Tag: Misc.

#UCDavis College of Biological Sciences New Biology PostDoc Candidates Talks

Cool science education kickstarter of the month: a hundred tiny hands

This looks very cool. And important. 100 tiny hands Kickstarter campaign.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2084593011/a-hundred-tiny-hands-toys-for-your-brilliant-lil-i/widget/video.html

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Dean Robert Post 3/14/14 The Constitutional Dimensions of Academic Freedom

Posting this announcement I got:

Dear UC Davis Faculty, Staff, Students and Community Members,

We would like to remind you that the next event in the Provost’s Forums on the Public University and the Social Good, which is co-sponsored with the  Academic Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom and responsibility, will be held on Friday, March 14, 2014.

Robert Post, Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Yale Law
School will speak on the topic of “The Constitutional Dimensions of
Academic Freedom”.  After his talk, he will be joined by a panel
comprised of Ralph Hexter, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor at UC
Davis, Roberta Rehm, Associate Professor in the Department of Family
Health Care Nursing at UC San Francisco, and Henry Reichman, Professor
Emeritus of History at CSU Easy Bay and First Vice President of the
AAUP and its Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.Prior to assuming his position as Dean of the Yale Law School, Dean
Post spent twenty years as a professor at the UC Berkeley School of

Law. His areas of expertise include constitutional law, First
Amendment law, legal history, and equal protection. He has written and
edited numerous books, including, For the Common Good: Principles of
American Academic Freedom (2009), and more recently Democracy,
Expertise, Academic Freedom: A First Amendment Jurisprudence for the
Modern State (2012).The event will begin at 2 p.m. in the Vanderhoef  Studio Theatre at
the UC Davis RobertMondavi Center. It is free and open to the general public. There will
be a reception with light refreshments directly following the lecture
in the Yoche Dehe Grand Lobby of the Mondavi Center.

If you are unable to attend this event, videos of all Provost’s Forums
lectures are available to the public and can be found on the official
Provost’s Forums website

(http://provost.ucdavis.edu/initiatives-and-activities/activities/future/past-events.html).

Our most recent lecture, “The Public University: What Should We Be
Doing on Climate Change?”  featuring Professor Naomi Oreskes, is now
available for viewing along with all of the 2013-2014 season lectures.For more details and information on this event, please see the
attached flyer, visit our website: The Provost’s Forum on the Public
University and the Social Good (http://provost.ucdavis.edu/initiatives-and-activities/activities/future/index.html), or contact Casey Castaldi (cvcastaldi@ucdavis.edu).

In addition, please forward this information to any interested parties, as all events are open to the public. We hope to see you at this important event!

Robert Post 3.14 Flyer.pdf

A must read: How to Level the Playing Field for Women in Science by Mary Ann Mason

This is a must read for anyone interested in Science / Academia: How to Level the Playing Field for Women in Science – Advice – The Chronicle of Higher Education.  By Mary Ann Mason, who is a professor at UC Berkeley and has extensive experience on studying issues relating to women in science and academia.  She details in this article four key things that can be done to reduce the “baby penalty”:

  • Better (and more) child-care options
  • Effective dual-career policies
  • Childbirth accommodations
  • Compliance with Title IX 
Definitely worth reading.  And worth checking out some of the web material from her including
(Thanks to Madhu Katti – who posted this to Facebook)
——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Another Mostly Male Meeting from UCSD- should be called "Food and Fuel for the 19th Century"

Well, just when I thought meeting organizers from UCSD had learned their lesson regarding mostly male meetings – this comes along.  Check out “Food and Fuel for the 21st Century” (I was pointed to this by a comment on a blog post of mine). The speakers are

That a ratio of 18:2 or 10% female.  
Not that I know the cause of this but here are some other pieces of information to consider.
The Food and Fuel for the 21st Century Program lists 5 people on their Executive Committee.  Any guesses on the # of these that are men?  Well it is 5.
Fortunately they have an Advisory Committee too and that must have some women on it right?  Nope.

Reminds me a bit of the QBio meeting from 2013 organized by many from UCSD which I wrote about last year: Q-Bio conference in Hawaii, bring your surfboard & your Y chromosome because they don’t take a XX.  I note – this years Q-Bio meeting is much better.  But one can ask – does nobody at UCSD think about these issues when planning conferences and Advisory / Executive Committees.  I personally don’t think one should choose women to just choose women.  But as with the Q-Bio meeting from last year, I think there are an enormous number of highly qualified women working on topics directly related to “Food and Fuel for the 21st Century” and thus I am both surprised and disturbed by the gender ratio of this meeting and this organization.

UPDATE 3/4 7:21 AM

It took me a bit but I found details on the 2013 symposium from the same group.  The web site for the 2013 meeting is not active as far as I can tell.  However it is available in the Internet Archive.  For example, here is a snapshot from June 1, 2013.  From that snapshot here are the listed speakers

  • David Kramer, Michigan State University
  • Susan Golden, University of California, San Diego
  • Julian Schroeder, University of California, San Diego
  • Stephen Mayfield, University of California, San Diego
  • Steven Briggs, University of California, San Diego
  • Matteo Pellegrini, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Donald Weeks, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • Michael Burkart, University of California, San Diego
  • Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, University of California, San Diego
  • Farzad Haerizadeh, Life Technologies
  • Ben Hueso, California State Assembly
  • Bill Gerwick, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Eric Mathur, SG Biofuels
  • James Van Etten, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • Fred Tennant, Heliae
  • David Dunigan, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • Xuemei Bai, Cellana
  • George Oyler, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • Gerry Mackie, University of California, San Diego
  • Mark Hildebrand, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  • Lawrence Johnson, Salim Group
  • Craig Behnke, Sapphire Energy
  • Rebecca White, Sapphire Energy

For a ratio of 20:3.

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Microbial forensics and phylogenetics go hand in hand

Interesting story in Nature today: Science in court: Disease detectives : Nature News & Comment.  It details a bit of the history and current approaches to forensics associated with microbes and has quotes from many of the key players in the field.  It discusses anthrax, HIV, the FBI, Bruce Budowle, David Hillis, and more.  Definitely worth a look for anyone interested in either microbial diversity of phylogenetics.  I have been interested in this topic for a very long time – pretty much since I was recruited to apply to work at the FBI many many years ago.

I have been to a few recent meetings on the topic organized by the White House OSTP and the FBI and I think there is lots of interesting work that can happen in this area.  The development of Phylosift in my lab was funded by a grant from DHS (to myself and THE Aaron Darling who has since left to a large island near New Zealand) largely in relation to microbial forensics.

See some related posts:

In particular people might want to check out the Mendeley Group collection of references on the topic I have made: Microbial Forensics | Mendeley Group

//www.mendeley.com/groups/1147121/microbial-forensics/widget/29/3/

Microbial Forensics is a group in Biological Sciences, Law on Mendeley.

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Shocked – shocked to hear that some fake papers got published in CLOSED ACCESS journals

Oh no.  This world.  It vexes me.  I am vexed.  I thought that only Open Access journals published papers that were fake science.  Now it turns out – closed access journals also sometimes have no peer review and overzealous pulsing pressures: Publishers withdraw more than 120 gibberish papers : Nature News & Comment.  How can I go on?  I thought peer review was perfect and all journals were honorable.  Oh well.  Back to work

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

Wanted – participants and helpers for a "Women in Science" Wikipedia Editathon at #UCDavis March 4 – UC Davis ADVANCE

I wrote a post on the UC DAVIS ADVANCE Blog recruiting people to participate in a Wikipedia Editathon regarding Women in Science: Wanted – participants and helpers for a “Women in Science” Wikipedia Editathon at #UCDavis March 4 – UC Davis ADVANCE

And Phoebe Ayers from the UC Davis Physical Sciences and Engineering Library has volunteered to host the event there.

See her post about this.   Please consider signing up to participate if you are around UC Davis at that time …

——–
This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

——–

At #UCDavis today: – Storer Speaker: Dr. Patricia Wright: Lessons from the Lemurs: Senescence in Madagascar

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Patricia Wright flyer 1.pdf

Seminar at #UCDavis 2/24 C. Titus Brown: Genomics And Bioinformatics In Non-Model Organisms: Where Is The Data Tidal Wave Bringing Us?

Good Morning,

Dr. Titus Brown, Candidate for Assistant/Associate/Full Professor of Genetics, Department of Population Health and Reproduction, will present a seminar titled, “Genomics And Bioinformatics In Non-Model Organisms: Where Is The Data Tidal Wave Bringing Us?” on Monday, February 24, 2014, 3:10-4:00pm in 1041 Valley Hall.

Thank You,

Brown Seminar Presentation Announcement.pdf