Sunday, February 12, 2017

Energy (and Other) Events - February 12, 2017

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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Monday, February 13
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12pm  PAOC Colloquium - Susan Solomon (MIT)
12pm  The Brazilian Power Sector
12:10pm  Darwin’s “Damned Land”, A.K.A. Patagonia: A paleo(neo)botanist’s paradise
12:15pm  Making Livable Natures: Caring for Wetlands in Turkey
12:30pm  A Decade of Science Diplomacy: Stories of Gender, Climate & Tech
12:30pm  SPURS: People, Power, and Change: Marshall Ganz
4pm  Public Relations and Communications Essentials for Scientists
5pm  Polynesian Voyaging Society
5:30pm  Residential Green Building Committee Meeting
6pm  ACT MONDAY NIGHT LECTURE SERIES
6pm  World Economic Forum Debriefing
6:30pm  INHABIT FILM SCREENING
7pm  Darwin Day film "Flock of Dodos" with Randy Olson in Q&A

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Tuesday, February 14
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12pm  Hyperloop Law: Autonomy, Infrastructure, and Transportation Startups
12pm  Putting Marine Plant Diversity on the Map: Phylogenetic Biogeography in the World’s Oceans
12pm  Lunch seminar with Richard Schragger, author of "City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age”
12:30pm  Why Do Voters Elect Celebrities? Evidence from Japan
12:30pm  CDD Lecture: Rebuilding Ground Zero with Lynne Sagalyn
4pm  Secrets of the Human Genome:  45th James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award Lecture
4pm  Bobby Seale in conversation with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
4:15pm  Moving EPA Forward in an “Unhealthy” Climate
4:15pm  Juliet Eilperin and Chris Mooney: Climate, Energy & the Media in the Age of Trump
5pm  Authoritarian and Democratic Data Science
5:30pm  Mexico's energy reform: Foundation, implementation, and challenges ahead
postponed 6pm  Architecture Criticism in the Age of Twitter
6:30pm  Plankton: The Humble Base of the Ocean Ecosystem
6:30pm  Before the Flood
7pm  The Book That Changed America:  How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation

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Wednesday, February 15
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7:30am  Boston Sustainability Breakfast
11am  MIT's 43rd Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
12pm  Hidden in Plain Sight: Escalation Control and the Covert Side of the Vietnam War
3:30pm  Molecular design of soft matters as anticancer therapeutics or active materials
4pm  Robotic Exploration and Sampling of the Midwater Ocean
4:15pm  Shedding Light: Understanding Energy Efficiency and Electricity Reliability
6pm  ArtScience Talks @ Le Lab: William M. Shih, PhD
6pm  The Food System: Sustainability, Health, and Equity
6:30pm  Lego-Style Construction of Future Therapeutics From DNA
6:30pm  Media "lightning talks": Cool projects, research & tools
6:30pm  Building The Structure: MCAN Advanced Sanctuary Network Training
7pm  SEED: The Untold Story
7pm  2017 AAAS Science Film Showcase

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Thursday, February 16 - Monday, February 20
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AAAS Annual Meeting

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Thursday, February 16
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8:30am  STEX Workshop - Cybersecurity
8am  Microgrid & DER Controller Symposium
11:45am  William Clark on Pursuing Sustainability: A Guide to the Science and Practice
12pm  Navigating the tangle of history, values, and science in urban deer management
12pm  STL Lab China Talk Series:  "Ghost" Towns? Why 50 Million Housing Units in China are Vacant
12:15pm  Why Nuclear Energy Programs Rarely Lead to Proliferation
1pm  The Future of Transportation, a Boston View
3pm  Martin Shkreli at UMass Boston
4pm  Breaking Through: How Political Leaders Communicate with the American People in Today’s Noisy, Fragmented, Polarized Media Environment
4pm  Science & Environment: A Journalist's Perspective
5pm  Authoritarian and Democratic Data Science in an Experimenting Society
5:30pm  Askwith Forums - A Book, a Page, a World: The Artistic Journey of an Author and an Illustrator
5:30pm  Smart Cities: Building Tech Forum 2017
5:45pm  Film Screening: “Containment"
6pm  Symbiosis and the Evolution of Life in the Ocean
6pm  I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us 
6pm  Rational Middle Series: Finding Energy's Rational Middle
6pm  Boston New Technology February 2017 Startup Showcase #BNT74
6:30pm  Fletcher Disrupts: Networking
7pm  Systematic:  How Systems Biology Is Transforming Modern Medicine

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Friday, February 17
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9am  The Rise of the Quantified Athlete: An Experiential Forum on the Future of Athletic Performance
12pm  Film Screening: [intensifies]
4:15pm  Invention, Entrepreneurship, & Sustainability: A Panel Discussion on Building Sustainable Businesses

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Saturday, February 18
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11am  Urban Homesteading Festival

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Sunday, February 19
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12pm  Rally to Stand Up For Science
2pm  Panel Dialogue among Science & Technology Advisors to Foreign Ministers

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Monday, February 20
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12pm  The KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy Brown-Bag Lunch

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Tuesday, February 21
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8:30am  Residential Solar Energy Systems
12pm  PAOC Colloquium - David Archer (U Chicago) 
12pm  Internet Designers as Policy-Makers
12pm  Ethnophytotechnology: Harnessing the Drug Discovery Potential of Ethnobotany with Biotechnology
1:30pm  Downwind of the Flames: Investigating the Impact of Wildfires on U.S. Air Quality
4:30pm  Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar: "Which Way for U.S.-Iran Relations under Trump -- and within the Middle East Cauldron?”
5:30pm  Tales from the Fields Event
6:30pm  Sylvester Baxter Lecture: Kate Orff, “Toward an Urban Ecology”
6:30pm  2017 Marketing Trends: Fad or Future?
6:30pm  Generation Revolution

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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:

Resist Meetup Groups

DataRescue Boston Hackathon (and National Contact)

Propaganda

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Monday, February 13
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PAOC Colloquium - Susan Solomon (MIT)
Monday, February 13
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge

Speaker:  Susan Solomon, MIT
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. 2016/2017 co-ordinators: Tom Beucler (tbeucler@mit.edu), Deepa Rao (drao@mit.edu), Madeleine Youngs (myoungs@mit.edu) and Catherine Wilka (cwilka@mit.edu)

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The Brazilian Power Sector
Monday, February 13
12pm – 1:30pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

Mauricio Tolmasquim, Visiting Fellow, Harvard Electricity Policy Group, Professor, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and former President of Brazil’s Empresa de Pesquisa Energética (Energy Research Company) 

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Darwin’s “Damned Land”, A.K.A. Patagonia: A paleo(neo)botanist’s paradise
Monday, February 13
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Boston

Maria A. Gandolfo-Nixon, Senior Research Associate, Cornell University

Contact Name:  arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu

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Making Livable Natures: Caring for Wetlands in Turkey
Monday, February 13
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, K262, Bowie-Vernon Room, CGIS, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge

Caterina Scaramelli (MIT, HASTS).
Sandwich lunch is provided. RSVP required. 

STS Circle at Harvard 

The Harvard STS Circle is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Contact Name:  Shana Ashar

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A Decade of Science Diplomacy: Stories of Gender, Climate & Tech
Monday, February 13
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Tufts, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford

Join us to discuss the potential of science as a diplomatic tool with Dr. Frances Colón, 2012-2017 Deputy Science & Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State. Dr. Colón will discuss her decade of science diplomacy work at the State Department around a pizza lunch. She has worked on scientific collaboration with Cuba, global advancement of women in science as well as climate change policy for the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas. This talk is in partnership with "Global Women”, the "Fletcher Latin American Group” (FLAG) and the "Fletcher Energy and Environment Club” (FLEEC). Please find below for a quick biography and overview of her work. 

"Dr. Frances Colón is the former Deputy Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State at the U.S. Department of State (2012-2017). In this role she promoted integration of science and technology into foreign policy dialogues; global advancement of women in science; and innovation as a tool for economic growth around the world. In her role as a science diplomat, Dr. Colón led reengagement of scientific collaboration with Cuba and coordinated climate change policy for the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas announced by President Obama. Dr. Colón is a graduate of the National Hispana Leadership Institute, fellow of the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program and delegate to the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Young Leaders Forum. She is recipient of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s 2015 Inspira Award and a Google Science Fair judge. In 2016, Dr. Colón was named one of the 20 most influential Latinos in technology. Dr. Colón earned her Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2004 from Brandeis University and her B.S. in Biology in 1997 from the University of Puerto Rico."

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SPURS: People, Power, and Change: Marshall Ganz
Monday, February 13
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-451, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Lunch provided at 12:15 

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, SPURS
For more information, contact:  pfoley@mit.edu 

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Public Relations and Communications Essentials for Scientists
Monday, February 13
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST
Tufts Medical School, Jaharis Room 508, 150 Harrison Avenue, Boston

Join the Tufts Boston PR team for an overview of research-focused public relations. We will discuss how to get public attention for your research (and why it’s important to do so), what makes a good news story, how to work with the public relations team and journalists, and how to effectively communicate your science to general audiences.

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Polynesian Voyaging Society
Monday, February 13
5:00PM
Radcliffe, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge

a lecture by Kaleomanuiwa Wong
Introduction by John Huth, Codirector of the science program at the Radcliffe Institute and Donner Professor of Science in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

In 1976, the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa became the first canoe in more than 600 years to navigate traditionally, unaided by instruments, from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti. Forty-one years later, Hōkūleʻa continues her three-year, worldwide voyage established to create global relationships and explore how to care for our oceans and Island Earth. Sailing in the wake of our ancestors, the canoes carry a message of mālama honua, caring for Island Earth and each other. Using our canoes as a platform, we hope to bridge cultural tradition and modern technology, timeless values and new visions, and to inspire the next generation of leaders to build sustainable solutions for Island Earth’s future.

This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 4:45 p.m.; lecture begins at 5 p.m.

Part of the 2016–2017 Oceans Lecture Series. A larger, one-day public symposium on the topic took place on Friday, October 28, 2016.

Oceans Lecture Series


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Residential Green Building Committee Meeting
Monday, February 13
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
50 Milk St, 15th Floor "Aristotle" Conference Room, Boston

The Residential Green Building Committee is focused on improving the housing stock of the Commonwealth by championing green building practices in our communities. Join us on the second Monday of each month to be a part of the movement.

Residential Green Building Committee 
The committee’s objectives are to work to raise the awareness of the benefits of residential green building and remodeling and to increase the quantity of projects registering for LEED for Homes. The committee, through education and outreach, will focus on the following:
Hold across MA, Lunch and LEED, education sessions and tours on topics such as Zero Net Energy, Deep Energy Retrofits and REGREEN
Help the community understand and implement LEED for Homes and residential green building, remodeling and retrofits
Ensure that our target markets are aware of available green building tools and resources
Partner with other Green Building Programs
Establish a collaborative relationship with a professional and/or community organizations
Develop case studies and green residential building content for the USGBC MA website

Committee Meetings
Please contact Kimberly Le (le.kimberly.c@gmail.com) if you are interested in joining this committee or plan on attending an upcoming meeting.

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ACT MONDAY NIGHT LECTURE SERIES
Monday, February 13
6:00p–8:00p
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Wiesner Building, Cambridge

Speaker: JILL MAGID
ACT Lecture Series

artworld agent, agent of social change 
counter-intel, counter-aesthesis 
insinuation, infiltration 
artist, provocateur 

What makes a double agent in art? What drives them? ACT's Spring 2017 Monday Night Lecture Series, Double Agents, invites three renowned artists whose respective works provoke and thrive in the tension between competing systems of power, production, and exhibition. At play in these discussions is the role of ethics in political art amidst shifting forms of governance, suppression, and repression.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public 
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology, CAMIT
For more information, contact:  Marion Cunningham
617-253-5229

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World Economic Forum Debriefing
Monday, February 13
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
swissnex Boston, Consulate of Switzerland, 420 Broadway, Cambridge

This year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos was launched under the motto Responsive and Responsible Leadership. Global leaders from economics, government, international organizations, academia and civil society met and engaged in strategic discussions in over 400 sessions.
We are pleased to invite you to a unique event, where Boston-area participants to this year’s Forum in Davos will share their impressions of the principal outcomes and trends they observed at the meeting. From new models of innovation, to the impact of technology on society, to the latest international business and geo-political currents, this will be an opportunity access these experts‘ knowledge, and to share discourse in areas of special interest.
The panelists will give in-depth insights into the fields of life sciences, clean tech, and geopolitics. The panel will be followed by a moderated discussion with audience participation.

Event program
6.00pm Doors Open
6.30pm Welcome and Introduction followed by panel discussion
9.00pm End of the Event

Bio Moderator
Paul Smyke is the Head of North America, Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum US. He holds a bachelor degree in Speech Communication from Macalester College and a master degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Smyke has been with the World Economic Forum since 1987, holding a number of roles across the organization both in Geneva and New York. He is currently in charge of developing and implementing the Forum’s engagement strategy with North American stakeholders, with special emphasis on political entities in the United States and Canada. This involves frequent contact with all Forum constituents in the region. Smyke has served as a political analyst (often in French) for several European media networks, and is on the advisory boards of swissnex Boston and the Open Learning Exchange, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Bio Panelists
Jessika Trancik, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Energy Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute. She received her BS in materials science and engineering from Cornell University and her PhD in materials science from the University of Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. Before MIT, she spent several years at the Santa Fe Institute as an Omidyar Fellow, and at Columbia University as an Earth Institute Fellow, where her research focused on energy systems modeling. Her research group studies the dynamic costs and environmental impacts of energy technologies to inform technology design and policy. Prof. Trancik’s research centers on evaluating the environmental impacts and costs of energy technologies, and setting design targets to help accelerate the development of these technologies in the laboratory. This work involves assembling and analyzing expansive datasets, and developing new quantitative models and theory. Projects focus on electricity and transportation, with an emphasis on solar energy conversion and storage technologies.

Daniel L. Shapiro, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Law School and is founder and director of the Harvard International Negotiation Program, associate professor in psychology at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital, and affiliate faculty at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. His pioneering research focuses on how to address the emotional and identity-based dimensions of negotiation and conflict resolution. He is author of Negotiating the Nonnegotiable and co-author (with Roger Fisher) of Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate. He has published extensively in the research literature, developing innovative psychological models to conceptualize the affective and relational factors driving conflict and its resolution. Dr. Shapiro specializes in practice-based research—building theory and testing it in real-world contexts. He has launched successful conflict resolution initiatives in the Middle East, Europe, and East Asia. For three years he chaired the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Conflict Resolution.

David Cox, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and of Computer Science at Harvard. He is an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and also Computer Science. He is also a member of the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University. He completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT with a specialization in computational neuroscience. Prior to joining MCB/CBS, he was a Junior Fellow at the Rowland Institute at Harvard, a multidisciplinary institute focused on high-risk, high-reward scientific research at the boundaries of traditional fields. His laboratory seeks to understand the computational underpinnings of high-level visual processing through concerted efforts in both reverse- and forward-engineering. To this end, his group employs a wide range of experimental techniques (ranging from microelectrode recordings in living brains to visual psychophysics in humans) to probe natural systems, while at the same time actively developing practical computer vision systems based on what is learned about the brain.

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INHABIT FILM SCREENING
Monday, February 13
6:30 PM to 9:00 PM (EST)
The Rockwell, 255 Elm Street, Somerville

Strengthening our local communities is a primary step in addressing climate change. We have the resources in our neighborhoods to be resilient in the face of food insecurity, soil loss, social injustice, energy costs, waste, and pollution. Permaculture is a positive message for change and provides a framework to help us address complex issues with simple human-centered solutions that build on each other.

On February 13th at 6:30pm, Green Cambridge, Somerville Climate Action, and Soil4Climate will present the documentary film Inhabit at The Rockwell theatre in Davis Square. This award-winning movie explores permaculture through the lens of rural, suburban, and urban landscapes--many of them right in here in the Boston area. In addition, permaculture expert Andrew Faust of the Center for Bioregional Living and Seth Itzkan of Soil4Climate will host a short discussion immediately afterward.


Donations accepted at the door. Theatre is wheelchair accessible via elevator. Beer and wine will be available for sale, but the event is all ages. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Darwin Day film "Flock of Dodos" with Randy Olson in Q&A
Monday, February 13
7:00p–9:00p
MIT, Buidling 4-237, 182 Memorial Drive, rear, Cambridge

In celebration of Darwin Day, we will be screening "Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus", a documentary film by marine biologist and filmmaker Randy Olson. 
"Flock of Dodos" puts "intelligent design" claims under a critical microscope, but it also shines a harsh spotlight on the scientific community's tactical inefficiency in communicating the case for evolution by natural selection to the public. 
Dr Olson himself will join us in a video call right after the film, for a live audience Q&A session. 

We will serve attendees tea and a special Darwinian birthday cake. This and attendance are free of charge. 

There will be some time afterwards for socializing at the venue. Those of legal age and wishing to continue the discussion after we wrap up are welcome to join us at The Muddy Charles pub in The Walker Memorial building at 142 Memorial Drive (valid 21+ age id, cash only). 


Sign up for email event alerts at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/ssomit-announce 
Facebook: facebook.com/SecularSocietyOfMIT 
Twitter: twitter.com/SecularMIT 
Newsletter: ssomit.blogspot.com 
Website: ssomit.mit.edu 
Contact: ssomit@mit.edu

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Secular Society
For more information, contact:  Secular Society Exec

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Tuesday, February 14
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Hyperloop Law: Autonomy, Infrastructure, and Transportation Startups
Tuesday, February 14
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Room B010, Singer Classroom (lower level), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/02/Ammori at 12:00 pm

featuring General Counsel of Hyperloop One, Marvin Ammori
This event is co-sponsored by Harvard Journal of Law & Technology and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

In 2013, Elon Musk proposed an "open source transportation concept" of levitating vehicles zooming passengers through vacuum tubes at 760 miles an hour. It would be weatherproof, energy-efficient, relatively inexpensive, have autonomous controls.Its impact on urban and inter-city transport could reshape economies and families. 

Since Musk's proposal, a company in Los Angeles, Hyperloop One, has secured 160 million in financing, hired 220 employees, and began engineering and testing to make the hyperloop concept a reality. But engineers aren't the company's only inventors. A hyperloop transport system is so different from an airplane, train, or bus that a new legal regime is necessary. Lawyers and government officials in the US, Dubai, and elsewhere have been working on creating a new framework that could govern the deployment of hyperloop systems. 

Hyperloop One General Counsel Marvin Ammori will discuss the challenges and opportunities for crafting this new legal framework.

About Marvin
As General Counsel of Hyperloop One, Marvin lead the legal team and served on the senior business leadership. Hyperloop One is working to make ultra-highspeed ground transportation a reality. The legal and business issues they deal with include infrastructure finance, procurement, regulatory, transactions, and everything else. Their team includes five lawyers.

Before joining Hyperloop One, Marvin spent over a decade representing top technology giants and startups concerning their most important legal issues. He led the pro-net neutrality coalitions. He advised Google in its antitrust investigation, Apple in its disagreement with the FBI over iPhone encryption, and many in the tech community to kill SOPA. From 2011 to 2015, he did this as the head of his own firm representing companies including Google, Apple, Dropbox, and SoftBank, and startups like OpenDNS and Layer. Before that, he represented advocacy groups, including leading the Comcast-BitTorrent case as general counsel of Free Press, which is among the most important litigations concerning Internet policy in the past two decades. In 2014-2015, he led the fight to Title II for net neutrality, organizing hundreds of companies and nonprofits, and helped secure a victory on appeal against administrative and first-impression constitutional challenges. 

Marvin has been named among Politico's 50 visionaries for 2015, Fast Company's 100 Most Creative in Business in 2012, a Washingtonian Magazine "Tech Titan" in 2015, and has also been profiled on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has published in the Harvard Law Review, Foreign Affairs, and the New York Times, and appeared as an expert on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox, and testified before several government agencies around the world. 

A former law professor, Marvin has written on First Amendment theory. His article "First Amendment Architecture" sets out my primary arguments. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2003, cum laude.

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Putting Marine Plant Diversity on the Map: Phylogenetic Biogeography in the World’s Oceans
Tuesday, February 14
12:00pm to 1:00pm
Harvard, HUH Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Ave, Cambridge

Barnabas Daru, HUH Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

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Lunch seminar with Richard Schragger, author of "City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age”
WHEN  Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, 12 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Suite 200N, 124 Mt Auburn Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Education
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
SPEAKER(S)  Richard Schragger, author of "City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age”
COST  Free
DETAILS  The Ash Center cordially invites you to a lunch seminar with with Richard Schragger, author of City Power: Urban Governance in a Global Age. This seminar will be moderated by Quinton Mayne, Associate Professor of Public Policy at HKS. Lunch will be provided.

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Why Do Voters Elect Celebrities? Evidence from Japan
WHEN  Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, 12:30 – 2 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Bowie-Vernon Room (K262), CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
SPEAKER(S)  Justin Reeves, Postdoctoral Fellow, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University; Assistant Professor of Political Science, Southern Methodist University (2017-)
Moderated by Susan Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and Director, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
COST  Free and open to the public

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CDD Lecture: Rebuilding Ground Zero with Lynne Sagalyn
Tuesday, February 14
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Lynne Sagalyn
Lynne Sagalyn is the author of Power At Ground Zero. Power At Ground Zero is the definitive account of the reconstruction of Ground Zero in Manhattan. Power At Ground Zero analyzes the full scope of the rebuilding effort and places the emphasis on the true drivers: real estate money and political power.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Department of Urban Studies and Planning, City Design and Development
For more information, contact:  Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024

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Secrets of the Human Genome:  45th James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award Lecture
Tuesday, February 14
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 10-250, Huntington Hall, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Professor Eric Lander, Department of Biology and President and Founding Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Eric Lander, a biologist widely known for his work in mapping the human genome, has been named the recipient of the 2016-2017 James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award. 

Professor Lander greatly influenced science policy during his tenure as co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which advises the White House, and he is highly regarded at MIT as a teacher, leader, and mentor. His teaching contributions include co-developing MIT's Introductory Biology course in 1991-1992, together with Professor Emerita Nancy Hopkins. 

Open to: the general public
Cost: None 
Sponsor(s): Information Center, Provost's Office, Killian Award Committee
For more information, contact:  Joe Coen
617-253-4795

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Bobby Seale in conversation with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
WHEN  Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, 4 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Tsai Auditorium, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
SPEAKER(S)  National Organizer of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale
Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
COST  Free & open to the public
DETAILS  A reception will follow the talk.

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Moving EPA Forward in an “Unhealthy” Climate
WHEN  Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Littauer 166, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S)  Gina McCarthy, Former EPA Administrator
COST  Free and Open to the Public
DETAILS  Can you get good things done in government these days?
We will discuss what it takes to make progress as a public servant working at the local, state and federal levels in today’s “unhealthy” climate. What skills, temperament and background are necessary to survive as a political appointee in the hot seat in an era of charged political rhetoric, fake news and alternative facts.

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Juliet Eilperin and Chris Mooney: Climate, Energy & the Media in the Age of Trump
Tuesday, February 14
4:15 pm - 6:00 pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, Belfer Building, 5th Floor, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

Sponsored by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Environment and Natural Resources Program and the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Featuring speakers:
Juliet Eilperin, White House bureau chief, The Washington Post
Chris Mooney, Energy & Environment reporter, The Washington Post

Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post’s White House bureau chief, covering domestic and foreign policy as well as the culture of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. She is the author of two books—one on sharks, and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other—and has worked for the Post since 1998. She previously served as the Post’s House of Representatives correspondent and national environmental reporter.

Chris Mooney writes about energy and the environment at The Washington Post. He previously worked at Mother Jones, where he wrote about science and the environment and hosted a weekly podcast. Chris spent a decade prior to that as a freelance writer, podcaster and speaker, with his work appearing in Wired, Harper’s, Slate, Legal Affairs, The Los Angeles Times, The Post and The Boston Globe, to name a few. Chris also has published four books about science and climate change.

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Authoritarian and Democratic Data Science
Tuesday, February 14
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

How will the role of data science in democracy be transformed as software expands the public's ability to conduct our own experiments at scale? In the 1940s-70s, debates over authoritarian uses of statistics led to new paradigms in social psychology, management theory, and policy evaluation. Today, large-scale social experiments and predictive modeling are reviving these debates. Technology platforms now conduct hundreds of undisclosed experiments per day on pricing and advertising, and the algorithms that shape our social lives remain opaque to to the public. Democratic methods for data science may offer an alternative to this corporate libertarian paternalism. 

In this talk, hear about the history and future of democratic social experimentation, from Kurt Lewin and Karl Popper to Donald Campbell. You'll also hear about CivilServant, software that supports communities to conduct their own experiments on algorithms and social behavior online. 

J. Nathan Matias is a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media, an affiliate at the Berkman-Klein Center at Harvard, and founder of CivilServant. He conducts independent, public interest research on flourishing, fair, and safe participation online. These include research on harassment reporting, volunteer moderation online, behavior change toward equality, social movements, and networks of gratitude.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact:  Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490

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Mexico's energy reform: Foundation, implementation, and challenges ahead
Tuesday, February 14
5:30p–7:00p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Lourdes Melgar
In this talk, Melgar will outline the historic energy reform Mexico approved at the constitutional level in December 2013 and will provide an update on the implementation and challenges ahead. This reform, referred to as an energy revolution, aims at increasing Mexico???s energy security while mitigating climate change. It entails the creation of energy markets in the hydrocarbons and power sectors and the participation of private investors in all the activities of the energy sector. The implementation is moving ahead with bidding processes in the upstream, as well as in the power sector. Melgar will address the challenges Mexico faces as it consolidates its new energy model.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): MIT Energy Initiative
For more information, contact:  MITEI Events

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Plankton: The Humble Base of the Ocean Ecosystem
Tuesday, February 14
6:30 PM
Belmont Media Center, 9 Lexington Street, Belmont

Christopher Bowler, Ph.D., CNRS Director of Research at the Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris; scientific coordinator of the Tara Oceans expedition; 2016-2017 Grass Fellow at Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Research (Harvard). CNRS = Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, is the largest governmental research organization in France, and the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. Bowler group at Tara (European Molecular Biology Laboratory)

Dr. Bowler's research focus is a group of marine phytoplankton known as diatoms, and his projects involve a worldwide genetic analysis of ocean plankton. This work has produced the most complete picture to date of the diversity of plankton species. Plankton represent the foundation of the marine food chain. As such, their vitality determines the health of the ocean ecosystems in general. For this reason,there is much concern and interest in the impact of climate change and environmental pollution on the global ocean. Dr Bowler studies the genetic effects of environmental changes on ancient diatoms in an effort to predict the ability of today's plankton to adapt to anticipated stress caused by climate change. To analyze the evolutionary record he gathers plankton fossils from deep ocean deposits around the world.

Dr. Bowler is a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). His awards include a Silver Medal from the CNRS (Centre Nationnal de la Recherche Scientifique) in 2010 and a Fondation Louis D. Grand Prix from the Institut de France in 2015.

Contemporary Science Issues and Innovations

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Before the Flood
Tuesday, February 14
6:30 PM 
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge

After the screening, the MIT Clean Energy Prize team will be available to chat about "Energy for Developing Economies" track, along with free snacks. The event will take place in MIT movie theater 26-100. Please find attached a poster promoting this event. Information on the film is below:


FILM SYNOPSIS
If you could know the truth about the threat of climate change — would you want to know? Before the Flood, presented by National Geographic, features Leonardo DiCaprio on a journey as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, traveling to five continents and the Arctic to witness climate change firsthand. He goes on expeditions with scientists uncovering the reality of climate change and meets with political leaders fighting against inaction. He also discovers a calculated disinformation campaign orchestrated by powerful special interests working to confuse the public about the urgency of the growing climate crisis. With unprecedented access to thought leaders around the world, DiCaprio searches for hope in a rising tide of catastrophic news.

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The Book That Changed America:  How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation
Tuesday, February 14
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Harvard Book Store welcomes the award-winning author of From Battlefields Rising: How the Civil War Transformed American Literature RANDALL FULLER for a discussion of his latest book, The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation.
About The Book That Changed America

In early 1860, a single copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was read and discussed by five important American intellectuals who seized on the book’s assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery. The book first came into the hands of Harvard botanist Asa Gray, who would lead the fight for the theory in America. Gray passed his heavily annotated copy to the child welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace, who saw value in natural selection’s premise that mankind was destined to progressive improvement. Brace then introduced the book to three other friends: Franklin Sanborn, a key supporter of the abolitionist John Brown, who grasped that Darwin’s depiction of constant struggle and endless competition perfectly described America in 1860, especially the ongoing conflict between pro- and antislavery forces; the philosopher Bronson Alcott, who resisted Darwin’s insights as a threat to transcendental idealism; and Henry David Thoreau, who used Darwin’s theory to redirect the work he would pursue till the end of his life regarding species migration and the interconnectedness of nature.  

The Book That Changed America offers a fascinating narrative account of these prominent figures as they grappled over the course of that year with Darwin’s dangerous hypotheses. In doing so, it provides new perspectives on America prior to the Civil War, showing how Darwin’s ideas become potent ammunition in the debate over slavery and helped advance the cause of abolition by giving it scientific credibility.

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Wednesday, February 15
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Boston Sustainability Breakfast
Wednesday, February 15
7:30 AM – 8:30 AM EST
Pret A Manger, 101 Arch Street, Boston

Join us every month for Net Impact Boston's informal breakfast meetup of sustainability professionals for networking, discussion and moral support. It's important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there in the business world trying to do good! Feel free to drop by any time between 7:30 and 8:30 am.

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MIT's 43rd Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wednesday, February 15
11:00a–1:00p
MIT, Building 50, 142 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

Speaker: Aprille Joy Ericsson, PhD
Celebrate Dr. King with the MIT community featuring Dr. Aprille Ericsson (NASA) as our Keynote speaker. Program begins at 11:00 am and lunch will be served at 12:30 pm.

Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): Political Science, Institute Community & Equity Office
For more information, contact:  Tobie Weiner
617-253-3649

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Hidden in Plain Sight: Escalation Control and the Covert Side of the Vietnam War
Wednesday, February 15
12:00p–12:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Austin Carson

SSP Wednesday Seminar

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:  Elina Hamilton
617-253-7529

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Molecular design of soft matters as anticancer therapeutics or active materials
Wednesday, February 15
3:30p–4:45pm
REFRESHMENTS 3:00 PM
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Prof. Bing Xu, Department of Chemistry, Brandeis University

MIT Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM) Seminar Series 
PPSM sponsors a series of seminars covering a broad range of topics of general interest to the polymer community, featuring speakers from both on and off campus. We invite the polymer community at MIT and elsewhere to participate. For further information, contact Professor Jeremiah Johnson at jaj2109@mit.edu. All talks take place on Wednesdays.

Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): MIT Program in Polymers and Soft Matter (PPSM)
For more information, contact:  Gregory Sands
(617) 253-0949

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Robotic Exploration and Sampling of the Midwater Ocean
Wednesday, February 15
4:00PM TO 5:00PM
Harvard, Rm. 330, Wyss Institute, 60 Oxford Street, Cambridge 

The mesopelagic or “twilight zone” extends vertically in the ocean from about 200m to 1000m, the depth where sunlight ceases to penetrate. It is particularly under -explored and poorly understood due in large part to the logistical and technological challenges in accessing it. However, knowledge of this vast region is critical for many reasons, including understanding the global carbon cycle – and Earth’s climate - and for managing biological resources.

Engineers, biologists, and chemists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) are developing the Mesobot, a new class of deep-sea robot specifically focused on midwater science. The Mesobot will provide transformative imaging and sampling. At the core of its design is the ability to navigate a three-dimensional environment in a biomimetic fashion inspired by midwater animals like jellyfish and salps. The Mesobot also promises to be an ideal platform to apply biologically inspired robotic systems that are currently under development at the Wyss Institute. Other partners in the project include the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Stanford University, and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

This seminar will comprehensively review the specifics of the Mesobot, and present future research goals.


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Shedding Light: Understanding Energy Efficiency and Electricity Reliability
Wednesday, February 15
4:15PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Room L-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

Robyn Meeks, University of Michigan

Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy

Contact Name:  Jason Chapman

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ArtScience Talks @ Le Lab: William M. Shih, PhD
Wednesday, February 15
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM EST
Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 East Kendall Street, Cambridge

Lego-Style Construction of Future Therapeutics From DNA
Talk Curator > The Wyss Institute at Harvard University
Doors/Talk > 6:00pm/6:30pm

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The Food System: Sustainability, Health, and Equity
Wednesday, February 15
6 to 8 p.m.
Northeastern, West Village F, Room 20, 510 Parker Street, Boston

Leveraging Regional and Local
Cheryl Cronin, CEO, Boston Public Market 
Jenn Faigel, Commonwealth Kitchen
Karen Spiller, Food Solutions New England


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Lego-Style Construction of Future Therapeutics From DNA
Tuesday, February 15
6:30pm
Le Laboratoire Cambridge, 650 Kendall Street, Cambridge

WILLIAM SHIH, PhD.
The shape of a biomolecule largely determines its function in a cell. I will discuss how we can design and self-assemble custom molecular shapes out of building blocks made of DNA, and how these miniscule devices could have a profound impact on fields ranging from molecular biophysics to therapeutics to nano-optics for decades to come.

William Shih is a Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and the Department of Cancer Biology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. William studied Biochemical Sciences at Harvard for his A.B. (1990–1994) and Biochemistry at Stanford for his Ph.D. (1994–2000) He did a postdoctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute (2001–2004) and has since been back at Harvard as a faculty member.

William is overseeing an effort to apply Synthetic Biology approaches to the development of self-assembling DNA nanostructures and devices for use in biomedical applications. In addition to carrying genetic information, DNA is increasingly being explored for its use as a building material. This new process is called DNA origami because a long strand of DNA can be programmed to fold in on itself to create specific shapes, much as a single sheet of paper is folded to create a variety of designs in the traditional Japanese art. Using long biologically produced DNA strands to construct particles with precisely specified shapes, William is able to approximate a level of complexity that rivals that of the molecular machinery found in cells. To achieve structures of even greater complexity, his laboratory is pioneering methods for hierarchical assembly of these particles into three-dimensional networks with site-specific control over chemical functionalization and mechanical actuation. This work could lead to breakthroughs in manufacturing and medicine. For example, these incredibly tiny forms could be used as cogs in a machine for molecular manufacturing, optical reporters for bioimaging, and carriers for delivery of cancer drugs deep inside the body.

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Media "lightning talks": Cool projects, research & tools
Wednesday, February 15
6:30 PM
Northeastern, Snell Library, Room 090, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston

Come hear a number of short (5- to 7-minute presentations) by media professionals, researchers and others on topics of interest to journalists, technologists and anyone interested in media.

This will include cool data visualizations, innovative storytelling platforms, and other groundbreaking work from some of the most creative media people in the area.

Are you interested in giving a presentation? Submit your idea here: 
http://bit.ly/NU_lightning (No products please.)

We will review and pick the best ideas for talks. The full list of presenters and ideas will be shortly posted before the talk.

Sponsored by the Northeastern University Journalism Department

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Building The Structure: MCAN Advanced Sanctuary Network Training
Wednesday, February 15
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Cathedral of St. Paul, 138 Tremont Street, Boston

At this training, Massachusetts Communities Action Network will continue to plan and implement the Sanctuary Congregation Network, focusing on the logistics and infrastructure of the Network itself. We will dicuss the questions, "What does this actually mean?" and "What does this actually look like in practice?"
We will discuss the relationship between congregations providing Sanctuary in their physical space, and congregations providing support. We will delineate the clear lines of communications and structure that are being created to make this Network possible. 
There is no time to waste - we must come together now in this critically urgent moment to prepare to protect our neighbors in Massachusetts.
This training is an extension of the Sanctuary Congregation Network that is being built by MCAN with allied organizations. More information about how to participate in this network will be available at the event.

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SEED: The Untold Story
Wednesday, February 15
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Museum of Science, 1 Science Park, Boston

Treasured since the dawn of mankind, seeds feed us, clothe us, and provide the raw materials for our everyday lives. They are in a very real sense life itself. Cultivated carefully by humans for 12,000 years, our once abundant seed diversity has been drastically reduced to a handful of mass-produced varieties, predominantly held as private property by corporations that control over two-thirds of the global seed market.

SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers who are defending the future of our food. "Gorgeous and fascinating in a non-pedantic way," this harrowing and heartening documentary is more than a cautionary tale of "man against nature." It is an epic "good-versus-evil" saga playing out in our modern lives.

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2017 AAAS Science Film Showcase
Wednesday, February 15
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline

Meet the scientists and filmmakers behind five award-winning science films at the AAAS 2017 Science Film Showcase! The event features clips from each film, followed by conversation with the filmmakers and scientists. 

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Thursday, February 16 - Monday, February 20
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AAAS Annual Meeting
Hynes Convention Center, Boston
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Thursday, February 16
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STEX Workshop - Cybersecurity
Thursday, February 16
8:30a–11:30a
MIT, Building E90-1208, 1 Main Street, Cambridge

STEX Workshop

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Office of Corporate Relations/ILP
For more information, contact:  Trond Undheim
617-253-8983

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Microgrid & DER Controller Symposium
Thursday, February 16
8:00 AM – 6:00 PM EST
MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

The Microgrid & DER Controller Symposium showcases an engineering capability-- a real-time hardware-in-the-loop testbed -- that provides a fundamentally new way for utility distribution system engineers to do their design, analysis, integration, testing, and certification. Microgrid controllers are the most complex example of solutions utility distribution system engineers will deploy in coming years. The Symposium will show how a HIL test platform can be used to develop complex microgrid systems.
This Symposium will bring together Microgrid & DER controller vendors, microgrid developers, energy infrastructure decision makers, utility engineers and state and national energy leaders to:
Introduce the latest developments in microgrid & DER controllers and real-time power system simulation technologies
Demonstrate functionality of existing microgrid & DER controllers on a realistic community microgram
Foster connections between microgrid vendors and developers, distribution utilities and distribution utility engineers responsible for DER deployment and interconnection

MICROGRID & DER CONTROLLER LIVE OPERATION
Throughout the afternoon, microgrid controller vendors will showcase real-time operation of their controllers on a microgrid hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) demonstration platform. Symposium participants will have an opportunity to view these demonstrations operating a multi-megawatt, distribution-scale microgrid.
MICROGRID CONTROLLER LIVE DEMO PARTICIPANTS: 
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL)
Eaton Corporation 
Schneider Electric
General Electric 

HIL SHOWCASE PARTICIPANTS: 
Typhoon HIL
OPAL - RT Technologies
Speedgoat/Mathworks 
Center for Advanced Power Systems
(CAPS) - Florida State University
Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) 
Nayak Engineer Power
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL)

AGENDA:
8:00 am – 8:45 am Breakfast and Registration
8:45 am – 9:00 am Welcome and Introduction
National Grid
9:00 am – 9:30 am Keynote Address - Federal Microgrid Research
Dan Ton, Program Manager, Power Systems Engineering Research and Development, Office of Electricity Delivery and Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy
9:30 am – 10:00 am Introduction to the Microgrid Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop Laboratory Testbed and Open Platform (HILLTOP)
Erik Limpaecher, Assistant Group Leader, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
10:00 am – 10:40 am A Simulated Day in the Life of a Microgrid Controller / HILLTOP Demonstration #1 → Focus: Islanding
Reynaldo Salcedo-Ulerio, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
10:40 am – 11:10 am Break / HILLTOP Demonstration #2 → Focus: DER Integration
HIL Showcase / Kendall Nowocin, MIT
11:10 am – 11:30 am Evaluation of Microgrid Controller Performance Results 
Brian Miller, NREL
11:30 am – 11:50 pm EPRI Update on Latest Research & Testing of Control Systems
Arindam Maitra, Technical Executive, EPRI
11:50 pm – 12:10pm Integrating Microgrid and other Device Controllers with Utility Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems (DERMS)
Carlos Nouel, Vice President, National Grid
12:10 pm – 1:10 pm Lunch
HIL Showcase
1:10 pm – 1:30 pm Smart Grid in a Room Simulator (SGRS) Demonstration of Plug-and-Play Design and Operation of Microgrids 
Professor Marija Ilic, MIT / MIT Lincoln Laboratory
1:30 pm – 2:10 pm Lessons Learned in Microgrid Protection and Control: The Case for Fast, Reliable, and Adaptive Systems
Scott Manson, Supervising Engineer, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories
2:10 pm – 3:10 pm Break / HILLTOP Demonstration #3 → Focus: Optimization
HIL Showcase
3:10 pm – 3:50 pm HILLTOP Demonstration #4 → Focus: Protection
Ivan Celanovic, Typhoon HIL
4:00 pm – 4:20 pm How to Participate in the Electric Power Hardware-in-the-loop Controls Collaborative (EPHCC) and Open Source Repository
Chris Smith, Technical Staff, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
4:20 pm – 4:40 pm Opportunities to Advance State of the Art in Microgrid Controls & DER Integration
Babak Enayati, National Grid
Galen Nelson, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
Erik Limpaecher, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
4:45 pm – 6:00 pm HIL Showcase and Networking Reception

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William Clark on Pursuing Sustainability: A Guide to the Science and Practice
WHEN Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Bell Hall (5th Floor Belfer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Science, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S)  William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development at HKS
CONTACT INFO mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
DETAILS   This seminar will be given by William Clark, Harvey Brooks Professor of International Science, Public Policy and Human Development at HKS. It is based on his recently published, co-authored book of the same title, and is part of the M-RCBG Business & Government Seminar Series. Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu

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Navigating the tangle of history, values, and science in urban deer management
Thursday, February 16
12:00-1:00pm 
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Row, Medford

Allen Rutberg, Director of Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy and research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

For more than 30 years, cities, towns, and suburbs in the eastern U.S. have been grappling with conflicts with abundant populations of white-tailed deer. Because the architecture of state wildlife management was laid down in the 1920's to increase and maintain wildlife populations in rural landscapes, it is poorly suited to the task of reducing wildlife populations in urbanized communities. In particular, public hunting, the traditional wildlife management tool, can be impractical and polarizing where deer occupy backyards and ballfields. Landowners are testing and applying contraceptives and other non-lethal approaches for controlling urban deer populations, but progress in the face of technical, political, and ethical challenges has been slow.

Dr. Allen Rutberg is Director of the Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy and research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Trained as a behavioral ecologist, he earned his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1984, and carried out field studies on American bison and wild horses. After a stint teaching undergraduate biology at Vassar College and elsewhere, Dr. Rutberg joined The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) as senior scientist for wildlife and habitat protection, where he served from 1991 to 2000. At HSUS, he initiated field studies of immunocontraceptive vaccines for the control of deer and wild horse populations, which he has continued since joining the Cummings School faculty in 2000. At Cummings School, he also directs the M.S. program in Animals in Public Policy, teaching classes in wildlife policy, wildlife in captivity, and policy communication

Watch it live from your computer or smart phone:

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STL Lab China Talk Series:  "Ghost" Towns? Why 50 Million Housing Units in China are Vacant
Thursday, February 16
12:00p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Li Gan, Texas A&M University
Despite much attention on ???ghost towns??? in China, no official vacancy rates exist in the country. This talk uses data from the China Household Finance Survey, which collects expansive micro-level information about household wealth from a nationally representative sample of over 40,000 households. Professor Gan will discuss how to determine the latest vacancy rate for China, and suggest some causes for the phenomenon.

China Talk Series 
The China Talk Series is a multi-part lecture series about architecture, planning, and real estate in China.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free 
Sponsor(s): DUSP, Center for Real Estate, School of Architecture and Planning
For more information, contact:  Jessica Anderson
617-715-2352

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Why Nuclear Energy Programs Rarely Lead to Proliferation
Thursday, February 16
12:15PM TO 2:00PM
Harvard, Room L369, Belfer Center Library, Littauer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

Nicholas L. Miller, Stanton Nuclear Security Junior Faculty Fellow, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom, will give a talk as part of the International Security Brown Bag Seminar Series.

Much conventional wisdom suggests that states with nuclear energy programs are more likely to seek or acquire nuclear weapons. In this seminar, the speaker will argue that the link between nuclear energy programs and proliferation is overstated. While energy programs increase the technical capacity of a state to build nuclear weapons, they also (1) increase the costliness of nonproliferation sanctions, (2) increase the odds that a parallel nuclear weapons program is detected, and (3) reduce the incentives to weaponize by providing a hedging alternative. Collectively, these three mechanisms help explain why states with nuclear energy programs have not been significantly more likely to seek or acquire nuclear weapons historically. 

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Contact Name:   Susan Lynch

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The Future of Transportation, a Boston View
Thursday, February 16
1pm-6pm
Dry Dock, 25 Drydock, Boston
Cost:  $125 - $500

The City of Boston has initiatives to envision a bold transportation future for Boston in the next 5, 10 and 15 years. At this conference, you will learn the when, where and how technology advancements will change the face of transportation as we know it.

Presentations and discussions will include:
Global view of mobility in cities around the world and how Boston compares.
Boston's challenges and next steps, can an unmanned vehicle really navigate the potholes, traffic and pedestrians of Boston?
Exploring futuristic forms of mobility beyond the personal vehicle
Shared modes of transportation and public/private partnerships
AND, see the FIRST completely automated vehicle currently being tested on Boston street
Come hear about the vision and future of transportation and when you can expect to NOT be behind the wheel of your next form of transportation.
* Registration and networking starts at 12:00pm
Session Topics Include:
Global Trends in Urban Mobility:  John Moavenzadeh - Head of Mobility Industries and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum

Smart City Transportation & Status in Boston - Nigel Jacob – co-founder, New Urban Mechanics

North South Rail Link (NSRL) - Norm Gorin, Chair North/South Rail & Brad Bellows, co-founder North South Rail link Working Group

Public/private partnerships and the Future of Urban Transportation
Lynda Applegate (moderator) – Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Cathy Zhou – Uber General Manager New England Expansion
Justin Holmes – Zipcar Director, Corp. Communications & Public Policy
Jason Vazzano – CEO and co-founder of Vectorform
Mary Rose Fissinger – Special Projects Lead at Bridj    
Stephanie Pollack – Secretary & Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation
New technology and modes of transportation – Beyond the personal Automobile

Mike Stanely, CEO and Founder of TransitX
Behjamin Lippolis and Manny Barros - Openloop Northeastern team
Sasha Hoffman – COO of Piaggio Fast Forward

Autonomous Vehicles Session
Paul Schmitt (moderator) - MassRobotics Director of Automated Vehicles
Karl Iagnemma - CEO nuTonomy
Sam Tolkof - CEO NextDroid
Jane Lappin - Director Government Affairs and Public Policy, Toyota Reseach Institute
Kris Carter - Boston New Urban Mechanics

Networking & Demonstrations by:
nuTonomy
Zipcar
Railpod
Northeastern University Hyperloop Pod
Piaggio Fast Forward
Bridj

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Martin Shkreli at UMass Boston
Thursday, February 16
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM EST
UMass Boston, McCormick Building Floor 3 Room 204A, 100 William T. Morrissey Boulevard, Boston

Come see Martin Shkreli speak about business and economics at UMass Boston. If you believe all people have the right to speak and express their ideas, this is definitely something you'll want to check out. UMB YAL does not necessarily endorse the ideas and thoughts presented, but values the right to free speech.

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Breaking Through: How Political Leaders Communicate with the American People in Today’s Noisy, Fragmented, Polarized Media Environment
WHEN  Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, 4 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Institute of Politics, Littauer 166, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S)  IOP Fellow Sarah Hurwitz
COST  Free and Open to the Public
DETAILS  How can political leaders break through today’s noisy, fragmented, polarized media environment to communicate with the American people? How has our media landscape changed over the past few decades, and what kinds of communications are most effective today? Over the course of the semester, we'll dive deep into communications strategy and tactics on presidential campaigns and in the White House – including press, speechwriting, opposition research, political advertising, social media and more.
Our guests will be accomplished political professionals, each of whom has done communications work at the highest level on presidential campaigns and in the White House. Joining us either via Skype or in person, our guests will draw from their experiences on the campaign trail and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and they’ll share plenty of the harrowing, humorous and downright absurd war stories that make a life in politics so interesting – and so much fun.
The goals of this study group are twofold. First, to inform and inspire students. I and each of our guests have seen firsthand the power of political candidates – and a President and First Lady – to lift people up and bring people together. We’ve seen the profound impact that public policy – from the Affordable Care Act to the laws affecting LGBT rights – can have on people’s daily lives. We have felt the pride of landing somewhere – anywhere – in the world in a big blue and white plane with “United States of America” stamped on its side and watching people lining the streets to catch a glimpse of our President and First Lady. I will be asking our guests to share inspiring moments like these with our study group.
Second, I want students to understand that if I and our guests can have fulfilling careers in politics, they can too. I still remember the anxiety I felt during my time at Harvard, terrified that every grade I got, every line I added – or didn’t add – to my resume, would absolutely determine my career in politics, and if I didn’t do everything perfectly, I would be a total failure. I want students to know that nothing could be further from the truth. There is virtually nothing they do now that they can’t undo later. And success in politics isn’t about being perfect – it’s about working incredibly hard, taking terrifying risks, and making epic mistakes and recovering from them. Most important of all, meaningful, enduring success in politics is about being a good person (seriously). To drive these points home, I will ask our guests to talk not just about their successes – but about their failures – and I will do the same.
In the end, I hope students walk away from this study group believing that – even with all the ups and downs, highs and lows – they can have an exciting, inspiring, impactful, joyful career in politics.

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Science & Environment: A Journalist's Perspective
Thursday, February 16
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Westin Copley Hotel, Staffordshire Room, 10 Huntington Ave. Boston

Science and policy issues in energy and the environment have become a rich source of material for authors and journalists across the media spectrum. In particular, both the science of climate change and the reportage on that science have both become heavily politicized, posing unique challenges for journalism.

This panel discussion explores the evolving role of authors and journalists who work in the energy and environment fields. Each panelist will discuss the evolution of their professional experience of their views on the challenges of writing and reporting in this field, especially in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.

Panelists Include: 
Joe Romm, acclaimed author, Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress, and science advisor toNational Geographic. Meera Subramanian, award-winning journalist and MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellow. Seth Borenstein, award-winning national and international science writer for the Associated Press

The panel is moderated by John Rogers, Senior Energy Analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is co-presenting this event with the BU Institute for Sustainable Energy.

Contact Name  Tess Kohanski
Phone  617-358-6248
Contact Email tckohans@bu.edu
Contact Organization BU Institute for Sustainable Energy

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Authoritarian and Democratic Data Science in an Experimenting Society
Thursday, February 16 
5:00 pm
MIT Building 56, Room 114, Access via 21 Ames Street, Cambridge 

J. Nathan Matias, Ph.D. student, MIT Media Lab’s Center for Civic Media
How will the role of data science in democracy be transformed as software expands the public’s ability to conduct our own experiments at scale? In the 1940s-70s, debates over authoritarian uses of statistics led to new paradigms in social psychology, management theory, and policy evaluation. Today, large-scale social experiments and predictive modeling are reviving these debates. Technology platforms now conduct hundreds of undisclosed experiments per day on pricing and advertising, and the algorithms that shape our social lives remain opaque to to the public. Democratic methods for data science may offer an alternative to this corporate libertarian paternalism.

In this talk, hear about the history and future of democratic social experimentation, from Kurt Lewin and Karl Popper to Donald Campbell. You’ll also hear about CivilServant, software that supports communities to conduct their own experiments on algorithms and social behavior online.

J. Nathan Matias is a Ph.D. candidate at the MIT Media Lab Center for Civic Media, an affiliate at the Berkman-Klein Center at Harvard, and founder of CivilServant. He conducts independent, public interest research on flourishing, fair, and safe participation online. These include research on harassment reporting, volunteer moderation online (PDF), behavior change toward equality(PDF), social movements (PDF), and networks of gratitude.

Nathan has extensive experience in tech startups, nonprofits, and corporate research, including SwiftKey, Microsoft Research, and the Ministry of Stories. Nathan’s creative work and research have been covered extensively by international press, and he has published data journalism and intellectual history in the Atlantic, Guardian, PBS, and Boston Magazine.

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Askwith Forums - A Book, a Page, a World: The Artistic Journey of an Author and an Illustrator
WHEN  Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017, 5:30 – 7 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
TYPE OF EVENT Forum, Question & Answer Session
PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT  Alumni, AskWith Forum
BUILDING/ROOM  Askwith Hall
CONTACT NAME  Roger Falcon
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:
Lesa Cline-Ransome, author
James Ransome, illustrator
Moderator: Pamela A. Mason, Ed.D.’75, senior lecturer on education and faculty director, Language and Literacy Program, HGSE
Explore the picture book worlds of author and illustrator, husband and wife, who create worlds for children by bridging history, heritage, culture and curiosity.
This forum is a Children’s Author Askwith Forum.

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Smart Cities: Building Tech Forum 2017
Thursday, February 16
5:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE, 5 Channel Center Street, Boston
Cost:  $25 – $150

Join us to explore the next frontier for sustainability in the urban realm: the potential of smart cities.
Connect at our 2017 Building Tech Forum to see into the future where buildings are smart and connect into networks that result in new ways of management, interaction, and impact.
How will this growing trend benefit our agenda for sustainability?
Don't forget - becoming a member gives you a discount to this event and ALL of our events!

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Film Screening: "Containment"
Thursday, February 16
5:45PM
Harvard, Wiener Auditorium, Taubman Building, HKS, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge

Containment, a film by Harvard Professors Peter Galison and Robb Moss, brings together observational footage with graphic novel and 3D animation, to explain our uneasy present and an imaginative, troubled far future.

Imagine a society 10,000 years from now. Can we protect them from the deadliest, most long-lasting radioactive substances ever produced? Not a single country in the world has a clear plan for what to do with our radioactive waste stream. From New Mexico to Fukushima, meet the people trying to create monuments that will speak across time to protect future generations.

RSVP required. Light dinner will be served at 5:45pm. Screening, followed by Q&A, will begin at 6:15pm.

Co-sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Belfer Center's Project on Managing the Atom, and the HKS Energy & Environment Professional Interest Council.

Contact Name:  Lisa Eschenbach

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Symbiosis and the Evolution of Life in the Ocean
Thursday, February 16
6:00pm
Harvard Museum of Natural History, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Peter R. Girguis, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

The discovery of microscopic life forms in the seventeenth century led to humankind’s understanding of microbes as the biochemical innovators of our world. Microbes have evolved exotic metabolisms that enable them to live in seemingly inhospitable places, and they inhabit nearly every animal and plant on Earth. Peter Girguis will lead a virtual tour of ocean microbial life and discuss how marine microbes influence the evolution of all life on Earth, even playing a role in the geological and geochemical composition of our planet.


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I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us 
Thursday, February 16
6:00PM TO 7:00PM
Harvard, Geological Museum Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

 Every animal, whether human, squid or wasp, is home to trillions of bacteria and other microbes. These microscopic companions sculpt our organs, protect us from diseases, guide our behavior, and bombard us with their genes. Join New York Times best-selling author Ed Yong take us on a tour through our microbial partners. Find out how bacteria have shaped animal evolution and human health, why breastfeeding is about more than just babies, how animals can survive without mouths or guts, and why Australian scientists are fighting tropical diseases by releasing infected mosquitoes. Reception to follow.

Hosted by the Microbial Sciences Initiative (MSI).

Tickets (free) are required and are distributed through the Harvard Box Office.  Available at 617-496-2222 or www.boxoffice.harvard.edu (for a fee), or can be picked up from the box office in person. 

Contact Name:  Michelle Goldberg

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Rational Middle Series: Finding Energy's Rational Middle
Thursday, February 16
6:00PM TO 8:00PM
Harvard, Starr Auditorium, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge

Rational Middle films “The Great Transition” and “The Methane Question” will be shown, followed by a panel discussion with Mark Brownstein, Climate and Energy Program at the Environmental Defense Fund; Greg Guidry, Unconventionals at Shell; and Professor Henry Lee, Environmental Resources Program, HKS.

The Rational Middle Energy Series is a series of short films created by Gregory Kallenberg and the team that produced the acclaimed documentary, “Haynesville: A Nation’s Hunt for An Energy Future.” Through their travels with “Haynesville,” Gregory Kallenberg and his team saw that there was a need and desire for a balanced discussion about today’s energy issues. This desire culminated in the Rational Middle Energy Series. Rational Middle films “The Great Transition” and “The Methane Question” will be shown, followed by a panel discussion. 

Free and open to the public. Drinks and snacks will be served from 6:00-6:30pm.

Contact Name:   Nikoleta Sremac

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Boston New Technology February 2017 Startup Showcase #BNT74
Thursday, February 16
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Draper’s Sembler Office, 1 Hampshire Street, Cambridge

Enter the lobby from the entrance under the pedestrian bridge on the north side of Broadway.
Free event! Come learn about and support 7 innovative and exciting technology products and network with the Boston/Cambridge startup community! 

Please click here to share/tweet our event with your network.

Each presenter gets 5 minutes for product demonstration and 5 minutes to answer your questions.  Please follow @BostonNewTech and support our partners and startups by posting on social media using the #BNT74 hashtag. We'll retweet you! 

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Fletcher Disrupts: Networking
Thursday, February 16
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EST
Tufts, Fletcher School, Seventh Floor, Cabot Intercultural Center, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford

Join us for networking disrupted—an opportunity to network with speakers and guests from throughout the week, as well as professionals from various sectors working on innovation in their fields. This “world cafe” style event will feature a roundtable setup, with each table covered in butcher paper and supplies in order to facilitate the exchange of ideas and visual tying-together of sessions from throughout the week. We look forward to seeing you there!

This event is part of the fourth annual Tufts innovation week, which will take place from February 12 though 16, 2017. We welcome you to attend as many events as are of interest to you. Our action-oriented sessions will enable you to mindfully disrupt the status quo when tackling some of the world's toughest challenges, preparing you to think ahead of the curve in your field of interest. For more information, please visit www.innovatetufts2017.com.

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Systematic:  How Systems Biology Is Transforming Modern Medicine
Thursday, February 16
7:00pm-8:30pm 
Harvard Coop, Level 3, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Jim Valcourt
A brilliant young scientist introduces us to the fascinating field that is changing our understanding of how the body works and the way we can approach healing.This is the first book to introduce general readers to systems biology, which is improving medical treatments and our understanding of living things. In traditional bottom-up biology, a biologist might spend years studying how a single protein works, but systems biology studies how networks of those proteins work together--how they promote health and how to remedy the situation when the system isn't functioning properly.

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Friday, February 17
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The Rise of the Quantified Athlete: An Experiential Forum on the Future of Athletic Performance
WHEN  Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard Innovation Labs, 125 Western Avenue, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Athletic
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR
NFLPA 
Sports innovation Lab 
OneTeam Collective 
COST  Free
DETAILS  We are in the midst of a revolution in how athletes train, perform, and heal. Advances in mobile technology, AI, Big Data, sensors, GPS, and more have allowed humans to stretch the limits of their athletic capabilities and have merged the worlds of statistics and sports in manners unimaginable just a decade ago.
With unprecedented teamwork from those who have achieved success in the athletic arena to those whose achievements occur behind the closed doors of research labs, hospitals, and beyond, we are able to use data collected from the human body to monitor, measure, and predict athlete training and performance like never before.
During this event, the Harvard Innovation Labs, together with the Sports Innovation Lab and the NFLPA OneTeam Collective, will explore the future of this dynamic, cross-industry, and fast-growing sector of sports technology.
This one-of-a-kind event will feature candid talks on the subject from top executives from the NFL Players’ Association as well as current and former professional athletes, leading scientists, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs building the next generation of quantified sports innovations. A few confirmed participants include NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, former NFL quarterback and current ESPN host Matt Hasselbeck, Harvard graduate and New York Jets’ quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, SportsScience host John Brenkus, and Major League Lacrosse star Paul Rabil. In addition, the event will include an innovation showcase to display the most cutting-edge wearable technologies of the day.
The day will end with a special announcement from the NFLPA OneTeam Collective to challenge participants to tackle the most difficult obstacles facing athletes and coaches quantifying performance today.
Stay tuned for more details on participants, panelists, and speakers.

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Film Screening: [intensifies]
Friday, February 17
12:00p–2:00p
MIT, Building-E15, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge

Join us for a film screening and discussion of Andrea Crespos hour long animated film, [Intensifies] (2016) The film engages with autism as an embodied and socio-cultural identity and is featured in Crespos current List Projects exhibition. Dr. Caroline Robinson, Post Doctoral Fellow in the Autism and Social Brain Research Department at MITs Kanwisher Lab and the Harvard Society of Fellows, will lead a post-screening discussion to help tease out the nuances that are present in understanding the culture of autism and to characterize the diagnosis of autism beyond pathology and as an entity that is talked about in various ways. This program is free and open to all but RSVP is encouraged.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): List Visual Arts Center
For more information, contact:  Emily Garner

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Invention, Entrepreneurship, & Sustainability: A Panel Discussion on Building Sustainable Businesses
Friday, February 17
4:15 PM – 7:00 PM EST
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville

Innovation and invention are often described as the twin pillars of problem-solving. In an era of seemingly insurmountable and myriad energy and environmental challenges, how can entrepeneurs build businesses that not only operate sustainably, but also contribute to solutions on clean energy, energy efficiency, resource security, clean water, and more?
Join the AAAS-Lemelson Ambassadors and the Greentown Labs entrepreneurial community for a panel discussion on Invention,Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability. Seasoned inventors and entrepreneurs in the throes of their first startup will share their diverse perspectives on how to proceed with sustainable innovation, how to mitigate their ecological impact, and how to build businesses with sustainability in mind. 
Panelists and Speakers Include:
John Warner, Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry
Rick Hamilton, Client Innovation Leader, IBM Watson IoT Division
Anthony Mulligan, Founder and CEO of Hydronalix, Inc 
Huda Elasaad, Co-founder and Chief Scientist, PV Pure, Greentown Labs Member Company
Sorin Grama, Co-founder, Promethean Power Systems, will serve as Moderator
Program Agenda:
4:15-4:30pm Registration
4:30-5:30pm Panel Discussion
5:30-7:00pm Reception & Networking

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Saturday, February 18
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Urban Homesteading Festival
Saturday, February 18
11:00 am - 7:30 pm
The KITCHEN at the Boston Public Market, 100 Hanover Street, Boston
Cost:  $10 – $40

Presented by The Trustees of Reservations, The Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA), and Slow Food Boston
The homesteading movement is all about self-sufficiency, characterized by growing and preserving food, and conjuring up images of greenhouses, gardens, and cellars filled with dusty jars. But what about us city-dwellers? How can we move towards self-sufficiency and embrace this movement without packing up and moving to rural America.

The KITCHEN at The Boston Public Market, Slow Food Boston, and The Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) are jointly hosting The Urban Homesteading Festival on Saturday, February 18th to train Boston urbanites how to modify traditional homesteading techniques to work in an urban setting. The Festival will showcase five different topics.
+ Social w/ Slow Food Boston!

After the festival, indulge in a spiked Taza hot chocolate* and meet & mingle with like-minded foodies and enthusists. Throughout the year, Slow Food Boston hosts Socials (aka cocktail hours!) at various locations around town to encourage Slow Food members, friends, and the Boston food community at large to learn more about the Slow Food movement and connect.
*non-alcoholic hot chocolate will also be served.

Session Topics and Times
11:00-12:00 |Beer Brewing with Ronn Friedlander
12:15-1:15 | Mushroom Cultivation with Dan Bensonoff
1:30-2:30 | Home Cheesemaking with Adam Shutes
2:45-3:45 | Herb Tinctures and Infusions with Soluna Garden Farm's Tatiana Brainerd
4:00-5:00 | Stocks & Bone Broth with Didi Emmons and Odessa Piper
5:30-7:30 | Social with Slow Food Boston
Each session will be led by a local expert who will walk attendees through the steps to making each product at home. Sessions will include demonstrations, tastes of finished products, and time for Q&A. Bring a notebook and prepare to learn A LOT. Each hour-long session will be packed with tips and tricks, recipes, and answers to all your burning questions.

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Sunday, February 19
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Rally to Stand Up For Science
Sunday, February 19
12:00pm 
Copley Square, 560 Boylston Street, Boston

Next week's annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston is one of the first major gatherings of scientists since climate deniers and anti-science forces gained unprecedented power — and it's the perfect moment for scientists and community members to stand up for science, together. 

Partners: ClimateTruth.org and The Natural History Museum, with Union of Concerned Scientists, 500 Women Scientists, 350 Mass for a Better Future, Alliance for Climate Education, Toxics Action Center, Greenpeace USA

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Panel Dialogue among Science & Technology Advisors to Foreign Ministers
Sunday, February 19
2:00 PM – 5:30 PM EST
Tufts, The Fletcher School, 160 Packard Avenue, Medford

The event, co-convened by the Fletcher Science Diplomacy Club and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Center for Science Diplomacy, brings together a historic Panel Dialogue among Science & Technology Advisors to Foreign Ministers, involving:
Japan (Professor Emeritus Teruo Kishi – Science and Technology Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs)
New Zealand (Sir Peter Gluckman – Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister and Special Science Envoy for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
Senegal (Professor Aminata Sall Diallo – Science and Technology Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Special Advisor to the Minister of Higher Education and Research)
United Kingdom (Professor Robin Grimes – 2nd Chief Scientific Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
United States (Dr. Vaughan Turekian, 5th Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State: current)
United States (Dr. William Colglazier, 4th Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State: 2011-2014)
These five nations are pioneering members of the Foreign Minister Science and Technology Advisor Network (FMSTAN), which is emerging to integrate evidence from the natural and social sciences in a holistic manner that contributes to informed decision-making nationally and internationally. By applying science as a tool of diplomacy, FMSTAN is also creating new capacity to build common interests among nations, promoting cooperation and preventing conflict in the interests of all on Earth. This historic panel dialogue will consider capabilities and responsibilities of foreign ministries to address the accelerating number of issues at the interface of science, technology and innovation across as well as beyond national boundaries. The event will be followed by a reception at the Fletcher School Hall of Flags, sponsored by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.

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Monday, February 20
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The KINGS of Africa’s Digital Economy Brown-Bag Lunch
Monday, February 20
12:00 pm
Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, 23 Everett Street, Second Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/02/Osiakwan#RSVP
Feel free to bring brown-bag lunch
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/02/Osiakwan at 12:00 pm

Eric Osiakwan, Managing Partner of Chanzo Capital
Eric Osiakwan is an Entrepreneur and Investor with 15 years of ICT industry leadership across Africa and the world. He has worked in 32 African countries setting up ISPs, ISPAs, IXPs and high-tech startups. Some of these companies and organizations are Angel Africa, Angel Fair Africa , Ghana Cyber City, PenPlusBytes, African Elections Portal, FOSSFA, WABco, GISPA, AfrISPA, GNVC, Internet Research, InHand, Ghana Connect. He serves on the board of Farmerline, Forhey, Teranga Solutions, Siqueries, Amp.it, SameLogic, eCampus, Bisa App and Wanjo Foods, - some of which are his investments.

He was part of the team that built the TEAMS submarine cable in East Africa and an ICT Consultant for the WorldBank, Soros Foundations, UNDP, USAID, USDoJ, USDoS as well as African governments and private firms. 
He authored "The KINGS of Africa Digital Economy", co-authored the “Open Access Model”, “Negotiating the Net” – the politics of Internet Diffusion in Africa and “The Internet in Ghana” with the Mosaic Group. He was invited to contribute ideas to Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa. 

Eric is a Poptech, TED, Stanford, and MIT Fellow. He was previously a Berkman Klein Fellow at Harvard University.

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Tuesday, February 21
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Residential Solar Energy Systems
Tuesday, February 21
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EST
Boston Society of Architects/AIA, 290 Congress Street #200, Boston

You may be surprised to read that Eastern Massachusetts is a great location for solar energy. According to the Florida Solar Energy Center, our region has 88% of the solar capacity of central Arizona!

Andrew Wade of My Generation Energy (a local solar installer) will give general instruction in how solar energy systems work, the nuts and bolts of residential applications, and how to compute and obtain government-sponsored financial incentives for solar projects. He will also discuss some current issues—local and national—in solar technology.

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PAOC Colloquium - David Archer (U Chicago) 
Tuesday, February 21
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-923 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge

About the Speaker
I have been a professor in the Department of The Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago since 1993. I have worked on a wide range of topics pertaining to the global carbon cycle and its relation to global climate, with special focus on ocean sedimentary processes such as CaCO3 dissolution and methane hydrate formation, and their impact on the evolution of atmospheric CO2. I teach classes on global warming, environmental chemistry, and global geochemical cycles.

About the Series
The PAOC Colloquium is a weekly interdisciplinary seminar series that brings together the whole PAOC community. Seminar topics include all research concerning the physics, chemistry, and biology of the atmospheres, oceans and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars take place on Monday from 12-1pm in 54-923. Lunch is provided after the seminars to encourage students and post-docs to meet with the speaker. Besides the seminar and lunch, individual meetings with professors, post-docs, and students are arranged. 2016/2017 co-ordinators: Tom Beucler (tbeucler@mit.edu), Deepa Rao (drao@mit.edu), Madeleine Youngs (myoungs@mit.edu) and Catherine Wilka (cwilka@mit.edu)

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Internet Designers as Policy-Makers
Tuesday, February 21
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Room B010, Singer Classroom (lower level), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/02/Braman at 12:00 pm

Sandra Braman, Abbott Professor of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University
Those responsible for technical design of the Internet are essential among the policy-makers for this large-scale sociotechnical infrastructure.  Based on analysis of the RFCs (1969-1999), this talk looks at how these policy-makers thought and think about policy issues while addressing technical problems.  Findings include basic design criteria that serve as constitutional principles; interactions between human and non-human users; tensions between geo- and network-political citizenship; early internationalization; and what Internet designers can teach us about decision-making under conditions of instability in everything from the design subject on.

About Sandra
Sandra Braman’s research has been supported by grants from the US National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Soros Foundation, and the First Amendment Fund.  Braman’s book Change of State:  Information, Policy, and Power, currently undergoing revision for a second edition, is in use around the world and is widely viewed as having defined the field of information policy.  Other publications include the edited volumes Communication Researchers and Policy-Making, The Emergent Global Information Policy Regime, and Biotechnology and Communication:  The Meta-Technologies of Information and over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters.  Braman created and launched the first graduate (postgraduate) program in telecommunications and information policy on the African continent while serving as Director and Visiting Professor at the University of South Africa.  She has also served in the invited positions of Freedom of Expression Professor at the University of Bergen (Norway), Fulbright Senior Scholar at Södertörn University (Sweden), and Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).  She conceived and edits the Information Policy Book Series at MIT Press, and is former Chair of the Communication Law and Policy Division of the International Communication Association and former Chair of the Law Section of the International Association of Media and Communication Research.  In 2014 Braman was inducted as a Fellow of the International Communication Association.

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Ethnophytotechnology: Harnessing the Drug Discovery Potential of Ethnobotany with Biotechnology
Tuesday, February 21
12:00pm to 1:00pm 
Harvard, HUH Seminar Room, 22 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge

John De La Parra, Northeastern University

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Downwind of the Flames: Investigating the Impact of Wildfires on U.S. Air Quality 
Tuesday, February 21
1:30pm to 2:30pm
Harvard, Pierce Hall, 100F, 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Emily Fischer, Colorado State University

Atmospheric & Environmental Chemistry Seminar

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Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar: "Which Way for U.S.-Iran Relations under Trump -- and within the Middle East Cauldron?"
Tuesday, February 21
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building E51-325, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Prof. Ali Banuazizi
One of the most vexing foreign policy issues during the Obama administration, the U.S.-Iran relations is likely to occupy a critical place on President Trump's foreign policy agenda. Aside from its stance on the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, against which Mr. Trump campaigned relentlessly, any major policy change toward Iran by the new administration, whether hostile or moderating, would have far-reaching ramifications for U.S.'s relations with Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, and Turkey, as well as for the ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The lecture will explore the likelihood and potential regional consequences of a major turn in U.S.-Iran relations under President Trump. 

Ali Banuazizi is Professor of Political Science at Boston College and Director of the Program in Islamic Civilization & Societies.

Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar 
The Emile Bustani Middle East Seminar is organized under the auspices of the MIT Center for International Studies, which conducts research on contemporary international issues and provides an opportunity for faculty and students to share perspectives and exchange views. Each year the Bustani Seminar invites scholars, journalists, consultants, and other experts from the Middle East, Europe, and the United States to MIT to present recent research findings on contemporary politics, society and culture, and economic and technological development in the Middle East.

Open to: the general public

Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, Radius/T&C
For more information, contact:  Dain Goding
617-252-1888

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Tales from the Fields Event
Tuesday, February 21
5.30 - 7 PM
MIT, Building E19-319, 50 Ames Street, Cambridge

Interested in presenting your IAP project in the Tales from the Fields Event or learning more about other waste and energy related projects? The MIT Waste Alliance and e4Dev bring together a lightning talk series for students to showcase multiple waste and energy related projects and share their insights.

This event is brought to you by the MIT Waste Alliance with sponsorship from Graduate Student Life Grants (GSLG).

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Sylvester Baxter Lecture: Kate Orff, “Toward an Urban Ecology”
WHEN  Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Gund Hall, Piper Auditorium, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design
DETAILS  Kate Orff MLA ’97, RLA, is the founder of SCAPE, a landscape architecture and urban design studio based in New York City, and author of Toward an Urban Ecology, a book about the practice. SCAPE reconceives urban landscape design as a form of activism, demonstrating how to move beyond familiar and increasingly outmoded ways of thinking about environmental, urban, and social issues as separate domains; and advocating for the synthesis of practice to create a truly urban ecology. A range of participatory and science-based strategies will be discussed and shown in the lecture through the lens of the office’s work, featuring projects, collaborators, and design methods that advance urban ecological design.
Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 or events@gsd.harvard.edu.

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2017 Marketing Trends: Fad or Future?
Tuesday, February 21 
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
General Assembly Boston Downtown, 125 Summer Street, Boston

Introduction
Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, Podcasts, oh my… With the birth of so many new channels to host marketing content, where should we focus our energy?

Join GA and local marketing experts on February 21st as we discuss what 2017 marketing trends are just a fad and which ones are here for the long haul.

Why it Matters
Over the past few years content marketing has taken on a new meaning. Content is no long referring to just blogs or editorial content. Much like the birth of the 24hr/day news cycle, content is now being shared instantaneously around the clock through tools such as Facebook Live and Instagram stories.

It makes you beg the question is anyone out there? As we build out this ongoing stream of content, whether it is video or through podcasts, are people even listening? Are they following our ‘calls to action’? Are we seeing a return?

Takeaways
Hear from the experts as they engage in a friendly debate around the future of marketing and what trends are here to stay. Also learn tools to begin building these trends into your 2017 marketing strategy.

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Generation Revolution
Tuesday, February 21 
6:30-9:30 PM
EMW Bookstore, 934 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge
We ask for a $5-10 donation to support the powerful work of these emerging filmmakers

In honor of Black History Month, SubDrift is excited to present the Boston premiere of "Generation Revolution," a feature-length documentary film that brings to screen the powerful story of London?s new generation of black and brown activists. View the trailer here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq0-BGmE9PQ 

In an era of Brexit and Trump, it is important to consider how communities of color can stand in solidarity with each other both locally and globally, and how arts can be a vehicle for social change. The UK-based co-directors of "Generation Revolution," Usayd Younis and 
Cassie Quarless (who are of South Asian and black descent, respectively), will be present for Q&A and discussion after the film.

More about "Generation Revolution" here: http://www.genrevfilm.com/

Subcontinental Drift Boston (SubDrift) is part of a national movement building creative community amongst local South Asians. Through regular open mics and other programming, we create space for powerful artistic expression and collaboration. All are welcome!

Follow us on Twitter/Instagram @subdriftboston

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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, February 22
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Progress Toward Wafer-Scale Thermionic Energy Converters
Wednesday, February 22
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 34-401, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Prof. Roger T. Howe (Stanford University)
MTL Seminar Series 
MTL seminar speakers for the series are selected on the basis of their knowledge and competence in the areas of microelectronics research, manufacturing, or policy. This series is held during the academic year on Wednesdays at noon. The seminars are open to the public. Lunch is served at 11:30am

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Microsystems Technology Laboratories
For more information, contact:  Shereece Beckford
617-253-0086

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Weathering: Toward a Sustainable Humanities
WHEN  Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE  Radcliffe, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S)  Stephanie LeMenager, 2016–2017 Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; Barbara and Carlisle Moore Distinguished Professor of English and American Literature and Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Oregon
COST  Free and open to the public
DETAILS   In this talk, LeMenager will explain how the humanities can help shape modes of being human that are more ecologically connected and prepared for living with climate change. LeMenager will take the specific problem of drought as a touchstone from which to build out the concept of what she calls “H2O U,” a university dedicated to thinking through the effects of drought on what humanity is and can aspire to become.

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LEGATUM CENTER SEED GRANT PRESENTATION & OPEN HOUSE
Wednesday, February 22
4:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building E70-1275, 1 Broadway, Cambridge

Join the Legatum Center team to tour the space, ask questions about the 2017-2018 Legatum Fellowship application, and learn more about how 2017 IAP Seed Grant travelers advanced their ventures in the developing world! 

Please bring a photo ID to check in a the guest desk in the lobby.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship
For more information, contact:  Kavan O'Connor
617-324-1875

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Valuing Nuclear Energy Risk: The Impact of the Fukushima Crisis on U.S. Housing Prices (Jeffrey Zabel)
WHEN  Wednesday, Wed, Feb 22, 2017, 4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Littauer-382, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Lecture, Social Sciences, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR  Seminar in Environmental Economics and Policy
Harvard Environmental Economics Program
SPEAKER(S)  Jeffrey Zabel

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Poverty Traps, Resilience and Coupled Human-Natural Systems
Wednesday, February 22
4:30PM
Harvard, Science Center Hall A, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

CHISTOPHER BARRETT, Deputy Dean and Dean of Academic Affairs, College of Business; Stephen B. & Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management and International Professor of Agriculture, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management; Faculty Fellow, David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Cornell University.

Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene
The Harvard University Center for the Environment the latest installment of the Ecological Systems in the Anthropocence Lecture Series

About the Series:
Since the retreat of glaciers poleward over 10,000 years ago, humans have left an ever increasing fingerprint on ecological systems across the globe. The environment is now dominated by people—approximately 1/3 of land area has been transformed for human use and 1/4 of global productivity diverted to human consumption. While concepts such as wilderness attempt to escape this reality, there is virtually no habitat on earth devoid of some sign of humans influence on the globe—be it chemical, thermal, or a missing or introduced species. Today, this imprint is so pronounced that scientists are actively debating naming a new geological epoch demarcated by the sign of humans on the earth system itself: the Anthropocene.

In the shadow of this debate, the HUCE seminar series Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene will examine the future of social-environmental systems in a globe heavily impacted by humans. Each year the series will present a set of speakers and events (e.g., seminars, panels, debates) focused on one perspective under this theme.

Contact Name:  Laura Hanrahan

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Next of Kin: Seeing Extinction through the Artist’s Lens
Wednesday, February 22
6:00 pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

The Harvard Museum of Natural History invites you to a panel discussion with Carrie Lambert-Beattie, Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies and History of Art and Architecture; Director of Graduate Studies, Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University; Christina Seely, Artist and Assistant Professor of Studio Art, Dartmouth College; Ross Virginia, Myers Family Professor of Environmental Science; Director, Institute of Arctic Studies, The John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth College; and moderated by Edward Morris, Artist; Professor of Practice, Department of Transmedia; Co-Director of The Canary Lab, Syracuse University; Co-Director of The Canary Project.

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Cybersecurity & Industry Vulnerabilities Tech Talk
Wednesday, February 22
6:00 PM
Laugh Boston, 425 Summer Street, Boston

Join Tech in Motion Boston for a tech talk on cybersecurity - Wednesday, February 22nd at Laugh Boston. Cybersecurity has been making headlines for quite some time, especially with the recent DDos attack. For this discussion, our expert panelists will provide an in depth look into this industry and its increasing importance.

Schedule 
6:00 - Refreshments & Networking 
7:00 - Panel Begins 
7:30 - Q&A Session 
8:00- Conclude Event 

Speakers to be announced soon.

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Arctic Ghosts: Ecocruising the Death Spiral
Wednesday, February 22
6 pm
Harvard, Tsai Auditorium S010, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge

The Environment Forum at the Mahindra Center welcomes Roy Scranton, Assistant Professor of English, University of Notre Dame, and author of Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization.

The Environment Forum at the Mahindra Center is convened by Robin Kelsey (Dean of Arts and Humanities, Harvard University) and Ian Jared Miller (Professor of History, Harvard University).

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Sustainable Business Mixer
Wednesday, February 22
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Haley House Bakery Café, 12 Dade Street, Boston
Cost:  $10 - $20

Join SBN for a night of informal networking at Haley House Bakery Café in Boston! Learn more about Haley House's story, meet other local business leaders and enjoy some light local snacks. You will also have the chance to win awesome door prizes courtesy of SBN members including Cambridge Naturals, City Feed & Supply, and Curio Spice Company!

There will be open networking, light snacks & coffee, cash bar, and door prizes! Space limited so register now!

Special Guest:
Michelle Holliday, Co-Chair of the  Local Sustainable Economies Conference, is trekking down to Boston all the way from Montreal to meet you! We're excited to connect with this inspired and inspiring international movement leader.


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Saving Sea Turtles: Preventing Extinction:  A film followed by a panel discussion
Wednesday, February 22
7pm
NE Aquarium, Simons IMAX Theatre, One Aquarium Wharf, Boston

Michele Gomes and Jennifer Ting – Filmmakers
Panel discussion to follow with:
Dr. Charles Innis, Director of Animal Health, New England Aquarium
Constance Merigo, Marine Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Manager, New England Aquarium
Bob Prescott, Sanctuary Director of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, and NOAA’s Mass. (Quincy south) Sea Turtle Stranding Coordinator 
Kate Sampson, Sea Turtle Stranding Coordinator, NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region (VA through ME)

Late each autumn, hundreds of sea turtles strand on Cape Cod due to hypothermia. For more than 25 years, the New England Aquarium and the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuaryhave worked together to rescue, rehabilitate, and release thousands of these turtles, mostly Kemp ridleys. Over the last decade, the number of stranded turtles has steadily increased, but the late autumn of 2014 saw an unprecedented event as more than 1,200 cold-stunned sea turtles washed ashore. This massive wildlife emergency marshaled an inspiring response that reached from individuals to the federal government.

Fortunately, two independent filmmakers from Seattle, Michele Gomes and Jenny Ting, were on hand to document this phenomenon. They also traveled to Mexico and Texas to tell the larger natural history story of the world’s most endangered sea turtle and how humans pushed a healthy population to the precipice of extinction and are now slowly helping it to recover. Please join Michele and Jenny to view their film, “Saving Sea Turtles: Preventing Extinction,” with a panel discussion immediately following.

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Nature's Temple
WHEN  Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
WHERE  Arnold Arboretum, Hunnewell Building, 125 Arborway, Jamaica Plain
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops
DETAILS  Nature's Temples: Complex Old Growth Forests
Joan Maloof, Professor Emeritus at Salisbury University, Maryland and Founder and Director, Old-Growth Forest Network
1 Session: Wednesday, February 22, 7:00–8:30pm
Location: Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum.
An old-growth forest is one that has formed naturally over a long period of time with little or no disturbance from humankind. They are increasingly rare and largely misunderstood. Joan Maloof makes a heartfelt and passionate case for their importance, defining old-growth and providing a brief history of these fragile ecosystems that now exist only in scattered fragments. She will describe how the life forms in an undisturbed forest—including not only its trees but also its insects, plant life, fungi, and mammals—differ from the life forms in a forest manipulated by humans.
Fee $10
Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277

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Thursday, February 23
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Learning from the Past to Understand the Future of Ocean Ecosystems
WHEN  Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017, 7:45 – 9:15 a.m.
WHERE  Harvard Club, 374 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Washington Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Health Sciences, Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard University Technology Assessment in Health Care Seminar
SPEAKER(S)  Chris Bowler, Ph.D.
2016-2017 Grass Fellow, Radcliffe Institute
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France)
CNRS Director of Research, Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris
CONTACT INFO Debra Milamed
Tel. 617-327-5612
DETAILS   Monthly meeting, Technology Assessment Seminar Series
Continental breakfast served

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Meeting Future Food Needs: The Global Food System Under Climate Change
Thursday, February 23
5:00PM TO 6:30PM
Harvard, Science Center Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Shenggen Fan, Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Understanding the challenges associated with reliably providing food and nutrition in the context of a growing population and changing climate is integral when considering the global food system. The Future of Food Lecture Series, organized by the Harvard University Center for the Environment, highlights the interactions between agriculture and climate and their consequences for health and stability in an ongoing series of discussions with speakers from government, academia, and industry. 

Learn more about the series and a schedule of future speakers.

Contact Name:  Laura Hanrahan

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Annual Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice
WHEN  Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017, 5:15 – 7 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, CSWR, Common Room, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Religion
SPONSOR Center for the Study of World Religions
CONTACT CSWR: 617.495.4495
DETAILS  Please join us for the Annual Greeley Lecture for Peace and Social Justice. It will be delivered by Larycia Hawkins, Abd el-Kader Visiting Faculty Fellow at University of Virginia. The topic will be "The Pragmatics of Embodied Solidarity in Theopolitical Space".

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Racial Justice, Health Equity, and the Role of Government: Lessons from the City of Boston
Museums and the Legacy of Empire   
5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EST
BU, Photonics Center (9th Floor), 8 Saint Marys Street, Boston

REDUCING HEALTH INEQUITIES: ADVANCING SOCIAL WORK’S ROLE SPEAKER SERIES
Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health and Macro Student Committee
"Racial Justice, Health Equity, and the Role of Government: Lessons from the City of Boston"
Janine Anzalota, MSW, MPH (BUSSW '04; BUSPH '06)
Executive Director, Mayor's Office of Fair Housing and Equity
Ilyitch Nahiely Tábora, MSW
Chief of Staff, Mayor’s Office of Health & Human Services
Rita Nieves, MSW, MPH, RN
Deputy Director, Boston Public Health Commission
Panel discussion moderated by Harold Cox, MSSW, Associate Dean for Public Health Practice, BU School of Public Health

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Sacred Nation: Chinese Museums and the Legacy of Empire   
Thursday, February 23
6pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Magnus Fiskesjö   

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Smarter in the City Pitch & Demo Night
Thursday, February 23
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, 2300 Washington Street, 6th Floor, Boston

Passionate about Entrepreneurship? Startups? 

Want to hear about the latest innovations? Thinking of pursuing your own idea?

Come out to the Smarter in the City Pitch & Demo Night and see local innovative startups demo and pitch their business for the opportunity to win $10,000+ in prizes. You help decide the winner!

It's a great opportunity to network with fellow entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders.

Companies Pitching & Showcasing:
sumu.io
pulse247.net
foodtruckstars.com
scholarjet.com

Alumni Companies Showcasing:
thetechconnectioninc.com
myulink.co



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The Rumi Experience by duoJalal
Thursday, February 23
8:00p–9:30p
MIT, Building 14W-111, Killian Hall, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge

Speaker: duoJalal
A project that centers around the work of 13th century poet and mystic Jalal al-din Rumi, The Rumi Experience is the latest album from duoJalal. Coupled with spoken poetry of Rumi, duoJalal performs works by today's leading composers including works commissioned for the project by Evan Ziporyn and Lev Zhurbin. In the spirit of "sama", a deep listening to music and poetry, the audience will experience the true spirit of Rumi.

MIT Sounding 
The 2016-17 season of innovative annual performance series MIT Sounding continues to blur the boundaries between contemporary and world music. Curated by Evan Ziporyn, Faculty Director of the MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology, this season of Sounding integrates the avant-garde sounds of ancient instruments and traditional practices with cutting-edge composition and technology to present various visions of a new, evolving music that defies genre.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Tickets: No registration necessary
Sponsor(s): CAST, Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact:  Leah Talatinian
617.253.5351

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Friday, February 24 – Sunday, February 26
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MIT Fintech Hackathon
Friday, February 24, 5:00 PM – Sunday, February 26, 12:00 PM EST
Cambridge Innovation Center, 1 Broadway, Cambridge
Cost:  $15

Please join us for the first annual MIT Fintech Hackathon! Create an interdisciplinary team of students and young professionals to take on challenges at the cutting edge of financial technology. Teams will get 30 hours to solve a variety of challenges to compete for over $10k in prizes. The event will feature a panel of expert judges, mentors from a variety of disciplines, and a chance to design something that will be used by sponsoring companies, TDBank and Prudential.
All students are welcome! Tickets are per person. Teams no larger than 4 people.
Please visit www.mitfintech.com for more details and regular updates!

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Friday, February 24
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Global Food+ 2017 Symposium
Friday, February 24
12:30–4:30 pm
Harvard, CGIS South Building, Tsai Auditorium (S010), 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge

Global Food+ 2017 is an event open to all that will feature an afternoon of  “speed talk” presentations by two dozen top scholars in the Boston area. This event will highlight current research findings at the important nexus between food, agriculture, health, society, and the environment. 

The twenty-four presenters include scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, economics, political science, history, sociology, engineering, biology, and environmental sciences. Each will deliver a seven-minute summary of his or her most recent research findings. The topics covered will include cultural practices and veganism, irrigation and food security, farm subsidies, GMOs, cropland productivity and climate change, food contamination, food waste, the environmental consequences of meat consumption, and rural poverty in Africa. A complete list of speakers and topics can be found on our Speakers page. 

Following these presentations, Dr. Shenggen Fan, director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), will give the keynote address. Dr. Fan will offer his views on what scholars from our Boston-area research institutions can provide in the larger global effort to understand and improve outcomes in food and farming. He is an economist with degrees from Nanjing Agricultural University and the University of Minnesota, and has been director general of IFPRI in Washington, DC, since 2009. He was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to the Lead Group for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement, and serves as an advisor to many national governments, including China, on policy matters surrounding agriculture, food security, and nutrition. In 2014 Dr. Fan received the Hunger Hero Award from the World Food Programme.

The conference conveners include a steering committee of both senior and junior scholars from Harvard, Tufts University, Boston University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with sponsorship from Harvard’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. For more information about food-related degree programs, courses, and events at these institutions, please visit our Partners page.

Free and open to the public

Share your thoughts and feedback, and continue the conversation on Twitter:  #GlobalFoodPlus. The conference will also be broadcast live on the Weatherhead Center Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WCFIA


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New Worlds, New Discoveries: A major leap in the search for life beyond our solar system
Friday, February 24
4:15p–5:15p
MIT, Bullfinch 54-100, The Green Building Lecture Hall - Level LL (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge

Speakers: Michael Gillon, Principal Investigator of the SPECULOOS and TRAPPIST exoplanet searches, Research Scientist at the STAR Institute of the University of Liege, Belgium & Julien de Wit, Postdoctoral Associate in Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT 

In the last two decades, thousands of planets have been found beyond our solar system. Among them, a few dozen are potentially habitable, i.e. they could harbor surface conditions suitable for life. However, until now, we have only been able to speculate, as detecting life on these planets was totally out of reach, even with the largest existing - or planned - telescopes. But a new project called SPECULOOS is changing the game, by detecting terrestrial planets around nearby small stars that are well-suited for the detection of life with current technology. Join us to hear about the latest findings of TRAPPIST, the prototype of SPECULOOS-and the path forward to studying these worlds, and identifying signs of life within the next generation. 


Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS)
For more information, contact:  Angela Ellis, Senior Development Officer
(617) 253-5796

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Saturday, February 25
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Conference on Poverty & Inequality
WHEN  Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017
WHERE  Harvard, John F. Kennedy School of Government
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Students for the Alleviation of Poverty & Social Inequality
SPEAKER(S)  David Ellwood, Kristy Arnold, Portia Wu, William Beardslee
COST  Free and open to the public
DETAILS  "Preparing the President on Poverty and Inequality": 2017 will see the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. He will be inheriting a nation more besieged by extreme inequality than ever before in recent memory. Over the course of the conference, panels will engage both academics and practitioners on education, affordable housing, extreme poverty, and the mental and physical effects of poverty.

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New Energy Master Plan Workshop
Saturday, February 25
9am – 5pm
All Saints Episcopal Church of the North Shore, 46 Cherry Street, Danvers

Many MA IP&L (Interfaith Power and Light) members have attended our Sustainable House of Worship (SHOW) workshop and taken basic energy efficiency actions: lighting upgrades, programmable thermostats, heating system upgrades. Many other actions, especially when it comes to improving the building envelope, require deeper knowledge and thoughtful planning.

MA IP&L is partnering with building science experts from DEAP Energy Group to launch this all day workshop to help our members gain more sophisticated technical analysis and long-term planning skills. Attendees will gain hands-on experience in drafting a step-by-step plan to dramatically lower carbon footprint and costs while executing the upgrades within budget and organizational constraints. Prior SHOW attendance is not required.

The workshop will be hosted by All Saints Episcopal Church of the North Shore, 46 Cherry Street, Danvers. There is no charge for this inaugural workshop.

More information and registration are here: http://bit.ly/EnergyPlanDanvers

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Starr Forum: National Security & Civil Liberties: 1942 & 2017
Saturday, February 25
2:00p–4:00p
MIT, Building E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Nadeem Mazen, Ken Oye, Paul Watanabe
Starr Forum lecture/panel discussion to mark the 75th anniversary of the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II and to discuss the situation of ethnic and religious groups being targeted today. 

Free & open to the public | Refreshments served 
Can't attend in person? Watch it on Facebook live or on-demand on YouTube. 
For more information or accessibility accommodations please contact starrforum@mit.edu.

CIS Starr Forum 
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies, The New England Japanese American Citizens League, and The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306

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Richard Turner Inspirational Lecture & Demo
Saturday, February 25
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EST
MIT, Building 10-250, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Who is Richard Turner?

Gaming experts and gamblers know and respect Richard as a master Card Manipulator, who could take down any old-west casino or wipe out any high-stakes gambler. His unparalleled skill with a deck of cards has stirred and staggered audiences throughout the world. Featured on dozens of worldwide TV specials, documentaries, magazine cover stories, and profiled in hard cover publications, News Paper features, and TV commercials ranging from the topic on “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer in 2012 to the Harper Collins 2012 release of Fooling Houdini, he bamboozled Brad Pitt with his co-star Sean Penn in the 2011 Oscar-nominated movie “Tree of Life,” the 2012 documentary “The Magic Life,” “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” “World Geniuses” in Japan, to “That’s Incredible,” way back in 1982.
Open to public

For questions email poker-committee@mit.edu

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Sunday, February 26
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Activist Training: Clean Energy 101 & Learn to Lobby
Sunday, February 26
1:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST
Atlantic Wharf (Fort Point Room), 290 Congress Street, Boston

The incoming Trump Administration has made it clear they'll side with polluters and stand in the way of climate progress at every turn. To fight back we'll need every ounce of strength we can muster. We know you want to help, so we want to give you a road-map and the best tools for the job.
Join the Massachusetts Sierra Club for an afternoon activist training! 
Sunday, February 26th -OR- Sunday, March 5th from 1pm - 4pm. 
We're hosting two sessions of our activist training, which will get you up to speed on state clean energy policy and then give you the tools you need to effectively advocate with your elected officials.

Agenda:
Welcome and lay of the land
Overview: "Clean Energy 101"
Overview: "Demystifying elected officials"
Break-out session and practice by geography
Report back and next steps

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Scenario 300 - How to Rapidly Move Carbon Out of the Skies and into the Ground
Sunday, February 26
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
One, Fayette Park, Cambridge

Come join us for a potluck/discussion with our restoration ecologist Jim Laurie as we explore the bright side of global warming.  What, you didn't know there was one?  Well, there is! 

By regenerating ecosystems we can pull gigatons of carbon out of the atmosphere, where it's doing untold harm, and plant it in hungry, degraded soils around the planet, where it will do worlds of good.

There's easily enough room in the ground to store ongoing emissions (which we hope will go to zero quickly - but we're not counting on it) - and the legacy 200+ gigatons of carbon that's up there as well.  

We can do this in a matter of decades, with so many benefits - addressing floods and droughts, bountiful food production, ample fresh water, thriving local economies, and more - that it's practically a no-brainer.  It's inexpensive, low-tech, local, sustainable, and we have decades of experience around the world in all habitable environments.  What are we waiting for?

Biodiversity for a Livable Climate's staff scientist, Jim Laurie, has figured a lot of this out - and he's happy to share with everyone who wants to learn.

Potuck 6:00-7:00 p.m. followed by discussion 7:00-9:00 p.m. at Helen Snively's place in Central Square.  

Biodiversity for a LIvable Climate is a small non-profit so a $10 donation is requested, but no one will be turned away based on ability to pay.  

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Monday, February 27
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Starr Forum: Behavioral Science and Nudges: Environmental Protection and Sustainability
Monday, February 27
2:00p–3:30p
MIT, Building E15-070, Bartos Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Cass R. Sunstein
Cass Sunstein is an American legal scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics, who was the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2012.

CIS Starr Forum 
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.

Open to: the general public

Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306

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Common Ownership - joint with Harvard
Monday, February 27
4:00p–5:30p
MIT, Building E52-432

Speaker: Martin Schmalz (University of Michigan)

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): IO Workshop
For more information, contact:  economics calendar

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Distinguished Speaker Series - The Frontiers of Tsunami Hydrodynamics
Monday, February 27
4:30p–6:00p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Professor Costas Synolakis
The Frontiers of Tsunami Hydrodynamics discussion on state of the art hydrodynamics, referencing events such as Fukushima Dai Ichi Nuclear power plant accident.

C. C. Mei Distinguished Speaker Series 
The C. C. Mei Distinguished Speakers Series hosts renown scientists from all over the world to present their research in cross-disciplinary areas including civil and environmental engineering, bio-engineering, mechanical engineering, medical engineering, biology, environmental sciences, and other related fields.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact:  Carol Burke
617-324-7780

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An Evening with Bobby Seale
Monday, February 27
5:00pm
Lesley University, Washburn Auditorium, 10 Phillips Place, Cambridge 

Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale discusses the Black Panther Party's pivotal movement during societal transgressions toward African-Americans.

Mr. Seale is the author of "Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers," published in October 2016. The book tells the story of the Black Panther Party, founded 50 years ago in 1966 by Seale and Huey P. Newton. The words are Seale's , with contributions by other former party members. Admired, reviled, emulated, misunderstood, the Black Panther Party was one of the most creative and influential responses to racism and inequality in American history. The advocated armed self-defense to counter police brutality, and initiated a program of patrolling the police with shotguns–and law books.

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Portraits of Oil Urbanism
Monday, February 27
6:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building 3-133, 33 Massachusetts Avenue (Rear), Cambridge

Speaker: El Hadi Jazairy, AKPIA@MIT Post-Doctoral Fellow & Research Scientist Center for Advanced Urbanism, MIT
AGA KHAN PROGRAM "AN EVENING WITH" LECTURE SERIES

SPRING 2017 AGA KHAN PROGRAM LECTURES

Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Department of Architecture
For more information, contact:  Jose Luis Arguello
617-253-1400

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Tuesday, February 28
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Five Global Challenges and the Role of University
Tuesday, February 28
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Room B010, Singer Classroom (lower level), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/02/DeMartin at 12:00 pm.

Berkman Faculty Associate, Juan Carlos de Martín
The world is facing five global challenges: democratic, environmental, technological, economical, and geopolitical. Challenges that will require both enormous amount of knowledge and citizens capable of using such knowledge in scenarios that today are hard to predict. The University is clearly the main institution that could help society on both counts. However, if University truly wants to maximize its social utility, it needs to question critically the last 30 years of its development and re-discover its roots, updating them for the 21st century. 

About Juan Carlos
Juan Carlos De Martin is a Berkman Klein Faculty Associate and Faculty co-director of the NEXA Center for Internet & Society at the Politecnico of Torino, Italy, which he co-founded in 2006.

Juan Carlos De Martin is a computer engineering professor specialized on multimedia who is now focusing on the general theme of the interaction between digital technologies and society. His most recent main research interest is the future of university in the Internet age, a topic on which he published a book (in Italian, "Università Futura - Tra Democrazia e Bit", Codice Edizioni, 2017).  Since Spring 2012 Juan Carlos has been teaching "Digital Revolution", a digital culture and skills course offered to first-year students at the Politecnico di Torino.

In 2012 he edited, together with Melanie Dulong de Rosnay, "The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture" (OpenBookPublishers, UK).

In 2003 he started to lead, together with prof. Marco Ricolfi, the Creative Commons Italy team. Between 2007 and 2011 Juan Carlos De Martin was the coordinator of COMMUNIA, the European thematic network on the digital public domain. Between 2007 and 2015 he was the president of the libraries of the Politecnico di Torino.

Before returning to Italy in 1998, Juan Carlos De Martin was a visiting researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara for two years and, after receiving his Ph.D. in Telecommunications at the Politecnico di Torino, he worked for two years in the research laboratories of Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas.

Juan Carlos De Martin also serves as member of the Scientific Board of the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia Treccani and of the Biennale Democrazia. He is a frequent op-ed contributor to "la Repubblica" and he often acts as a commentator in Italian media.

Juan Carlos De Martin is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and is the author, or co-author, of over 100 peer-reviewed conference papers, journal papers and book chapters. 

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Speaker Series: Rick Stengel
Tuesday, February 28
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Harvard, Taubman 275, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge

Rick Stengel served as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs from 2014-2016. He was Time magazine’s 16th managing editor and has had a long and distinguished career as a journalist. At Time, he held positions as senior writer and essayist, and national editor. He has also written for The New Yorker, The New Republic, Spy, Rolling Stone and The New York Times. He has written a number of books including a collaboration with Nelson Mandela on Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Stengel was the president and chief executive officer of the National Constitution Center (2004-2006). While at the Shorenstein Center, he will lead a series of study groups on government and the press.

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Hydroelectric power and indigenous health in the North
Tuesday, February 28
1 pm
Harvard Global Health Institute, 42 Church Street, Cambridge

Climate Change and Global Health Seminar featuring Harvard Professor Dr. Elsie Sunderland
Lunch provided

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Warm-route versus cold-route interbasin exchange in the meridional overturning circulation or why is the Atlantic saltier than the Pacific
Tuesday, February 28
3:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge

Paola Cessi, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Abstract:  Among the processes attributed to the higher salinity of the Atlantic Ocean relative to the Pacific Ocean, several are associated with the Atlantic sinking of the meridional overturning circulation (MOC), and the absence of an equivalent overturning in the Pacific. Ocean-only general circulation computations in an idealized domain with two basins connected by a circumpolar channel in the southernmost region focus on two important asymmetries preferring the Atlantic as the site for sinking: its narrower width and a connection with the Indo-Pacific at a subtropical latitude (the tip of South Africa) and at a subpolar latitude (the tip of South America). These computations, together with a simple conceptual model for the upper branch of the MOC illustrate the basic processes of interbasin exchange either through the connection at the subpolar latitude  of the long continent (cold route'') or through the connection at the subtropical latitude of the short continent (warm route''). A cold-route exchange occurs when the short continent is poleward of the latitude separating the sub-polar and sub-tropical gyre (the zero wind-stress curl line) in the southern hemisphere, otherwise there is warm-route exchange. The predictions of the conceptual model are compared to primitive equation computations in a domain with the same idealized geometry forced by wind-stress, surface temperature relaxation and surface salinity flux. A visualization of the horizontal structure of the upper branch of the MOC illustrates the cold and warm routes of interbasin exchange flows. Diagnostics of the primitive equation computations show that the warm-route exchange flow is responsible for a substantial salinification of the basin where sinking occurs. This salinification is larger when the interbasin exchange is via the warm route, and it is more pronounced when the warm-route exchange flows from the wide to the narrow basin.

Harvard Climate Seminar

Contact Name:  Sabinna Cappo

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Inside Congress: The Inconvenient Truth
WHEN  Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, 4:15 – 5:45 p.m.
WHERE  Harvard, Institute of Politics, Littauer Faculty Dining Room (FDR), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Classes/Workshops, Law
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Institute of Politics
SPEAKER(S)  Congressman Christopher Shays
COST  Free and open to the public
DETAILS  When I was in third grade I became a voracious reader, consuming every kid's version of great Americans, and felt I wanted to be part of our government and its glorious history.
The 1960 Presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, his promotion of the Peace Corps, and his famous words, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" only increased my enthusiasm, but it was not until I was in high school that I thought part of my government service might include running for public office.
Two years in the Peace Corps with my wife Betsi, eighteen months as a mayor's aide, thirteen years as a State Representative, twenty-one years as a Congressman, and two years heading the Commission on Wartime Contracting, were the result of my heartfelt desire, nurtured by devoted teachers, and a caring wife and parents.
With this as background, I hope to engage students from the perspective of elective office, and inspire a knowledge and appreciation of what it takes to be an engaged citizen, a persuasive public advocate, a dedicated government employee, and an effective elected official.

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Starr Forum: The Fight over Foreigners: Visas & Immigration in the Trump Era
Tuesday, February 28
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building E51-115, Wong Auditorium, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge

Speaker: Baher Azmy, Jia Lynn Yang
Starr Forum panel discussion to address the migration issues in America under the new administration and President Trump 

Panelists Include: 
Baher Azmy, Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights 
Jia Lynn Yang, Deputy National Security Editor at the Washington Post 

Free & open to the public | Refreshments served 
Can't attend in person? Watch it on Facebook live or on-demand on YouTube. 
For more information or accessibility accommodations please contact starrforum@mit.edu.

CIS Starr Forum 
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.

Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306

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BOSTON SEMINAR: Designing for Flooding and Sea Level Rise
Tuesday, February 28
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM EST
Atlantic Wharf, 290 Congress Street, Fort Point Room, Boston

Join us for the first in a four-part series of one-hour discussions hosted by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger this spring at Atlantic Wharf in Downtown Boston. 

ABOUT THE FEBRUARY SEMINAR
Designing for Flooding and Sea Level Rise 
presented by Aaron Lewis & Gregory Doelp
Changing FEMA maps, new requirements for resiliency, increasing attention on riverine and coastal flooding, rising sea levels … owners, government officials, and the design community are constantly challenged with new policy and research about climate change impacts and the adapting building performance expectations in this new environment.

This presentation provides an introduction to the design of buildings and other infrastructure for flooding. We will introduce FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs), building code requirements for SFHA zones, and the basic approaches for wet and dry floodproofing. We will also discuss the impacts of sea level rise and strategies for addressing sea level rise in building design and construction.

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Giving Voice: Mobile Communication, Disability, and Inequality
Tuesday, February 28
6:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building N50, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge

Speaker: Meryl Alper
The MIT Press Bookstore presents Meryl Alper, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Northeastern University and author of Giving Voice: Mobile Communication, Disability, and Inequality (MIT Press), in conversation with Jennifer S. Light, Department Head and Professor of Science, Technology and Society at MIT, at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, February 28 at the MIT Press Bookstore. 

Mobile technologies are often hailed as a way to "give voice to the voiceless." Behind the praise, though, are beliefs about technology as a gateway to opportunity and voice as a metaphor for agency and self-representation. In "Giving Voice," Meryl Alper explores these assumptions by looking closely at one such case--the use of the Apple iPad and mobile app Proloquo2Go, which converts icons and text into synthetic speech, by children with disabilities (including autism and cerebral palsy) and their families. 

This event includes a book signing. Books will be on sale at the event for 20% off, or you can purchase an event ticket that includes a discounted book.

authors@mit 
This event is presented by authors@mit, a lecture series co-sponsored by the MIT Libraries and the MIT Press Bookstore.

Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact:  The MIT Press Bookstore
617- 253-5249

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Edwidge Danticat Lecture: Doris Salcedo's Circles of Sorrow
WHEN  Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2017, 6 – 7 p.m.
WHERE  Menschel Hall, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St.
*Please enter the museum through the entrance on Broadway.*
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Art/Design, Ethics, Exhibitions, Humanities, Lecture, Poetry/Prose, Religion, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Harvard Divinity School, the Latina/o Studies Working Group in the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights (FAS), and Instituto Cervantes.
SPEAKER(S)  Edwidge Danticat
COST  Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Andrea Davies
DETAILS  “There is no one writing in the English language today more precisely or more passionately articulating the exile’s experience than Edwidge Danticat.” -Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Edwidge Danticat brings her unparalleled gifts as a writer in touch with political violence and migration to respond to The Materiality of Mourning, Harvard Art Museum’s exhibition of the works of Columbian-born sculptor Doris Salcedo. Danticat’s lecture, “Doris Salcedo’s Circles of Sorrows,” reflects on the ethical and spiritual dimensions of memory and mourning.
Danticat’s books include Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah's Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, and The Farming of Bones, an American Book Award winner, and The Dew Breaker. Her memoir, Brother, I’m Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award and a 2008 winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.
She is the editor of The Butterfly’s Way: Voices from the Haitian Diaspora in the United States and The Beacon Best of 2000: Great Writing by Men and Women of All Colors and Cultures, Haiti Noir and Haiti Noir 2, and Best American Essays 2011. She has written six books for young adults and children, as well as a travel narrative. She is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow and the 2016 recipient of the Toni Morrison Award.
LINK  hds.harvard.edu…

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"The Robots are Coming"... Presentation at BU Robotics Lab
Tuesday, February 28
6:00 PM
BU Robotics Lab, 750 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Cost: $5

Artificial Intelligence Event in Partnership with Boston University Robotics Department.

We are excited to present our 4th event in the Series on "Real-Life Examples of Cognitive Computing."  

The event will include leading robotics speakers and tours of the Boston University Robotics Lab (http://sites.bu.edu/robotics/) and Engineering Product Innovation Center (https://www.bu.edu/eng/current-students/epic/). 

Seating is limited, so we're requesting a $5 reservation fee to secure your spot.  Looking forward to seeing you at this exciting event! 

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Boston Green Drinks - February Happy Hour
TueSDAY, February 28
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EST
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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Opportunity
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Discounted Solar for Somerville

As part of the State’s Solarize Mass program, local volunteers and the City of Somerville recently launched the Solarize Somerville campaign to make it easier and cheaper for residents and small businesses to install solar panels.

The program, which is offering information and guidance, free site consultations, and solar panel discounts through November, has set an ambitious goal to inspire at least 200 property owners to sign up for solar —and each of those private solar installations will also benefit the community directly. For every 400 kW in signed private contracts through the program, the program’s solar vendor SolarFlair will donate a system of up to 5 kW for a public or community purpose. All are invited to the program kickoff at a Meet the Installer event on Tuesday, July 26 at 6-7:30 p.m., 167 Holland St. Additional events on topics such as solar basics, financing, and solar for multifamily homes will be announced.

Unique to the program is its neighbor-to-neighbor approach: trained resident volunteers and a designated volunteer Solar Coach are available essentially as mentors. They can, for example, walk anyone through the process, provide general loan program and tax incentive information, and share their own solar experiences. The campaign’s webpage and blog offers useful information, tips, and a link to websites where you can estimate the solar potential of your home and roughly calculate how much solar could save you on your energy bills at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize.

Somerville is one of the most urban communities ever to participate in Solarize Mass, which makes the neighbor-to-neighbor approach especially helpful due to some of the unique challenges here such as multi-family houses with more than one owner. Winter Hill resident Mary Mangan, the program’s volunteer Solar Coach, went through that process and is ready to share helpful tips.

"I'm excited to work with our eager volunteers to help our neighbors understand the benefits of solar power. As a co-owner of a two-family home with solar, I can also offer some insights about how that process went for us," said Mangan.

Also key to the program is the selection of a designated vendor, which allows the program to offer reduced cost installation through bulk purchasing. Through a competitive process, SolarFlair, based in Ashland, MA, was selected. They were also the selected installer for the communities of Arlington, Hopkinton, Mendon, Brookline, Carlisle-Chelmsford, Newton, and Quincy.

"We're excited to be the selected installer for Solarize Somerville, and look forward to speaking with any home or business owners that are interested in reducing their electric bills while also making a great investment," said Matt Arner, the owner and President of SolarFlair.

Quick facts:
Solar systems can be purchased outright (with a payback of about 4-5 years). The Mass Solar Loan program offers rates of 3.25% or less. 
Or, for no money down owners can choose a power purchase agreement (PPA), where the system is owned and maintained by a third party, and residents buy back the electricity at a discounted price.   
More on-site renewable energy is critical to reducing carbon emissions.  It also saves money for residents.

Tax incentives for solar installations include:
Federal Tax Credit: A 30 percent federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is available for qualified residential and commercial projects
Massachusetts Personal Income Tax Credit: The lesser of 15% of the total cost of the solar electric system or $1,000, for qualified clean energy projects
Five-year Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS): Business owners can depreciate solar electric systems over a five-year schedule

For more information or to sign up for a free site consultation:

Visit the Solarize Somerville webpage at www.somervillema.gov/sustainaville/solarize for
Helpful information and FAQs
To contact a volunteer or Solar Coach Mary Mangan to discuss solar options and incentives
To set up an appointment for a free site consultation directly with SolarFlair
To find out about events
To volunteer for Solarize Somerville

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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. 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

Solar map of Cambridge, MA

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Hey Cambridge residents!

Did you know the City of Cambridge is trying to win the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize? It was created to develop a cleaner and more efficient energy future. Energy efficiency and conservation are the best ways to save energy and minimize environmental impact. In that effort, Cambridge is hoping all residents will get a no-cost energy assessment in order to make their homes more efficient and comfortable. Let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment

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

Again, let us know you're interested here: http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/sign-up-for-an-assessment and someone will be in contact with you shortly to give you personally tailored contact information on how you can get your no-cost home energy assessment. Renters are also eligible!

Any action to save energy in the home will help Cambridge win this competition while protecting the environment. For additional ideas on how to save energy, please see the Cambridge Energy Alliance website at http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/resources/interactivehome

Please share with your Cambridge friends and family and ask them to get a free energy assessment!

Want to be more involved? Become a neighborhood Block Captain! Block Captains help their community members sign up for and complete no-cost home energy assessments through the MassSave program. Our team will give you the tools and guidance needed to recruit neighbors to get an assessment and improve the efficiency of their homes. Participation is welcome at whatever level you are able to commit to.
If you are interested in becoming a Block Captain, please fill out the form at http://tinyurl.com/blockcaptainsurvey and someone from the Cambridge Energy Alliance will be in contact with you shortly. If you know someone who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity!

Questions? Contact jnahigian@cambridgema.gov

Cambridge Energy Alliance
@cambenergy 

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Sunny Cambridge has just launched! Sunny Cambridge is the city-wide initiative that makes it easy for all types of residents to get solar power for their homes. Cambridge has lined up local solar installers through the EnergySage Solar Marketplace, which helps you request, receive, and compare solar quotes 100% online with support available every step of the way.

The City of Cambridge is working on many levels to reduce energy use and GHG emissions to make the city more sustainable. As a semifinalist in the nationwide competition for the $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize, Cambridge Energy Alliance is encouraging residents to take actions to save energy, save money, and protect the environment. Get involved by signing up for a no-cost home energy assessment at the Cambridge Energy Alliance home page (www.cambridgeenergyalliance.org/winit)
and going solar at http://www.sunnycambridge.org 

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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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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 - http://www.bnid.org/events
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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BASEN / Boston Solidarity Network Economy:  http://ba-sen.tumblr.com
Bostonsmart.com's Guide to Boston:  http://www.bostonsmarts.com/BostonGuide/

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Links to events at over 50 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/
Sustainability at Harvard:  http://green.harvard.edu/events
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


If you have an event you would like to see here, the submission deadline is 12 PM on Sundays, as Energy (and Other) Events is sent out Sunday afternoons.
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