons. Elinor Ostrom showed time and again that a commons becomes a tragedy only when it is not managed, demonstrating that the so-called tragedy of the commons is not inevitable but simply a measure of our own folly.
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Women and Climate Change
WHEN Tue., Mar. 29, 2016, 6 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Starr Auditorium, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HKS Center for Public Leadership and HKS Belfer Center's Environment and Natural Resources Program
SPEAKER(S) Amy Larkin, vice chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Climate Change
Amy Luers, assistant director, Climate Resilience and Information, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy
Elsie Sunderland, associate professor of environmental science and engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and in the Department of Environmental Health in the Harvard School of Public Health
Moderator: Patricia Bellinger, executive director of the Center for Public Leadership and adjunct lecturer at HKS
COST Free and open to the public
DETAILS The Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership and the Belfer Center’s Environment and Natural Resources Program are organizing a panel of women who are at the forefront of climate change action and advocacy in the various communities they serve and represent.
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Boston Green Drinks - March Happy Hour
Tuesday, March 29
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
Scholars, 25 School Street, Boston
Join the conversation with sustainability professionals and hobbyists. Enjoy a drink and build your connection with our green community!
Boston Green Drinks builds a community of sustainably-minded Bostonians, provides a forum for exchange of sustainability career resources, and serves as a central point of information about emerging green issues. We support the exchange of ideas and resources about sustainable energy, environment, food, health, education.
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Urban Identity Quest: A conversation with the Mayor Karl Dean of Nashville
Tuesday, March 29
6-8pm
Boston Society of Architects Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
During Mayor Karl Dean's tenure, the City of Nashville experienced an extraordinary construction boom, as it worked to expand public transit, connect neighborhoods, and strengthen the city's brand. What can the Boston region learn from Nashville's efforts? Please join a conversation between Geeta Pradhan, President of the Cambridge Community Foundation and Nashville’s former Mayor Dean, the first Mayor in Residence at the Boston University Initiative on Cities. The conversation will touch on issues of equity, access, and exploring the relationship between civic goals and the physical city.
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Making a Global Plan for Climate Change
Tuesday, March 29
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street, Belmont
Henrik Selin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of International Relations, Boston University Pardee School of Global Studies; Director of Curricular Innovation & Initiatives, Pardee School of Global Studies.
Henrik Selin's research focus is global and regional politics and policy making on environment and sustainable development. In this discussion he explains the urgent need for a serious international commitment to deal with climate change and its impact on all nations. He assesses the recent Paris agreement and he explains why public engagement and pressure will be essential to establishing a viable climate policy.
Recent publications for the general public by Henrik Selin:
The Paris Agreement on Climate Change: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Biggest Sticking Point in the Paris Climate Talks: Money
The Risk of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals: Too Many Goals, Too Little Focus
Can the Paris Climate Talks Prevent a Planetary Strike-Out?
The Climate Change Election
Dr. Selin has authored/co-edited several books: Global Governance of Hazardous Chemicals: Challenges of Multilevel Management (MIT Press), Changing Climates in North American Politics: Institutions, Policy Making and Multilevel Governance (Co-editor w/Stacy VanDeveer, MIT Press) and Transatlantic Environment and Energy Politics: Comparative and International Perspectives (Co-editor w/Miranda Schreurs and Stacy VanDeveer, Ashgate Press).
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Climate Café: Exploring Your Place in the Climate Movement
Tuesday, March 29
6:30–7pm refreshments 7-8:30pm program
Temple Sinai, 50 Sewall Ave., Brookline
Dan Ruben, Boston Green Tourism & Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman, Asst. Rabbi Temple Sinai & MA Interfaith Coalition for Climate Action (MAICCA)
Facing climate change can be overwhelming. It is also a profound opportunity to come together for service and justice. Join two pioneering climate leaders for their TED talk style presentations about their journeys into the climate movement. After the presentations, break into small groups to explore ways to deepen our commitment to address climate change personally and in society.
Fossil Fuel Free Action: bring your electric bill and switch to clean renewable electricity.
More on Brookline Climate Week at http://www.brooklineclimateweek.org
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The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters
Tuesday, March 29
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge,
Harvard Book Store welcomes psychology professors KURT GRAY and DANIEL GILBERT for a discussion of Gray's book The Mind Club: Who Thinks, What Feels, and Why It Matters, co-authored with Daniel M. Wegner.
About The Mind Club
Nothing seems more real than the minds of other people. When you consider what your boss is thinking or whether your spouse is happy, you are admitting them into the "mind club." It's easy to assume other humans can think and feel, but what about a cow, a computer, a corporation? What kinds of mind do they have? Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray are award-winning psychologists who have discovered that minds—while incredibly important—are a matter of perception. Their research opens a trove of new findings, with insights into human behavior that are fascinating, frightening and funny. The Mind Club explains why we love some animals and eat others, why people debate the existence of God so intensely, how good people can be so cruel, and why robots make such poor lovers.
By investigating the mind perception of extraordinary targets—animals, machines, comatose people, god—Wegner and Gray explain what it means to have a mind, and why it matters so much.
Fusing cutting-edge research and personal anecdotes, The Mind Club explores the moral dimensions of mind perception with wit and compassion, revealing the surprisingly simple basis for what compels us to love and hate, to harm and to protect.
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Maria Sibylla Merian: The First Ecologist?
Tuesday, March 29
7:00–8:30pm
Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
RSVP at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277
Cost: $5 member, $10 nonmember
Kay Etheridge, PhD, Professor of Biology, Gettysburg College
In 1699 a 52 year-old artist/naturalist embarked in Amsterdam for a two-month sailing voyage to the Dutch colony of Surinam in South America. Maria Sibylla Merian then spent two years in the tropical forests of Surinam studying insects and their food plants, an undertaking which today would be considered ecological science. The book that resulted from this extraordinary undertaking, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, was the first to show New World plants and animals together in colorful images. By this time in her life Merian was a renowned naturalist, and already had published two books on European moths and butterflies, in which she pioneered the depiction of plants as hosts for specific insect species. Kay Etheridge, PhD, will provide an overview of Merian’s major contributions to the study of natural history and her considerable influence on naturalists and scientists who followed her.
Kay Etheridge is Professor of Biology at Gettysburg College. Her current scholarship centers on the integration of natural history images and the history of biology with a focus on Maria Sibylla Merian. She is a founding member of the Maria Sibylla Merian Society, and her forthcoming book on the biology of Merian’s caterpillar books will be published by Brill. Earlier publications in physiology and ecology include studies on tropical bats, manatees, lizards, and salamanders. In addition to biology courses she teaches a seminar on creativity in art and science and a course on Renaissance Kunstkammer.
Offered with Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens
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Brunella Alfinito Wearable Technology, MassArt & MIT Embr Labs
Tuesday, March 29
8 PM - 11 PM
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Brunella Alfinito is an Italian born citizen doing her graduate studies at Alchimia Contemporay School of Jewelry, Florence, Italy.
Brunealla is presently an exchange student at MassArt and is fulfilling an internship at MIT with Embr Labs. Embr Labs is a startup founded by four MIT materials engineering students and has invented a bracelet that locally heats and cools the wrist and enables wearers to make themselves comfortable while reducing overall building energy use. Brunella will give an artist's talk and share her experience as an intern at MIT.
Event cosponsored with the Sustainability Incubator, 3D Department, and MIT’s Embr Labs, Inc.
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, March 30
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Community of Scholars Day
Wednesday, March 30
9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Lesley University, University Hall, Porter Square, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
See free exhibitions, presentations and panel discussions on topics running the gamut from digital classrooms, Islamophobia, Japanese manga and anime, psychology, treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, advocacy, culinary arts, and more – all during Lesley University’s annual Community of Scholars Day.
Events are free and open to all.
Attendees will enjoy more than 40 workshops, installations, performances and poster sessions by faculty, staff and students, including undergraduates, graduates, and PhD candidates, all of which showcase research and scholarship at Lesley.
Presentations highlight inquiry across disciplines, such as building community through service, teaching counselors and psychologists cultural competency to serve immigrant communities, exploring visual mathematics and themes of emerging adulthood and teaching adolescents.
Dr. Rafael Campo, a founding faculty member of Lesley’s MFA in Creative Writing program and a Harvard Medical School professor, will deliver a plenary address at 4 p.m., titled “Just the Facts versus the Whole Truth: Poetry, or the Practice of Medicine.”
See a full schedule of workshops and times at: lesley.edu/community-of-scholars-day-2016/workshops.
Call arutstei@lesley.edu
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Symposium: The MIT campus--Then, Now, Next
Wednesday, March 30
All day
MIT, Building W-16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
The first symposium will examine MIT architecture and the campuses of past, present, and future.
Additional program details will be posted on the event website as soon as they are available.
Web site: http://mit2016.mit.edu/symposia/campus
Open to: the general public
This event occurs daily through March 31, 2016.
Sponsor(s): Institute Events
For more information, contact: MIT Institute Events
617-253-4795
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Colloquium on Human Learning + Machine Learning
Wednesday, March 30
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (EDT)
swissnex Boston, Consulate of Switzerland,420 Broadway, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/colloquium-on-human-learning-machine-learning-tickets-22504651017
Join us for an interactive colloquium looking at the intersection of Machine Learning and Human Learning taking place simultaneously at swissnex Boston and at the University of Geneva. This event is organized by the Center for Curriculum Redesign and supported by the Montes Alti Educational Foundation and the Fondation Helvetica Educatio.
Computer science and neuroscience are two of the fastest moving fields in the world. Join us for an interactive colloquium taking place simultaneously at swissnex Boston and at the University of Geneva, which will discuss the highly timely topics of Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence and Human Learning / Intelligence, and their intersection. The colloquium will concentrate on the following questions, with an accent towards unearthing the next levels of questions to ask and research:
How can Machine Learning foster and shoulder Human Learning?
What is the state-of-the-art of Machine Intelligence and what are its extrapolated hopes?
What is our present understanding of Human Intelligence, and the extrapolated developments of such understanding?
How are the two Intelligences similar and different?
What tasks are Humans particularly suited for, vs Artificial Intelligence?
What does this mean for what should Humans focus on? (occupations, skills, education)
This colloquium will take place in Geneva and Boston simultaneously and is open to faculty, students and other interested participants.The colloquium will be streamed live (details on how to watch it online will follow).
Colloquium Agenda
8:30 am Doors open
9:00 am Colloquium begins
9:50 am Break
10:00 am Colloquium resumes
10:50 am Break
11:00 am Colloquium resumes
12:00 pm Networking reception
1:00 pm Doors close
Panelists at swissnex Boston
Rick Miller, President, Olin College of Engineering (TBC)
Richard K. Miller is professor of mechanical engineering and president of Olin College of Engineering. He earned his B.S. from the University of California at Davis, his M.S. from MIT and he has a Ph.D. in applied mechanics from the California Institute of Technology. He spent 17 years on the Engineering faculty at USC in Los Angeles and UCSB in Santa Barbara before he served as Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa from 1992-99. In 1999 he was then appointed president of Olin College of Engineering. With a background in applied mechanics and interests in innovation in higher education, Richard K. Miller is the author of more than 100 publications and has received several awards for his work. He served as Chair of the Engineering Advisory Committee of the U.S. National Science Foundation and has served on advisory boards and committees for Harvard University, Stanford University, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), in addition to others.
Robert Plotkin, patent attorney and author “The Genie in the Machine”
Robert Plotkin is a patent attorney. His firm specializes in software patent application preparation and prosecution, software patent infringement and validity analysis, and on consultation on software-related litigation. He has a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law. In 2000 he founded his law firm Robert Plotkin, P.C. From 2004 to 2010 he taught an advanced course on “Software and Law” at Boston University School of Law. He is the author of the book “The Genie in the Machine: How Computer-Automated Inventing is Revolutionizing Law and Business”
Todd Rose, Director, Mind Brain and Education program, Harvard University
Todd Rose is the Director of the Mind, Brain, & Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he also leads the Laboratory for the Science of the Individual. He has a B.S. in Psychology from the Weber State University, a Master of Education (Ed.M.) from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in Mind, Brain, and Education. He also obtained his Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Developmental Science from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. After his Ed.D. he became a Faculty Member at the same institution and in 2012 became President of the Center for Individual Opportunity. Since 2015 he is the Director of Mind, Brain, and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He teaches Educational Neuroscience and is the author of “The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World that Values” and “Square Peg: My Story and What it Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, and Out-of-the-box Thinkers”.
Frank Levy, Professor emeritus of Economics, MIT
Frank Levy is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. He has a Masters and Ph.D. in economics from Yale. Before joining MIT in 1992, he taught for ten years at University of California, Berkeley and eleven years at the University of Maryland at College Park and worked for four years at the Urban Institute in Washington DC. In 2015 he published a Paper with Dana Remus “Can Robots be Lawyers? Computers, Lawyers, and the Practice of Law”.
Moderator: Charles Fadel, Founder and Chairman, Center for Curriculum Redesign
Charles Fadel is a global education thought leader, futurist and inventor; founder and chairman of the Center for Curriculum Redesign; visiting scholar at Harvard GSE; Chair of the education committee at BIAC/OECD; co-author of “Four-Dimensional Education” and best-selling “21st Century Skills”; founder of the Fondation Helvetica Educatio (Geneva, Switzerland). He has worked with education systems and institutions in more than thirty countries. He was formerly Global Education Lead at Cisco Systems, and holds a BSEE, an MBA, and six patents.
Panelists at University of Geneva
Pierre Dillembourg, Professor, Computer-Human Interaction Lab for Learning & Instruction, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Pierre Dillenbourg is professor in learning technologies in the School of Computer & Communication Sciences at EPFL, where he is the head of the CHILI Lab: “Computer-Human Interaction for Learning & Instruction“. He is also the academic director of Center for Digital Education, which implements the MOOC strategy of EPFL. Pierre Dillenbourg graduated in educational sciences from University of Mons (Belgium). He started research on learning technologies in 1984 and completed his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Lancaster (UK) in the domain of artificial intelligence applications for educational software. Before he joined EPFL in 2002 he was an assistant professor at the University of Geneva.
Conrad Hughes, Campus and Secondary Principal at La Grande Boissière, International School of Geneva (ISG/EIG)
Conrad Hughes is Campus and Secondary Principal at the International School of Geneva, La Grande Boissière, the oldest international school in the world. He has been school principal, Director of Education, International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Coordinator and teacher in schools in Switzerland, France, India and the Netherlands. He teaches Theory of Knowledge.
His PhD (2008) is in English literature: The Treatment of the Body in the Fiction of JM Coetzee. He is writing his EdD thesis on the relationship between prejudice and education with specific focus on how education can reduce prejudice. He is the author of numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and as Director of Education at the International School of Geneva he led the publication of Guiding Principles for Learning in the 21st Century with UNESCO. He was chief editor for a special edition of Springer’s Prospects Journal on Learning in the 21st Century with entries by leading academics such as Sugata Mitra, Steve Higgins, Doug & Lynn Newton, Scilla Elworthy, Paul Black and Juan Carols Tedesco.
Stéphane Marchand-Maillet, Associate Professor of Computer Science, head of the Viper group, Universite de Geneve (UNIGE)
Stéphane Marchand-Maillet is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and head of the Viper (Visual Information Processing for Enhanced Retrieval) group. The Viper group deals with the development of Machine Learning and Data Mining techniques. Stéphane Marchand-Maillet received his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at Imperial College (University of London, UK) in 1997. He then completed a postdoctoral stay at Eurécom (France). He joined the Computer Science Department of the University of Geneva in 2000 as an assistant professor.
The Center for Curriculum Redesign (CCR) is a global non-profit organization dedicated to improving education by focusing on what students should learn in the 21st century. To this end it designs and propagates new curricula and brings together international organizations, jurisdictions, academic institutions, corporations, and non-profit organizations.
The Montes Alti Educational Foundation is dedicated to assisting educators in using cutting-edge teaching technologies in programs for children and young adults. The Montes Alti Educational Foundation supports promising research programs encouraging development of new teaching technologies in Geneva, Switzerland, and the world.
The Fondation Helvetica Educatio seeks to improve global understanding, societal wisdom, and human prosperity by redesigning school, university and adult education and by developing deeply transformational policies adapting curricula to the needs of the 21st century.
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Transportation@MIT Seminar
Wednesday, March 30
11:45a–1:00p
MIT, Building E51-315, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Kevin Webb, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Sidewalk Labs
Join us for a presentation by Kevin Webb of Sidewalk Labs. Sidewalk Labs is a new Google-funded urban data startup. The company is involved in projects like LinkNYC: a free public gigabit wireless internet system for the City of New York. For more information on Sidewalk Labs, see http://www.sidewalkinc.com/
Lunch will be provided.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Transportation Club, GSC Funding Board
For more information, contact:
Patton Doyle
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Challenges and Opportunities of China's Urban Renewal
Wednesday, March 30
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-450, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. WANG Shifu
Dr. WANG Shifu is a Fulbright scholar at MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He is professor and chair of the Urban Planning Department at South China University of Technology. His research and teaching areas include urbanization studies and urban design, with a primary focus on theories and methods of planning practice. He authored the book "Implementation Oriented Urban Design" (2005). Dr. Wang works as an urban planner and city designer on projects, including different scales of strategy and/or physical planning. He also serves as a planning committee member for the municipalities of Guangzhou, Foshan, and Fuzhou.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact: Heather Mooney
617-715-2352
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Future of the Campus Panel with David Adjaye: Designing A Place for Inventing the Future: The MIT Campus, Then, Now, Next - Part of the MIT 2016 Symposium
Wednesday, March 30
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The Intersections of Architecture and Campus Culture
with David Adjaye, Principal, Adjaye Associates, London, and 2016 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT recipient
This two day symposium is co-sponsored with the MIT 2016 Committee and the MIT Department of Architecture. The symposium will examine architecture and cultures at MIT and their influences on education and student life on campus. With past, present and future lenses, speakers will explore the prescient design of the original buildings and the interdisciplinary, innovative research that they fomented, as well as imagine the teaching and maker spaces of the future.
David Adjaye will present during Designing A Place for Inventing the Future: The MIT Campus, Then, Now, Next on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 at 4:00pm.
Registration and more information available at http://mit2016.mit.edu/symposia/campus
Symposium Chairs
Hashim Sarkis, Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning
John Ochsendorf, Class of 1942 Professor of Architecture and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Arts at MIT
For more information, contact: Leah Talatinian
617.252.1888
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Self-Aggregation of Tropical Convection: How does it work? Does it matter for climate?
Wednesday, March 30
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Sandrine Bony (Universite Pierre et Marie Curie)
EAPS Department Lecture Series
Refreshments, 3:30 pm, Ida Green Lounge
Weekly talks given by leading thinkers in the areas of geology, geophysics, geobiology, geochemistry, atmospheric science, oceanography, climatology, and planetary science.
Web site: http://bit.ly/232fNPb
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact: Jen Fentress
617-253-2127
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Collective Action in an Asymmetric World
Wednesday, March 30
4:15pm to 5:30pm
Harvard, Room L-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Cuicui Chen and Richard Zeckhauser, Ramsey Professor of Political Economy and HUCE faculty associate
Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Contact: Bryan J. Galcik bryan_galcik@hks.harvard.edu
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Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene Series: "Ecological Novelty, Old and New: Conservation in a post-normal world”
WHEN Wed., Mar. 30, 2016, 5 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Lecture Hall A, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Center for the Environment
SPEAKER(S) Stephen Jackson, director, Southwest Climate Science Center, University of Arizona
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO laura_hanrahan@harvard.edu
DETAILS Dr. Stephen Jackson is a world leader in the study of ecological communities of the past (paleoecology) from tree rings, fossil rodent middens, lake sediments, and other preserved snapshots. His work covers a sweep of space and time to understand how past climate and ecosystems can inform those of today and the future. His papers have catalyzed and shaped discussions of ecological novelty and no-analog communities.
Jackson is director of the Southwest Climate Science Center and former professor of botany and founding director of the doctoral program in ecology at the University of Wyoming. He is past president of the American Quaternary Association and is on the governing board of the Ecological Society of America and the editorial boards of Ecosystems, Frontiers in Ecology & Environment, and Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
This series, hosted by HUCE and organized by Elizabeth Wolkovich, assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, examines the future of ecological systems in a world heavily impacted by humans and aims to bring in a large, cross-disciplinary audience. This year’s theme is “Novel Ecosystems, Novel Climates: Is Today’s Environment Unprecedented?”
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Hannah Arendt Lecture Series: Eichmann in Jerusalem: Conscience, Normality, and the Rule of Narrative
WHEN Wed., Mar. 30, 2016, 5 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Lower Level Conference Room, Busch Hall, Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History; Harvard Center for Jewish Studies; The Political Theory Colloquium
SPEAKER(S) Dana Villa, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame
COST free
CONTACT INFO Peter Gordon, pgordon@fas.harvard.edu
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Conserving the Great Apes in a Changing World
WHEN Wed., Mar. 30, 2016, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Co-sponsored by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology and Harvard Museum of Natural History.
Presented in collaboration with the Project on Race & Gender in Science & Medicine at the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research, Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Annette Lanjouw, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Great Ape Program, Arcus Foundation
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO 617.496.1027
DETAILS Conserving species, particularly the “charismatic megafauna,” has been a focus of conservation efforts for many decades. With a growing human population, the protection of any single species—compared to the conservation of a landscape or ecosystem—can easily be questioned. Annette Lanjouw will discuss why the conservation of individual species is critical and how this effort enables us to connect with the environment in ways that make action and responses meaningful.
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Synthetic Biology: Redesigning Life
WHEN Wed., Mar. 30, 2016, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Auditorium, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
SPEAKER(S) Jim Collins
COST Free and open to the public
TICKET WEB LINK sfas2016-collins.eventbrite.com
CONTACT INFO events@broadinstitute.org
DETAILS Synthetic biology is bringing together engineers, physicists, and biologists to construct biological circuits out of proteins, genes, and other bits of DNA, and to use these circuits to rewire and reprogram organisms. These re-engineered organisms are going to change our lives in the coming years, leading to cheaper drugs, rapid diagnostic tests, and synthetic probiotics to treat infections and a range of complex diseases. In this talk, we highlight recent efforts to create synthetic gene networks and programmable cells and discuss a variety of synthetic biology applications in biotechnology and biomedicine.
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Political Polarization in the United States
Wednesday, March 30
6:00 PM to 8:15 PM (EDT)
Workbar Cambridge, 45 Prospect Street, Cambridge
Americans increasingly report dissatisfaction with government in Washington, D.C., hold both parties in low esteem, and exit the party system to be Independents: today, Independents number 45% of the electorate, up from 30% only 8 years ago. DC appears to be gridlocked, and inter-party antipathy has reached new highs.
Many Americans are worried about the state of the nation's political atmosphere, and are wondering how we have reached this state and what we can do about it.
How can we measure political polarization in the United States and how has it changed over time?
Why have U.S. politics become more polarized? Is it because Americans’ positions on policy issues have become more extreme?
What can be done?
Join us for a brief presentation about the results of our speakers' research on the subject, followed by Q&A and open discussion.
Speakers: Erik Fogg and Nathaniel Greene are the co-founders of MidTide Media and lead the Something to Consider Movement, with the mission of rebuilding the lost middle ground in US politics. MitTide is part of the transpartisan Bridge Alliance.In 2015 they published Wedged: How You Became a Tool of the Partisan Political Establishment, and How to Start Thinking For Yourself Again. The book uncovers the root causes behind growing political polarization in the United States. Erik received Bachelors and Masters degrees from MIT in Political Science. Nat received a Masters degree from Oxford in Engineering and a PGC from Cambridge in Design, Manufacturing, and Management.
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POVERTY, INC. + Filmmaker Q&A | SEID (MIT Sloan)
Wednesday, March 30
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
MIT, Building 32-123, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Join us Wednesday, March 30th, as MIT SEID hosts a screening of the award-winning documentary, Poverty, Inc., at 6 PM.
Program: Screening starts at 6 PM.
Q&A discussion with Filmmaker Mark Weber at 7:30 PM.
Watch the film trailer: https://vimeo.com/109863354
Share with your friends on Twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #PovertyINC
Website: http://www.povertyinc.org/
POVERTY, INC. has earned 40 international film festival honors and was recently selected to the "Best of Fests" category in IDFA Amsterdam - the biggest documentary festival in the world. It has already screened in 16 countries and numerous top universities, sparking a fast-growing grassroots dialogue to ignite change around the world.
Bring the film to your city by emailing screenings@povertyinc.org or visiting our screenings page: http://www.povertyinc.org/screenings/.
FILM SYNOPSIS
“I see multiple colonial governors,” says Ghanaian software entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse of the international development establishment in Africa. “We are held captive by the donor community.”
The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry — the business of doing good has never been better.
Yet the results have been mixed, in some cases even catastrophic, and leaders in the developing world are growing increasingly vocal in calling for change. Drawing from over 200 interviews filmed in 20 countries, Poverty, Inc. unearths an uncomfortable side of charity we can no longer ignore.
From TOMs Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to U.S. agricultural subsidies, the film challenges each of us to ask the tough question: Could I be part of the problem?
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Local Action, Big Results
Wednesday, March 30
6:30–7pm refreshments 7-9pm program
All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon Street, Brookline
Carol Oldham, Exec. Dir. MA Climate Action Network;
Dr. Tommy Vitolo, Sr. Assoc., Synapse Energy Economics; Audrey Schulman, Pres. & Co-Founder HEET; Nathan Phillips, BU Professor of Earth and Environment; André LeRoux, Exec. Dir. MA Smart Growth Alliance.
Municipal climate initiatives are accelerating now across the Commonwealth. Leaders examine three ways communities are innovating: implementing options for local renewable electricity, eliminating methane gas leaks, and promoting smart growth through long range community vision to raise the bar on sustainable town and school expansion. Break out into workshops for developing impactful actions.
More on Brookline Climate Week at http://www.brooklineclimateweek.org
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Thursday, March 31
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The Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture
Sunday, March 31- Monday, April 1
Harvard Divinity School
It has been more than ninety years since Rudolf Steiner offered his Agriculture Course, seventy-five since Sir Albert Howard published An Agricultural Testament, and almost forty since Wendell Berry published The Unsettling of America.
Concepts such as agroecology, biodynamics, permaculture, food miles, food deserts, food justice, and local food have all proliferated in both popular and scholarly venues over the past ten to fifteen years. Such a sustainable agriculture gestalt is vibrant and worthy of more sustained discussion and critical attention. In this spirit, “The Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture” aims to bring together farmers, religious and spiritual leaders, and academics, respectively, to join in a robust and stimulating discussion about the spirit of sustainable agriculture, delineating its past, celebrating and investigating its present, and theorizing its future.
Nigel Savage of Hazon will offer the keynote address.
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Symposium: The MIT campus--Then, Now, Next
Thursday, March 31
All day
MIT, Building W-16, 48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
The first symposium will examine MIT architecture and the campuses of past, present, and future.
Additional program details will be posted on the event website as soon as they are available.
Web site: http://mit2016.mit.edu/symposia/campus
Open to: the general public
This event occurs daily through March 31, 2016.
Sponsor(s): Institute Events
For more information, contact: MIT Institute Events
617-253-4795
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Projecting Climate Change Impacts on Global Marine Biodiversity and Fisheries
Thursday, March 31
12–1 pm
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
with William Cheung, The University of British Columbia.
Changes in temperature, oxygen level, acidity and other ocean properties directly affect marine ecosystems through shifts in biogeography, phenology, productivity and trophic interactions. This talk highlights some of the latest understanding on the extent to which climate change and ocean acidification are affecting global marine biodiversity and fisheries. As shown by analyzing global marine biogeography records and fisheries data, ocean warming has already been altering marine species assemblages in the past four decades. Moreover, mapping of vulnerability of almost 1000 species marine fishes in the global ocean based on their exposure to climate stressors, biological sensitivity and adaptive capacity indicates that most of the studied marine fishes become highly vulnerable to climate change under high greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
Such findings corroborate with results from simulation modeling of global shifts in distributions of marine fishes and invertebrates, highlighting the large climate risks of regional ecosystems, particularly in the tropics and Arctic Ocean, in terms of changes in community structure and key ecosystem services such as fisheries. The resulting economic impacts are particularly large in developing countries with low adaptive capacity. Such evidence demonstrates the multi-facet responses of marine ecosystems to climate change, identify hotspots of vulnerable ocean regions, and highlights the need for immediate actions and their scope to mitigate the impacts from climate change and ocean acidification.
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Sitting in the Driver’s Seat: Business and Global Well-Being
March 31
12:30–1:30 pm
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, FXB G-12, 651 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Join Dr. Eileen McNeely for this Director's Lecture Series installment.
What does the future of sustainability and human health look like?
This spring, the Center for Health and the Global Environment will be hosting a Director's Lecture Series showcasing how its latest research is re-envisioning health and sustainability. This series will offer deep insight into many of the research programs and initiatives at the Center which are tackling some of the biggest sustainability challenges of the 21st century.
/#content
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Xconomy Forum: Robo Madness–The A.I. Explosion
Thursday, March 31
1:30pm - 5:30pm
Google, 355 Main Street, 5th Floor Cambridge
Major advances are happening in robotics and the driving force behind it—artificial intelligence. Now companies of all sizes are using emerging A.I. technologies from deep learning to computer vision to natural language processing to build their businesses—and impact our daily lives. Think Google, Facebook, iRobot, and a whole new generation of startups: the technologies are already starting to transform retail, advertising, social media, transportation, connected homes, and other industries.
But what are the real opportunities and risks for entrepreneurs and investors? How will A.I. and robotics reshape the competitive landscape of business and society? And what can Boston-area innovators do to harness the region’s strengths in technology, talent, and research?
At this special Xconomy conference, hosted by Google, we’ll address these questions—and much more—in a series of interactive talks, chats, and demos.
Spotlight
Wyss Institute Core Faculty member Conor Walsh will join this event as a plenary speaker.
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Addressing Chemical of Concern on Campus: Furniture Purchasing Can Lead to Creating a Healthier Environment
Thursday, March 31
2pm - 3pm EDT
Webinar
Well documented scientific research has clearly shown that the chemical flame retardants, widely used in upholstered furniture, are harmful to public health and provide no fire safety benefit. Due to a change in regulations and a shifting market, higher education institutions can now take concrete steps toward reducing risk and promoting a safe and healthy indoor environment by purchasing furniture that meet the necessary fire safety codes without harmful chemicals. This presentation will inform you about the chemicals and materials of concern used in furniture, the latest information on the new flammability regulations, ways to reduce exposure to these toxic chemicals. The Center for Environmental Health will review many of the eco-labels and provide concrete purchasing tips.
In addition, Harvard University will provide a case study with general guidelines for how to easily procure flame retardant free furniture in a cost-neutral or even cost-saving manner.
Speakers:
Heather Henriksen, MPA, Director, Harvard Office for Sustainability
Judy Levin, MSW, Pollution Prevention Director, Center for Environmental Health
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Lecture by Michelle K. Lee, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office
Thursday, March 31
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, Huntington Hall,77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Michelle K. Lee
MIT welcomes Michelle K. Lee, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office to deliver a lecture, titled "On the Front Lines of Promoting Innovation: From MIT to Washington, D.C."
Web site: spi.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: n/a
Sponsor(s): Office of the Vice President for Research , Science Policy Initiative
For more information, contact: The Science Policy Initiative
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Quantitative Biology: A Fusion Between Physics and Biology
Thursday, March 31
4:00 pm
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Refreshments at 3:30 pm in 34-101 lobby
TERENCE HWA, University of California, San Diego
Advances in biology have presented a multitude of opportunities for physicists and for physics. I will illustrate the different types of opportunities using examples encountered during my personal journey as a theoretical physicist. At the molecular scale, a maximum entropy principle turns variations in the sequence composition of related proteins into a procedure to inform the prediction of protein structures and protein-protein interactions. At the cellular level, discovery and application of phenomenological "growth laws" lead to quantitatively accurate predictions on bacterial response to genetic and environmental perturbations. At the population level, physical expansion of population and tissue open up simple dynamic mechanisms to generate spatiotemporal patterns.
Host: MIT Physics Graduate Student Council
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Hypotheses for a Less Negative Aerosol Radiative Forcing”
Thursday, March 31
4:00pm to 5:00pm
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geology Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Bjorn Stevens, Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology and Professor, University of Hamburg
Harvard Climate Seminar series presented by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Sponsored by the Harvard Oceanography Committee and HUCE.
Contact: Laura Hanrahan laura_hanrahan@harvard.edu
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Future of Media
Thursday, March 31
4:00 PM to 6:00 PM (EDT)
Northeastern, East Village, 17th Floor, 291 Saint Botolph Street, Boston
A talk with The Washington Post executive editor and digital media innovator Martin “Marty” Baron
Please join President Joseph E. Aoun and Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and digital media innovator Marty Baron for a conversation about the future of media. Currently leading one of the most influential news organizations, The Washington Post, Baron has been a news media pioneer with remarkable successes in an industry that has recently experienced profound disruption
The two will discuss the exciting future of the media industry in the digital world.
Previously, Baron had been editor of The Boston Globe. During his tenure, the Globe won six Pulitzer Prizes, including one for their Spotlight investigation which inspired the Academy Award-winning movie Spotlight.
This event is part of "The Future of…”, a presidential speaker series that explores what's on the horizon for the topics that shape our lives. Each event features a conversation with a leading thinker and innovator on themes like food, dating, the media — and more.
“The Future of Media”
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Askwith Forum - Against the Odds: Educating Girls Globally
WHEN Thu., Mar. 31, 2016, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
TYPE OF EVENT Discussion, Forum, Lecture, Question & Answer Session
PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT Alumni, AskWith Forum
BUILDING/ROOM Askwith Hall
CONTACT NAME Roger Falcon
CONTACT EMAIL askwith_forums@gse.harvard.edu
CONTACT PHONE 617-384-9968
SPONSORING ORGANIZATION/DEPARTMENT Harvard Graduate School of Education
REGISTRATION REQUIRED No
ADMISSION FEE This event is free and open to the public.
RSVP REQUIRED No
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
DETAILS
Speakers:
Irina Bokova, Director-General, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Sakena Yacoobi, CEO, Afghan Institute of Learning; Co- Founder and Vice President, Creating Hope International
Discussants:
Monica Higgins, Kathleen McCartney Professor of Education Leadership, HGSE; Faculty Co-Chair, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; Chair and Director, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative
Fernando Reimers, Ed.M.’84, Ed.D.’88, Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education and Director of the International Education Policy Program and of the Global Education Innovation Initiative, HGSE; Faculty Co-Chair, Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative
This forum will examine the challenges that remain for girls around the world to access a high quality education that empowers them, and the work that activists, teachers, governments and intergovernmental organizations are advancing to address these challenges. Yacoobi will discuss the constraints that girls and women face to receiving an education in Afghanistan, and highlight the work of that she and other social entrepreneurs have advanced, under the most challenging conditions, to support the educational opportunities of girls against the odds. She is an award-winning social innovator who has devoted her life to creating educational opportunities for girls and women. Bokova will address the same issues from the perspective of the international development community, and of UNESCO specifically. After these presentations, there will be a panel discussion with Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative faculty.
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Media Marathoning and Affective Involvement
Thursday, March 31
5:00p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Although the popular press primarily uses the negatively connoted phrase "binge-watching," Lisa Glebatis Perks employs the label "media marathoning"to describe viewers' rapid engagement with a story world. Rather than positioning these media experiences as mindless indulgences, the phrase media marathoning intimates engrossment, effort, and purpose. These media engagement efforts can be rewarded with pleasurable experiences, but they can also lead to feelings of disappointment. Perks draws from discourse gathered from over 100 marathoners to describe some of marathoners' most common emotional experiences, including anger, empathy, parasocial mourning, nostalgia, and regret. The theme of the talk is that characters become the marathoners' pseudo-avatars, gaining shape, texture, and life through viewers' affective investments.
Lisa Glebatis Perks (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Merrimack College. She recently published Media Marathoning: Immersions in Morality, which explores the ways readers and viewers become absorbed in a fictive text and dedicate many hours to exploring its narrative contours.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
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Politics of Invention
Thursday, March 31
5:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building N51, MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Amy Smith, David Sengeh, Sasha Costanza-Chock, Pagan Kennedy
Hear from a panel of engaging researchers including writer Pagan Kennedy, Sasha Costanza-Chock from the MIT Center for Civic Media, Lemelson awardee David Sengeh, and D-Lab founder Amy Smith, and join the conversation about who is spearheading innovation and where it is happening today.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: MIT Museum
Sponsor(s): MIT Museum
For more information, contact: Jennifer Novotney
617.324.7313
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Climate Change: The Role of the University
Thursday, March 31at 6:00 PM - Friday, April 1, 2016 at 3:00 PM (EDT)
Tufts, Pearson Hall - Room 104, 419 Boston Avenue, Medford
Keynote: Jeffrey Sachs
This is the 25th anniversary of the Talloires Declaration, the pioneering commitment by university leaders to environmental sustainability that was spearheaded by Jean Mayer, the president of Tufts University at the time. Today there are over 350 signatories to this Declaration from more than 40 countries. As the world moves to implementing the Paris Agreement, universities will play a critical leadership role in developing green technologies, assessing and crafting low-cost policies to help the world make the shift to a fossil free society, and to train the next generation of leaders in the importance of sustainability in both developed and developing economies. The symposium is a university-wide examination of the role Tufts in particular and universities more generally can play on this issue, and students, faculty and the administration have shared in its planning and execution.
Panel Discussions
April 1, 8:45AM - 3:00PM (Alumnae Lounge)
Tufts University, Alumnae Lounge 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford
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Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening
Thursday, March 31
6:00 PM (Doors at 5:30)
Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
Cost: $5.00
Harvard Book Store welcomes bestselling author of Look Me in the Eye JOHN ELDER ROBISON and Harvard Medical School professor of Neurology ALVARO PASCUAL-LEONE for a discussion of Robison's latest book, Switched On: A Memoir of Brain Change and Emotional Awakening, for which Dr. Pascual-Leone wrote the foreword.
About Switched On
It has long been assumed that people living with autism are born with the diminished ability to read the emotions of others, even as they feel emotion deeply. But what if we’ve been wrong all this time? What if that “missing” emotional insight was there all along, locked away and inaccessible in the mind?
In 2007 John Elder Robison wrote the international bestseller Look Me in the Eye, a memoir about growing up with Asperger’s syndrome. Amid the blaze of publicity that followed, he received a unique invitation: a team of Harvard neuroscientists asked him if he would participate in a study led by Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, one of the world’s foremost neuroscientists at Harvard University. They wanted to use Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)—a new experimental brain therapy—in an effort to understand and then address the issues at the heart of autism and Aspergers. If they could stimulate the outer layer of John’s brain, it might induce it to rewire itself and increase his emotional IQ. Switched On is the extraordinary story of what happened next.
Having spent forty years as a social outcast, misreading others’ emotions or missing them completely, John is suddenly able to sense a powerful range of feelings in other people. However, this newfound insight brings unforeseen problems and serious questions. As the emotional ground shifts beneath his feet, John struggles with the very real possibility that choosing to diminish his disability might also mean sacrificing his unique gifts and even some of his closest relationships. Switched On is a real-life Flowers for Algernon, a fascinating and intimate window into what it means to be neurologically different, and what happens when the world as you know it is upended overnight.
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CORE Resiliency Seminar Series - Planning Meeting
Thursday, March 31
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Suite 200, Boston
Boston Society of Architects’ Committee on Resilient Environments
Please join CORE for its kickoff planning meeting regarding its fall 2016 Resiliency Seminar Series. CORE will discuss what topics make up resiliency, including but not limited to, design, engineering, ecology, economics, community network & activism, and health.
The goal of this meeting is to create an outline for the fall seminar series that will provide the group with action items to move forward on.
To learn more about the Committee on Resilient Environments, visit architects.org/committees/committee-resilient-environments-core
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Envision Cambridge Public Workshop
Thursday, March 31
6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (EDT)
John M. Tobin School Cafeteria, 197 Vassal Street, Cambridge
Envision Cambridge, the citywide planning process, wants to hear from you! Join us at a public workshop to tell us what matters most to you and what you want Envision Cambridge to address.
Translation and childcare can be provided with prior request. The City of Cambridge does not discriminate on the basis of disability. The City will provide auxiliary aids and services, written materials in alternative format, and reasonable modifications in policies and procedures to individuals with disabilities with prior request.
Please notify us at envision@cambridgema.gov at least 48 hours before the event with any requests.
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Engage: Boston Designs for Good
Thursday, March 31
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
BSA Space, 290 Congress Street, Boston
RSVP at rsvp@architects.org
Price: Free and open to the public.
“Design like you give a damn.”
—Cameron Sinclair and Kate Stohr, cofounders, Architecture for Humanity
Oh, baby, we do! Ever since McKim, Mead, and White emblazoned “Free to all” above the entrance to the nation’s first urban public library, Boston architecture and its architects have embraced design for the greater good. Join today’s top designers for a lively slideshow and survey of Boston’s recent humanitarian design projects, along with innovative approaches to engaging the audiences they serve.
This is a program of the BSA Foundation.
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Reclaiming Land and Defending Food Sovereignty Dialogue
Thursday, March 31
6:00-8:00pm
Tufts University Dental School, Alumnae Lounge Room 1514, 1 Kneeland Street, Boston
Join us for an evening with two inspiring leaders who are growing the movement to reclaim land and defend food sovereignty.
Debora Nunes Lino Da Silva is a member of the National Coordination of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST), a major social justice force, reclaiming rural land and building communities based on cooperative and solidarity economics since 1984. The MST is recognized globally as a peasant movement defending land rights and is part of the international La Vía Campesina movement for food sovereignty.
Yasmin Lopez is a member of the Women’s Regional Commission of La Vía Campesina–Central America. La Vía Campesina International is a global social movement led by landless peasants, small scale farmers, fisher people, women, indigenous people, and migrant workers from around the world. La Vía Campesina defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote food sovereignty, social justice and dignity.
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Powering Our Statehouse Forward: Will We Break Away from Fossil Fuels?
Thursday, March 31
6pm refreshments 6:30–8:30pm program
Main Library, Hunneman Hall, 361 Washington Street, Brookline
Mass. Power Forward coalition members: Joel Wool, Clean Water Action; Eugenia Gibbons, Mass. Energy Consumers Alliance; Marla Marcum, Climate Disobedience Center; Isaac Baker, Coop Power
We are currently making decisions regarding our state’s infrastructure that will determine how our energy is delivered over the next sixty years. Join Mass. Power Forward leaders who are fighting for our future. Break into workshops for powering the state toward clean, renewable energy, stopping new gas lines, and developing community owned power.
More on Brookline Climate Week at http://www.brooklineclimateweek.org
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Streetlight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution
Thursday, March 31
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes New York City’s former transportation commissioner JANETTE SADIK-KHAN and JEROLD KAYDEN, Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, for a discussion of Sadik-Khan's book Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, an empowering road map for rethinking, reinvigorating, and redesigning our cities, from a pioneer in the movement for safer, more livable streets.
About Streetfight
As New York City’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan managed the seemingly impossible and transformed the streets of one of the world’s greatest, toughest cities into dynamic spaces safe for pedestrians and bikers. Her approach was dramatic and effective: Simply painting a part of the street to make it into a plaza or bus lane not only made the street safer, but it also lessened congestion and increased foot traffic, which improved the bottom line of businesses. Real-life experience confirmed that if you know how to read the street, you can make it function better by not totally reconstructing it but by reallocating the space that’s already there.
Breaking the street into its component parts, Streetfight demonstrates, with step-by-step visuals, how to rewrite the underlying “source code” of a street, with pointers on how to add protected bike paths, improve crosswalk space, and provide visual cues to reduce speeding. Achieving such a radical overhaul wasn’t easy, and Streetfight pulls back the curtain on the battles Sadik-Khan won to make her approach work. She includes examples of how this new way to read the streets has already made its way around the world, from pocket parks in Mexico City and Los Angeles to more pedestrian-friendly streets in Auckland and Buenos Aires, and innovative bike-lane designs and plazas in Austin, Indianapolis, and San Francisco. Many are inspired by the changes taking place in New York City and are based on the same techniques. Streetfight deconstructs, reassembles, and reinvents the street, inviting readers to see it in ways they never imagined.
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Friday, April 1
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Climate Change: The Role of the University
Friday, April 1
8:45AM - 3:00PM (Alumnae Lounge)
Tufts University, Alumnae Lounge 40 Talbot Avenue, Medford
Panel Discussions
This is the 25th anniversary of the Talloires Declaration, the pioneering commitment by university leaders to environmental sustainability that was spearheaded by Jean Mayer, the president of Tufts University at the time. Today there are over 350 signatories to this Declaration from more than 40 countries. As the world moves to implementing the Paris Agreement, universities will play a critical leadership role in developing green technologies, assessing and crafting low-cost policies to help the world make the shift to a fossil free society, and to train the next generation of leaders in the importance of sustainability in both developed and developing economies. The symposium is a university-wide examination of the role Tufts in particular and universities more generally can play on this issue, and students, faculty and the administration have shared in its planning and execution.
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10th Annual Babson Energy and Environment Conference
Friday, April 1
8:30 AM to 6:00 PM (EDT)
Babson College, Sorenson Theater, 19 Babson College Drive, Wellesley
Cost: $25 – $75
The Babson Energy and Environment Club is excited to celebrate its 10th annual conference on Friday, April 1st 2016.
This year’s theme is Redefining Consumption.
Topics will include the impacts of megatrends such as the Sharing Economy (Uber, AirBnB, ZipCar), Artificial Intelligence & Augmented Reality (Oculus), Recycling and “Upcycling” (eBay), Demand Response (EnerNoc), the Internet of Things, and the need for a shift to conscious consumption. The conference will feature talks by some of the leading minds and voices in the energy and environmental sectors. Keynote speakers include Ken Kimmell, the President of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Jim Heppelmann, CEO of PTC, a technology company and leader in IoT.
More info at babsonenergy.com
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MIT Scaling Development Ventures Conference 2016
Friday, April 1
8:30 AM to 6:00 PM (EDT)
MIT, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street Wiesner Building, Cambridge
Cost: $10 - $75
Join us for a day of conversation on innovative solutions to international development challenges. Hear from leading entrepreneurs and practitioners — from within and outside MIT — as well as representatives from industry, government agencies, and NGOs.
For more information and a complete conference program please visit our website.
Please note that the conference agenda includes two separate breakout panel sessions, the first from 2:15 - 3:45pm and the second from 4:00 - 5:00pm. Panel descriptions can be found here.
*As part of the registration process within Eventbrite, we will prompt you to indicate your first and second choice for both the 2:15 - 3:45pm and 4:00 - 5:00pm sessions. We will do our best to accommodate your first choice. If we cannot do so, we will contact you individually.
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The Future is Not The Past: Megadroughts and Climate Change in Western North America
Friday, April 1
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Harvard, 100F Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Ben Cook, Columbia/GISS
Atmospheric Sciences Seminar
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The Cultural Defense of Nations: A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights
Friday, April 1
3:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics welcome Fellow-in-Residence for the Safra Center LIAV OGRAD for a discussion of his book The Cultural Defense of Nations: A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights.
About The Cultural Defense of Nations
The book addresses one of the greatest challenges facing liberalism today: When is a liberal state justified in restricting immigration in order to protect the majority culture? With more than 250 million immigrants worldwide, this question has become central in public and academic debates, particularly in Europe.
This book shifts the focus from the prevailing discussion of cultural minority rights and, for the first time, confronts the topic of cultural rights of majorities. The findings reveal a troubling trend in liberal states, which, ironically, in order to protect liberal values, violate the very same values. The book criticizes this state of affairs and proposes a new approach by which liberal democracies can welcome immigrants without fundamentally changing their cultural heritage, forsaking their liberal traditions, or slipping into extreme nationalism.
The Cultural Defense of Nations presents a timely, thought-provoking thesis on some of the most pressing issues of our time—global immigration, majority groups, and national identity.
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Privacy in 2016: Policy and Technology
Friday, April 1
3:30 PM
Tufts, Anderson Hall: Nelson Auditorium, 200 College Avenue Medford
Concerned about your privacy on the Internet? Wondering why there is so much controversy over the FBI forcing apple to unlock an iPhone?
Join Tufts ACLU for a panel discussion on electronic privacy rights in the U.S.
Privacy and security have headlined the news in the past few months but few people understand the technical, political, and legal issues behind the debate. What are the tools that people can use to protect their privacy and data? What rights do people have with regard to electronic privacy and surveillance? In this panel, Kade Crockford (Director of the Technology for Liberty Program at the ACLU of Massachusetts) and Ming Chow (Senior Lecturer in the Computer Science Department) will discuss these questions with each other and with the audience. Please join us to help us advance our understanding of the different facets of this issue.
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2016 Boston Cleanweb Hackathon
Friday, April 1, 2016 at 6:00 PM - Sunday, April 3, 2016 at 4:30 PM (EDT)
LogMeIn, 320 Summer Street, Boston
Join MassCEC for the 5th Annual Boston Cleanweb Hackathon
Two-day technology competition to create user-friendly web and mobile applications designed to help consumers and businesses use energy and natural resources more efficiently
Challenge brings together programmers, software developers, students, entrepreneurs, energy experts and thought leaders
Teams could win thousands of dollars in cash prizes!
For the past four years, the annual Boston Cleanweb Hackathon and Haccelerator have spun out successful businesses including past winners MySunBuddy and EnerScore(2015), Water Hero (2014) and Crowd Comfort (2013).
Check out the Hackathon DevPost Website for more details! This site hosts Hackathon rules, judging list and criteria, discussion boards, and provides a space for participants to connect with one another to begin team formation. The deadline to register is Thursday, March 31st 2016. Depending on availability, day-of tickets may be sold at the door.
An optional eight-week Cleanweb Haccelerator will follow the conclusion of the Hackathon where teams have the option to develop their work by building actual products and companies. The Haccelerator features weekly sessions that provide teams with expert support and guidance regarding company formation, legal issues, pitching, bootstrapping, attracting investors, networking and more. Cash prizes are also awarded, independent from the Hackathon.
Schedule for the Weekend:
Friday, April 1st
6:00 PM - 8:30 PM | Hackathon Kickoff Mixer (start of team formation, 30 second idea pitches and industry challenge presentation)
Saturday, April 2nd
8:00 AM - 8:30 AM | Breakfast & Registration
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM | Ideation Session & Intro to Datasets
9:30 AM - 8:30 PM | Hack Away! Workshops and Office Hours Available
8:30 PM | LogMeIn closes for the day - Rest up and come back ready to hack on Sunday
Sunday, April 3rd
8:00 AM - 2:00 PM | Race to the finish! Submissions are due by 2:00 PM sharp
2:15 PM - 3:30 PM | Pitches
3:30 PM - 4:15 PM | Judge Deliberations & Awards Ceremony
Contact Us
To discuss sponsorship opportunities or for more information please contact Tom Reid - (617) 315-9316 / treid@masscec.com or Katie Dobbins - (617) 315 9317 / kdobbins@masscec.com
For information regarding media outreach and relations contact Matt Kakley at (617) 315-9339 / mkakley@masscec.com
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Saturday, April 2
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Harvard China Clean Air Forum
Saturday, April 2
8:30 AM to 12:30 PM (EDT)
Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue G1, Boston
The first Harvard China Clean Air Forum will be held on April 2nd (Saturday) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. This half-day forum brings together eminent researchers and policy makers from a variety of perspective to discuss urgent and complex questions related to air pollution in China.
Agenda:
8:30 am breakfast
8:50 am Welcome speech from CSSA
Session 1: Health Effects of Air pollution
9:00~9:30 am Presentations from three speakers (10 min each)
9:30~10:20 am Q&A session
10:25~10:40 am coffee break;
Session 2: Policy Interventions
10:45~11:15 am Presentations from three speakers
11:15~12:15 pm Q&A
12:15-12:20 pm Conclusion remark
Speakers:
Gary Adamkiewicz
Assistant Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Adamkiewicz is an assistant Professor of Environmental Health and Exposure Disparities in the Department of Environmental Health, where much of his work focuses on the connections between housing and health, especially within low-income communities. Dr. Adamkiewicz is a member of the Science Advisory Committee for the National Center for Healthy Housing, and has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization’s effort to establish indoor air quality guidelines. Dr. Adamkiewicz also serves as the Healthy Cities Program Leader at the Harvard Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE). Through his work at CHGE, he is leading China-based studies that examine the intersection between urbanization, sustainability, and health.
Steve Bergstrom
Director, Office of Sustainability, Intermountain Healthcare
Steven has been with Intermountain Healthcare for over thirty years with experience in the Supply Chain, environmental preferred purchasing, vendor certification/relations, and inventory management. He was promoted to Director of Sustainability for Intermountain Healthcare in 2010. He is currently on the board of Utah Recycling Alliance, the Health Care Without Harm Health Care Climate Council, a member of Practice Greenhealth, a member of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce- Clean Air Committee, Water Committee, and Natural Resource Business Council, and has served on several energy committees for the State of Utah.
Qingchen Chao
Deputy Director, China National Climate Center
Dr. Chao is in charge of the planning and coordination of climate related policies including research and public education of climate change. She has participated in the Climate Change negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention, as well as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meetings.
Douglas Dockery
John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Environmental Epidemiology
Chairman, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Dockery is a Professor of Environmental Epidemiology, Chair of the Department of Environmental Health, and Director of the Harvard-NIEHS Center for Environmental Health. He is internationally known for his innovative work in environmental epidemiology, particularly in understanding the relationship between air pollution and respiratory and cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. He continues to research the health effects of air pollution, exposure estimation and misclassification, and the benefits of air pollution controls.
Henry Lee
Director, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program, Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government
Dr. Lee has served on numerous state, federal, and private boards, and advisory committees on both energy and environmental issues. Additionally, he has worked with private and public organizations, including the InterAmerican Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation, the State of Sao Paulo, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Interior, the National Research Council, the Intercontinental Energy Corporation, General Electric, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the U.S. EPA. His recent research interests focus on energy and transportation, China's energy policy, and public infrastructure projects in developing countries. Mr. Lee is the author of recent papers on both the U.S. and China, the economic viability of electric vehicles, as well as case studies on Iceland's green energy agenda, Liberia's electricity sector, the privatization of Rio de Janeiro's airport, and the carbon tax in British Columbia.
Joel Schwartz
Professor, Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Schwartz's work has examined both acute and chronic effects of air pollution exposure. Recent research has established that exposure to fine combustion particles in the air at concentrations well below current standards are associated with a range of adverse health effects from increased respiratory symptoms, to increased hospital admissions, to increased deaths. This work has led to a tightening of the U.S. air quality standards.
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Sustainable House of Worship Workshop
Saturday April 2
9:00 am-1:00 pm
Eliot Church of Newton, 474 Centre Street, Newton
RSVP at http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07eceinil6abd5d075&llr=evkqo7bab
Cost: $20 per person payable at the door.
Lowering your house of worship energy use is a way to care for God's creation by reducing your carbon footprint. It also frees up financial resources needed for other important programs!
In this half-day session conducted by Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light you will learn:
How to track your energy use, cost and carbon footprint
How to find no-cost and low-cost projects that can have a big impact on your electricity and heating bills
How to evaluate energy using systems to determine whether they should be updated
Incentives, rebates and other financial help available through utility companies
Registration and light refreshments at 8:30 am
Workshop begins at 9:00 am
All are welcome!
We encourage two people from each congregation to attend.
For more information contact Vince Maraventano at vince@MIPandL.org or 617-244-0755.
Sponsored by The Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ
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Reducing the Dangers of Nuclear War
Saturday, April 2
9:00a–5:00p
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Responding to the continuing risk of nuclear war or accident, this conference is intended to focus on reducing the risks of a nuclear event. The conference will address the political and economic realities and will attempt to energize a local, social movement that will ultimately influence national policy.
Plenary session topics will include: The Dangers of Nuclear War; Destabilizing Factors; and Reducing the Dangers.
Workshop topics will include: engaging youth; creating connection between climate change activists and nuclear non-proliferation activists; hazards of the construction, maintenance, storage and decommissioning of nuclear weapons; reducing international tensions through negotiations and treaties; examining state and federal budgets, i.e. transit vs nuclear submarines; de-alerting; and divestment.
Web site: radius.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: $20 pre-registered; $25 at the door; students free
Tickets: Registration site to be added
Sponsor(s): Radius/T&C, Mass Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee
For more information, contact: Patricia-Maria Weinmann
617-253-0108
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IDEAS Innovation Showcase + Awards
Saturday, April 2
12:00 PM to 3:00 PM (EDT)
MIT Media Lab, Building E14-6th Floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Come join the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge for a celebration of the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship, and public service and the program’s 15th anniversary! For the first time ever, we’ll be combining our Innovation Showcase and Awards Ceremony into one exciting event!
Join us on Saturday, April 2nd to meet the ~40 teams competing in the final round, celebrate their work, check out prototypes, and hear which teams will be awarded up to $15,000 to make their ideas a reality. This is where ideas come to life!
This is one of the best chances to hear many ideas that have the potential to make substantial impact around the world. We'll have light snacks to enjoy as you peruse, discover and learn.
Schedule:
12:00 – 2:00pm Innovation Showcase
2:00 – 3:00pm Awards Ceremony
What Voters Need to Know: Our Climate and the Elections of 2016
Sunday, April 3
3–4pm followed by reception
United Parish, 15 Marion Street, Willett Hall, Brookline
Gov. Michael Dukakis
Can America break free of fossil fuels? Governor Michael Dukakis steps up debate on the consequences of the fossil fuel industry’s face off with climate champions in upcoming elections. Shaped by candidates, parties, the press, money, activists and voter turnout, the outcome will determine policy for years to come. Tune in for a lively discussion.
More on Brookline Climate Week at http://www.brooklineclimateweek.org
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Monday, April 4
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) - Shaojie Song (MIT)
Monday, April 4
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
About the Speaker
Speaker: Shaojie Song (MIT)
His research at MIT improves the understanding of the global atmosphere-surface exchange of a toxic trace metal, mercury (Hg), by combining atmospheric observations and chemical transport modeling. Before joining in MIT, he focused on urban air quality and participated in field campaigns in China. See Selin Group for more info.
About this Series
MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar [MASS] is a student-run weekly seminar series. Topics include all research concerning the atmosphere and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars usually take place on Mondays in 54-915 from 12.00-1pm unless otherwise noted (term-time only). Talks are generally followed by a lunch with graduate students. Besides the seminar, individual meetings with professors, postdocs, and students are arranged. The seminar series is run by graduate students and is intended mainly for students to interact with individuals outside the department, but faculty and postdocs certainly participate. 2015/2016 Coordinator: Marianna Linz (mlinz@mit.edu).
Event website: http://bit.ly/1P33yOq
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Sudanese Economics: Between an Environmental and a Political Imagination
Monday, April 4
12:15 pm to 2:00 pm
HUCE Seminar Room, 24 Oxford Street, 3rd Floor, Cambridge
Alden Young (Drexel University)
STS Circle at Harvard
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Power Dialog
Monday, April 4
6:00 PM to 7:30 PM (EDT)
BU, School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Join students from across Massachusetts in an open forum on Massachusetts' implementation of the Clean Power Plan, requiring 32% cuts in global warming pollution by 2030. This is a unique opportunity for students to take part in shaping public discourse on Massachusetts' climate policy as the US focuses on meeting post-Paris climate committments. Join us afterwards for networking with fellow students and environmental organizations.
Panelists: MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg, State Senator Marc Pacheco
Faculty can visit http://www.bard.edu/cep/powerdialog/ for more information on how to get involved and to find teaching materials.
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Towards a Multiscale Human Environment: Islamic sub-Saharan Africa and Post-war Modern Urbanism
Monday, April 4
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge
Speaker: Filippo de Dominicis
MIT Architecture Lecture Series
Part of the Spring 2016 Architecture and Aga Khan Program in Islamic Architecture Lecture Series.
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Department of Architecture
For more information, contact: Jose Luis Arguello
(617) 253-1400
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Tuesday, April 5
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Investigating the causes for a long-term trend of increasing carbon uptake at the Howland Forest, Maine
Tuesday, April 5
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
David Hollinger, USDA Forest Service
Herbaria Seminar Series
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Fukushima Five Years Later: A View from the Ocean
WHEN Tue., Apr. 5, 2016, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S) Ken Buesseler, senior scientist, Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Moderated by Susan Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and director, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University
COST Free and open to the public
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Special Seminar: Book Night with Steve Silberman on Neurotribes and Neurodiversity
Tuesday, April 5
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
MIT, Building 46-3002 (Singleton Auditorium), 3rd Floor, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Description: Steve Silberman, an award-winning science writer, long time writer for Wired, and freelancer for publications ranging from The New Yorker to Salon, is the author of the 2015 international best seller, NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity.
The book, both a history and a compelling argument against conventional thinking about autism, suggests a broader model for acceptance, understanding, and participation in society for people who think differently. Silberman’s book won the coveted 2015 Samuel Johnson prize for non-fiction and was chosen as one of the best books of 2015 by The New York Times, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Boston Globe, The Independent, National Public Radio, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications. His TED talk, “The Forgotten History of Autism,” has been viewed more than a million times and translated into 25 languages.
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Taking It All In: Environmental Toxins and Your Health
Tuesday, April 5
6pm - 7:30pm
Harvard Medical School, The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, The New Research Building, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston
Chemicals are used in plastics, furniture, cosmetics and even in the foods we eat, while other pollutants contaminate our air and water. But do you know how these environmental exposures impact your health? Harvard Medical School researchers will present the data behind this silent threat to your health and how you can protect yourself and your family.
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April BASG: Environmental Justice
Tuesday, April 5
6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
The Venture Cafe - Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, 5th Floor, Cambridge
Cost: $10 - $12
Environmental Justice: Does access to safe drinking water depend on race and class?
In the unfolding tragedy of the Flint, Michigan water crisis, social and environmental justice issues are once again a critical focus for American citizens, who are concerned about environmental health and safety as well as environmental justice.
In April, BASG member, Arnold Sapenter, will moderate a panel discussing environmental justice and related social issues as they apply to Boston and Massachusetts. The panel will talk about programs that exist in greater Boston to address environmental justice issues and the challenges and opportunities that exist here. In addition, they'll explore the connection between environmental justice and sustainability and lead our follow-on discussion.
Arnold Sapenter, MBA and LEED GRA, is the recent Director of Sustainability and past Director of Diversity and Program Monitoring for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. He has served on many advisory boards and committees including the Massachusetts Leading By Example Committee and the Advisory Committee for the Governor’s Diversity Initiative. As Director of Diversity and Program Monitoring Arnold Sapenter created and chaired the Cultural Diversity and Environmental Justice Committees for MassDEP from 1993 to 2003.
As a community leader and volunteer Mr. Sapenter serves as President of the National Council of Presidents for the National Forum of Black Public Administrators and has served over 12 years as President of the NFBPA Boston Chapter. In addition, he is an active member of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Board of Overseers and past co-chair of the Employment and Training Systems Committee for the Boston Private Industry Council, as well as past Board Vice President for The Fenway Health Center.
Mr. Sapenter has served in Massachusetts state government since 1987 and retired in 2015 from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Sam Lipson is Director of Environmental Health for the Cambridge Public Health Department. He came to the CPHD in 1996 and established the Environmental Health Division in 1998. He has 20 years of experience in public health risk assessment, biological safety, environmental health policies and other environmental health sub-disciplines, and has served as a board member of the American Lung Association in Massachusetts, Mass. Public Health Association Leadership Board, and currently serves as a Commissioner for the Suffolk County Mosquito Control Commission and as the public health representative on the Toxic Use Reduction Advisory Committee (Mass. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs). Sam has organized Cambridge Biosafety Forums in 2002 and 2008 to train community members, biosafety professionals, and public health officials and co-organized the Risk Assessment for Nanomaterials: Current Developments and Trends in 2007 to educate occupational health and risk assessment professionals. Sam has led community stakeholder processes that have helped CPHD to generate policies on West Nile virus response, nanomaterials health and safety, and an expansion of biosafety oversight authority held by the Cambridge Biosafety Committee.
With cooperation from Harvard and MIT faculty and staff at the Museum of Science Sam has staged a series of local air quality studies in Cambridge that have utilized community volunteers and graduate students to examine pervasive air quality on a much smaller scale than offered by existing regulatory infrastructure. This has led to publications and grant awards to support further work. A primary goal of this research is the development of community-based air quality monitoring strategies capable of producing longitudinal, high quality data that will assist the municipality to generate health -sustaining policies for transportation and land-use. The recently completed study of bicycle commuter routes has produced data that indicates the relative burden of vehicle pollution on cyclists. Prior to coming to the CPHD, Sam was an analytical chemist in Massachusetts and California. He holds a B.S. from the University of California Berkeley and completed his M.S. coursework at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Rebecca Herst is Senior Climate Project Manager for UMass and the Boston Harbor Association. She will join us to talk about The Boston Harbor Association's work on climate resillance for highly vulnerable harbor communities. Her full profile is here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccaherst
If your organization is interested in co-hosting this event or a future BASG event, please contact carolbaroudi[at]bostonareasustainability.org.
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Opportunity
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This Summer there will be a special issue of the journal Socialism and Democracy (http://sdonline.org/) on Energy Transition, with an emphasis on renewable energy, including wind, solar, and biomass.
We are looking for reviewers of one or more articles. We are also seeking people who could send us reviews of relevant books, for this issue.
Weimin Tchen
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Solarize Somerville is a go!
Hello neighbors--
On this cold winter day, I'm delighted to share the sunny news that Somerville MA has been chosen by the MassCEC (Clean Energy Center) to be a Solarize Mass community! You can see the announcement here:
State energy officials today announced the selection of the first five communities to participate in Solarize Mass for 2016. The new municipalities participating in the community-based solar energy group-buying program that lowers overall costs of installing solar electric systems include Somerville and Natick, as well as Shelburne, Colrain and Conway, which have joined as a trio of partner communities....
You can learn more about the MassCEC and the SolarizeMass program at: www.solarizemass.com .
As the announcement has just been made, we don't have a lot of additional information at this time. But this selection means that we can now work with the city and the state to help residents of Somerville to decide if solar is a suitable option for them and their homes or businesses. We'll be developing and sharing educational materials, we'll have events to help people learn more and get questions answered, and we will help people to understand the processes associated with generating local, artisanal electrons.
Officially I'm the "Solar Coach" for Somerville. I am a point of contact to help people with basic solar PV issues and incentives. I'm working with folks from the city who will manage the overall project. This is a joint effort by the Office of Sustainability and Environment, with director Oliver Sellers-Garcia, and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development with Russell Koty.
As a Coach, I am a volunteer organizer and am not authorized to speak as a spokesperson on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts or MassCEC. My job is to help people to understand the program once it's in place, and to answer questions that my neighbors may have as they consider the options. Things outside of my wheelhouse will be directed to the folks who can answer them.
You can contact me here with questions, or soon we'll have some information resources with more details. If you might want to volunteer to be on the outreach team. let me know.
Mary Mangan
Solar Coach Volunteer
[vendors should not contact me, I'm not supposed to have contact with them prior to the proposal process]
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Where is the best yogurt on the planet made? Somerville, of course!
Join the Somerville Yogurt Making Cooperative and get a weekly quart of the most thick, creamy, rich and tart yogurt in the world. Membership in the coop costs $2.50 per quart. Members share the responsibility for making yogurt in our kitchen located just outside of Davis Sq. in FirstChurch. No previous yogurt making experience is necessary.
For more information checkout.
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Cambridge Residents: Free Home Thermal Images
Have you ever wanted to learn where your home is leaking heat by having an energy auditor come to your home with a thermal camera? With that info you then know where to fix your home so it's more comfortable and less expensive to heat. However, at $200 or so, the cost of such a thermal scan is a big chunk of change.
HEET Cambridge has now partnered with Sagewell, Inc. to offer Cambridge residents free thermal scans.
Sagewell collects the thermal images by driving through Cambridge in a hybrid vehicle equipped with thermal cameras. They will scan every building in Cambridge (as long as it's not blocked by trees or buildings or on a private way). Building owners can view thermal images of their property and an analysis online. The information is password protected so that only the building owner can see the results.
Homeowners, condo-owners and landlords can access the thermal images and an accompanying analysis free of charge. Commercial building owners and owners of more than one building will be able to view their images and analysis for a small fee.
The scans will be analyzed in the order they are requested.
Go to Sagewell.com. Type in your address at the bottom where it says "Find your home or building" and press return. Then click on "Here" to request the report.
That's it. When the scans are done in a few weeks, your building will be one of the first to be analyzed. The accompanying report will help you understand why your living room has always been cold and what to do about it.
With knowledge, comes power (or in this case saved power and money, not to mention comfort).
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Free solar electricity analysis for MA residents
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HEET has partnered with NSTAR and Mass Save participating contractor Next Step Living to deliver no-cost Home Energy Assessments to Cambridge residents.
During the assessment, the energy specialist will:
Install efficient light bulbs (saving up to 7% of your electricity bill)
Install programmable thermostats (saving up to 10% of your heating bill)
Install water efficiency devices (saving up to 10% of your water bill)
Check the combustion safety of your heating and hot water equipment
Evaluate your home’s energy use to create an energy-efficiency roadmap
If you get electricity from NSTAR, National Grid or Western Mass Electric, you already pay for these assessments through a surcharge on your energy bills. You might as well use the service.
Please sign up at http://nextsteplivinginc.com/heet/?outreach=HEET or call Next Step Living at 866-867-8729. A Next Step Living Representative will call to schedule your assessment.
HEET will help answer any questions and ensure you get all the services and rebates possible.
(The information collected will only be used to help you get a Home Energy Assessment. We won’t keep the data or sell it.)
(If you have any questions or problems, please feel free to call HEET’s Jason Taylor at 617 441 0614.)
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Resource
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Sustainable Business Network Local Green Guide
SBN is excited to announce the soft launch of its new Local Green Guide, Massachusetts' premier Green Business Directory!
To view the directory please visit: http://www.localgreenguide.org
To find out how how your business can be listed on the website or for sponsorship opportunities please contact Adritha at adritha@sbnboston.org
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Free Monthly Energy Analysis
CarbonSalon is a free service that every month can automatically track your energy use and compare it to your past energy use (while controlling for how cold the weather is). You get a short friendly email that lets you know how you’re doing in your work to save energy.
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Boston Food System
"The Boston Food System [listserv] provides a forum to post announcements of events, employment opportunities, internships, programs, lectures, and other activities as well as related articles or other publications of a non-commercial nature covering the area's food system - food, nutrition, farming, education, etc. - that take place or focus on or around Greater Boston (broadly delineated)."
The Boston area is one of the most active nationwide in terms of food system activities - projects, services, and events connected to food, farming, nutrition - and often connected to education, public health, environment, arts, social services and other arenas. Hundreds of organizations and enterprises cover our area, but what is going on week-to-week is not always well publicized.
Hence, the new Boston Food System listserv, as the place to let everyone know about these activities. Specifically:
Use of the BFS list will begin soon, once we get a decent base of subscribers. Clarification of what is appropriate to announce and other posting guidelines will be provided as well.
It's easy to subscribe right now at https://elist.tufts.edu/wws/subscribe/bfs
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The Boston Network for International Development (BNID) maintains a website (BNID.org) that serves as a clearing-house for information on organizations, events, and jobs related to international development in the Boston area. BNID has played an important auxiliary role in fostering international development activities in the Boston area, as witnessed by the expanding content of the site and a significant growth in the number of users.
The website contains:
A calendar of Boston area events and volunteer opportunities related to International Development
A jobs board that includes both internships and full time positions related to International Development that is updated daily - http://www.bnid.org/jobs
A directory and descriptions of more than 250 Boston-area organizations - http://www.bnid.org/organizations
Also, please sign up for our weekly newsletter (we promise only one email per week) to get the most up-to-date information on new job and internship opportunities -www.bnid.org/sign-up
The website is completely free for students and our goal is to help connect students who are interested in international development with many of the worthwhile organizations in the area.
Please feel free to email our organization at info@bnid.org if you have any questions!
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Artisan Asylum http://artisansasylum.com/
Sprout & Co: Community Driven Investigations http://thesprouts.org/
Greater Boston Solidarity Economy Mapping Project http://www.transformationcentral.org/solidarity/mapping/mapping.html
a project by Wellesley College students that invites participation, contact jmatthaei@wellesley.edu
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Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/
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Links to events at 60 colleges and universities at Hubevents http://hubevents.blogspot.com
Thanks to
Fred Hapgood's Selected Lectures on Science and Engineering in the Boston Area: http://www.BostonScienceLectures.com
MIT Events: http://events.mit.edu
MIT Energy Club: http://mitenergyclub.org/calendar
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://www.environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Mass Climate Action: http://www.massclimateaction.net/calendar
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
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