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) EventsGeo
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Details of these events are available when you scroll past the index
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Index
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Monday, April 24, 8:45 AM – Tuesday, April 25, 5:00 PM
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Journalism and the Search for Truth in an Age of Social Media Conference
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Monday, April 24
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11am Where the Policies Diverge: Canadian and U.S. Telecom Policy in a Precarious Era
12pm Intelligence in a Volatile World, 9/11 to the Present
12pm Climate Extremes: Trends, Physical Causes, and Societal Impacts
12pm Climate Week: Valuing Climate Damages: Updating Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide
12:10pm Atmospheric Deposition and Soil Nutrient Cycling in Boston: Urban Effects on Biogeochemical Cycles
12:15pm Wrong Way After Nuremberg: Misconceiving Research Ethics
1:30pm Brexit: From Fantasy/Nightmare to Hard Bargaining | A Discussion with Ed Balls
2pm Climate Week: "Climate Ready Boston: Planning for the Challenges Ahead”
3pm The Network Architecture of Human Thought
3:30pm Climate Week: "How Harvard’s Endowment is Thinking about Climate”
4pm Climate Week: "The War on Science: Reports from the Battlefield”
4:30pm John DeVillars Study Group Reports
4:30pm Rally for Climate Action
5pm TEDx Suffolk University - Economies of the Future
6pm Lecture: Food Security
6pm Art as Conflict Resolution with Pedro Reyes
7pm Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
7pm Climate Week: Film Screening & Discussion: BEHEMOTH
7pm Hidden Figures
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Tuesday, April 25
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10am Meeting 21st Century Municipal Internet Access Needs: Perspectives from Boston City Hall and Brookline on City and Regional Infrastructure Planning
12pm Building a mega-scale-solar project for MIT: Insights into MIT's groundbreaking 60 Megawatt solar project
12pm Digital Expungement: Rehabilitation in the Digital Age
12pm The European Union's Security Policy and the Middle East
12pm Trump and Asia: Business as Usual? Business and Trade Between the U.S. and Asia
1pm Multifamily Energy Efficiency Workshop
2pm Electrochemical Engineering of Low-Cost and High-Power Redox Flow Batteries: Final Doctoral Thesis Defense
3pm Climate Week: "Daily Monitoring of the Land Surface of the Earth”
3pm Proliferation and Control of Multidrug-Resistant 'Superbugs' in Sewage Treatment Plants
4pm The International State of Digital Rights, a Conversation with the UN Special Rapporteur
4pm Race Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation
4pm How free enterprise can solve climate change
4:30pm Climate Week | Film Screening | 'A Time to Choose’
5pm "Resolve: Negotiating Life’s Conflicts with Greater Confidence;" A Book Talk with author Hal Movius
5pm Starr Forum: Solving America's and China's North Korea Problem?
5:30pm Options for Establishing a Regulatory Framework for Mini-grids in Emerging Economies
6pm AI-powered Marketing
6pm Boston Green Drinks - April Happy Hour
6pm The Age of Consequences
6:30pm The Future of Work in a Tech-Driven Economy
7pm TEDxCamberville planning
7:30pm Communicating Climate Change Through Science and Technology
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Wednesday, April 26
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8:30am Cambridge and a Net Zero Plan
12pm MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar
12pm Climate Week: "Defending the Climate in the Trumpocene”
12pm Climate Ready Boston Webinar
12pm Webinar on Low Income Community Shared Solar
12pm America's Military and the Rise of Guardian Forces
12:15pm Uncertainty and Risk in Technological Innovation: A 50-Year Retrospective
12:30pm Live Webcast: "Public Health, Science and Leadership" with Gina McCarthy
12:30pm Sustainability at MIT: building a next generation platform
4pm The Political Ethics of the Strike
4pm CO2-triggered destabilisation of magmatic systems
5pm Improving Agriculture in a Warmer World
6pm Climate Week: "A Thousand Dead Snow Geese: The Matter of the Non-Human in the Age of Humans”
6pm SPARK CIVIC ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP WITH GENERATION CITIZEN
6pm Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups
6pm Can an AI machine understand Indian Raga Music?
6pm Morph 3D: Building your body for the Metaverse
7pm Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign
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Thursday, April 27
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8:30am The Future of SREC: Come learn about SMART!
9am Climate Week: “Human Health in a Changing Climate”
9:30am Study Presentation Premiere: Health Benefits of Carbon Pricing in Massachusetts
11:45am Sustaining Capitalism: Bipartisan Solutions to Restore Trust & Prosperity
12pm Drought, blight, and the aesthetics of dispossession
12pm MIT Water Club Lunch and Learn
12pm Linking Farmers to Markets: An Experience in Balancing Objectives
12pm Digital Health @ Harvard, April 2017 – Holding Hospitals Hostage: From HIPAA to Ransomware
3pm The Quest for Environmental and Racial Justice for All: Why Equity Matters
3pm WORKSHOP - The Architecture of Refugees: The Question of Ethics
4pm Climate Week: "Human Imprints on the Tree of Life: Using Evolutionary History to Understand What is Being Lost and What to Save”
4:30pm Peter Fox-Penner author of Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid
4:30pm Ingersoll Lecture with Marilynne Robinson: Old Souls, New World
4:30pm Waste Research and Innovation Night 2017
5pm The Conservative Canon Before and After Trump
5pm Humanitarian Happy Hour
6pm The History & Future of Planning in Boston
6pm Smarter in the City Pitch & Demo Night
6pm Global Economy after US Election. A Conversation with Alberto Forchielli
6:30pm Sneak Preview of Film 'LA:92’
7pm The Hampshire Project
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Friday, April 28
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Hacking Discrimination
8am MIT Sustainability Summit: Funding the Future
8:30am MIT Scaling Development Ventures Conference 2017
9am Intersections: Understanding Urbanism in the Global Age
11:30am Climate Week: "Utilizing NASA's 'Panoply' for Geoscience Data Analysis in the Classroom”
12pm Climate Week: “Achieving Harvard’s Science-based Climate Goal”
2:30pm Violence and Justice: The Missing Piece in Our Anti-Poverty Agenda
3pm Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?
5:30pm Being the Change: Transformational Stories of Sustainability Leadership and Climate Activism
7pm No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch
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Saturday, April 29
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10am BOSTON NEIGHBORHOODS BIKE FORUM
11am OrigaMIT
12pm Boston People's Climate Mobilization
12:30pm MIT IDEAS Innovation Showcase + Awards 2017
2pm ARTS FIRST: Jazz on the Plaza
2pm Starr Forum: Somaliland (Sneak Preview)
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Sunday, April 30
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9am Our World, Our Data: Taking Collective Responsibility for Citizen and Environmental Sensing
1:30pm Greg Epstein: On Alt-Right Atheism
5pm Potluck with a Purpose: Race, Racism and Food Justice
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Monday, May 1
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8:30am Digital regulation of everyday life
12:10pm Swiss Landscape Architect Dieter Kienast´s Love for Spontaneous Urban Vegetation
12:15pm The Utility of the Future
4pm Focus on Russia
5:30pm Creating a Multi-Cultural Democracy: Religion, Culture & Identity in America
6pm Andrew Fisher, Big Hunger
6pm Solar Geoengineering -- w/Taylor Milsal
6pm MIT Water Innovation Prize Final Pitch Night
6:30pm Walkaway: Cory Doctorow in conversation with Joi Ito
6:30pm The Future of Nature: The Energy We Need
6:30pm Clean Energy & Healthy Neighborhoods: Trees, Gas Leaks, Pipelines, Development, and YOU!
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Tuesday, May 2
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10am BUnano Inaugural Symposium
12:30pm Fukushima Revitalization: TEPCO's Responsibility and Local Community Development
12:30pm DesignX Lecture Series: Ryan Salvas, Skanska USA
4pm Life of a Klansman: A Lecture by Edward Ball
4:15pm A Writer and Her Daughters: The Afterlife of Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française
5:30pm The Next Energy Economy: Grassroots Strategies to Mitigate Global Climate Change and How We Move Ahead
5:30pm The Social Innovation Forum presents our 14th annual Social Innovator Showcase
6pm What Makes Somerville So Sustainable?
6:30pm The Reality of CO2’s Influence on Sea-Level and Weather Events - GBTP Boston
7pm At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces
7pm James Kirchick - The End Of Europe
7pm Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize Final Pitch Event
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My rough notes on some of the events I go to and notes on books I’ve read are at:
City Agriculture - April 21, s017
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Monday, April 24, 8:45 AM – Tuesday, April 25, 5:00 PM
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Journalism and the Search for Truth in an Age of Social Media Conference
Monday, April 24, 8:45 AM – Tuesday, April 25, 5:00 PM EDT
The Castle, 225 Bay State Road, Boston
As the journalism profession struggles to respond to social media’s proliferating role, fresh social scientific and philosophical perspectives are required to comprehend news in relationship to the pursuit of truth. social media’s interaction with journalism and democracy will be analyzed from philosophical, ethical, practical and political perspectives. Experts from these fields will examine the current situation and consider likely future trajectories. Drawing on such an array of specialties, and by taking a cross-cutting approach, the event co-sponsors anticipate that new insights will be gained into the high-pressure world of journalism and its responsibilities. Discussions will be aimed at laying the conceptual groundwork for recommendations and action at the professional, procedural and policy levels
Tentative Schedule:
DAY ONE, Monday, April 24, 2017
8:45 AM Registration & coffee
9:15 AM Welcome and introduction
9:30 AM The journalistic crisis: the fourth estate, social media, and communicating the truth
11:00 AM Social responses to fake news: fears, trust, and knowledge
12:30 PM Lunch and poster session
1:30 PM Trolling, computer algorithms, and moderation
3:00 PM Short Break
3:15 PM Global perspectives: similarities and novelties
4:45 PM Reception and informal discussion
DAY TWO, Tuesday, April 25
9:00 AM Registration & coffee
9:30 AM Fake news in a historical and contemporary perspective
11:00 PM Philosophy of truth, knowing, and communication
12:30 PM Lunch
1:15 PM Keynote Speaker
2:15 Short Break
2:30 PM PANEL— Reflections and paths forward
4:00 PM Tour of research facilities
4:30 PM Reception and informal discussion
Symposium format:
Brief papers and in-depth discussion, built on research and scholarly perspectives.
Advocating political or partisan viewpoints is discouraged.
The event will have an in-person audience and also be live-streamed. (Papers and live-stream will be archived on our website.)
You can read more about the conference and the tentative schedule here: https://demsatbu.wixsite.com/conference
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Monday, April 24
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Where the Policies Diverge: Canadian and U.S. Telecom Policy in a Precarious Era
Monday, April 24
11:00a–12:00p
MIT, Building 32-G449, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jean Pierre Blais, Chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)
Jean Pierre Blais is approaching the end of his 5-year term as chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). He is known as a champion of the public voice, as an inclusive policy maker, and promoter of competition to support a robust digital economy in Canada.
MIT’s Internet Policy Research Initiative (IPRI) and Communications Futures Program (CFP) are delighted to host Jean Pierre Blais for a conversation with Internet pioneer and MIT Senior Research Scientist David Clark about the past, present, and future of Canadian telecom policy and its relationship with the U.S. What can we, as neighbors, learn from each other? What are our common goals? Where do we diverge and where must we cooperate?
Web site: https://internetpolicy.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Internet Policy Research Initiative , MIT Communications Futures Program
For more information, contact: Melanie Robinson
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Intelligence in a Volatile World, 9/11 to the Present
Monday, April 24
12:00 pm
BU, 121 Bay State Road, Conference Room, Boston
The Pardee School hosts Mary Margaret Graham, Chief ofCIA Office, NYC on 9/11.
Ms. Graham was the United States Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection (DNI) from 2005–2008. She previously served as the Associate Deputy Director for Operations for Counterintelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency. In her 29 years with the CIA she has had numerous field and headquarters assignments. From 1999 to 2001, Mrs. Graham served as Chief of the Directorate of Operation’s National Resources Division; from 1998 to 1999, she served as the Deputy Chief of the Directorate of Operations Europe Division. Ms. Graham also served as the Executive Assistant to William Crowell, then Deputy Director of the National Security Agency in the mid-1990’s.
Register by email: eventsps@bu.edu
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Climate Extremes: Trends, Physical Causes, and Societal Impacts
Monday, April 24
12:00PM
Harvard, Haller Hall (102), Geological Museum, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Deepti Singh, Lamont Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University
Climate and weather extremes cause considerable humanitarian and socio-economic impacts across the globe. Global economic losses from extreme events in recent years are estimated to come close to $200 billion dollars annually. The impacts of extremes depend upon the exposure and vulnerability of the affected natural and human systems. Minimizing future risks of disasters to these systems requires an accurate quantification of how and why extreme events have changed over the historical record, and an understanding of the vulnerability of different societal systems.
My talk will focus on explaining changes in climate extremes in two main regions – North America and South Asia. I will demonstrate that the characteristics of several daily-scale extreme events in these regions have changed significantly over the historical record. I will show that these changes in extremes are associated with changes in specific environmental “ingredients” such as moisture availability and associated atmospheric circulations. Next, I will introduce a new framework to investigate the role of natural and anthropogenic climate forcings on these identified regional trends as well as the occurrence of single extreme events. Finally, I will present work that assesses the impacts of such daily-scale extremes on crop yields and farmer decision-making, targeted at understanding the climate vulnerability of the Indian agricultural sector. Together, the research I present aims to build an integrated framework for improving our understanding of the changing physical climate risks to different societal sectors.
EPS & ESE Colloquium
Contact Name: Sabinna Cappo
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Climate Week: Valuing Climate Damages: Updating Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide
Monday, April 24
12:00 pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Richard Newell, President and CEO, Resources for the Future (RFF), an independent, nonprofit research organization that improves environmental, energy, and natural resource decisionmaking through rigorous economic analysis. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the administrator of the US Energy Information Administration, the agency responsible for official US government energy statistics and analysis. Dr. Newell is an adjunct professor at Duke University, where he was previously the Gendell Professor of Energy and Environmental Economics and Founding Director of its Energy Initiative and Energy Data Analytics Lab. He has also served as the senior economist for energy and environment on the President's Council of Economic Advisers and was a senior fellow, and later a board member, at RFF.
Dr. Newell has published widely on the economics of markets and policies for energy and the environment, including issues surrounding global climate change, energy efficiency, and energy innovation. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the National Petroleum Council. He has provided expert advice to many institutions, such as the National Academy of Sciences, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the International Energy Forum.
Note: Space is limited
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
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Atmospheric Deposition and Soil Nutrient Cycling in Boston: Urban Effects on Biogeochemical Cycles
Monday, April 24
12:10 pm
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
Stephen Decina, Boston University; Deland Award recipient
Contact: arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu
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Wrong Way After Nuremberg: Misconceiving Research Ethics
Monday, April 24
12:15 pm to 2:00 pm
K262, Bowie-Vernon Room, CGIS, 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Daniel Wikler (HSPH, Ethics and Population Health)
Contact Name: Shana Ashar
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Brexit: From Fantasy/Nightmare to Hard Bargaining | A Discussion with Ed Balls
WHEN Monday, Apr. 24, 2017, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
Lower Level Conference Room
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Contemporary Europe Study Group
SPEAKER(S) Ed Balls, UK Shadow Chancellor (2011-2015), Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Senior Fellow; Peter Sands, Senior Fellow, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; James Cronin, Professor of History, Boston College; Local Affiliate, CES, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO James Cronin
DETAILS When the UK government triggered Article 50 on March 29, months of anxiety, debate and speculation gave way to serious negotiations. These will also lead to debate, of course, but it will be more concrete. This discussion will focus on some of the economic issues at play in the negotiations and their political implications.
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Climate Week: "Climate Ready Boston: Planning for the Challenges Ahead"
Monday, April 24
2:00 pm
Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, GSD, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
Bud Ris, Co-Chair, Climate Preparedness Working Group, Boston Green Ribbon Commission, and Senior Climate Advisor, Barr Foundation
He also advises and serves on Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission, a consortium of business and non-profit leaders working with the city to mitigate and prepare for the impacts of climate change. From 2005 to 2014, Bud was President and CEO of the New England Aquarium. Under his leadership, NEAq completed a $43 million campaign to renovate its major exhibits, expand its educational programming, and strengthen its conservation work. During his tenure, the Aquarium launched a nationwide educational consortium of aquaria and zoos on climate change, helped create one of the world’s largest marine protected areas in the Pacific, and partnered with several major food companies to promote sustainable seafood. Bud oversaw a staff of 250 and annual budget in excess of $40 million. From 2004 to 2005, Bud was a Senior Fellow at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, where he led the Forum’s G-8 program on climate change for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. From 1996 to 2003, Bud chaired a coalition of sixteen national environmental organizations founded to support domestic and international action on climate change. In 1997, he led the delegation of US NGO’s to the international negotiations that culminated in the Kyoto Protocol. From 1984 through 2003, Bud served as the chief executive officer of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). During his tenure, UCS successfully led a number of national and state initiatives to improve the efficiency of automobiles, accelerate the introduction of renewable energy, improve the safety of nuclear power, and restrain the nuclear arms race. In 2014, Bud received a Life Time Achievement Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency. He is also a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Contact Name: Jeff Fitton
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The Network Architecture of Human Thought
Monday, April 24
3:00 pm
Notheastern, 177 Huntington Avenue, 11th floor, Boston
DANIELLE BASSETT
Associate Professor, U Penn Engineering, Complex Systems Group
Human thought is predicated on a complex architecture of inter connections that enable information transmission between distinct areas of the brain. Yet gaining a fundamental understanding of this architecture has remained challenging, largely due to insufficiencies in traditional imaging techniques and analytical tools. In concerted efforts to address these challenges, neuroscientists have begun to combine recent breakthroughs in non-invasive brain imaging techniques with the conceptual notions and mathematical tools of network science– leading to the emerging field of network neuroscience. I will highlight early successes in this field leading to fundamental understanding of healthy human thought, its development over childhood, and its alteration in psychiatric disease and neurological disorders. I will close by commenting on current frontiers and future potential in health care, business, and education sectors.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Danielle S. Bassett is the Eduardo D. Glandt Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. She is most well-known for her work blending neural and systems engineering to identify fundamental mechanisms of cognition and disease in human brain networks. She received a B.S. in physics from the Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Cambridge, UK. Following a postdoctoral position at UC Santa Barbara, she was a Junior Research Fellow at the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind. In 2012, she was named American Psychological Association's `Rising Star' and given an Alumni Achievement Award from the Schreyer Honors College at Pennsylvania State University for extraordinary achievement under the age of 35. In 2014, she was named an Alfred P Sloan Research Fellow and received the MacArthur Fellow Genius Grant. In 2015, she received the IEEE EMBS Early Academic Achievement Award, and was named an ONR Young Investigator. In 2016, she received an NSF CAREER award and was named one of Popular Science’s Brilliant 10. She is the founding director of the Penn Network Visualization Program, a combined undergraduate art internship and K-12 outreach program bridging network science and the visual arts. Her work -- which has resulted in 112 published articles -- has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Army Research Office, the Army Research Laboratory, the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.
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Climate Week: "How Harvard’s Endowment is Thinking about Climate"
Monday, April 24
3:30PM
Harvard Business School, Gallatin Lounge, 24 Harvard Rosd, Allston
The Business and Environment Initiative at the Harvard Business School presents a conversation with Colin Butterfield, Managing Director, Head of Natural Resources, Harvard Management Company, on the impact of climate change on investment selections and portfolio management decisions.
Colin Butterfield is currently the head of natural resources at Harvard Management Company. Butterfield was most recently the CEO of Radar S.A., a $2.2 billion Brazilian farmland investment management joint venture between TIAA and Cosan S.A. In this role, Butterfield expanded Radar’s portfolio of investments, improved the company’s risk profile, and increased profitability. He was also a member of TIAA’s Global Agriculture Fund investment committee. Butterfield was president of Cosan Alimentos from 2010 to 2013 and served as COO and CIO at Bracor SA from 2007 to 2010. He was a director at Cargill from 2004 to 2007, where he established business development and merger and acquisition plans to enter the Brazilian sugar and ethanol market. Butterfield holds an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a BS in manufacturing engineering from Boston University.
Contact Name: Jennifer Nash
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Climate Week: "The War on Science: Reports from the Battlefield"
Monday, April 24
4:00 pm
Harvard, Pound Hall 100, 1563 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Lauren Kurtz, Executive Director, Climate Science Legal Defense Fund, and Naomi Oreskes, Professor, History of Science; Affiliated Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University.
Contact Name: Kate Konschnik
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John DeVillars Study Group Reports
Monday April 24
4:30pm
Harvard, Littauer 332, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
The Research Assistants with whom John has been working on Electric Vehicle Adoption (Jeffrey Bryant, Benjamin Luxenberg, and Jennifer Hatch), Low-Income Access to Clean Energy (Elizabeth Hanson); and Performance Based Incentives (Elise Harrington and Ali Nadeem) will report on their work. The students leading each of these projects will make 15 minute presentations on their work to date; the remainder of the time will be devoted to discussing the students' work while consuming pizza, soda and other delicacies. We hope you will be able to make this session. It has been a fun and informative series of study groups and it will be good to celebrate the end of the semester - and some terrific work by the students - with all of you.
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Rally for Climate Action
Monday, April 24
4:30 PM to 5:30 PM
Cambridge City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
In advance of the People's Climate March in Washington D.C. and Boston on April 29, all Cambridge residents are invited to bring their banners and posters for an all-city visibility and rally for climate action.
Join the community on the front steps of Cambridge City Hall on Monday, April 24 at 4:45 p.m.,
and the program will run from 5:00-5:30 p.m.
An unveiling of the symbol of Climate Citizenship developed by delegates at the 2016 Cambridge Climate Congress will take place.
All are welcome!
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TEDx Suffolk University - Economies of the Future
Monday, April 24
5:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Suffolk, 120 Tremont Street, Boston
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedx-suffolk-university-economies-of-the-future-tickets-33479571299
6 speakers, 3 musicians, 100 tickets
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Lecture: Food Security
Monday, April 24
6:00 pm
BU, Hat-212, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
Guest Speaker: Ellen Messer, Ph.D., will give a lecture on food security. Dr. Messer is a biocultural anthropologist specializing in food, security, religion, and human rights. She has taught anthropology of food, health, religion, human rights, and international development at George Washington University, Brandeis University, Tufts University, Brown University, Wheaton College, and Yale University. This lecture is open to the public.
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Art as Conflict Resolution with Pedro Reyes
Monday, April 24
6pm - 8pm
MIT, Building E15-001, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Part of ACT's spring 2017 lecture series, Double Agents
With responses from:
Doris Sommer, Director of the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University and the Ira Jewell Williams, Jr. Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University
Larry Susskind, expert in dispute resolution and head of the Environmental Policy and Planning Group at MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Pedro Reyes will discuss the connections between humor, utopia, and the production of change in his work and beyond.
Reyes is the current and inaugural Dasha Zhukova Distinguished Visiting Artist at MIT's Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST). He is based in Mexico City and uses sculpture, architecture, video, and participation to increase individual or collective agency in social, environmental, and educational situations. He most recently produced a political haunted house for Creative Time, NYC (October 2016) called Doomocracy and is currently involved in the development of the MIT TYRANNY LAB in collaboration with ACT, culminating in a set of workshops and interventions during the CAVS 50th anniversary activities in the spring of 2018.
The purpose of the TYRANNY LAB is to gather artists and researchers from other fields to generate new tools and spaces, both on- and off-line, for the empowerment of students and faculty as citizens committed to peace and social justice. The LAB's organizing partners include ACT Director Gediminas Urbonas, artivist Tania Bruguera, cultural theorist Paloma Duong, conflict resolution expert Lawrence Susskind, media scholar Ethan Zuckerman, neuroscience professor Rebecca Saxe (an expert on "how we think about other people's thoughts"), media researcher Nan Zhao, ACT graduate students and staff, and co-curator of the CAVS anniversary events, Lars Bang Larsen.
About the ACT Monday Night Lecture Series
ACT's Monday night lecture series draws together artists, scholars, and other cultural practitioners from different disciplines to discuss artistic methodologies and forms of inquiry at the intersection of art, architecture, science, and technology.
ACT's Spring 2017 series is conceived by Gediminas Urbonas, ACT Director, and coordinated with Lucas Freeman, ACT Writer in Residence, and Laura Knott, ACT Consulting Curator.
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Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power
Monday, April 24
7:00 pm
First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
COST: Sold out but there will be a standby line at the door. $5 admission, if you can get in.
Noam Chomsky at First Parish Church in conversation with AMY GOODMAN
This event includes a book signing. Out of respect for Professor Chomsky’s limited time tonight, the book signing will be limited to copies of Requiem for the American Dream. No other books or memorabilia, and no photography or video during the signing. Thank you! Amy Goodman will join for the book signing portion of the evening and will be signing copies of Democracy Now!, also available for purchase.
Harvard Book Store welcomes MIT Institute Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy NOAM CHOMSKY—bestselling author of numerous political works, including What Kind of Creatures Are We? and Who Rules the World?—for a discussion of Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power. Mr. Chomsky will be joined in conversation by AMY GOODMAN, host and producer of award-winning independent news program Democracy Now!, the largest public media collaboration in the US today.
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Climate Week: Film Screening & Discussion: BEHEMOTH
Monday, April 24
7:00 pm
The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge
The Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy and Environment and the Environment in Asia Series, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies present a DocYard screening of the film 'Behemoth,' followed by a discussion with director Zhao Liang
About the Film:
Beginning with a mining explosion in Mongolia and ending in a ghost city west of Beijing, political documentarian Zhao Liang’s visionary new film Behemoth details, in one breath taking sequence after another, the social and environmental devastation behind an economic miracle that may yet prove illusory.
Drawing inspiration from The Divine Comedy, Zhao offers intoxicating and terrifying images of the ravages wrought by his country’s coal and iron industries on both the land and its people. Beautiful grasslands covered in soot and dust. Mountains shredded in half. Herdsmen and their families forced to leave their lands, to escape poisonous air. Miners descending deeper into pitch black mine shafts. Scorching ironworks that resemble hellish infernos. And in hospitals, ill-equipped to handle the deluge, workers suffering critical illnesses.
Building upon his previous acclaimed exposés (2009’s Petition, 2007’s Crime and Punishment), Zhao combines muck-racking journalistic techniques with stunning visuals to capture an unfolding nightmare. It’s a film replete with haunting imagery. But none more so than Zhao’s tour through a barren metropolis, a gleaming, newly constructed city, intended as a workers’ paradise, that now stands empty, desolate of life; waiting, perhaps, for that economic miracle.
About the Filmmaker:
With his unique vision and acute reflections on social issues and conditions, Zhao has been extending the frontiers of documentary filmmaking in China today. His award-winning Crime and Punishment (Best Film – Festival des 3 Continents – Nantes, France; also screened in Locarno) was an eye-opening exploration of military law enforcement in China. His Petition (aka The Court of the Complaints) followed a group of disgruntled citizens from 1996 to 2008, and was screened at the Cannes Film Festival (Special Screenings). The film has won several awards at festivals, including Hong Kong, DocLisboa, Hawaii, DocNZ Auckland and Tiburon. His documentary Together revealed the situation of HIV and AIDS in China, and was screened at the Berlinale Panorama.
Born in Northeastern China (Dandong, Liaoning Province), Zhao Liang graduated from Luxun Academy of Fine Arts in 1992. Based in Beijing since 1993, Zhao has been working as an independent documentary filmmaker as well as a multimedia artist in photography and video art. His works have been exhibited in the International Center of Photography (New York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Museo Reina So a (Madrid) and numerous other art galleries and museums around the world.
Short Film Program:
Prior to this feature screening, The DocYard will present a short film directed by local filmmaker Eric Gulliver for American Experience. PBS’s flagship history series American Experience examines the infamous publication The Turner Diaries; a dangerous book with a unique legacy of directly inspiring acts of terror and violence since its publication in the late 70s.
Contact Name: Tiffany Chan
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Hidden Figures
Monday, April 24
7pm
Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline
Evelynn Hammonds will discuss the role of African American women in the space program
A Coolidge Corner Science on Screen event.
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Tuesday, April 25
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Meeting 21st Century Municipal Internet Access Needs: Perspectives from Boston City Hall and Brookline on City and Regional Infrastructure Planning
Tuesday, April 25
10:00 am - 12:30 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Room 1010 (first floor), 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Bag lunch will be provided.
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/BroadbandSummit#RSVP
This event is hosted by Responsive Communities, a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
At this free public event, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Boston's CIO, will describe the city's ongoing efforts at fostering private sector competition in providing high-speed wired and wireless Internet access. And Kevin Stokes, CIO of Brookline, will discuss the opportunities and challenges in trying to work across institutional and state agency boundaries to obtain fiber-optic network access to boost local bandwidth and reduce costs. Municipal and state officials are invited to attend and then participate in a discussion about best practices and opportunities for collaboration. The event will conclude with an audience Q&A and bag lunch.
10:00-10:05: Introductory remarks: Waide Warner and David Talbot, Responsive Communities, Berkman Klein Center
10:05-10:20: Boston's strategy: Jascha Franklin–Hodge, City of Boston
10:20-10:35: Efforts at inter-agency collaboration: Kevin Stokes, Town of Brookline
10:35-11:15: Open discussion between speakers and invited leaders from municipalities and state agencies and authorities
11:15-11:30: Audience Q&A
11:30-12:30: Bag lunch and networking
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
As Boston’s CIO, Jascha Franklin-Hodge works to enhance online service delivery, empower city employees with effective digital tools, and improve access to technology and Internet access service across all Boston neighborhoods. His efforts in Boston include mapping 175 miles of existing city-owned conduit to decrease costs of network deployments, streamlining processes and permitting associated with investment in broadband infrastructure, and ensuring that city infrastructure projects accommodate future network construction. Today five wired and wireless broadband providers serve residents in the city. Franklin-Hodge is now beginning to examine how to prepare for next-generation wireless deployments.
Kevin Stokes has served as CIO for the Town of Brookline and its public schools for 12 years. With municipal and school bandwidth needs rising sharply, Stokes wants wider access to fiber-optic networks and the ability to directly reach wholesale bandwidth available in Boston. Brookline sits near locations with MBTA and Mass DOT fiber optic lines, as well as hospitals and universities with fiber-optic networks. Stokes, like other municipal CIOs, would like to identify decision-makers and negotiate agreements with public and nonprofit network owners.
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Building a mega-scale-solar project for MIT: Insights into MIT's groundbreaking 60 Megawatt solar project
Tuesday, April 25
12:00p–1:00p
MIT, Building 1-190, 33 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Featuring: Kenny Habul, SunEnergy1 CEO.
CEO of one of the leading commercial solar energy companies in the US and developer of Summit Farms, the MIT solar array in NC, Kenny is a passionate advocate for sustainable construction practices.
Join us for a deep dive discussion regarding MIT's power purchase agreement and what it takes to get large scale renewable energy (LSRE) projects built. Kenny Habul will provide insight into the business model and strategy behind SunEnergy1's success and how power purchase agreements are transforming the renewable energy sector.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Office of Sustainability
For more information, contact: Rebecca Fowler
+1.617.715.4060
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Digital Expungement: Rehabilitation in the Digital Age
Tuesday, April 25
12:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East C (Room 2036, second floor)
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/04/Haber#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/luncheons/2017/04/Haber at 12:00 pm
with Berkman Klein Faculty Associate, Eldar Haber
The concept of criminal rehabilitation in the digital age is intriguing. How can we ensure proper reintegration into society of individuals with a criminal history that was expunged by the state when their wrongdoings remain widely available through commercial vendors (data brokers) and online sources like mugshot websites, legal research websites, social media platforms, and media archives? What are constitutional and pragmatic challenges to ensure digital rehabilitation? Is there a viable solution to solve this conundrum?
About Eldar
Eldar Haber is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) at the Faculty of Law, Haifa University and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University and completed his postdoctoral studies as a fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center. His main research interests consist of various facets of law and technology including cyber law, intellectual property law (focusing mainly on copyright), privacy, civil rights and liberties, and criminal law. His works were published in various flagship law reviews worldwide, including top-specialized law and technology journals of U.S. universities such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford. His works were presented in various workshops and conferences around the globe, and were cited in academic papers, governmental reports, the media, and U.S. Federal courts.
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The European Union's Security Policy and the Middle East
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2017, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR European Union Study Group
Program on Transatlantic Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) Miguel Angel Moratinos --
Former Foreign Minister, Spain; Former Special Representative of the EU, Middle East
CONTACT INFO Anna Popiel, apopiel@fas.harvard.edu
LINK https://ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/the-european-unions-security-policy-and-the-middle-east
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Trump and Asia: Business as Usual? Business and Trade Between the U.S. and Asia
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2017, 12 – 2 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Tsai Auditorium S010, CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Asia-related Centers at Harvard University
SPEAKER(S) William Kirby
T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies; Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration; Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor; Director of the Harvard China Fund; former Director of the Fairbank Center
Mireya Solis
Senior Fellow – Foreign Policy, Center for East Asia Policy Studies, and Philip Knight Chair in Japan Studies at the Brookings Institute
Mark Wu
Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Moderated by Tarun Khana
Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School, Director of Harvard University South Asia Institute
Chaired by Andrew Gordon
Victor and William Fung Acting Director of the Harvard University Asia Center; Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Professor of History
COST Free
CONTACT INFO James Evans, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies jamesevans@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS The Asia-related centers at Harvard University continue our new “Trump and Asia” series on the Asia-Pacific during Trump's presidency. This discussion examines the changes in international business and trade between the U.S. and Asia in the Trump era.
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Multifamily Energy Efficiency Workshop
Tuesday, April 25
1:00-3:00 pm
City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, 2nd floor conference room, Cambridge
RSVP at http://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/News/2017/4/~/link.aspx?_id=109568D7B2FC430F8C9999576C569465&_z=z
Happier tenants, fatter wallets. Are you an owner or manager of a multi-family building in Cambridge? Hear about how your neighbors are saving thousands each year with energy efficiency upgrades!
Come learn about incentives for:
Lighting Upgrades
Heating Upgrades
Insulation/Air Sealing
Energy and Water Management Tools
Air Source Heat Pumps
Solar Energy
The program is organized by the Cambridge Compact, Eversource, the City of Cambridge, and Homeowners' Rehab Inc.
Contact: Beverly Craig, bcraig [at] homeowners.org
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Electrochemical Engineering of Low-Cost and High-Power Redox Flow Batteries: Final Doctoral Thesis Defense
Tuesday, April 25
2:00p–3:00p
MIT, Building E51-057, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Jarrod Milshtein
Thesis Committee:
Professor Yet-Ming Chiang
Professor Klavs F. Jensen (Department of Chemical Engineering)
Professor Antoine Allanore (Thesis Co-Advisor)
Professor Fikile R. Brushett (Department of Chemical Engineering, Thesis Co-Advisor)
A draft copy of this thesis will be available for review in room 6-107.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
For more information, contact: DMSE
617-253-3300
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Climate Week: "Daily Monitoring of the Land Surface of the Earth"
Tuesday, April 25
3pm
Harvard, HUCE Seminar Room 440, 26 Oxford Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge
with Joseph Mascaro and Andrew Zolli, Planet Labs, Inc.
Abstract: Planet is an integrated aerospace and data analytics company that operates the largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites. With more than 140 cube-sats now in orbit, Planet is collecting approximately 50 million square kilometers of imagery per day, or 1/3 of the land surface of the Earth (3-5m per pixel, in red, green, blue and near infrared spectral bands). Later in 2017, Planet’s constellation will image the entire land surface of the Earth on a daily basis. Due to investments in cloud storage and computing, approximately 75% of imagery collected is available to Planet’s partners within 24 hours of capture through an Application Program Interface. This unique dataset has enormous applications for monitoring the status of Earth’s ecosystems and human activity. Through our Ambassadors Program, Planet has made data available for researchers in areas as disparate as human rights monitoring in refugee camps, to assessments of the impact of hydroelectric installations, to tracking illegal gold mining in Amazon forests, to assessing the status of the cryosphere. We will share early results from Planet’s research partner network, including enhanced spatial and temporal resolution of NDVI data for agricultural health in Saudi Arabia, computation of rates of illegal deforestation in Southern Peru, estimates of tropical forest carbon stocks based on data integration with active sensors, and estimates of glacial flow rates. We synthesize the potentially enormous research and scientific value of Planet’s persistent monitoring capability, and discuss methods by which the data will be disseminated into the scientific community.
Contact Name: James Clem
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Proliferation and Control of Multidrug-Resistant 'Superbugs' in Sewage Treatment Plants
Tuesday, April 25
3 - 5p.
Tufts: Nelson Auditorium 112, 200 College Avenue, Medford
Pedro Alvarez, Rice University
More information at http://engineering.tufts.edu/cee/seminars/
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The International State of Digital Rights, a Conversation with the UN Special Rapporteur
Tuesday, April 25
4:00 pm
Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, Room 2012 (second floor)
Reception immediately following at HLS Pub
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/DavidKaye#RSVP
Event will be live webcast on this page at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/2017/04/DavidKaye at 4:00 pm
David Kaye in conversation with Nani Jansen Reventlow
On 25 April, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, David Kaye, will visit the Berkman Klein Center. He will be hosted in conversation by Nani Jansen Reventlow, a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center and Adviser to the Cyberlaw Clinic, about his upcoming thematic report on digital access and human rights, as well as the most burning issues regarding free speech online and digital rights including encryption, fake news, online gender-based abuse and the global epidemic of internet censorship.
The Special Rapporteur will also speak about his work in both national and international free speech cases, after which the audience will have the opportunity to address any further issues they would like to discuss.
Following the event, please join us for a reception in the Harvard Law School Pub located on the first floor of Wasserstein Hall.
About David Kaye
David Kaye, a clinical professor of law at the University of California, Irvine, is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2014. His rapporteurship has addressed, among other topics, encryption and anonymity as promoters of freedom of expression, the protection of whistleblowers and journalistic sources, and the roles and responsibilities of private Internet companies. Early in his career he was a lawyer in the U.S. State Department, handling issues such as the applicability of the Geneva Conventions in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. His academic research and writing have focused on accountability for serious human rights abuses, international humanitarian law, and the international law governing use of force. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, he has also published essays in such publications as Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, JustSecurity and The Los Angeles Times.
About Nani Jansen Reventlow
Nani Jansen Reventlow is an Associate Tenant at Doughty Street Chambers and a 2016-2017 Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. She is a recognised international lawyer and expert in human rights litigation responsible for groundbreaking freedom of expression cases across several national and international jurisdictions.
Between 2011 and 2016, Nani has overseen the litigation practice of the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) globally, leading or advising on cases before various national and international courts. At the Berkman Klein Center, Nani's work focuses on cross-disciplinary collaboration in litigation that challenges barriers to free speech online. She also acts as an Advisor to the Cyberlaw Clinic.
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Race Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation
Tuesday, April 25
4:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Gone is the era of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, when news programs fought to gain the trust and respect of a wide spectrum of American viewers. Today, the fastest-growing news programs and media platforms are fighting hard for increasingly narrow segments of the public and playing on old prejudices and deep-rooted fears, coloring the conversation in the blogosphere and the cable news chatter to distract from the true issues at stake. Using the same tactics once used to mobilize political parties and committed voters, they send their fans coded messages and demonize opposing groups, in the process securing valuable audience share and website traffic. Race-baiter is a term born out of this tumultuous climate, coined by the conservative media to describe a person who uses racial tensions to arouse the passion and ire of a particular demographic.
About the Author - Eric Deggans is TV and Media Critic for National Public Radio and formerly for the Tampa Bay Times, Florida's largest newspaper. He also contributes to CNN.com and the Huffington Post. Deggans regularly appears as a pundit/expert on MSNBC's "Countdown"; CNN's "Reliable Sources"; Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" morning show and "Hannity and Colmes"; PBS's "The NewsHour"; CNN Headline News' "Showbiz Tonight"; "The Tavis Smiley Show" on Black Entertainment Television; and the PBS shows "Livelyhood" and "The Calling." His work has also appeared in a host of newspapers and magazines ranging from the conservative Newsmax magazine to the Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit News and Miami Herald, VIBEmagazine, Hispanic magazine and Ebony magazine.
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How free enterprise can solve climate change
Tuesday, April 25
4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
MIT, Building E14-633, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Bob Inglis
Former Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) traveled to Antarctica and Greenland as a member of the House Science Committee during his second, three-year term in Congress (2005-10) and became convinced climate change was a problem and needed action. In July 2012, he founded and launched republicEn.org, which is centered on conservative principles and a free-enterprise solution to climate change. Inglis will talk about how free enterprise and a "tax swap" can deliver the innovation to solve our climate change issues and lead the rest of the world.
ESI People & the Planet Lecture Series
Open to: the general public
Cost: free
Sponsor(s): Environmental Solutions Initiative
For more information, contact: Hannah Loomis
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Climate Week | Film Screening | 'A Time to Choose’
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2017, 4:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Hall D, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Film, Science, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Harvard Environmental Action Committee in cooperation with the Harvard University Center for the Environment
COST Free and open to the public
CONTACT INFO Laura Hanrahan, laura_hanrahan@harvard.edu
DETAILS The Harvard Environmental Action Committee hosts a screening of A Time to Choose, a film by Academy Award-Winning documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson.
The Harvard University Center for the Environment, in cooperation with a wide variety of partner institutions across the Harvard campus, has organized a week of climate change-related events called Climate Week. This week-long program will give the Harvard community, as well as the interested public, exposure to some of the best scholarship and thinking related to climate change that we have at the University. For more information and the full list of events visit: environment.harvard.edu/climateweek.
LINK http://environment.harvard.edu/events/2017-04-25-203000/climate-week-film-screening-time-choose
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"Resolve: Negotiating Life’s Conflicts with Greater Confidence;" A Book Talk with author Hal Movius
WHEN Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2017, 5 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Wasserstein Hall, 1st floor, Room 1010, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School
SPEAKER(S) Hal Movius, author
COST Free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO Polly Hamlen, mhamlen@law.harvard.edu
DETAILS If you dread conflict, you’re not alone. Research suggests that interpersonal conflict is the biggest daily stressor we face, and that most of us go through life avoiding potential conflicts at work and at home, or giving in when we feel pressured. In Resolve, Hal Movius shows you how you can handle life’s negotiations more effectively and with less stress by developing three distinct types of confidence: mastery, awareness, and poise.
Drawing on decades of research in negotiation and psychology, along with more recent advances in social neuroscience, this book delivers science-backed insights and effective tools to boost your confidence in all three critical areas, so you can be more effective in resolving conflicts—from spontaneous flare-ups at home to planned business negotiations.
Refreshments will be provided.
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Starr Forum: Solving America's and China's North Korea Problem?
Tuesday, April 25
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building E25-111, 45 Carleton, Cambridge
Speaker: Professor Victor Cha, Georgetown University and CSIS
Discussant: Professor Terrence Roehrig, Professor, US Naval War College
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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Options for Establishing a Regulatory Framework for Mini-grids in Emerging Economies
Tuesday, April 25
5:30 PM
MIT, Building E19-319.
This presentation will discuss findings of the USAID supported Practical Guide to the Regulatory Treatment of Mini-Grids – a tool developed to support regulators in emerging economies in identifying the most suitable regulatory approach for mini-grids to expand access to electricity. Using Uganda as a case study, the presentation will also provide an overview of various options for policy and planning, retail service regulation, and technical standards for mini-grids and touch on the associated benefits, drawbacks and steps for pursuing those regulatory pathways.
Presenters’ Bios:
Emily Chessin is a Senior Consultant at Meister Consultants Group specializing in clean energy policy and managing multi-stakeholder consultations on clean energy issues. Ms. Chessin helps clients, from governments to regional and multilateral institutions, develop and implement clean energy policies, programs, and strategies. Most recently, Ms. Chessin led the development of a forthcoming practical guide on mini-grid regulation for emerging economies on behalf of USAID and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC). At MCG, she leads New York State’s flagship NY-Sun PV Trainers Network (PVTN), which provides education and training on best practices for solar PV development to local government officials. Ms. Chessin also specializes in clean energy policy in the Caribbean region, having worked with the governments of St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, and St. Kitts and the Nevis, among others, and also serves as a Policy Expert through the Clean Energy Solutions Center. Prior to joining MCG, she worked at the World Resources Institute where she supported work on international climate change finance. Emily holds a MA from The Fletcher School at Tufts University and a BA in Environmental Studies from Gettysburg College.
Eskedar Gessesse is a Research Associate at Meister Consultants Group, where she supports international and domestic renewable energy projects focused on workforce development, universal access, and policy. Her recent projects include leading the development of a research report on growth and status of jobs in sustainability-related sectors in the U.S. and providing technical assistance to the Government of Belize on renewable energy workforce capacity building. Ms. Gessesse also works on issues related to energy access and mini-grid regulation and has conducted extensive research on rural electrification in emerging economies. She recently developed and co-authored a practical guide for mini-grid regulation to enable electricity regulators in emerging economies understand the various approaches to regulating isolated mini-grids and make informed decisions. Prior to joining MCG, Ms. Gessesse worked for Embark Energy, a social enterprise based in Arusha, Tanzania that provides trainings on business plan development to local renewable energy entrepreneurs. Ms. Gessesse holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies from Mount Holyoke College.
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AI-powered Marketing
Tuesday, April 25
6:00 PM
Hubspot HQ, 2 Canal Park, Cambridge
Marketing in it's purest form involves aligning your product or service with the needs of the customer. The challenge is that every person is different so it is hard to do this consistently across the board. This month we have three leaders in the Marketing Tech space that are using AI in different ways to tackle this huge challenge.
Note that we are still working on the details for all the talks, so check back on this page in the coming weeks to see updates and more details.
Important notes:
We will record all talks and have the recordings as well as all the presentation material available afterwords on our website, http://bostonai.org
We have a slack channel for this meetup where we will discuss the meetups and other AI topics. You can register for the Boston AI slack channel from http://bostonai.org.
This meetup will rotate between a few different locations. Make sure you take note of the location in future months.
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Boston Green Drinks - April Happy Hour
Tuesday, April 25
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Scholars, 25 School Street, Boston
Happy spring! So much is happening in the sustainability world, so let's get together and talk about it.
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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The Age of Consequences
Tuesday, April 25
6PM
Kilachand Honors College, 91 Bay State Road, Boston
“The Age of Consequences: How climate change impacts resources scarcity, migration and conflict through the lens of US national security and global stability” is a documentary which investigates the impacts of climate change on increased resource scarcity, migration, and conflict through the lens of US national security and global stability. Taking us beyond the headlines of the conflict in Syria, the social unrest of the Arab Spring, the rise of radicalized groups like ISIS, and the European refugee crisis the film distinguished admirals and generals and military veterans use case-studies to explain how climate change stressors interact with societal tensions, sparking conflict.
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The Future of Work in a Tech-Driven Economy
Tuesday, April 25
6:30 – 8:30 pm EDT
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston
INTRODUCTION
With the rapid pace of technological progress, work in the future will look very different than today. Presented with the Inclusive Innovation Challenge at MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy, this event will explore how working people can anticipate the challenges and pursue the professional and economic opportunities in the future of work.
WHY IT MATTERS?
We live in perhaps the greatest age of technological innovation in human history. Yet many people are not experiencing the benefits of this progress. Wage growth is at a standstill, and jobs that were once pathways to guaranteed prosperity have dramatically changed or disappeared. To thrive in the rapidly advancing digital economy, working people will need to be prepared.
WHAT YOU'LL TAKE AWAY
How work is changing?
What jobs will be relevant in the future?
What skills will be required?
How will we maintain our personal financial security?
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TEDxCamberville planning
Tuesday, April 25
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Naco Taco, 297 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This will be our first meeting, so we'd like to cover the basics:
Introduce leadership
Share our vision for TEDxCamberville
Improve on that vision with your help
Explain what is required to host a TEDx event
Gather info on how you'd like to be involved
Schedule our next meeting
We hope to see you there!
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Communicating Climate Change Through Science and Technology
Tuesday, April 25
7:30PM (follows brief 7PM meeting of the Friends of the Robbins Library)
Robbins Library, 700 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington MA (Community Room)
Brian Helmuth, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences and School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University Helmuth Lab
Climate change is a global phenomenon, but its impacts play out on very local scales. Specifically, impacts are the result of weather events, which are in turn “trained” by climate. Moreover, the ways in which nonhuman organisms experience their world is radically different from how we humans perceive it, making it difficult for us to comprehend how we are affecting the natural world, and in turn how it affects society.
Dr. Helmuth is very active in outreach. Among other outreach activities the Helmuth Lab provides opportunities for teachers and students to assist with research.
The presentation will follow a brief Annual Meeting of the Friends of Robbins Library at 7pm
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Wednesday, April 26
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Cambridge and a Net Zero Plan
Wednesday, April 26
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
USGBC MA 16th Floor, Edison Room, 50 Milk Street, Boston
Cost: $15 – $65
Learn more about the City of Cambridge's 25-year Net-Zero Action Plan from presenter Henrietta Davis (former Mayor of Cambridge).
Join us for our Green Breakfast series with Henrietta Davis, former Mayor of Cambridge as she speaks to the USGBC Massachusetts about Cambridge’s Net Zero Action Plan. We will also discuss the idea of creating a "handbook" for smaller municipalities in Massachusetts to achieve net-zero.
Net-Zero in Cambridge
In December 2013, the City of Cambridge created the “Getting to Net Zero Task Force” charged with advancing the goal of setting Cambridge on the trajectory towards becoming a “net zero community”, with focus on carbon emissions from building operations. This includes reducing energy use intensity of buildings and taking advantage of opportunities to harvest energy from renewable sources. To guide this process, a committee comprised of residents, community advocates, business and property owners, developers and representatives of local universities was assembled. This committee worked collaboratively with a team of technical consultants and City staff to examine strategies and develop recommendations that reduce carbon emissions through efficient design and retrofits, improved operations and renewable energy generation. The Task Force developed comprehensive, actionable, long and short term recommendations. In June 2015, a 25-year Net Zero Action Plan, endorsed by stakeholders across the Cambridge community, was adopted by City Council.
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MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar
Wednesday, April 26
12:00pm to 1:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Speaker: Sylvia Dee, Brown University, Institute for Environment and Society (IBES)
Sylvia Dee completed her undergraduate degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering with certificates in Geological Engineering and Environmental Sciences at Princeton University. She completed her Ph.D. under the direction of Dr. Julien Emile-Geay in the USC Earth Sciences department, earning a doctorate in Climate Dynamics. She is currently a Voss Postdoctoral Fellow with the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society at Brown University. Sylvia's research projects include topics in climate modeling and climate of the past millennium, using general circulation models (GCMs) and proxy system models (PSMs) to explore the dynamics of the tropical climate system.
Sylvia is the developer of the water isotope-enabled, fast-physics atmospheric dynamical model, SPEEDY. SPEEDY allows for multi-centennial simulations of common era climate, which, coupled with proxy system models for water isotope-based proxy records, facilitates the comparison of model output to proxy records.
About this Series
The MIT Atmospheric Science Seminar (MASS) is an informal student-run weekly seminar series within PAOC. Seminar topics include all research concerning the atmosphere and climate, but also talks about e.g. societal impacts of climatic processes. The seminars usually take place on Fridays from 10-11am in 54-923. The presentations are either given by an invited speaker or by a member of PAOC and can focus on new research or discussion of a paper of particular interest. 2016/2017 co-ordinator: Martin Wolf (mjwolf@mit.edu)
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Climate Week: "Defending the Climate in the Trumpocene"
Wednesday, April 26
12:00 pm
Harvard, Science Center A, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
David Doniger, Director, Climate and Clean Air Program, National Resource Defense Council (NRDC)
David Doniger has been at the forefront of the battle against air pollution and global climate change since he joined NRDC in 1978. He helped formulate the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement designed to stop the depletion of the earth's ozone layer, as well as several essential amendments to the Clean Air Act. In 1993, he left NRDC to serve on the White House Council on Environmental Quality, followed by key posts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He rejoined NRDC in 2001 and has since been working to defend the Clean Air Act from assaults in Congress. He is based in Washington, D.C.
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
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Climate Ready Boston Webinar
Wednesday, April 26
12pm - 1pm
Virtual - link will be emailed when you register
CONTACT Jessica Feldish · greenovate@boston.gov to RSVP
In celebration of Earth Month and Civic Engagement Week, Greenovate is hosting a webinar about a key initiative of the climate action plan: Climate Ready Boston. Join us on April 26th at 12:00 PM for an update on the latest from Climate Ready Boston, and to learn more about current projects.
This is your chance to get a more in-depth look at climate change impacts in Boston. Climate Preparedness Program Manager Mia Goldwasser will explain how climate change is already impacting Boston, and the projects that the City is currently undertaking to help prepare Boston for the changes ahead.
This lunch + learn webinar is a great opportunity to see the latest Boston climate change projections presented in a new, interactive way - and to join a lively discussion!
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Webinar on Low Income Community Shared Solar
Wednesday, April 26
12-1 p.m.
RSVP at
MAPC's upcoming webinar "Increasing Access: Low Income Community Shared Solar 101" will feature an explanation from Cadmus Group on community shared solar and how ongoing solar policy and incentive developments in Massachusetts may impact these solar projects.
The City of Newton will also provided attendees with a breakdown of how the City successfully developed and piloted their Community Solar Share Initiative (CoSSI) in 2016.
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America's Military and the Rise of Guardian Forces
Wednesday, April 26
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Paula Thornhill
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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Uncertainty and Risk in Technological Innovation: A 50-Year Retrospective
WHEN Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2017, 12:15 – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bell Hall (5th Floor Belfer Building), Harvard Kennedy School
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Information Technology, Lecture, Research study
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) F.M. Scherer, Professor emeritus, Harvard Kennedy School
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served, please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu.
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Live Webcast: "Public Health, Science and Leadership" with Gina McCarthy
Wednesday, April 26
12:30PM
Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and Menschel Senior Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, leads a discussion as part of the Voices in Leadership Series.
Do You Have a Leadership Question for Gina McCarthy? Send them ahead of time to @VoicesHSPH using #VoicesHSPH, or by email to voices@hsph.harvard.edu for consideration to be asked during the webcast.
Gina McCarthy was appointed by President Obama in 2009 as assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, and was subsequently named EPA administrator in 2013. A longtime public servant and progressive leader, she previously served as commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, deputy secretary of the Massachusetts Office of Commonwealth Development, and undersecretary for policy for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs.
This series invites leaders to speak candidly about their experience as forerunners in their area of expertise. The program is produced in The Leadership Studio for a private audience and webcast live around the world. Highly interactive, the videos are then posted with searchable transcripts for future viewing. Learn about effective decisions and ones that failed. Hear behind-the-scenes stories from newsworthy events. Engage with accomplished leaders as they reflect on their careers and share lessons learned.
Contact Name: voices@hsph.harvard.edu
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Sustainability at MIT: building a next generation platform
Wednesday, April 26
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-451, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
EPP Lunch Speaker Series
Speaker: Julie Newman
Higher education has often been a catalyst in driving both national and global innovation and sweeping shifts in cultural norms. Today, MIT seeks to transform our campus in yet another demonstration of MIT’s ability to marshal knowledge in addressing the world's great challenges. Today we seek to develop a vision for a Sustainable Campus that is uniquely grounded in the trans-disciplinary, problem-solving ethos of the MIT culture, yet uniquely shaped by its integration with the City of Cambridge and service to the world. In 2013 the MIT Office of Sustainability was launched and set out to transform the campus into a powerful model that generates new and proven ways of responding to the unprecedented challenges of a changing planet via operational excellence, education, research and innovation on our campus. By accessing the campus as a living laboratory, MIT seeks to expose students to cutting edge and scalable sustainability challenges and solutions via opportunities for applied research on campus and beyond the borders. Julie Newman, Director and Founder of the Office will discuss the process of launching a next generation platform for campus sustainability at MIT followed by a dialogue as to the role of DUSP students and faculty moving forward.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): School of Architecture and Planning, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
For more information, contact: Ezra Glenn
617-253-2024
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The Political Ethics of the Strike
WHEN Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2017, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Sheerr Room, Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge,
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Alex Gourevitch, 2016–2017 William Bentinck-Smith Fellow; Assistant Professor of Political Science; Brown University
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS In this lecture, Gourevitch’s describes his current project combining work from social theory, history, and political philosophy to develop a defense of the right to strike. Gourevitch argues that the right to strike is a right to resist oppression, which workers assert in response to the exploitation they experience in the modern economy. This way of thinking about the right to strike has implications not only for labor law and the use of force by private actors, but also on how solidarity and violence form core themes in the artistic representation of labor struggles.
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CO2-triggered destabilisation of magmatic systems
Wednesday, April 26
4:00pm to 5:00pm
MIT, Building 54-915 (the tallest building on campus), Cambridge
Luca Caricchi, Universitie de Geneve
Magmatic systems are the engine driving volcanic eruptions and the release of fluids responsible for the formation of porphyry-type ore deposits, our main source of copper (75% of global supply).
Sudden overpressure variations within magma reservoirs are commonly attributed to magma injection and can destabilise magmatic systems leading to volcanic eruptions or the impulsive release of ore-forming fluids.
We propose an alternative to this hypothesis showing that the input of minor amounts of CO2 is a considerably more powerful agent of destabilisation of magmatic systems with respect to the injection of magma itself.
About the Speaker
The focus of my research is the understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible for the transfer and emplacement of magma in the Earth’s crust and its eruption at the surface.
Our scientific mission is to understand how magmatic processes contribute to shaping our planet and what are the main physical factorscontrolling the frequency and magnitude of volcanic eruptions. Because more than 400 millions people live in the proximity of a volcano, this last, is an issue of high societal importance.
About the Series
EAPS interdisciplinary Department Lecture Series (DLS) brings both national and international speakers into the department to share their work. In addition EAPS sponsors a number of annual flagship named lectures, among them the Brace Lecture, the Kendall Lecture, and the Carlson Lecture. All such lectures and seminars are free and open to the public. To be added to EAPS event listserve contact Brandon Milardo, bmilardo@mit.edu.
Editorial Comment: May be important in relation to carbon capture and sequestration projects.
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Improving Agriculture in a Warmer World
Wednesday, April 26
5:00 pm
Harvard, Science Center Hall A, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Speaker: David Lobell, William Wrigley Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Associate Professor of Earth System Science
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Climate Week: "A Thousand Dead Snow Geese: The Matter of the Non-Human in the Age of Humans"
Wednesday, April 26
6:00 pm
Room 113, Sever Hall, 25 Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Timothy LeCaine, Associate Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies, Montana State University
Timothy LeCain is a historian of the environment and technology who focuses on the ways in which new materialist theories can help us to better understand the past. His forthcoming book, The Matter of History: How Things Create the Past (under contract with Cambridge University Press), develops a bold new theoretical and methodological approach that emphasizes the many ways in which a dynamic material environment creates humans, both as biological and cultural creatures. Squarely challenging the conventional lines drawn between human culture and nature, LeCain argues we are best understood as "natural born humans"--not in a determinative or genetic sense, but rather as creatures who arise out of the creative energy and immense possibilities of a vibrant material world.
LeCain's first book, Mass Destruction, won the 2010 best book of the year award from the American Society for Environmental History and was chosen as an Outstanding Book of the Year by Choice, the review publication of the American Library Association. Mass Destruction is an environmental and technological history of the giant open-pit copper mines developed in the American West in the first half of the Twentieth Century and their global consequences. LeCain has published nearly fifty articles, op-ed pieces, reviews, and other pieces. His most recent major article, “Against the Anthropocene: A Neo-Materialist Perspective,” argues that the inherent anthropocentrism of this proposed geological epoch tends to reinforce the very same human hubris that caused many contemporary environmental problems in the first place.
LeCain has been a research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution, the Huntington Library, and the Center for the American West. He is currently an Associate Professor of history and Director of Graduate Studies at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.
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SPARK CIVIC ENGAGEMENT WORKSHOP WITH GENERATION CITIZEN
Wednesday, April 26
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Boston City Hall, 1 City Hall Square #900, Boston
This event will teach people the tools of civic engagement and how to effectively work towards goals.
The Boston Civic Engagement Workshop is a partnership between SPARK Boston and Generation Citizen to teach civics in Boston.
Using Generation Citizen’s established curriculum of issue identification, combined with representatives from different City Government departments, residents will learn an action-based civics framework.
This event is during Civic Engagement Week 2017, which is hosted by the Love Your Block team (https://www.boston.gov/civic-engagement/love-your-block) as part of the Civic Engagement Cabinet.
CONTACT: AMY MAHLER
617-918-4343
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Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups
Wednesday, April 26
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
St. Paul's Cathedral, 138 Tremont Street, Boston
Project Bread presents anti-hunger activist Andrew Fisher at the exclusive book launch and signing event of his book, Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups, at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, April 26, at St. Paul's Cathedral.
In his new book, Big Hunger, Fisher lays out a vision that encompasses a broader definition of hunger characterized, by a focus on public health, economic justice, and economic democracy. He points to the work of numerous grassroots organizations, like Project Bread, that are leading the way in these fields as models for the rest of the anti-hunger sector. It is only through approaches like these that we can hope to end hunger, not just manage it.
Talk and discussion with the Author will be followed by a book signing. Books will be available at the event for purchase.
There is no ticket to attend this public event, although reserved seating is suggested. Light refreshments will be provided.
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Can an AI machine understand Indian Raga Music?
Wednesday, April 26
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
MIT, Stata Center, Room 32-155, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/can-an-ai-machine-understand-indian-raga-music-tickets-33444260684
Can robots understand the nuances of Indian classical music?
Can AI add ‘human emotion’ to rhythm and harmony?
Can they derive unique characteristics in a musical performance and savor it in the way a human music connoisseur can?
The presentation will focus on advances in AI and music recognition and include a demonstration of the AI Virtual musicologist.
The speaker, Kaustuv Ganguli, is a professional vocalist, an engineer and a musicologist, trained in Hindustani music tradition. He has been a student of vocal maestro Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty from age 7, and is currently a scholar at ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata. He is pursuing his PhD in Electronic Systems (Dept. of Electrical Engg.) at the Indian Institute of Technology. His research interests include Audio Signal Processing, Music Information Retrieval, Emotion & Cognition, Perception. He is applying Artificial Intelligence techniques to analyze classical music and is also a part of the CompMusic project for computational models of world music discovery. He has received many awards for his musical talent and has published in numerous publications about his technical and musicological work.
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Morph 3D: Building your body for the Metaverse
Wednesday, April 26
6:00 PM to 10:00 PM
Wayfair, Floor 3, 4 Copley Place, Boston
Morph 3D specializes in Avatar creation, management and distribution for our new worlds of shared digital realities. Learn about the Morph Character System technology that enables users and developers to create dynamic custom digital characters and avatars for use in AR, VR, mobile, console and PC experiences. Get hands-on with 'Ready Room', a character creation platform that allows anybody, regardless of skill level, to easily create fully functional custom avatars and portal straight into leading Social VR platforms. Find out about the Morph 3d ecosystem and how you can contribute to the marketplace using 'Artist Tools'.
Digital Precept is an independent game studio based out of Memphis Tennessee. They have been working on integrating Morph 3D into their HTC Vive title Kung Fu: Shadow Fist. This talk will be focused on integrating morph into KFSF along with basic VR game design concepts.
SCHEDULE
6:00pm - Doors open, demos begin, snacks are served.
7:00 - 7:30pm - Morph 3D talk begins
7:30 - 8:00pm - Digital Precept talk begins
8:15 - 9:45 Demofest!!
9:45 - Afterparty To be determined
Demos:
Morph 3D Avatar System
Kung Fu: Shadow Fist
More to come soon!
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Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign
Wednesday, April 26
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes journalists JONATHAN ALLEN and AMIE PARNES—authors of 2014's HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton—for a discussion of their latest book, Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign.
About Shattered
It was never supposed to be this close. And of course she was supposed to win. How Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump is the tragic story of a sure thing gone off the rails. For every Comey revelation or hindsight acknowledgment about the electorate, no explanation of defeat can begin with anything other than the core problem of Hillary's campaign—the candidate herself.
Through deep access to insiders from the top to the bottom of the campaign, political writers Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes have reconstructed the key decisions and unseized opportunities, the well-intentioned misfires and the hidden thorns that turned a winnable contest into a devastating loss. Drawing on the authors' deep knowledge of Hillary from their previous book, the acclaimed biography HRC, Shattered will offer an object lesson in how Hillary herself made victory an uphill battle, how her difficulty articulating a vision irreparably hobbled her impact with voters, and how the campaign failed to internalize the lessons of populist fury from the hard-fought primary against Bernie Sanders.
Moving blow-by-blow from the campaign's difficult birth through the bewildering terror of election night, Shattered tells an unforgettable story with urgent lessons both political and personal, filled with revelations that will change the way readers understand just what happened to America on November 8, 2016.
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Thursday, April 27
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The Future of SREC: Come learn about SMART!
Thursday, April 27
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM EDT
50 Milk Street, 12th Floor, Hummingbird Room, Boston
Cost: $25 – $45
Massachusetts is in the third cycle of solar incentive development. What we have known as the SREC program is developing into a block incentive program with a flat rate incentive, named SMART (Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target).
The switch is expected to cut the annual cost of solar installations to electricity ratepayers in half, from $400 million to $500 million under previous versions of the program to $200 million to $250 million under the new program.
State energy officials say the new structure will also provide more certainty to the market by ensuring that developers know how much of an incentive they will get for their projects over a 10- or 20-year time frame, depending on the type of project.
"It provides a tremendous reduction in cost to every ratepayer but provides more financial stability that the program has lacked in the past," said Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matt Beaton.
The switch was prompted by a solar energy bill that Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law in April 2016, directing the Department of Energy Resources to develop a new version of the solar incentive program. Utilities had said the old program was too generous to solar developers and resulted in unnecessarily high costs to ratepayers. The solar industry had stressed the importance of helping an industry that is expanding in Massachusetts, creating jobs and generating renewable energy.
There has been a release of the final program design but there are still many questions to be answered. Come join us for a presentation on what has been released on the incentive program and engage with the group conversation directly following.
Presenters:
Haley Belofsky, Solar Design Consultant
Haley is a native to the Boston area, raised in Arlington, currently residing in South Boston. Her passion for sustainability began with an eighth birthday party themed, “Save the Rainforest.” After graduating from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont she accepted a position as an Americorps volunteer working for the Hawaii Department of Education.
The Americorps contract came to conclusion but Haley was not ready to leave the islands. Her first position in solar was at a local Hawaiian company, Sunetric, working as an inside sales consultant and later moving to a project coordinator role. She started in the solar industry in 2009 and has since held roles in permitting, inspections, and sales at SolarCity, RGS Energy, and SunRun.
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Climate Week: “Human Health in a Changing Climate”
Thursday, April 27
9:00AM
Harvard, 250 Jefferson Hall, 17 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Welcoming remarks by Harvard University President Drew Gilpin Faust.
Keynote address by Gina McCarthy, former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, with an introduction by Michelle Williams, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health.
A panel discussion will follow featuring Aaron Bernstein, Instructor in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, and Associate Director, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Anneliese Depoux, Co-Director, Centre Virchow-Villermé, University of Sorbonne Paris Cité; Ashish Jha, K.T. Li Professor of International Health, Harvard Medical School, and Director, Harvard Global Health Institute; Jennifer Leaning, François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights; Samuel Myers, Senior Research Scientist, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Clinical Instructor, Harvard Medical School, and Director, Planetary Health Alliance; Rainer Sauerborn, Chair of Public Health, Heidelberg University; Jerry Taylor, President of the Niskanen Center; Lise Van Susteren, CEO of Lucky Planet Foods; Michael VanRooyen, Professor in the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and Kira Vinke, Scientific Assistant to the Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Contact Name: Andrew Iliff
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Study Presentation Premiere: Health Benefits of Carbon Pricing in Massachusetts
Thursday, April 27
9:30 AM – 11:00 AM EDT
The Boston Foundation, 75 Arlington Street, 10th floor, Boston
You are coordially invited to the first-ever presentation of:
The Health Benefits of Carbon Pricing in Massachusetts: A Presentation at The Boston Foundation
A new study by the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
This study quantifies how a simple change in policy could save hundreds of lives – worth $2.9 billion in health benefits – and improve the quality of life for many more while also reducing climate pollution via a price on carbon now before the Massachusetts State Legislature.
An Act Combating Climate Change, S.1821, Sponsor Michael J. Barrett
An Act to Promote Green Infrastructure, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Create Jobs, H.1726, Sponsor Jennifer E. Benson
Schedule:
9:30 Doors open
9:50-10:50 Speaking program:
Welcome by Wayne Davis, Cofounder, Harvest Power
Presentation by Dr. Jonathan Buonocore Sc.D., Center for Health & the Global Environment
Senator Michael Barrett
Representative Jennifer Benson
Additional speakers to be announced
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Sustaining Capitalism: Bipartisan Solutions to Restore Trust & Prosperity
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 27, 2017, 11:45 a.m. – 1 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Bell Hall (5th Floor Belfer), 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Business, Lecture, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School
SPEAKER(S) Joe Minarik, Senior VP and Director of Research, Committee for Economic Development
CONTACT INFO Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to mrcbg@hks.harvard.edu
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Drought, blight, and the aesthetics of dispossession
Thursday, April 27
12:00-1:00pm
Tufts, Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center, 10 Upper Campus Road, Medford
Matthew Hooley, Department of American and Colonialism Studies, Tufts University
This talk considers the role of aesthetics in two histories of environmental violence. Both Navajo Nation and Flint, Michigan have been scenes of what Traci Voyles calls "waste landing"—the construction of landscapes as unliveable in order to justify their colonial appropriation and redevelopment. Against this, the talks reads the speculative and ana-apocalyptic photographic work of Diné photographer Will Wilson (Auto Immune Response) as an unbinding of the colonial aesthetic projects of drought and blight.
Matt Hooley is a Visiting Assistant Professor of American and Colonialism Studies at Tufts University. His research explores the intersection of Indigenous Studies, Environmental Studies, and Literary and Visual Arts modernisms. He is at work on two book projects: Ordinary Empire: Native Modernisms and the Ecologies of Settlement and Scale Exhaustion: The Aesthetics of Environmentalism. He received his PhD in English and Native American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Watch it live from your computer or smart phone:
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MIT Water Club Lunch and Learn
Thursday, April 27
12:00pm 1:00pm
MIT 5-233, 55 Massachusetts Avenu, Cambridge
Join the MIT Water club for an informative lecture from Dr. Afreen Siddiqi on Water Policy. Free lunch will be served!
Dr. Afreen Siddiqi is a visiting scholar with the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is also as a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research expertise is at the intersection of technology, policy, and international development. She combines quantitative tools and qualitative methods for complex socio-technical systems analysis. Her current work is in natural resources planning and scientific capacity and industrial development in emerging countries. In the first area, her work focuses on critical linkages between water, energy, and food security at urban, provincial, and national scales in the water-scarce Middle East and in the water rich but energy-starved Indus Basin of Pakistan. In the second area, her research is on analyzing engineering education and scientific research enterprise in emerging economies in Middle East and Europe for seeding new industrial sectors, innovation, and competitive diversification.
Dr. Siddiqi has an S.B. in Mechanical Engineering and an S.M. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Systems, all from MIT. She has been a recipient of the Amelia Earhart Fellowship, Richard D. DuPont Fellowship, and the Rene H. Miller Prize in Systems Engineering. She has engineering experience in National Instruments (in Austin, Texas) and Schlumberger (in Houston, Texas), consulting experience with BP, Lockheed Martin, and Aurora Flight Systems, and teaching experience at MIT and Universita della Svizzera italiana in Switzerland.
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Linking Farmers to Markets: An Experience in Balancing Objectives
Thursday, April 27
12PM
MIT, Building E51-335, 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Please join the Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Working Group at MIT for a lunchtime seminar on the UN World Food Programme. Our distinguished speaker will be Nicole Menage, former Director of the Procurement Division and Country Director (Nepal, Tanzania, Zimbabwe), UN World Food Programme (WFP). Lunch will be provided.
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Digital Health @ Harvard, April 2017 – Holding Hospitals Hostage: From HIPAA to Ransomware
Thursday, April 27
12:00 pm
Harvard, Berkman Klein Center, 23 Everett Street, Second Floor, Cambridge
RSVP required to attend in person at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/digitalhealth/2017/04/Wolff#RSVP
Event will be live webcast at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/digitalhealth/2017/04/Wolff at 12:00 pm.
featuring Dr. Josephine Wolff
This is a talk in the monthly Digital Health @ Harvard Brown Bag Lunch Series, which is co-hosted by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
About Dr. Wolff
Josephine Wolff is an assistant professor in the Public Policy department at RIT and a member of the extended faculty of the Computing Security department. She is a faculty associate at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society and a fellow at the New America Cybersecurity Initiative.
Wolff recieved her PhD. in Engineering Systems Division and M.S. in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as her A.B. in Mathematics from Princeton University.
Her research interests include cybersecurity law and policy, defense-in-depth, security incident reporting models, economics of information security, and insurance and liability protection for computer security incidents. She researches cybersecurity policy with an emphasis on the social and political dimensions of defending against security incidents, looking at the intersection of technology, policy, and law for defending computer systems and the ways that technical and non-technical computer security mechanisms can be effectively combined, as well as the ways in which they may backfire. Currently, she is working on a project about a series of cybersecurity incidents over the course of the past decade, tracing their economic and legal aftermath and their impact on the current state of technical, social, and political lines of defense. She writes regularly about cybersecurity for Slate, and her writing has also appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, The New Republic, Newsweek, and The New York Times Opinionator blog.
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The Quest for Environmental and Racial Justice for All: Why Equity Matters
Thursday, April 27
3-4:30 pm,
MIT, Building 26-100, 60 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Keynote Speaker: Professor Robert D. Bullard, Dean of the School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University. Distinguished Prof. of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy. He is often regarded as the “father of environmental justice.”
Keynote Lecture Abstract
For more than three decades Robert D. Bullard has been at the forefront of the environmental justice movement through his teaching, lectures, scholarship, research, service and activism. His lecture at MIT explores how the environment justice framework redefined environmentalism and challenged institutional racism and the dominant environmental protection paradigm. Much of his life’s work has been devoted to uncovering the underlying assumptions that contribute to and produce unequal protection and brings to the surface the ethical and political questions of “who gets what, when, where, why, and how much.” Bullard’s research has documented that some communities have the “wrong complexion for protection” and living on the “wrong side of the tracks” can be hazardous to one’s health.
About Professor Robert Bullard
Robert D. Bullard is a distinguished professor of urban planning and environmental policy in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University in Houston. He is the author of eighteen books that address sustainable development, environmental racism, urban land use, community reinvestment, housing, transportation and climate justice. Bullard has testified as an expert witness and served as a technical advisor on hundreds of civil rights lawsuits and public hearings. Professor Bullard was featured in the July 2007 CNN People You Should Know, Bullard: Green Issue is Black and White. In 2014, the Sierra Club named its new Environmental Justice Award after Dr. Bullard. In 2015, the American Bar Association presented him with the Excellence in Environmental, Energy, and Resources Stewardship Award.
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WORKSHOP - The Architecture of Refugees: The Question of Ethics
Thursday, April 27
3:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
Significant transformations in the world's political landscape are signaling the emergence of a new world order that undermines the certitudes established at the end of World War II. At the core of such discussions, the concept of human rights is significantly challenged, calling for a discussion at the core of ethics for the revisions of the principles and mechanisms of intervention.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, Department of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning Building Across Related Studies
For more information, contact: Jose Luis Arguello
617-253-1400
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Climate Week: "Human Imprints on the Tree of Life: Using Evolutionary History to Understand What is Being Lost and What to Save"
Thursday, April 27
4:00 pm
Harvard, Geological Lecture Hall (100), 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge
The Harvard University Center for the Environment presents "Human Imprints on the Tree of Life: Using evolutionary history to understand what is being lost, and what to save," a panel discussion featuring Sandra Diaz, Professor of Community and Ecosystems Ecology, Córdoba National University (Argentina) and Senior Principal Researcher, Argentine National Research Council; Michael Donoghue, Sterling Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Curator of Botany Peabody Museum, Yale University; Kate Jones, Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity and Director, Biodiversity Modelling Research Group, Centre for Biodiversity and Environmental Research (CBER), University College London; Ana Rodrigues, Senior Researcher, The French National Center for Scientific Research, and moderated by Jonathan Davies, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, McGill University, as part of the Ecological Systems in the Anthropocene Seminar Series.
Contact Name: Laura Hanrahan
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Peter Fox-Penner author of Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid
Thursday April 27
4:30pm
Harvard, Taubman 102, 15 Eliot Street, Cambridge
Peter Fox-Penner, the author of Smart Power: Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and the Future of Electric Utilities, and a leading thinker on the economic, political and social dynamics that are driving reinvention in the utility sector, will be our guest. Peter is the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and was formerly a Principal at the Brattle Group where he advised electric utilities and other energy sector participants. Peter brings a breadth of experience to his work including serving as a senior advisor to Democratic Presidential candidates since 1992 and in his current role as Chief Strategy Officer at Energy Impact Partners, a clean energy investment fund investing on behalf of leading utilities in the United States and abroad. Peter will share his thinking on what electric utilities will look like a decade from now and how they will get there.
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Ingersoll Lecture with Marilynne Robinson: Old Souls, New World
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 27, 2017, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
WHERE First Parish, 3 Church Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Religion, Special Events
SPONSOR Harvard Divinity School
CONTACT Ainsley Land Tucker
DETAILS Pulitzer Prize winning author of Gilead and Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson, will deliver the Ingersoll lecture at Harvard Divinity School.
Registration for HDS guests and affiliates for the bicentennial events can be found online.
Tickets are required for this event!
For non-HDS guests, a limited number of tickets are available to the public through the Harvard Box Office starting April 11, 2017. Limit of two per person.
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Waste Research and Innovation Night 2017
Thursday, April 27
4:30-7:30pm
MIT, Building E51-115 (Wong Auditorium & Ting Foyer), 2 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Come join us for our annual panel & poster session on waste research and innovation! We are looking for presenters to share their work and ideas regarding the waste sector and inviting anyone else with interests in waste to learn about new waste technologies being developed at MIT and the surrounding community. Poster presenters will be contacted with further details.
The panel will start at 4:30 PM on Thursday, April 27, followed by a poster session from 5:30-7:30 PM, at E51-115. Hors d'oeuvres will be provided.
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The Conservative Canon Before and After Trump
Thursday, April 27
5:00p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Michael Lee charts the vital role of canonical post-World War II (1945-1964) books in generating, guiding, and sustaining conservatism as a political force in the United States. Dedicated conservatives have argued for decades that the conservative movement was a product of print, rather than a march, a protest, or a pivotal moment of persecution. The Road to Serfdom, Ideas Have Consequences, Witness, The Conservative Mind, God and Man at Yale, The Conscience of a Conservative, and other mid-century texts became influential not only among conservative office-holders, office-seekers, and well-heeled donors but also at dinner tables, school board meetings, and neighborhood reading groups. Taking an expansive approach, he shows the wide influence of the conservative canon on traditionalist, libertarian, and other types of conservatives. By exploring the varied uses to which each founding text has been put from the Cold War to the culture wars, Lee aims to highlight the struggle over what it means to think and speak conservatively in America.
Michael J. Lee teaches and researches political communication and rhetoric at the College of Charleston. His book, Creating Conservatism, won five national book awards in his field. He is also the co-founder of With Purpose, a non-profit organization that raises money and awareness to fight childhood cancer.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
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Humanitarian Happy Hour
Thursay, April 27
5PM
The Field, 20 Prospect Street, Central Square, Cambridge
Come out to network with students and faculty working in humanitarian affairs across Harvard graduate schools, MIT, and Tufts. Food will be provided.
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The History & Future of Planning in Boston
Thursday, April 27
6-8pm
Edward M. Kennedy Insitute (Columbia Point-- 210 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston
Renée Loth, Moderator, ArchitectureBoston magazine
Madhu-Dutta-Koehler, Director, City Planning Program and Urban Affairs, Boston University
Chris Grimley, Author, Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston
Mel King, Author, Chain of Change
Ted Landsmark, Director, Dukakis Center, Northeastern University, Board member, BPDA
Tunney Lee, MIT, Department of Urban Studies
Fred Salvucci, Senior Lecturer, MIT and former Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1983-1990)
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Smarter in the City Pitch & Demo Night
Thursday, April 27
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, 2300 Washington Street, 2nd Floor, Boston
Passionate about Entrepreneurship? Startups? Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Self Starter?
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. This event is open to all.
Companies Pitching & Showcasing:
sumu.io
pulse247.net
foodtruckstars.com
scholarjet.com
Alumni Companies Showcasing:
thetechconnectioninc.com
myulink.co
Mbadika
Judges
Amiee Sprung
Meredith McPherron
More to come...
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Global Economy after US Election. A Conversation with Alberto Forchielli
Thursday, April 27
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
MAST’, 45 Province Street, Boston
China slower growth is a problem for a dissatisfied world.
The rise of nationalist political parties in EU, and the choice of the US electorate for Trump as president can be seen as a protest vote against the establishment and against free trade.
A conversation on uncertainty and possible scenario in the coming years.
About Alberto Forchielli:
Founding partner of Mandarin Capital Partners, Alberto Forchielli owes his strategic abilities to his 35 years of management experience in international development, with a particular focus on the United States, China, Germany, and Singapore.
He is the founder and president of Osservatorio Asia, a non-profit research center focusing on Asia.
He founded T-Island, a placement agency specializing in international relocations for professionals.
He guided the expansion of the Roland Berger Foundation to Italy, an organization that provides individual support for talented students lacking the means to further their educations.
Throughout the course of his multifaceted professional career, he worked for the World Bank for three years, first in Washington DC and then separately via the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. He lived in Singapore for 5 years prior, where he was the head of Finmeccanica S.p.A for the Asia/Pacific region. He has been a member of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) advisory board in Shanghai.
As secretary general for the privatization of IRI, Forchielli managed the sale of twenty state-owned companies in diverse sectors.
His career began in Boston (USA) with the MAC Group/Gemini Consulting. Alberto Forchielli received an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s cum laude in economics from the University of Bologna. He speaks fluent Italian, English, French, and Spanish.
Long regarded as an economics expert, he is an editorialist for the Quotidiano Nazionale/QN and regularly writes for Piano Inclinato (www.pianoinclinato.it), Caixin Media (fugeli.blog.caixin.com), and also has an active English-language blog (www.albertoforchielli.com). He is a regular guest on Piazza Pulita, Class CNBC, Radio 24, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and CCTV (state-owned Chinese TV station).
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Sneak Preview of Film 'LA:92’
WHEN Thursday, Apr. 27, 2017, 6:30 – 8 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Starr Auditorium, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Film
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR The Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation
DETAILS Join Ash Center faculty affiliate and HKS Associate Professor of Public Policy Leah Wright Rigueur for an exclusive screening of National Geographic Documentary Films’ LA 92, which looks back at the riots that followed the acquittal of the four L.A. police officers charged with beating Rodney King 25 years ago. Following the screening, Professor Wright Rigeuer will moderate an audience discussion on historical and political themes presented in the film.
LA 92 is set to premiere at New York's Tribeca Film Festival on April 21. It will then have a limited theatrical release in N.Y. and Los Angeles on April 28 before making its television broadcast debut on National Geographic on April 30.
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The Hampshire Project
Thursday, April 27
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge
Kitty Beer, author
"If you are prone to believe that even severe climate change will be well managed, that future governments will calmly move cities inland, providing good jobs in construction and engaging our better selves, Kitty Beer will turn you inside out. The compelling, gutsy characters, the cults and marauding private armies, the Prudential Tower poking out of the Boston Sea and other vivid landscapes, are horribly credible. If Beer’s trilogy, set in the 2040s, 2060s, and continuing here in the 2080s with The Hampshire Project, can’t inspire you to action, nothing will." -- Professor Robert Socolow, Princeton University
Kitty Beer is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, the National Writers Union, and Grub Street. She has a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.A. from Cornell University. Her articles and stories have appeared in, for example, the Amicus Journal, the Ithaca Journal, Facets magazine, the HILRReview, and Harvard Magazine. Her futuristic screenplay, Home, placed in the 2004 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards contest. Human Scale won honorable mention in the 2010 Hollywood Book Festival contest.
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Friday, April 28
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Hacking Discrimination
Friday, April 28
All day
MIT, Building 32-123, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
This hackathon is intended to provide a mechanism for meaningful dialog, learning, networking and solution development. Our hope is that prototypes will be developed and commercialized to have far reaching, positive impact.
We don't think anyone can 'cure' discrimination. The issues are essentially disorders of human perception and their aggregate effects in societies. We are looking to identify pieces that we can impact and use technology to:
1. Bear witness- Document instances of discrimination or direct violence that can be used for legal recourse and for future advocacy
2. Connect for change- Establish mentor relationships
3. Generate momentum- Get like-minded people together to work on a common cause in a tangible and interesting way to lead to mobilization, especially of young people.
Web site: hackingdiscrimination.com
Open to: the general public
This event occurs daily through April 29, 2017.
Sponsor(s): MIT Alumni Association
For more information, contact: Alumni SIGs
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MIT Sustainability Summit: Funding the Future
Friday, April 28
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM EDT
MIT, Samberg Conference Center, 6th floor of Chang Building (E52)
50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Cost: $45 – $160
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mit-sustainability-summit-funding-the-future-tickets-29085564707
Transitioning to a more sustainable future requires financing. Moreover, tackling climate change, water scarcity, food scarcity and beyond would require rethinking financing itself--breaking perceptions of a tradeoff between financial viability and sustainability impact.
The 2017 MIT Sustainability Summit will challenge conventional investment actors--from seed venture capital to public capital markets--to innovate and explore the rise of unconventional actors and financial mechanisms. As an innovation hub, MIT will delve into new financing ecosystems that will foster collaboration across asset classes and support the change agents who are building the future. After all, creating a more sustainable world through technological innovations and creative policies is not only a challenge but also a multitrillion dollar opportunity.
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MIT Scaling Development Ventures Conference 2017
Friday, April 28
8:30 AM – 5:30 PM EDT
MIT Media Lab, 6th Floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Cost: $10 – $75
MIT SDV 2017: April 28
The 2017 MIT Scaling Development Ventures conference will feature more than 30 speakers and panelists. Program sessions will include two keynote speakers, social entrepreneur vision talks, a curated conversation, a showcase of MIT Social Ventures, and six afternoon breakout sessions.
For more information and to view speaker bios as they are added, visit the Scaling Development Ventures website
To keep up with conference news and announcements - follow #MITsdv17
Take advantage of our Early Bird ticket pricing until 03/19!
Early Bird Professional: $60 (regularly $70)
Early Bird MIT Student, Faculty, & Staff: $8 (regularly $10)
Early Bird Other Student: $12 (regularly $15)
KEYNOTES
Teju Ravilochan of Unreasonable Institute
Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu of soleRebels.
AGENDA
8:30 - 9:00 REGISTRATION & COFFEE
9:00 - 9:15 WELCOME!
9:15 - 9:45 KEYNOTE I
9:45 - 10:15 VISION TALKS
10:30- 12:00 CURATED CONVERSATION
12:00 - 1:30 LUNCH & MIT SOCIAL VENTURE SHOWCASE
1:30 - 2:00 KEYNOTE II
2:00 - 3:15 ROUND 1 BREAKOUT SESSIONS
3:30 - 4:45 ROUND 2 BREAKOUT SESSIONS
4:45 - 5:00 NOTES TO FUTURE SELF
5:00 - 5:30 CLOSING REMARKS
6:00 - 7:00 RECEPTION AND NETWORKING GATHERING TBA
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Intersections: Understanding Urbanism in the Global Age
WHEN Friday, Apr. 28, 2017, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Conferences, Environmental Sciences, Humanities, Information Technology, Law, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
COST Free
TICKET INFO Registration required
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS Urbanism is a global phenomenon, presenting us with a range of pressing issues to consider—economic, political, material, and most important of all, human.
This conference is designed to stimulate a broad-based discussion about “the urban” in the 21st century, a more complicated concept than 19th- and 20th-century cities. The event will take a multidisciplinary and international approach to explore the challenges and tensions that people in urban communities face today.
For panel information and to register online, visit the event webpage.
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Climate Week: "Utilizing NASA's 'Panoply' for Geoscience Data Analysis in the Classroom"
Friday, April 28
11:30 am
Harvard, Gutman Hall 302, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge
Nicole Dulaney, Hillcrest High School Earth Science Faculty, NASA Associate Researcher, and Math for America Early Career Fellow
Contact Name: Cindy Floyd
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Climate Week: “Achieving Harvard’s Science-based Climate Goal”
Friday, April 28
12:00PM
Harvard, Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge
The Harvard Office for Sustainability (OFS) presents a lunchtime discussion with OFS Director Heather Henriksen on how the University community achieved the aggressive climate goal it set in 2008 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2016 from a 2006 baseline.
Heather Henriksen leads a University-wide initiative that brings together students, faculty, and staff across Harvard’s 13 Schools and dozens of central administrative departments to set and achieve goals for a healthier, more efficient, and sustainable campus. Working with the Executive Vice President, and an Executive Committee commissioned by President Drew Faust, she and her team have built a robust stakeholder engagement and governance structure responsible for implementing Harvard’s science-based Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal and the creation of the first five-year Sustainability Plan. By cultivating partnerships with faculty and researchers, they are focused on using the campus to develop scalable solutions that enhance the well-being of the entire campus community.
Henriksen co-chairs a working group of the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) and the Sustainability Working Group for the Council of Ivy Presidents, and serves on the Executive Committee of Solution Generation. In coordination with Harvard’s Executive Vice President, she manages the Higher Education Working Group of the Boston Green Ribbon Commission and serves on the City of Cambridge’s Compact for a Sustainable Future Steering Committee and Net Zero Task Force. Outside of Harvard, Heather is a member of the Collective Board of Directors for Health Product Declaration, a partner of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), a member of the Board of Trustees of Phillips Brooks House Association, and previously served on Secretary Napolitano’s Sustainability and Efficiency Task Force, Department of Homeland Security. She holds a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Contact Name: Katie Hammer
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Violence and Justice: The Missing Piece in Our Anti-Poverty Agenda
WHEN Friday, Apr. 28, 2017, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Sperry Room, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Religion, Special Events
SPONSOR Harvard Divinity School
CONTACT Ainsley Land Tucker
DETAILS Moderater Jeffrey Sachs will have a conversation with panelists Sheryl WuDunn, Danielle Allen, Karen Tse, and Gary Haugen, about religion, poverty, and violence. The discussion is inspired by Haugen’s book, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence. This discussion is a Susan Shallcross Swartz Endowment event.
Registration for the bicentennial events can be found online at https://huevents.harvard.edu/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x261459a80
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Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?
Friday, April 28
3pm – 4:30 PM EDT
BU, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Law Auditorium, Boston
That is the question we invite you to explore with us on April 28th at 3:00 PM in the Boston University Law Auditorium, through dialogue with two individuals who personally experienced entering, exiting, and then working to counter extremist movements. Mubin Shaikh turned to Salafi-jihadist extremism in his late teen years in an attempt to resolve an identity crisis. Arno Michaelis found escape from his alcoholic home in the racist skinhead music scene, a gateway to his involvement in violent white supremacist groups. Both men left extremism behind many years ago and today are working to prevent young people from being pulled down that path.
Now more than ever, students, parents, educators, and civic leaders can benefit from gaining a new perspective on extremism, an issue that our society is still struggling to understand and confront in a productive way. By bringing together former extremists from different ideological backgrounds, we can begin to appreciate how much these seemingly polar opposite movements have in common in terms of vulnerability, recruitment, and narrative themes. We hope all who attend will leave knowing that although extremism is undoubtedly a complex challenge, we can all be part of the solution.
The Inkblot Project, a challenging extremism initiative led by students of BU’s Pardee School of Global Studies and overseen by their professor - noted author and terrorism expert Jessica Stern.
Inkblot has also partnered for this event with Parents for Peace, a non-profit founded by families who had loved ones recruited into extremism, some of whom are incarcerated for their actions or died fighting overseas. Hoping to prevent others from experiencing similar tragedy, Parents for Peace has established a helpline - 844-49-PEACE - that concerned friends or family members can call for support.
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Being the Change: Transformational Stories of Sustainability Leadership and Climate Activism
Friday, April 28
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Harvard, Sever Hall 113, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Many of us aspire to be the change we wish to see in the world. Our panelists have actually gone out and done it! On the eve of the People’s Climate March, we invite you to hear current and former students share how their passion for sustainability empowered them to spearhead new initiatives, tackle game-changing projects, and take bold steps to make a positive difference in their organizations and communities. To kick off our storytelling showcase, we invite you to join us for an exclusive screening of the short film Leaving the Carbon Economy featuring local climate activist Sue Butler. We’ll close out the evening with an interactive Q&A session and encourage you to join us afterwards for some casual mingling at John Harvard’s Brewery & Ale House. Come get inspired and fired up to transform your mission into action!
This event is free and open to the public.
For questions, please contact Lacey Klingensmith at lklingensmith@fas.harvard.edu
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No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch
Friday, April 28
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes one of the cofounders and leaders of No Boston Olympics CHRIS DEMPSEY and Professor of Economics at Smith College ANDREW ZIMBALIST for a discussion of their book No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch.
About No Boston Olympics
In 2013 and 2014, some of Massachusetts’ wealthiest and most powerful individuals hatched an audacious plan to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Boston. Like their counterparts in cities around the world, Boston’s Olympic boosters promised political leaders, taxpayers, and the media that the Games would deliver incalculable benefits and require little financial support from the public. Yet these advocates refused to share the details of their bid and only grudgingly admitted, when pressed, that their plan called for billions of dollars in construction of unneeded venues. To win the bid, the public would have to guarantee taxpayer funds to cover cost overruns, which have plagued all modern Olympic Games. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) chose Boston 2024’s bid over that of other American cities in January 2015—and for a time it seemed inevitable that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would award the Games to Boston 2024.
No Boston Olympics is the story of how an ad hoc, underfunded group of diverse and engaged citizens joined together to challenge and ultimately derail Boston’s boosters, the USOC, and the IOC. Chris Dempsey was cochair of No Boston Olympics, the group that first voiced skepticism, demanded accountability, and catalyzed dissent. Andrew Zimbalist is a world expert on the economics of sports, and the leading researcher on the hidden costs of hosting mega-events such as the Olympics and the World Cup. Together, they tell Boston’s story, while providing a blueprint for citizens who seek to challenge costly, wasteful, disruptive, and risky Olympic bids in their own cities.
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Saturday, April 29
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BOSTON NEIGHBORHOODS BIKE FORUM
Saturday, April 29
10am - 2pm
Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, 2300 Washington Street, Roxbury
This gathering is meant to bring together Boston residents to connect, share, learn and envision what biking could be in our
neighborhoods. Topics will include a space for youth, staying safe on unsafe roads, bike culture and identity, the business of biking, neighborhood biking groups, and championing change.
We welcome broad interest in the topic “what biking can be in our neighborhoods", including from residents, bicyclists, planners, bicycling advocates, city officials, and more. Due to limited capacity in the venue, we will give first preference to bicyclists and other interested residents of neighborhoods where Let’s Get Healthy, Boston! has focused active transportation efforts.
This event is free of charge. Pre-registration is required. Lunch and childcare will be provided. Register for the event today!
Questions or concerns? Contact Nicole Ferraro nferraro@bphc.org 617 534 2355
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OrigaMIT
Saturday, April 29
11 - 1p
MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
MIT's origami club demonstrate their interests and achievements.
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Boston People's Climate Mobilization
Saturday, April 29
12:00 PM
Boston Common, Boston
12:00-1:00pm RALLY for jobs, justice and bold action on climate on Boston Common
1:00-3:30pm ACTION TABLES, activities, and art-making on Boston Common
TEACH-INS on the connections between the climate fight and other struggles for justice at indoor spaces around the Common. Learn more at https://www.facebook.com/events/1302204036560536/
If organizations want to be cosponsor or host a table, they can sign up via this link:
More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/114630515717476/
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MIT IDEAS Innovation Showcase + Awards 2017
Saturday, April 29
12:30 PM – 3:30 PM EDT
MIT Media Lab E14-6th Floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Come join the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge for a celebration of the spirit of innovation, entrepreneurship, and public service!
Join us on Saturday, April 29th to meet the ~40 teams competing in the final round, celebrate their work, check out prototypes, and hear which teams will be awarded up to $15,000 to make their ideas a reality. This is where ideas come to life!
This is one of the best chances to hear many ideas that have the potential to make substantial impact around the world. We'll have light snacks to enjoy as you peruse, discover and learn.
Schedule:
12:30 – 2:30pm Innovation Showcase
2:30 – 3:30pm Awards Ceremony
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ARTS FIRST: Jazz on the Plaza
WHEN Sunday, Apr. 30, 2017, 2 – 4 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Science Center Plaza Tent, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Special Events
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Office for the Arts at Harvard
COST Admission free and open to the public.
CONTACT INFO 617-495-8676
DETAILS Celebrate ARTS FIRST and International Jazz Day with the Harvard Monday Jazz Band conducted by Yosvany Terry, Visiting Senior Lecturer of Music and Director of Jazz Bands—and a special appearance by the Grammy Award-nominated Yosvany Terry Quintet.
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Starr Forum: Somaliland (Sneak Preview)
Saturday, April 29
2:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building E25-111, 45 Carleton Street, Cambridge
Film screening and discussion with the filmmakers
SOMALILAND is a feature-length documentary about hope, perseverance, and the transformative power of education. After a destructive civil war with Somalia, Somaliland declared its independence in 1991 but has remained unrecognized since. In 2009 a young Wall Street executive moved to Somaliland and opened a high school to develop the future leaders of the country. The film follows five of his students as they apply to American schools and universities, with the hopes of their friends, families, school, and country on their shoulders. They are attempting to join the ranks of the first Somali students to attend US schools in over 30 years.
CIS Starr Forum
A public events series on pressing issues in international affairs, sponsored by the MIT Center for International Studies.
Free & open to the public | Refreshments served
For more information or accessibility accommodations please contact starrforum@mit.edu.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): Center for International Studies
For more information, contact:
617-253-8306
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Sunday, April 30
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Our World, Our Data: Taking Collective Responsibility for Citizen and Environmental Sensing
Sunday, April 30
9:00am — 6:00pm
MIT, Building E14 - 6th Floor, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Our World, Our Data: Taking Collective Responsibility for Citizen and Environmental Sensing
We live in a world increasingly driven by data and at a time in which the amount of it is increasing exponentially. From information about environmental pollution to sensors in our neighborhoods, it has never been easier to access or to collect data. Most people don’t realize just how many kinds of data exist and how they can be used to empower—and sometimes to disempower—people at a fundamental level.
On April 30, 2017 Safecast and the MIT Media Lab host a symposium, “Our World, Our Data: Taking Collective Responsibility for Citizen and Environmental Sensing.” Join us as experts from both the public and private sectors explore the issues surrounding environmental data, discuss the consequences and impact of its uses, and examine who we trust to work with our data and why.
Agenda
8:30–9:00am: Continental breakfast (E14 - 6th floor)
9:00–9:15am: Welcome (E14-674)
Sean Bonner afecast
Pieter Franken, Safecast
Joi Ito, Safecast / MIT Media Lab
Ethan Zuckerman, MIT Media Lab
9:15–10:15am: Keynote, "The ethics of data and responsible usage"
Beth Simone Noveck, NYU GovLab / Safecast Advisor
10:15–11:15am: Session 1 - Government Data
Natalie Harris, Former NSA / Team CTO
John Wilbanks, Sage Bionetworks / Faster Cures
People trust governments to collect and store many forms of data, but how can politics impact or interfere with these systems? With the future of some US Government data in question, we must ask if government is a trustworthy stakeholder, or should new processes be set in motion?
11:15–11:30am: Break
11:30am–12:30pm: Session 2 - Corporate Data
Matthew McKinzie, NRDC Washington
Andrew Young, GovLab / Data Collectives
Corporations also fund and house large data sets, but by definition they publish the data that supports their financial goals and discard that which doesn’t. What happens to this lost research, and how can the same mistakes be avoided time and time again?
12:30 – 1:30pm: Lunch
1:30–2:30pm: Session 3 - Obscure Data
Daniel Lombraña González, SciFabric
Abhijit RS, EDF / ASW
Data exists, but if no one knows about it how beneficial can it be? From single source data to long forgotten research to faux-open purposely difficult to find data, in this session we look at how to make good use of these existing data sets.
2:30–3:30pm: Session 4 - Uncomfortable Data
Denice Ross, Police Data Initiative
Madeleine Ball, Open Humans Foundation
Kiyoshi Kurokawa, World Health Organization
What facts don’t matter any more? What facts are uncomfortable? Where do facts bump up against biases? This session explores how politics and morality shape the usefulness of neutral data sets.
3:30–3:45pm: Break
3:45–4:45pm: Session 5 - Nonexistent Data
Jay Patel, ACH
Sarah Williams, MIT Urban Studies and Planning
Many aspects of the world remain unmapped because data can be measured and collected in so many different ways. Do standards exist and if so, what are they? And is non-useful data even data?
4:45–5:00pm: Closing remarks
5:00–6:00pm: Reception
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Greg Epstein: On Alt-Right Atheism
Sunday, April 30
1:30 PM
Humanist Hub, 30 JFK Street, 4th Floor, Harvard Square, Cambridge
Harvard Humanist Chaplain and Humanist Hub Executive Director Greg Epstein is not known as an angry atheist. Some atheists might even say Greg isn’t angry enough. This, however, will be Greg’s angriest talk yet.
In an America in which political ground is shifting beneath our feet, the one of the most disturbing developments has been the emergence of a vocal and powerful “Alt-Right:” a movement known for racism, sexism, hyper-nationalism, and violent tendencies.
Meanwhile, in a much more encouraging development: atheist, agnostic, and nonreligious Americans have also been rising to prominence, particularly among young adults.
However, in a truly disturbing trend for those of us atheists, agnostics and allies who embrace humanism as a progressive and inclusive philosophy of life, the Alt-Right has been gaining ground...among atheists. In fact, Alt-Right figurehead Richard Spencer has recently spoken and written publicly about how his movement is consistent with secular humanist values.
We at the Humanist Hub think it is not.
Join us for a talk and community conversation that will be important, timely and unfortunately a little angrier than we might like-- but hopefully with humor, and an uplifting message for all!
Greg Epstein is the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, the Humanist Hub’s Executive Director, and author of the New York Times bestseller "Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe." Join us for his monthly talk at the Hub: with music, poetry, discussion circles, food, childcare and inspiring activities for kids through our E.O. Wilson Big Question Lab, and more.
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Potluck with a Purpose: Race, Racism and Food Justice
Sunday, April 30
5 PM - 8 PM
The Humanist Hub, 30 JFK Street, 4th Floor, Cambridge
Our food system is an extension of our economic and political system and all three evolved alongside our nation's racial history. Systemic racism is deeply rooted in our existing food system, our politics, and our economics. I look forward to breaking bread while we spend some time looking more closely how issues surrouding race and racism are pervasive in our food system.
Suggested articles and videos will be up on http://www.eatthevotenow.org/potlucks-with-a-purpose by 4/19. Please, please use this event page to share your thoughts as well as additional readings, videos, podcasts, art...anything that you think will add to our collective understanding and builds our capacity to act.
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Monday, May 1
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Digital regulation of everyday life
Monday, May 1
8:30 - 6:30p
Northeastern, Raytheon Amphitheater, 120 Forsyth Street, Boston
The everyday needs of our future human existence will be shaped by the invention, distribution and commercialization of new forms of machines, buildings, labor opportunities and energy. This conference meets at the intersection of law, business, technology and creative design. We invite industry leaders, university researchers, technologists, entrepreneurs, artists, lawyers and political advocates to join us in a far-ranging discussion.
PANELS INCLUDE:
The Internet of Future Bodies
Ubiquity of the Copy: Impact of IP on Architecture and Urban Life
The Gig Economy: Algorithms and the Communities We Create
Renewable Energy, Resilience and Innovation
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
SARAH JEONG is a lawyer and contributing editor at Vice Motherboard. She has written for numerous major media outlets. In 2017, she was named one of Forbes’
30 Under 30: Media. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Jeong was a Poynter Fellow in Journalism at Yale in 2016.
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Swiss Landscape Architect Dieter Kienast´s Love for Spontaneous Urban Vegetation
Monday, May 1
12:10PM
Arnold Arboretum, Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
Anette Freytag, Associate Professor, Rutgers
Arnold Arboretum Research Talk
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The Utility of the Future
Monday, May 1
12:15pm
Harvard, Bell Hall, 5th Floor, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Ignacio Perez-Arriaga, Visiting Professor, Sloan School of Management, MIT, and Professor & Director of the BP Chair on Energy & Sustainability, Instituto de Investigacion Tecnologica (IIT), Universidad Pontificia Comillas.
Lunch is provided.
Energy Policy Seminar
Contact Name: Louisa Lund
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Focus on Russia
Monday, May 1
4:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building E40-497, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Andrey Kortunov
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Security Studies Program, Center for International Studies, MIT Russia
For more information, contact: Harlene Miller
617-258-6531
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Creating a Multi-Cultural Democracy: Religion, Culture & Identity in America
Monday, May 1
5:30PM
Sackler Auditorium, 485 Broadway, Cambridge
Winona LaDuke, award-winning activist and six-time author situated at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice, will speak on Climate Change, Indigenous Resistance, and Forging a New Democracy: Thoughts for the Present Moment in the 2017 Massey Lectures in American Studies.
Winona LaDuke is an award-winning activist and six-time author situated at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice. A graduate of Antioch College and Harvard University and a two-time vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, she resides on the White Earth reservation in Northern Minnesota. LaDuke is founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, through which she and her community established one of the country’s first tribal land trusts. Most recently, LaDuke has been engaged in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline through Honor the Earth, the organization of which she is executive director.
The William E. Massey, Sr., Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University have been endowed by an anonymous donor to honor Mr. Massey, the Virginia businessman and philanthropist. Mr. Massey was born in Ansted, West Virginia, in 1909 and attended the University of Richmond. At the age of twenty he began to work for the A.T. Massey Coal Company, and before his retirement in 1977 he served as chief executive officer of the company and chairman of the board. Mr. Massey was president of the Massey Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports cultural and educational institutions. He died on February 10, 1987.
Free and open to the public.
More information at http://americanstudies.unix.fas.harvard.edu/?cat=12
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Andrew Fisher, Big Hunger
Monday, May 1
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM EDT
MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge,
Cost: $0 – $23.95
The MIT Press Bookstore and Project Bread present anti-hunger activist Andrew Fisher discussing his book Big Hunger: The Unholy Alliance Between Corporate America and Anti-Hunger Groups, at 6:00 pm on Monday, May 1, at the Bookstore.
Food banks and food pantries have proliferated in response to economic emergency. This was meant to be a stopgap measure, but manufacturing jobs never came back, recession followed, and the “emergency food system” became an industry. In Big Hunger, Fisher argues that anti-hunger advocates are missing an essential element of the problem: economic inequality driven by low wages. He takes a critical look at the business of hunger and offers a new vision for the anti-hunger movement.
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.
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Solar Geoengineering -- w/Taylor Milsal
Monday, May 1
6:00 PM
Le Laboratoire, 650 E Kendall Street, Cambridge
Price: $15.00 /per person
Solar Geo is a controversial idea, existing on the sidelines for many years. Now, as the need to mitigate the effects of climate change becomes more urgent, we need to examine all of our tools, in order to help future generations solve this problem. Taylor will talk about new advances in solar geo, and the arguments in favor of field testing. The Long Now Boston community is invited to participate in this discussion and share your thoughts.
Taylor is a Managing Partner at Cotor, Inc., focused on developing technical and marketing solutions for business problems. Previously, Taylor was Co-Founder and CEO of San Francisco based innovation practice, Milsal McCaull. Under her leadership, the company's clients included a diverse portfolio, from startups to the world's largest corporations. Taylor has orchestrated over $500M in transactions for projects including megawatt-scale alternative energy installations and SaaS solutions for corporate clients and major retailers. She also founded Zephyr, a mechanical engineering and design firm, with clients including Apple and HP. She is also an investor in early stage biotech companies. Taylor co-founded and produced the first TEDx. Her hobby is collecting the world’s brightest people around a dinner table to share ideas.
*$15 admission includes free drink*
*Students free with school ID (no free drink)*
Doors open at 6pm. Program starts at 6:45pm.
*Walk-ups are welcome and students are free, but please, if you know you are going, and paying, register early so we can plan accordingly.*
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MIT Water Innovation Prize Final Pitch Night
Monday, May 1
6:00p–9:00p
MIT, Building E14-648, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Watch finalists compete in the MIT Water Innovation Prize for their chance to win up to $30K in innovation grants. See how these students' innovations address the world's water challenges and hear from our keynote speakers, Mark Duey, LATAM Regional Director at Water for People and Keri Waters, Co-Founder and CEO of Calliope.
Web site: http://www.mitwaterinnovation.org/
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, MIT Water Club
For more information, contact: Krithika Ramchander
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Walkaway: Cory Doctorow in conversation with Joi Ito
Monday, May 1
6:30 PM (Doors at 6:00)
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome columnist and bestselling author CORY DOCTOROW—author of Little Brother, Homeland, In Real Life, and Information Doesn't Want to Be Free—and MIT Media Lab director JOI ITO for a discussion of Doctorow's latest novel, Walkaway.
About Walkaway
Hubert Vernon Rudolph Clayton Irving Wilson Alva Anton Jeff Harley Timothy Curtis Cleveland Cecil Ollie Edmund Eli Wiley Marvin Ellis Espinoza—known to his friends as Hubert, Etc—was too old to be at that Communist party.
But after watching the breakdown of modern society, he really has no where left to be—except amongst the dregs of disaffected youth who party all night and heap scorn on the sheep they see on the morning commute. After falling in with Natalie, an ultra-rich heiress trying to escape the clutches of her repressive father, the two decide to give up fully on formal society—and walk away.
After all, now that anyone can design and print the basic necessities of life—food, clothing, shelter—from a computer, there seems to be little reason to toil within the system.
It’s still a dangerous world out there, the empty lands wrecked by climate change, dead cities hollowed out by industrial flight, shadows hiding predators animal and human alike. Still, when the initial pioneer walkaways flourish, more people join them. Then the walkaways discover the one thing the ultra-rich have never been able to buy: how to beat death. Now it’s war—a war that will turn the world upside down.
Fascinating, moving, and darkly humorous, Walkaway is a multi-generation SF thriller about the wrenching changes of the next hundred years . . . and the very human people who will live their consequences.
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The Future of Nature: The Energy We Need
Monday, May 1
6:30PM
Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (NERD), 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Cost: $10
The Nature Conservancy invites you to a talk and discussion exploring solutions to some of our most pressing environmental challenges as part of its Future of Nature Series.
With well-known energy sources like hydro, wind and solar at the forefront, many countries have made impressive strides transitioning to clean energy. Still, the challenges are immense: Consider that only 13% of electricity produced in the United States comes from renewable sources. As the essential push toward a low-carbon future continues, how do we balance benefits with potential risks to nature? What are the tools—technology, policy, markets and beyond—that will help us produce the clean energy we need in New England and globally, while protecting the health of our rivers and minimizing energy sprawl and other impacts? What role can lesser known renewable sources like biomass and tidal power play?
PANEL INCLUDES:
Katherine Hamilton, Partner, 38 North Solutions;
Jessika Trancik, Associate Professor of Energy Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
Nels Johnson, Director, North America Energy Program, The Nature Conservancy.
Networking reception 5:30pm, Talk 6:30–8pm. Registration required. Fee $10.
Contact Name: Cameron Bruns
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Clean Energy & Healthy Neighborhoods: Trees, Gas Leaks, Pipelines, Development, and YOU!
Monday, May 1
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston
ACT I: Speakers will address problems and actions/solutions on the issues of methane gas leaks, health issues, development, climate change, trees, and environmental justice. Speakers include Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, Minister for Ecological Justice; Prof. Nathan Phillips, Dept. of Earth and Environment at Boston University; Curtis Nordgaard, MD a pediatrician who founded MA Health Care Providers against Fracked Gas; and Patrick Roche, Energy Coordinator, Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). Moderated by Michael McCord, founder and Headmaster of the Learning Project Elementary School, there will be a brief Q&A session.
ACT II: A brief theatrical contribution to the discussion.
ACT III: Featuring 25 community advocacy groups sharing information and letting you know how you can become more involved and take ACTION. Groups such as Mass Energy Consumer Alliance, Greenovate Boston, Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN), Mothers Out Front/Downtown, HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team), Stop W. Roxbury Lateral Pipeline/Resist The Pipeline, MASS Health Care Providers against Fracked Gas, Clean Water Action, RENEW Boston, 350 Mass for Better Future, Sierra Club Massachusetts, Conservation Law Foundation, Charles River Watershed Association, BYO Bag, Friends of the Public Garden, Emerald Necklace Conservancy, Environment Massachusetts, Arts Resource Collaborative for Kids (ARCK), West Roxbury Saves Energy, Beacon Hill Civic Association Green Committee, Codman Square Eco Innovation District, E2 Environmental Entrepreneurs/NRDC, No Fracked Gas in Mass, Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay (NABB -- Green Committee, Commonwealth Avenue Mall Committee, and Development Committee), Ellis South End Neighborhood Association, State Legistlators and Boston City Coucilors have been invited to participate. Check back here for updates!
Here’s your chance to Act Now at the Lyric Stage. We can work together to RAISE AWARENESS and TAKE ACTION
Join us for a lively and unique evening featuring a cash bar, free snacks, and chances to WIN great prizes!
PROGRAM WILL START PROMPTLY AT 6:30pm
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Tuesday, May 2
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BUnano Inaugural Symposium
Tuesday, May 2
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM EDT
BU, Metcalf Trustee Center, 1 Silber Way, 9th Floor, Boston
BUnano will hold its inaugural Annual Symposium on May 2, 2017. The symposium will feature the keynote presentation by 2014 Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry, Stefan Hell. Professor Hell is the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Director of Optical Nanoscopy at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany. The Royal Swedish Academy has honored Stefan Hell with the Nobel Prize for his invention of the STED (Stimulated Emission Depletion) microscopy which has revolutionized light microscopy and proved particularly useful for investigating diseases and live cells. More info http://www.bu.edu/nano-bu/news/symposium/
There will be presentations from BUnano facutly members as well as poster presentations from our students. The symposium will finish with Terrier Tank - a panel featuring presentations top 4 entries of the Terrier Tank competition for $10,000 prize for best idea. More info at http://www.bu.edu/nano-bu/terriertank .
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Fukushima Revitalization: TEPCO's Responsibility and Local Community Development
WHEN Tuesday, May 2, 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) Yoshiyuki Ishizaki, Executive Vice President, Deputy General Manager of Nuclear Power & Plant Siting Division, and General Manager of Fukushima Division, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings.
Daniel Aldrich, Professor of Political Science, and Director, Security and Resilience Program, Northeastern University.
Moderated by Susan Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and Director, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University.
COST Free and open to the public
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DesignX Lecture Series: Ryan Salvas, Skanska USA
Tuesday, May 2
12:30p–2:00p
MIT, Building 9-255, 105 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Ryan Salvas
Ryan Salvas, Director of Innovation at Skanska USA will dive into his experiences of listening, designing, and building, through a series of vignettes that outline innovations that help people do better. From helping architects enjoy their work more, to empowering superintendents to run safer building sites, Ryan discusses innovation through the eyes of the people he works with every day.
Entrepreneurs in Design Lecture Series
DesignX, the venture accelerator of the School of Architecture and Planning, is presenting talks by entrepreneurs and leaders in innovation across the design fields.
Web site: https://designxlectures.eventbrite.com
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Sponsor(s): DesignX
For more information, contact: Gilad Rosenzweig
617-999-5370
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Life of a Klansman: A Lecture by Edward Ball
WHEN Tuesday, May 2, 2017, 4 – 5 p.m.
WHERE Radcliffe, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
SPEAKER(S) Edward Ball, 2016–2017 Beatrice Shepherd Blane Fellow, Radcliffe Institute; Nonfiction Writer
COST Free
CONTACT INFO events@radcliffe.harvard.edu
DETAILS At the Radcliffe Institute, Edward Ball is investigating the life of a fighter in the Ku Klux Klan in Louisiana, a member of Ball’s own family, and the role of a participant in the race terror that spread through the South after the end of the Civil War.
In this lecture, Ball will talk about his research and book in progress, which is a biography of a plain Southerner and an exploration of the roots of white supremacy.
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A Writer and Her Daughters: The Afterlife of Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française
WHEN Tuesday, May 2, 2017, 4:15 – 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, 27 Kirkland Street, Adolphus Busch Hall at Cabot Way, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR Jews in Modern Europe Study Group
SPEAKER(S)Susan Rubin Suleiman, C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France, Harvard University; Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University; Faculty Associate, CES, Harvard University
CONTACT INFO Anna Popiel, apopiel@fas.harvard.edu
DETAILS The publication of Irène Némirovsky’s posthumous bestseller Suite Française in 2004, more than sixty years after the author’s death in Auschwitz, has acquired an almost legendary status. Susan Rubin Suleiman will discuss the reality behind the legend, and outline the ways in which Némirovsky’s “rebirth” as an author after being forgotten for many years transformed the lives of her daughters and others descendants.
Editorial Comment: Nemirovsky is a fine writer with a fascinating life story. Success in the 1920s and 1930s in France, right of center politics and a hint of self-hating Judaism, with an unfinished book discovered and published decades after her one way journey to the Nazi death camps.
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The Next Energy Economy: Grassroots Strategies to Mitigate Global Climate Change and How We Move Ahead
Tuesday, May 2
5:30PM
Harvard, Sackler Auditorium, 485 Broadway, Cambridge
Winona LaDuke, award-winning activist and six-time author situated at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice, will speak on Climate Change, Indigenous Resistance, and Forging a New Democracy: Thoughts for the Present Moment in the 2017 Massey Lectures in American Studies.
Winona LaDuke is an award-winning activist and six-time author situated at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice. A graduate of Antioch College and Harvard University and a two-time vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, she resides on the White Earth reservation in Northern Minnesota. LaDuke is founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, through which she and her community established one of the country’s first tribal land trusts. Most recently, LaDuke has been engaged in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline through Honor the Earth, the organization of which she is executive director.
The William E. Massey, Sr., Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University have been endowed by an anonymous donor to honor Mr. Massey, the Virginia businessman and philanthropist. Mr. Massey was born in Ansted, West Virginia, in 1909 and attended the University of Richmond. At the age of twenty he began to work for the A.T. Massey Coal Company, and before his retirement in 1977 he served as chief executive officer of the company and chairman of the board. Mr. Massey was president of the Massey Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports cultural and educational institutions. He died on February 10, 1987.
Free and open to the public.
More information at http://americanstudies.unix.fas.harvard.edu/?cat=12
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The Social Innovation Forum presents our 14th annual Social Innovator Showcase
Tuesday, May 2
5:30-9:00 pm
MIT, Building E14, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge
The Social Innovator Showcase is an opportunity for potential funders and supporters to meet all of our 2017 Social Innovators and to learn about their approaches to solving some of our community's toughest social issues.
For more information:
Visit our website at http://www.socialinnovationforum.org/social-innovator-showcase
or contact us at rsvp@socialinnovationforum.org.
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What Makes Somerville So Sustainable?
Tuesday, May 2
6:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Cambridge Innovation Center - Venture Cafe, 1 Broadway , Cambridge
Cost: $8 - $12
Let's talk about what cities are doing to activate people and places for a more sustainable future. Somerville, Massachusetts, under the leadership of Mayor Joseph Curtatone, has been hard at work for over a decade on dozens of initiatives that make the city and its neighborhoods a great place to live.
Our Speaker
First inaugurated in 2004, and now in his seventh term, Joseph A. Curtatone is the City’s longest-serving chief executive. A 1984 graduate of Somerville High School, he earned his B.A. from Boston College in 1990, a J.D. from New England School of Law in 1994, and a Mid-Career Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2011.
As Mayor, he has implemented a wide range of reforms and new programs that have earned both him and the City widespread recognition. Boston Globe Magazine declared Somerville “the best-run city in Massachusetts.” The national Arbor Day Foundation has designated Somerville a “Tree City” for 20 years even though 77% of the city’s surface is impermeable. America’s Promise Alliance ranked it among its “100 Best Communities for Youth.” An “Initiative on Cities” survey of mayors found Somerville to be one of the 15 most influential cities in the country -- and the only one with a population under 100,000. The National Civic League named it an “All-America City” in 2009 and again in 2015. Somerville consistently tops lists of the “Most Walkable” and “Most Bikeable” cities in the United States.
Mayor Curtatone has become a national leader in the system of better management through measurement. Delegations from other Massachusetts communities – and from cities as far away as Ireland and Korea – regularly visit Somerville for briefings on the city’s SomerStat program, a data-driven performance management system modeled on Baltimore’s CitiSTAT initiative.
Under Curtatone’s leadership, Somerville has also earned national recognition for its successful joint effort with Tufts University to implement “Shape Up Somerville,” an effective program to reduce the incidence of childhood obesity among the city’s elementary school children, which was lauded by First Lady Michelle Obama during the launch of her "Let's Move" initiative.
Join us in May to learn more about Somerville's progress and what's in store for the sustainable future.
We hope to see you there! - Carol, Holly, and Tilly
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The Reality of CO2’s Influence on Sea-Level and Weather Events - GBTP Boston
Tuesday, May 2
6:30 PM to 9:30 PM
Lir Irish Pub & Restaurant, 903 Boylston Street, Boston
Tom Wysmuller will be discussing The Reality of CO2’s Influence on Sea-Level and Weather Events.
Thomas Wysmuller trained as a meteorologist at New York University and at the Royal Dutch Weather Bureau in Amsterdam. He then worked for five years at NASA before, during, and after the moon landings. A fuller biography can be found here at Heartland's International Conferences on Climate Change website (ICCC 12 being held March 23-24 in Washington DC).
Climate changes. Yes. But is it driven by human activity - is it "man made global warming?" This debate has been going on for decades, and it manifests itself in our governments (in)sincere attempt to "never let a [fabricated] crisis go to waste."
Mayor Marty Walsh and former Secretary of State John Kerry announced last June that Boston would host a climate summit between the US and China. (Mayor Walsh, Secretary Kerry Announce Boston Will Host 2017 US-China Climate Leaders Summit, City of Boston).
Boston has its own "Climate-Ready Boston" initiative to deal with the effects of Climate Change. In particular, they have Climate Projections (link) prepared by their own working group.
Tom Wysmuller will attempt to bring some sanity to the hyperbole which is commonplace in the political discussion and media today. With a change in administrations, President Trump has already removed references to Climate Change from the White House web site. That is a good start, but the debate (and most likely protest) will continue unabated.
This is a first in a series of discussions we will be hosting. Stay Tuned!!
Traditional Boston Meeting notes: We will again have a social hour at 6:30 pm and have the meeting begin at 7:30 pm.
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At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces
Tuesday, May 2
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store welcomes award-winning author and professor MARY COLLINS and writer and trans advocate DONALD COLLINS for a discussion of their book, At the Broken Places: A Mother and Trans Son Pick Up the Pieces.
About At the Broken Places
In this collaborative memoir, a parent and a transgender son recount wrestling with their differences as Donald Collins undertook medical-treatment options to better align his body with his gender identity.
As a parent, Mary Collins didn’t agree with her trans son’s decision to physically alter his body, although she supported his right to realize himself as a person. Raw and uncensored, each explains her or his emotional mindset at the time: Mary felt she had lost a daughter; Donald activated his “authentic self.” Both battled to assert their rights. A powerful memoir and resource, At the Broken Places offers a road map for families in transition.
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James Kirchick - The End Of Europe
Tuesday, May 2
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Once the world’s bastion of liberal, democratic values, Europe is now having to confront demons it thought it had laid to rest. The old pathologies of anti-Semitism, populist nationalism, and territorial aggression are threatening to tear the European postwar consensus apart. In riveting dispatches from this unfolding tragedy, James Kirchick shows us the shallow disingenuousness of the leaders who pushed for “Brexit;” examines how a vast migrant wave is exacerbating tensions between Europeans and their Muslim minorities; explores the rising anti-Semitism that causes Jewish schools and synagogues in France and Germany to resemble armed bunkers; and describes how Russian imperial ambitions are destabilizing nations from Estonia to Ukraine. With President Trump now threatening to abandon America's traditional role as upholder of the liberal world order and guarantor of the continent's security, Europe may be alone in dealing with these unprecedented challenges.
Based on extensive firsthand reporting, this book is a provocative, disturbing look at a continent in unexpected crisis.
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Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize Final Pitch Event
Tuesday, May 2
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
MIT Building E52, 6th Floor, Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Join us for the final pitch event and award ceremony of the second annual Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize on Tuesday, May 2nd from 7:00-10:00 PM in the Samberg Conference Center on the 6th floor of MIT building E52.
The seven finalist teams for this year’s Prize, representing an inspiring and diverse range of ideas, have been paired with expert mentors and are busy refining their business plans. On May 2nd, they’ll pitch to compete for $25,000 in prize money,RaboResearch advisory support, introductions to Rabobank global offices and corporates in Rabobank’s network, airfare to and participation in Rabobank’s F&A Next event in Holland, and other in-kind and start-up support services throughout the year.
Come to learn more about their ideas, hear from our keynote speaker and celebrate with the finalists in a reception with refreshments after the winners are announced. We look forward to seeing you on May 2nd!
You can find more information about the Prize on our website or send us an email (food-ag-prize@mit.edu) if you have any questions.
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Upcoming Events
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Wednesday, May 3
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Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Reveals About Who We Really Are
Wednesday, May 3
12:00pm - 1:30pm
Harvard Business School, Cotting Conference Room, Cotting House, Allston
Editorial Comment: I am assuming the Conference Room is in Cotting House but can’t be sure from the information available at HBS online
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, The New York Times and Wharton, University of Pennsylvania
Abstract: How much sex do people really have? Does advertising work? How many Americans are racist? Is America experiencing a hidden back-alley abortion crisis? Can you game the stock market? Does violent entertainment increase the rate of violent crime? What should you say on a first date if you want a second? What’s the best place to raise your kids? Do parents treat sons differently from daughters? What makes a story go viral? How many people actually read the books they buy? In this ground-breaking work, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a Harvard-trained economist, former Google data scientist, and New York Times writer, argues that much of what we thought about people has been dead wrong. The reason? People lie, to friends, lovers, doctors, surveys—and themselves. However, we no longer need to rely on what people tell us. New data from the internet — the traces of information that billions of people leave on Google, social media, dating, and even pornography sites — finally reveals the truth. By analyzing this digital goldmine, we can now learn what people really think, what they really want, and what they really do. Sometimes, the new data will make you laugh out loud. Sometimes, the new data will shock you. Sometimes, the new data will deeply disturb you. But, always, this new data will make you think. Everybody Lies combines the informed analysis of Nate Silver’s Signal and the Noise, the storytelling of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and the wit and fun of Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics in a book that will change the way you view the world. There is almost no limit to what can be learned about human nature from Big Data — provided, that is, you ask the right questions.
Bio: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times, a lecturer at Wharton, and a former Google data scientist. He received a BA in philosophy from Stanford, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and a PhD in economics from Harvard. His research—which uses new, big data sources to uncover hidden behaviors and attitudes—has appeared in The Journal of Public Economics and other prestigious publications. He lives in New York City.
A buffet lunch will be available at 11:45 a.m., and the seminar will begin at 12:00 p.m.
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May 2017 Nanolecture Series Event: Engineered Nanomaterials in Agriculture: Implications and Applications
WHEN Wednesday, May 3, 2017, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
WHERE T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Building. 1, Room 1302, Boston
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Lecture, Science
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR HSPH-NIEHS Nanosafety Center
SPEAKER(S) Jason White, Ph.D., Head of the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Vice Director of The Connecticut Agricultural Experimentation Station, New Haven, CT
CONTACT INFO agalvin@hsph.harvard.edu
DETAILS Given the current and future stresses on global food production from a changing climate and increasing population, novel and innovative approaches are needed to ensure food security and safety. Nanotechnology and nano-enabled precision agriculture have the ability to provide such solutions. However, the safe and sustainable use of nanotechnology in agriculture will be critical to long term success. This presentation will cover recent work on nanotechnology in agriculture at the CT Agricultural Experiment Station, including projects on both implications and applications. In addition, future perspectives on the type of research that must be done to ensure the sustainable use of nanotechnology in agriculture will be presented.
Biographical Sketch: I am currently Vice Director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, as well as Head of the Department of Analytical Chemistry. I am also State Chemist. I received a B.S. in Ecology from Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA in 1992. I received my Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Cornell University in 1997. I did a one-year post-doctoral position at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven CT from 1997-1998 in the Department of Soil and Water. I also have adjunct status at the University of Texas-El Paso, University of Massachusetts, and Post University. I am Managing Editor for the International Journal of Phytoremediation, Immediate Past President of the International Phytotechnology Society, on the Editorial Advisory Board (SAB) of Environmental Science and Technology and Environmental Science and Technology Letters, and on the editorial boards of Environmental Pollution and NanoImpact. My primary research interests include nanotoxicology and food safety.
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Making the Unipolar Moment: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Rise of the Post-Cold War Order
Wednesday, May 3
12:00p–1:30p
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Hal Brands
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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xTalk: Innovative Approaches for Enhancing the 21st Century Student Experience
Wednesday, May 3
3:00p–4:00p
MIT, Buidling 10-105, Bush Room, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Hamish Coates
Everyone engaged in higher education wants students to succeed. Yet existing research into student success is vexed and at risk of stalling. Entrenched rituals for garnering evidence are yielding diminishing returns. Dated myths are used to identify who students are and how they experience higher education. People lack data to help plan the really meaningful experiences which flowed serendipitously in smaller and more regulated systems.
Drawing from 15 years working with hundreds of institutions in around 50 countries, this seminar presents insights from a work program executed to bring about sustained enhancement of the student experience. It concentrates on findings from recent Australian innovation which has defined new concepts for understanding higher education students, identified new data sources and assessment approaches, and engaged institutions in enhancement work and new conversations about students.
Hamish Coates is Professor of Higher Education at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE), University of Melbourne.
xTalks: Digital Discourses
The xTalks series provides a forum to facilitate awareness, deep understanding and transference of educational innovations at MIT and elsewhere. We hope to foster a community of educators, researchers, and technologists engaged in developing and supporting effective learning experiences through online learning environments and other digital technologies.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): xTalks: Digital Discourses
For more information, contact: Molly Ruggles
617-324-9185
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Global Sustainable Bioenergy
Wednesday, May 3
4:00PM TO 5:30PM
Harvard, Room BL-1, Weil Town Hall, Belfer Building, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
Across energy, agricultural and forestry landscapes, the production of biomass for energy has emerged as a controversial driver of land use change and climate mitigation. The Environmental and Natural Resources Program host a panel discussion on the myths and realities of the bioenergy expansion and new policy strategies to promote bioenergy in the context of the sustainable development goals.
Panelists: Dr. Jeremy Woods, Senior Lecturer in Bioenergy, Imperial College London (U.K.); Co-Director, Imperial College Center for Energy Policy and Technology
Professor Lee Rybeck Lynd, Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering Design, Dartmouth; Executive Committee Chair, Global Sustainable Bioenergy Initiative
Moderated by: Alexandre Strapasson, Giorgio Ruffolo Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Sustainability Science, Environment and Natural Resources Program
Introductory comments by: Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program
Registration required. Free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Contact Name: Amanda Sardonis
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Native American Women: Finding the Voice to Safeguard Mother Earth
Wednesday, May 3
4:30PM
Harvard, Sackler Auditorium, 485 Broadway, Cambridge
Winona LaDuke, award-winning activist and six-time author situated at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice, will speak on Climate Change, Indigenous Resistance, and Forging a New Democracy: Thoughts for the Present Moment in the 2017 Massey Lectures in American Studies.
Winona LaDuke is an award-winning activist and six-time author situated at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental justice. A graduate of Antioch College and Harvard University and a two-time vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, she resides on the White Earth reservation in Northern Minnesota. LaDuke is founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project, through which she and her community established one of the country’s first tribal land trusts. Most recently, LaDuke has been engaged in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline through Honor the Earth, the organization of which she is executive director.
The William E. Massey, Sr., Lectures in American Studies at Harvard University have been endowed by an anonymous donor to honor Mr. Massey, the Virginia businessman and philanthropist. Mr. Massey was born in Ansted, West Virginia, in 1909 and attended the University of Richmond. At the age of twenty he began to work for the A.T. Massey Coal Company, and before his retirement in 1977 he served as chief executive officer of the company and chairman of the board. Mr. Massey was president of the Massey Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that supports cultural and educational institutions. He died on February 10, 1987.
Free and open to the public.
More informationa at http://americanstudies.unix.fas.harvard.edu/?cat=12
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The Future of Manufacturing, the Workforce, and Society: Panel Discussion
Wednesday, May 3
4:30p–6:30p
MIT, Building 34-101, 50 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Reception to follow in Stata R&D Pub
Speaker: Panelists include Professors Suzanne Berger, Amy Glasmeier, Elisabeth Reynolds, and Sanjay Sarma.
Please join us for a panel discussion on the future of the American workforce, with a focus on advanced manufacturing, workforce education solutions, and social disruption due to technological innovation. The panel will be followed by a reception to encourage additional discussion and networking (please bring 21+ ID). Co-hosted by the MIT Science Policy Initiative and the Graduate Student Council External Affairs Board.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): MIT Science Policy Initiative, GSC EAB
For more information, contact: Angela Phillips
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AL KOOPER Composer Forum
Wednesday, May 3
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 14e-109, MIT Lewis Music Library, 160 Memorial Drive, Cambridge
Rock guitarist, songwriter, producer, educator, and musician Hall of famer.
Web site: mta.mit.edu
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts, MIT Libraries
For more information, contact: Clarise Snyder
617-253-3210
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Why would Tesla Motors partner with some Canadian? Extending the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries from a few years to many decades
Wednesday, May 3
5:00p–6:00p
MIT, Building 66-110, 25 Ames Street Cambridge,
Speaker: Jeff Dahn
Jeff Dahn will discuss his research group's new 5-year research partnership with Tesla Motors - the company's only university partnership. Lithium-ion batteries are used in Tesla's vehicle and energy storage products, and Dahn's research focuses on extending the lifetime of lithium-ion cells into the range of multiple decades, which is critical for energy storage applications. The key question that Dahn will address at this seminar is: How can one be "sure" a lithium-ion cell will last many decades in experiments that last only a few weeks?
MITEI Seminar Series
A year-long series of seminars given by leaders in the energy field hosted by the MIT Energy Initiative and sponsored by IHS-CERA.
Web site: http://bit.ly/mitei-dahn
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
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What's Real about VR/AR?
Wednesday, May 3
5:30p–8:00p
MIT, Buidling E15-070, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
After much initial excitement, the pundits are starting to suggest that AR/VR is all hype.
Some are even questioning if the market exists!
How do we begin to process this information? How do we assess the possibility of entrepreneurial opportunities in this space?
Are we really just a step away from Star Trek's "Holodeck" or are those industry watchers right? Is VR/AR already dead?
Join us on May 3 for a deep dive into the "reality" part of augmented, virtual and mixed reality.
How are entrepreneurs overcoming obstacles in this space? What business models are likely to take hold?
Come meet and learn from some of the entrepreneurs who are creating the applications, hardware and development support systems. Experts who write about and finance this exciting new digital medium will also share their insights.
And you can try out some of the latest VR/AR hardware systems and software before and after the panel session, including VirZoom and HoloLens applications.
Our panelists include:
Sarah Downey, Principal, Accomplice VC
Ross Finiman, CEO and Founder, AR Spirit
Neil Gupta, a VR/ AR enthusiast and a key organizer of the Boston AR and VR Meetup groups
Justin Lutz, Lead Innovation Technologist, The Primacy Group
Eric Malafeew, Co-Founder and CTO and of Virzoom
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free for Students; $20 MITEF Members: $45 non-members
Tickets: online
Sponsor(s): MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge
For more information, contact: Amy Goggins
617-253-3937
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The Environment Forum at the Mahindra Center presents: Tiya Miles, “'I’ve Known Rivers': Slave Resistance and Environmental Consciousness"
WHEN Wednesday, May 3, 2017, 6 p.m.
WHERE Harvard, Tsai Auditorium S010, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
GAZETTE CLASSIFICATION Environmental Sciences, Ethics, Humanities, Lecture, Social Sciences, Special Events, Sustainability
ORGANIZATION/SPONSOR 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).
SPEAKER(S) Tiya Miles, University of Michigan
CONTACT INFO humcentr@fas.harvard.edu
617-495-0739
LINK http://mahindrahumanities.fas.harvard.edu/content/“i’ve-known-rivers”-slave-resistance-and-environmental-consciousness
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The Role of Philanthropy in the Future of Our City
Wednesday, May 3
6-8pm
Historic Faneuil Hall, 2nd Floor, Great Hall (Boston, MA 02109)
Sacha Pfeiffer, Moderator, The Boston Globe
Jim Canales, Barr Foundation
Paul Grogan, The Boston Foundation
Jocelyn Sargent, Hyams Foundation
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Design in Boston: Creating a More Connected City
Wednesday, May 3
6:30 – 8:30 pm EDT
GA Boston, 125 Summer Street 13th Floor, Boston
RSVP at https://generalassemb.ly/education/design-in-boston-creating-a-more-connected-city/boston/34927
In celebration of ArtWeek, General Assembly and the City of Boston are pairing up to bring together designers, entrepreneurs, and policy makers who are helping to define and redesign what makes for a better urban lifestyle in Boston.
Why it Matters?
We will be discussing everything from third spaces and urban planning to food delivery and mobile apps - we'll discuss what it means to be a Bostonian today and what living in Boston will look like in the future. Join us for a lively conversation followed by plenty of time for connecting.
By signing up for this event, you're giving our sponsors permission to contact you about upcoming events and promotions.
In Partnership With:
ArtWeek Boston
Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics
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The Challenge of a Public Native Plant Garden: Maintenance, Interpretation, and Compromise
Wednesday, May 3
7:00pm to 8:30pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge
Michael Hagen, Curator of the Native Plant Garden at the NYBG
The New York Botanical Garden’s new Native Plant Garden opened in 2013. Designed by Oehme van Sweden, it includes a diversity of microclimates on 3.5 acres of varied terrain with a planting plan of almost 100,000 native trees, shrubs, wildflowers, ferns, and grasses. Curator Michael Hagen will explain how this garden is successfully maintained, and their criteria for what constitutes “native” in species selection and the use of cultivars. This very public landscape presents native plants in a contemporary style, with an emphasis on aesthetics over recreating habitat. Michael will share his observations about how the public perceives and responds to the value of this native plant palette, along with ideas for inspiring others to “go native.”
Michael Hagen is Curator of both the Native Plant Garden and the Rock Garden at NYBG. He previously served as Staff Horticulturist for over 11 years at Stonecrop Gardens in Cold Spring, New York and was Garden Manager at Rocky Hills in Mt. Kisco, a preservation project of the Garden Conservancy.
More information at http://grownativemass.org/programs/eveningswithexperts
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The Cancer Treatment Playbook: Why we still don’t have a cure
Wednesday, May 3
7pm - 9pm
Harvard, Pfizer Hall, 12 Oxford Street, Cambridge
This event will be streamed.
More information at http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/seminar-series/
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Thursday, May 4
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TREX 2017: Linking soil nutrient status with crop health using UAV-remote sensing, and examining volcanic smog (Vog) using low-cost sensors
Thursday, May 4
4:00p–5:00p
MIT, Building 48-316, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Dr. Ben Kocar, MIT CEE
A team of undergraduates will present results from two studies performed on the island of Hawaii as a part of MITs CEE field-based subject Traveling Research Environmental eXperiences (TREX, 1.091/1.092). This year the students are focused on two projects: (1) examining and linking soil nutrient status with plant health, aided by the use of remote sensing data gathered with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and (2) the measurements of gaseous sulfur dioxide (SO2), a major component of volcanically-derived smog (Vog), using a network of home-built, low-cost and portable sensors. The students will present their measurements and analysis of crop nutrients, remote sensing data, and sulfur dioxide, and discuss their environmental implications. This years trip is led by MIT CEE faculty members Ben Kocar, a soil and water biogeochemist, and atmospheric chemists Jesse Kroll and Colette Heald.
Environmental Sciences Seminar Series
Hosted by: Otto Cordero (ottox@mit.edu) Serguei Saavedra (sersaa@mit.edu)
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0.00
Sponsor(s): Civil and Environmental Engineering
For more information, contact: Denise Stewart
6172588685
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The Contingencies of Comparison: Rethinking Comparative Media
Thursday, May 4
5:00p–6:30p
MIT, Building 56-114, 21 Ames Street, Cambridge
Brian Larkin and Stefan Andriopoulos draw on the concept of comparison to examine how the same technologies work in radically different ways across the globe, juxtaposing media practices in Africa, Latin America, and Asia as well as in Western centers. There is an assumption that media, whether print, cinema, or digital media, were developed in the West and later exported to other places which were then in the place of "catching up" with a media history that had already been established. But we know that cinema arrived in Shanghai and Calcutta at the same time as it did in London and evolved in those locations to produce different institutional and aesthetic forms. We also know that currently Seoul is far more "wired" than New York and that Lagos is developing a film industry that is rapidly becoming dominant in all of Africa. It is clear that future media centers will emerge in places far outside their traditional Western centers.
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): Comparative Media Studies/Writing
For more information, contact: Andrew Whitacre
617-324-0490
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EnergyBar! May 2017
Thursday, May 4
5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EDT)
Greentown Labs, 28 Dane Street, Somerville
Event Agenda:
5:00-5:30pm -- Sign-in/Registration
5:30-5:40pm -- Welcoming Remarks from Greentown Labs
5:40-8:30pm -- Celebration & Networking
About EnergyBar!
EnergyBar is Greentown Labs' bi-monthly networking event devoted to helping people in clean technology meet and discuss innovations in energy technology. Entrepreneurs, investors, students, and ‘friends of cleantech,’ are invited to attend, meet colleagues, and expand our growing regional clean technology community.
Our attendees typically span a variety of disciplines within energy, efficiency, and renewables. In general, if you're looking for a job in cleantech or energy, trying to expand your network, or perhaps thinking about starting your own energy-related company this is the event for you. Expect to have conversations about issues facing advanced and renewable energy technologies and ways to solve our most pressing energy problems.
Light appetizers and drinks will be served starting at 5:30 pm. Suggested dress is shop floor casual. Parking is incredibly limited at Greentown Labs and we encourage attendees to consider taking advantage of public transportation. Hope to see you there!
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The Furniture Trust 7th Annual Eco-Carpentry Challenge
Thursday, May 4
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
District Hall, 75 Northern Avenue, Boston
In keeping with our mission to promote a circular economy, The Furniture Trust hosts an annual competition on May 5, 2017 with schools across Massachusetts challenging them to create new products from a suite of used office furniture generously donated by local companies. Students work on their projects over the course of a semester culminating in the Eco-Carpentry Challenge event in Boston, where they showcase their projects. The goal of The Eco-Carpentry Challenge is to increase awareness among high school students, teachers and the community about the value of upcycling and extending the useful life of otherwise unwanted products.
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A Stroll through the New Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument
Thursday, May 4
7pm
NE Aquarium, Simons IMAX Theatre, One Aquarium Wharf, Boston
Peter Auster, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Mystic Aquarium and Research Professor Emeritus of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut
Scott Kraus, Ph.D., Vice President of Research, Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium
More information at http://www.neaq.org/learn/lectures/upcoming-lectures/
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Kill It to Save It: An Autopsy of Capitalism's Triumph over Democracy
Thursday, May 4
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Harvard Book Store and Mass Humanities welcome Stonehill College's Professor of Sociology and former president of the Association for Humanist Sociology COREY DOLGON for a discussion of his latest book, Kill It to Save It: An Autopsy of Capitalism's Triumph over Democracy.
About Kill It to Save It
For decades now, American voters have been convinced to support public policies that only benefit those in power. But how do the powerful extract consent from citizens whose own self-interest and collective well-being are constantly denied? And why do so many Americans seem to have given up on quality public education, on safe food and safe streets, on living wages—even on democracy itself? Kill It to Save It lays bare the hypocrisy of contemporary US political discourse, documenting the historical and theoretical trajectory of capitalism’s triumph over democracy.
Tackling the interconnected issues of globalization, neoliberalism, and declining public institutions, Corey Dolgon argues that American citizens now accept reform policies that destroy the public sector (seemingly in the public interest) and a political culture that embraces what Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness”—a willingness to agree to arguments that feel right “in the gut” regardless of fancy science or messy facts. In a narrative that stretches from the post–Vietnam War era to the present parade of political reality TV and debates over Black Lives Matter, Dolgon dismantles US common-sense cultural discourse. His original, alternative account reveals that this ongoing crisis in US policy will not cease until a critical mass of American citizens recognize what has been lost, and in whose interest.
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America, We Need to Talk with Joel Berg
Thursday, May 4
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 338 Newbury Street, Boston
Join author Joel Berg for a discussion of current affairs and his new book, America, We Need to Talk: A Self-Help Book for the Nation.
About the Book:
How did we get here, America? How did our relationship get so broken? And where do we go now? Starting with the premise that Americans’ most important relationship is with their nation, Joel Berg’s second book, America We Need to Talk: A Self-Help Book for the Nation, makes a case for how we must both stop blaming the nation’s problems solely on “the politicians” or “the system” and take personal responsibility to solve them. Written as both a hilarious parody of relationship and self-help books and a deadly serious analysis of the nation’s political and economic dysfunction, the book dissects how Donald Trump and other Republicans won over white, working-class voters, and includes a concrete plan to win them back, and well as a broader roadmap for reducing poverty, bolstering the middle class, and powering an overall progressive resurgence.
As an acclaimed author, a frequent voice in the national media, and the outspoken CEO of the nonprofit group Hunger Free America,Joel Berg is a respected international leader in the fields of hunger, poverty, food, and US politics. Through his biting critique, clear-headed prescriptions, and amusing charts—this book shows how average Joes and Janes can channel their anger at our hobbled government into concrete actions that will fix our democracy, make our economy work for everyone, and restore our stature in the world as a beacon of freedom, diversity, and hope. The American people are in it for the long haul, and, as in all relationships, both sides must recognize their issues and work together to fix them. This book will do more than offer comfort for sobbing progressives—it will show the path to redemption.
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Bee Boy: Performance and Community Discussion
Thursday, May 4
8:00p–10:00p
MIT, Building 32-123, Kirsch Auditorium, Stata Center, 32 Vassar Street, Cambridge
Speaker: Guillermo E Brown AKA Pegasus Warning, Charlotte Braithwaite MIT Theater
A public work-in-process showing will feature drumming, singing, chanting, interactive technologies and movement + discussion.
Bee Boy is an interdisciplinary artistic response to the violent murders of black men and women around the country, to bee colony collapse disorder, to #Blacklivesmatter, to an unjust prison/industrial complex, to human-animal-technological hybridization, to life in urban streets, and the emotional toil it takes to turn hate to love. It is a meditation on struggle and change in a world of chaos.
The composer/musician/performer Guillermo E. Brown, a rising star on the avant-garde pop-music scene, and the stage director, Princess Grace award-winner and MIT assistant professor of theater arts Charlotte Brathwaite collaborate on this original piece, which will be workshopped at MIT.
Bee Boy is inspired by the Alexander Pushkin poem The Tale of Tsar Sultan, which became an opera by Rimsky-Korsakov called Tale of Tsar Saltan. In the opera's third act, a banished knight/prince is transformed by a magic swan-bird into a bumblebee so that he can fly home to his father, who does not know he's alive. The opera's famous excerpt Flight of the Bumblebee is the basis of this experimental work. Structurally the musical interlude is divided, slowed down, chopped up, remixed, reassembled, and collaged with textsounds, bodies, and choral voices.
Web site: arts.mit.edu/bee-boy
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free and open to the public
Tickets: No tickets required
Sponsor(s): Arts at MIT, Theater Arts, Music and Theater Arts, MIT CAST (Center for Art, Science & Technology)
For more information, contact: Leah Talatinian
617.252.1888
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Friday, May 5
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Innovations in Online Learning
Friday, May 5
1:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT
Harvard Business School, Allston
You are invited to the first intimate gathering of leading entrepreneurs and innovators from industry, policy and academia to explore innovations in online learning. We hope to develop a collective understanding of the future of online learning with participants from various parts of the ed tech ecosystem.
Join us for an afternoon of engaging discussions, panels and networking. The conference will take place on the Harvard Business School campus from 1-6pm with a reception and dinner following.
EVENT AGENDA
1:00-1:30pm Registration
1:30-2:00pm Welcome and Introductions
2:00-3:00pm "State of the Union": Perspectives from different parts of the online learning ecosystem
3:00-3:30pm Break
3:30-4:45pm Breakout Sessions: Participants will be able to choose from a few options and engage in deep discussion
4:45-5:30pm Plenary Session: Moderated Discussion
5:30-6:00pm Next steps and concluding session
6:00-8:00pm Reception and dinner
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Saturday, May 6
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MIT List Visual Arts Center Public Program: Thinking Feeling: An Affect Symposium
Saturday, May 6
10:00a–5:00p
MIT, Buidling E-15, Barton Theater, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge
Join us for all or part of a one day symposium inviting leading affect theorists from a variety of fields to comment on the problems of affect and the future of the humanities as institutions question power, creativity and social relations.
This event is sponsored by the MIT Literature Section and the List Visual Arts Center.
We are pleased to present this program in partnership with ArtWeek Boston.
This program is held in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition An Inventory of Shimmers: Objects of Intimacy in Contemporary Art at the MIT List Visual Arts Center.
The symposium is free and open to the general public but advanced registration is required.
To register and for more information and a full schedule of events visit:
Open to: the general public
Sponsor(s): List Visual Arts Center
For more information, contact: Emily A. Garner
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Wake Up the Earth
Saturday, May 6
!2pm - 6pm
Stony Brook T Station, 100 Boylston Street at 180 Lamartine Street, Jamaica Plain
More information at https://www.facebook.com/Wake-Up-The-Earth-Festival-104250079614550/
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Mushroom Cultivation for the Intrepid Gardener
Saturday, May 6
12:00 PM to 3:00 PM
Allandale Farm, 259 Allandale Road, Brookline
Cost: $40 - $50
New England is blessed with an excellent climate for growing a wide variety of mushrooms, many of which contain rare nutritional and medicinal value. This hands-on workshop will teach you the techniques necessary to grow edible mushrooms in your landscape, whether it be a backyard, woodlot, or basement. We'll primarily focus on cultivating lion's mane and shiitake mushrooms, both renowned for their flavor, medicinal qualities, and ease of cultivation.
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Raise Up Massachusetts: Progress as Resistance Conference
Saturday, May 6
1:00 PM – 4:30 PM EDT
UMass Boston, University Hall, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston
Cost: $0 – $500
Join us on May 6th for Progress as Resistance, a statewide organizing conference to move forward a progressive agenda in Massachusetts! Come together with members of the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition and activists from across the Commonwealth as we use resistance to make progress on economic, racial, and immigrant justice at home. This event will feature a briefing on how activists can engage in our campaigns and other allied progressive issues against the Trump agenda, including campaigns for a $15 Minimum Wage, Paid Family and Medical Leave, the Fair Share Amendment, labor rights, ending mass incarceration, jobs not jails, protecting public education, immigrant rights, and safe communities. Don't miss this event, sign up to join us today!
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Rambax, MIT Senegalese Drumming Ensemble
Saturday, May 6
3:00p
MIT, Stratton Student Center Steps, 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Under the direction of Lamine Tour??, Rambax will present its annual outdoor performance in front of the Stratton Student Center steps. The rain location is Lobdell on the 2nd floor of the student Center.
Open to: the general public
Cost: FREE
Sponsor(s): Music and Theater Arts
For more information, contact: Clarise Snyder
617-253-3210
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Sunday, May 7
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Kate Raworth on How to Think like a 21st Century Economist
Sunday, May 7
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
First Church JP, 6 Eliot Street, Jamaica Plain
The ideas that shape mainstream economic thought are centuries out of date: the leaders of 2050 are being taught an economic mindset rooted in the textbooks of 1950, which in turn are rooted in the theories of 1850. Is it any wonder that those ideas fail to address today’s real needs, and that students and citizens around the world are vociferously rejecting them?
It’s time for a new set of rules and insights to guide the global economy and to help in tackling challenges for climate change and inequality to financial instability.
In Doughnut Economics, Raworth lays out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does, and draws on the best emerging ideas to explain how we can turn economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive, into economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow. Her internationally acclaimed Doughnut concept has influenced leaders in settings as diverse at the United Nations General Assembly, major corporations, and the Occupy Movement.
Kate Raworth is a renegade economist focused on exploring the economic mindset needed to address the 21 st century’s social and ecological challenges. She is a senior visiting research associate at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and a senior associate of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Her work has been profiled in The Guardian, The Financial Times, CNN, Al-Jazeera. She lives in Oxford in the UK. See www.kateraworth.com and @KateRaworth.
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Monday, May 8
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Understanding and Improving Crop Responses to Global Atmospheric Change
Monday, May 8
4:00 pm
Harvard, Biological Labs Lecture Hall, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Lisa Ainsworth, Associate Professor of Plant Biology, Adjunct Professor of Crop Sciences, USDA ARS Photosynthesis Reseach Unit, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
More information at http://environment.harvard.edu/future-food
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Harvard Institute for Applied Computational Science Project Showcase
Monday, May 8
5:30 - 7:00 PM
Harvard, Maxwell Dworkin, Ground Floor Lobby, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge
Come mingle with faculty and friends of the IACS while you learn about the cutting edge work of our master's and secondary field students!
Light refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP here.
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Tuesday May 9
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IDC Design Conversation with Tata Motors
Tuesday, May 9
2:00p–3:00p
MIT, Building N52-399, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Pratap Bose
Join us for a design conversation with Pratap Bose, head of design for Tata Motors.
Design Conversation
The IDC hosts prominent figures from industry to offer thoughts on interdisciplinary design themes. These talks foster an ongoing and Institute-wide discourse on the evolving nature of the processes, tools and outcomes of design.
Web site: http://idc.mit.edu/events/
Open to: the general public
Cost: 0
Tickets: n/a
Sponsor(s): MIT-SUTD International Design Centre
For more information, contact: Deb Payson
617-324-8125
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Ory Zik: Why You Don’t Know Your Carbon Footprint
Tuesday, May 9
3:00PM TO 4:00PM
MIT, Building 4-231, 182 Memorial Drive (Rear), Cambridge
16 of the last 17 years were the hottest on record. It is likely Ory Zik's 2018 presentation will start with "17 of the last 18 years were the hottest on record". The world is in the midst of a climate crisis. At the same time, essential policies (cap and trade, carbon tax, clean power plan, CAFE regulations) are either dead or dying. The market must step-in and act. Consumers and investors must hold companies and policymakers accountable. The oxygen of markets is metrics and the climate metric is carbon footprint. So why is it that we are so ‘carbon illiterate’? Why is it that nearly no-one knows the carbon footprint of anything? and what can we do to fix this situation?
A necessary condition is quantitative thinking -- not adjectives and anecdotes like ‘renewable’ and ‘sustainable’ -- but metrics rooted in data and science.
Greenometry is a new social enterprise whose mission is to readily communicate the carbon footprint of everything. Consistent, accurate, and simple metrics are a necessary condition for behavior change. Greenometry's approach combines behavioral aspects, data, and simple physics. Carbon footprinting should be geospatially tuned and harmonize water and land into a simple unifying metric.
Zik's talk will present the foundations of his thinking, the overall platform that will enable ubiquitous carbon footprinting, and specific results on scope 2 emissions, the inclusion of water, and the carbon footprint of solar energy.
Biography
Award-winning physicist, entrepreneur, and environmentalist, Ory Zik founded Greenometry, a non-profit dedicated to quantifying the climate crisis with ‘numbers not adjectives’. Formerly founder/CEO of Heliofocus and CEO of Energy Points, Zik is the founder of Greenpeace Israel and was the curator of Israel’s national Science Museum.
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authors@mit - Steven Sloman with Drazen Prelec -The Knowledge Illusion
Tuesday, May 9
6:00p–7:00p
MIT, Building N50, The MIT Press Bookstore, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
Speaker: Steven Sloman with Drazen Prelec
The MIT Press Bookstore presents Steven Sloman, Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic and Psychological Sciences at Brown University, in conversation with Drazen Prelec, Professor of Management Science and Economics at MIT's Sloan School of Management, discussing Steven Sloman's new book, "The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone," at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, May 9, at the Bookstore.
The human mind is both brilliant and pathetic. We have mastered fire, created democratic institutions, stood on the moon, and sequenced our genome. And yet each of us is error prone, sometimes irrational, and often ignorant. In "The Knowledge Illusion," cognitive scientists Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach argue that we survive and thrive despite our mental shortcomings because we live in a rich community of knowledge. The key to our intelligence lies in the people and things around us.
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.
Open to: the general public
Cost: Free
Sponsor(s): The MIT Press Bookstore
For more information, contact: The MIT Press Bookstore
253-5249
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How Academic Institutions Play a Role in Boston's Future
Tuesday May 9
6-8pm
Boston Public Library, Copley Square in Rabb Hall, 700 Boylston Street, Boston
Alex Krieger, Moderator, Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Dr. Robert A. Brown, Boston University
Dr. Pam Y. Eddinger, Bunker Hill Community College
Dr. Zorica Pantić, Wentworth Institute of Technology
Dr. Lee Pelton, Emerson College
Dr. Valerie Roberson, Roxbury Community College
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Harvard Coop Author Series- Nathaniel Philbrick
Tuesday, May 9
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM EDT
Harvard Coop,1400 Mass Avenue, Cambridge
Valiant Ambition
A surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution, and the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. In September 1776, the vulnerable Continental Army under an unsure George Washington (who had never commanded a large force in battle) evacuates New York after a devastating defeat by the British Army. Three weeks later, near the Canadian border, one of his favorite generals, Benedict Arnold, miraculously succeeds in postponing the British naval advance down Lake Champlain that might have ended the war. Four years later, as the book ends, Washington has vanquished his demons and Arnold has fled to the enemy after a foiled attempt to surrender the American fortress at West Point to the British. After four years of war, America is forced to realize that the real threat to its liberties might not come from without but from within.
About the Author
Nathaniel Philbrick is an American author and a member of the Philbrick literary family. He won the year 2000 National Book Award for his maritime history, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship.
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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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Cambridge Coalition Solar Access Campaign is part of the DOE SunShot Solar in Your Community Challenge with a goal of 40 new solar electric systems installed in Cambridge, with a focus on serving low-to-moderate income communities.
Coalition partners include Green Cambridge, which works to create a more sustainable city and to protect the environment for the health and safety of all, Resonant Energy, a community-based solar developer, Solstice, helping every single household in America go solar, and Sunwealth, a solar investment firm.
More information at http://www.resonant.energy/sap-overview/
hat tip Cambridge Civic Journal
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Cambridge Climate Change Game
Extending our work on face-to-face games, the MIT Science Impact Collaborative has developed a digital game on the health impacts of climate change that you can play alone on your computer or on your mobile phone. The game should take about 10-20 minutes. We would appreciate it if you could play the game at your convenience.
Play the game at http://www.doublecoconut.com/climate/
Any and all feedback on the game should be directed to Ella Kim at ella@mit.edu.
Thank you for your time and consideration!
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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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Boston Maker Spaces - 41 (up from 27 in 2016) and counting: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zGHnt9r2pQx8.kfw9evrHsKjA&hl=en
Solidarity Network Economy: https://ussolidarityeconomy.wordpress.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/
Harvard Events: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/harvard-events/events-calendar/
Harvard Environment: http://environment.harvard.edu/events/calendar/
Sustainability at Harvard: http://green.harvard.edu/events
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/
Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/
Microsoft NERD Center: http://microsoftcambridge.com/Events/
Startup and Entrepreneurial Events: http://www.greenhornconnect.com/events/
Cambridge Civic Journal: http://www.rwinters.com
Cambridge Happenings: http://cambridgehappenings.org
Cambridge Community Calendar: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/calendar
Take Action MA: http://takeactionma.com
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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