Ice sheets, plastic pollution and Higgs Boson: Harrington STEM Lecture Series returns to SUNY New Paltz

NEW PALTZ – The School of Science & Engineering at SUNY New Paltz sponsors an annual series of lectures on the most pressing questions and cutting-edge advances in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

“The Harrington Lectures bring top-notch scientists, mathematicians and engineers to the Hudson Valley to talk about ground breaking research to the general public,” said School of Science & Engineering Dean Daniel Freedman. “The topics are selected to provide information about critical policy areas or just fascinating new findings that change our understanding of the universe.”

The spring 2017 Harrington STEM Lectures will be held on Feb. 28, March 7 and April 18. All take place at 5 p.m. in the Coykendall Science Building Auditorium on the New Paltz campus, and are free and open to the public.

Each evening’s program includes a reception prior to the lecture to encourage conversation between guest lecturers and our students, faculty, staff and community members. Lectures are video recorded and archived, and past lectures can be viewed on the Harrington STEM Lecture Series website.

Condensed Abstract: Antarctica is the highest, driest and coldest continent on earth. It holds 90 percent of the world’s ice and 70 percent of its freshwater. Early explorers referred to it as a place devoid of life, and the idea that the Antarctic ice sheet was lifeless persisted for more than 80 years. Recent research has shown that huge river basins and some of our planet’s largest lakes exist beneath the more than 2 miles of Antarctic ice. In these spaces scientists have proven that subglacial ecosystems in Antarctica form the largest wetland on our planet, consisting entirely of microbial organisms that mine the energy in rocks to support their existence. John C. Priscu will present the events leading up to these discoveries and how they have transformed the way we view the Antarctic continent.

Condensed Abstract: In the summer of 2012, two teams of scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland announced that they had discovered the long-awaited Higgs Boson. What is this particle, and how was it discovered? Why do physicists think is it so important to our understanding of matter, energy, and the universe? Matthew Deady will address these and other questions as he leads an investigation of the fundamental particles and forces that underlie all physical phenomena, culminating in the Higgs discovery and consideration of what might be beyond.

Condensed Abstract: Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus, subtype H5N1, was first detected in poultry in November 1996 in southeast China, and the first human deaths from the virus were recorded in Hong Kong in 1997. The virus spread to the rest of the Asian continent, Africa and Europe, and in its wake left millions of dead poultry, 850 infected people, 449 human fatalities and billions of dollars in economic damage. Nearly 20 years later, in 2015, HPAI subtype H5N2 appeared in the United States, caused the death or depopulation of 48 million poultry, and cost the Federal government almost a billion dollars. This lecture will provide an anatomy of the H5N1 pandemic and the H5N2 epidemic: how they happened, how they were contained, and how they might offer clues to preventing future avian influenza virus outbreaks.

About the Harrington STEM Lecture Series
The School of Science & Engineering colloquium series is named for John Harrington, the School’s founding Dean and a dedicated adherent of science, education and collaboration across the STEM disciplines.