Tuesday, April 5, 2022 | 5 p.m.

The Plurality of Worlds: Searching for Life in a Universe of Data

Stephen Kane
Professor of Planetary Astrophysics

In the space of only a few decades, the number of known planets orbiting other stars has risen from zero to over 5000. These discoveries have dramatically changed our understanding of planetary systems and further motivated the search for life in the universe. In this talk. Dr. Kane will describe the techniques that have allowed us to bring about this revolution in planetary science, the challenges in analyzing the massive amounts of data, and the future prospects in detecting life on another world.

About Stephen Kane
Stephen Kane is a Professor of Planetary Astrophysics at the University of California, Riverside who specializes in exoplanetary science. He grew up in outback Australia where his view of the night sky and fascination with solar system exploration motivated his eventual career path. He received his BS from Macquarie University in Sydney and his PhD from the University of Tasmania. His work covers a broad range of topics related to planetary astrophysics and he has discovered several hundred planets orbiting other stars. He is a leading expert on the topic of planetary habitability, the habitable zone of planetary systems, and the study of why Venus and Earth evolved so differently. He is a prominent scientific leader for several NASA missions designed to search for life in the universe. He has published hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific papers as well as several books on the topic of exoplanets and habitability. He is also a prolific advocate of interdisciplinarity science through the combination of biology, climate science, geophysics, planetary science, and stellar astrophysics.

stephenkane.net
planetlab.info
UCR Faculty: Stephen Kane 
LinkedIn

Tuesday, April 12, 2022 | 5 p.m.

Big Data at the Intersect of Drug Discovery and Genome Biology

Thomas Girke
Professor of Bioinformatics
Director of High-Performance Computing Center (HPCC)
Director of Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics (GGB) Graduate Program
Institute for Integrative Genome Biology
Botany and Plant Sciences

Dr. Girke's research focuses on the development of computational methods for extracting knowledge from complex biological data by combining discovery driven research with algorithm and software development to address fundamental research questions in agricultural and biomedical sciences ranging from stress resistance in plants to healthy aging and longevity in humans. This involves very large data sets generated by a variety of high-throughput precision technologies, such as next generation sequencing (NGS), genome-wide profiling approaches and drug screens. These technologies have transformed biology into one of the most data intensive research disciplines of all time. Dr. Girke's presentation will illustrate how this New Age of Big Data Sciences has revolutionized the way we think about biological systems by allowing us to scale research experiments from deciphering the code and measuring the abundance of single biomolecules in the past to tens of thousand of them in the present. Moreover, this new era allows us to monitor with high precision how these factors vary across thousands of cell types, individuals in populations, or soon a large proportion of all living and many extinct species of our planet. In this overview, he will highlight how the analysis methods and software environments my group has developed, help to analyze these big data sets to gain novel insights into biological processes.

About Thomas Girke
Thomas Girke is a Professor of Bioinformatics at the University California, Riverside. He received his BA, MS and Ph.D. degrees from University Hamburg in Germany, followed by post-doctoral training at Michigan State University. Subsequently, he worked for several years in industry where he directed computational research projects in agricultural high-throughput screening projects for Dow AgroSciences and the Dow Chemical Company. After rejoining academia, Dr. Girke has developed an innovative computational biology and drug discovery research program at UCR that is funded by large grants from a variety of national funding agencies including NSF and NIH. His contributions to teaching and infrastructure development at UCR include directorships of the graduate program in Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics (GGB) as well as the High-Performance Computing Center (HPCC). Currently, the HPCC is enabling big data research for over 150 research groups from all schools and colleges at UCR. 

Girke Lab Research and Teaching Site
UCR Faculty: Thomas Girke

Tuesday, April 19, 2022 | 5 p.m.

Computational Modeling and Digital Twin of a Patient

Mark Alber
Distinguished Professor, UCR Department of Mathematics 
Director, UCR Center for Quantitative Modeling in Biology 
Cooperating Faculty, UCR School of Medicine
Cooperating Faculty, UCR Department of Bioengineering

Fueled by breakthrough technology developments, the biological, biomedical, and behavioral sciences are now collecting more data than ever before. There is a critical need for time- and cost-efficient strategies to analyze and interpret these data to advance human health. The recent rise of machine learning as a powerful technique to integrate multimodality, multifidelity data, and reveal correlations between intertwined phenomena presents a special opportunity in this regard. 

This technique is incredibly successful in image recognition with immediate applications in diagnostics including electrophysiology, radiology, or pathology, where clinicians have access to massive amounts of annotated data. However, machine learning often performs poorly in prognosis, especially when dealing with sparse data. Multiscale computational modeling is a successful strategy to integrate multiscale, multiphysics data and uncover biological mechanisms that explain the emergence of function. However, multiscale modeling alone often fails to efficiently combine large datasets from different sources and different levels of resolution. In this lecture we will demonstrate that machine learning and multiscale modeling can naturally complement each other to create robust predictive models that can provide new insights into disease mechanisms, help identify new targets and patient specific treatment strategies, and inform decision making for the benefit of human health [1,2].

1. Mark Alber, Adrian Buganza Tepole, William R. Cannon, Suvranu De, Salvador Dura-Bernal, Krishna Garikipati, George Karniadakis, William W. Lytton, Paris Perdikaris, Linda Petzold & Ellen Kuhl, Integrating machine learning and multiscale modeling - perspectives, challenges, and opportunities in the biological biomedical, and behavioral sciences, npj Digital Medicine, 2:115 (2019).

2. Grace C. Y. Peng, Mark Alber, Adrian Buganza Tepole, William R. Cannon, Suvranu De, Salvador Dura-Bernal, Krishna Garikipati, George Karniadakis, William W. Lytton, Paris Perdikaris, Linda Petzold & Ellen Kuhl [2020], Multiscale Modeling Meets Machine Learning: What Can We Learn? Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering 28, 1017–1037 (2021).

About Mark Alber
Professor Mark Alber earned his Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of J. E. Marsden (UC Berkeley and Caltech). He held several positions at the University of Notre Dame including most recently Vincent J. Duncan Family Chair in Applied Mathematics. He is currently Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Director of the Center for Quantitative Modeling in Biology, UC Riverside. Dr. Alber was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2011 and was appointed 2019 Honorary Kloosterman Professor at the Mathematical Institute, Leiden University, The Netherlands. He is currently a deputy editor of PLoS Computational Biology and member of editorial boards of Bulletin of Mathematical Biology and Biophysical Journal. His research interests include mathematical and computational multiscale modeling of blood clot formation, plants development and growth and epithelial tissue growth.

UCR Faculty: Mark Alber

Tuesday, April 26, 2022 | 5 p.m.

From Sources to Space: How Big Data Can Help Us Manage Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Francesca Hopkins 
Assistant Professor of Climate Change & Sustainability

Greenhouse gases emitted by humans present the biggest uncertainty in how much global warming the world will face over this century. While the political will to reduce emissions is beginning to be realized through laws to reduce emissions in California and new global agreements such as the 2021 Global Methane Emissions pledge, new science and technology approaches are needed to verify the success of these policies. In this talk, Dr. Hopkins will describe new observations of the most important greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, from platforms ranging from mobile observatories to tower networks to plant samples to satellites. Along with new data systems to interpret these results and partnerships with stakeholders, these observations can help us reach our climate policy goals and ensure equity in the enactment of greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. 

About Francesca Hopkins
Dr. Francesca Hopkins is an Assistant Professor of Climate Change and Sustainability in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Hopkins is an environmental scientist studying the effects of human activities on the global carbon cycle, with particular interest in greenhouse gas emissions and carbon cycle feedbacks to climate change. Dr. Hopkins and her research group use a range of techniques to measure emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants across California, including from dairy farms, vehicles, and oil and gas sources. Dr. Hopkins is also passionate about communicating the science of climate change. She led the Inland Desert chapter of the Fourth California Climate Assessment, released in 2018.

Originally from Sonoma County, California, Dr. Hopkins received Bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Science and Spanish at the University of California, Berkeley. She studied abroad at the Pontifical Catholic University in Santiago, Chile. Dr. Hopkins completed her Ph.D. in Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. During graduate school, she also researched at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena, Germany. After receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Hopkins was a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena from 2014-2016. In 2016, Dr. Hopkins was recognized as one of UC Irvine’s Top 50 Graduate and Postdoctoral Scholar Alumni.

Dr. Hopkins is also a busy parent of a kindergartner and preschooler.
 

UCR Faculty: Francesca Hopkins
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Lab

Responding to the pandemic: How UC Riverside scientists created a COVID-19 testing lab for students

Tuesday, April 6, 2021 at 5 p.m.

Shortly after UC Riverside closed to protect its community from the spread of COVID-19, the campus began discussions to create its own testing lab to help mitigate the effects of the pandemic. Led by UCR scientists Katherine Borkovich and Isgouhi Kaloshian, in collaboration with partners across the university, the campus coronavirus testing lab opened in August 2020 and began providing UCR with on-site testing and rapid turnaround of results. However, the experience of creating a clinical COVID-19 testing lab from scratch during a global pandemic came with great challenges and also unexpected rewards. Join us on April 6 at 5 p.m. to learn how Drs. Borkovich and Kaloshian tackled challenges and experienced rewards when they created the COVID-19 testing lab at UC Riverside.
 
Guest Speaker: Katherine Borkovich, Professor and Chair, Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology
Guest Speaker: Isgouhi Kaloshian, Professor and Chair, Department of Nematology
Moderator: Timothy Paine, Divisional Dean Agricultural & Natural Resources, Distinguished Professor, Department of Entomology

COVID vaccines and beyond

Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at 5 p.m.

Our health and safety, as well as our ability to return to our pre-pandemic lives are conversations that are taking place all across the world — and vaccines are at the center of those conversations. The Science Lecture Series presentation on Vaccines and Beyond will highlight the work of two leading UCR scientists with expertise in virology and the development of vaccines.  

Dr. Juliet Morrison’s research on viruses will help us understand the immune system’s response to a SARS-CoV-2 infection and how immunity is generated; how COVID vaccines protect against SARS-CoV-2; and why COVID vaccines still offer protection against the new variants of concern.

The three major COVID vaccines that obtained emergency use authorization from the FDA are based on two vaccine platforms, mRNA and adenovirus. Dr. Rong Hai will share how the mRNA and adenovirus vaccines platforms were selected to fight SARS2 viruses and the composition of these vaccines. He will also introduce a vaccine project that his lab is currently working on to engineer a vaccine candidate with dual specificity: influenza and COVID.

Be sure to tune into the Science Lecture Series on Vaccines and Beyond on Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at 5 p.m.

Guest Speaker: Rong Hai, Assistant Professor of Virology, Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology
Guest Speaker: Juliet Morrison, Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology
Moderator: Frances Sladek, Divisional Dean Life Sciences, Professor of Cell Biology, and Toxicologist

Understanding coronavirus assembly: A crucial step towards destroying the enemy

Tuesday, April 20, 2021 at 5 p.m.

The ancient saying “know thy enemy” is just as true today as the world faces the deadly novel coronavirus. To understand how COVID-19 assembles itself into a viable virus, experts at the University of California, Riverside will share how their research, experiments and computer simulations, which has never before been performed on the coronavirus, will help propel the development of drug therapies that slow or destroy the virus.

Guest Speaker: Thomas Edward Kuhlman, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Guest Speaker: Roya Zandi, Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Moderator: Umar Mohideen, Distinguished Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy

April 3: "Gravitational Waves: From Einstein to a New Science"

Barry C. Barish, Nobel Laureate and Distinguished Professor of Physics; UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences
watch Video 

April 10: "Between Battles: From Civil War to Combating Plant Disease"

Isgouhi Kaloshian, Professor of Nematology and Chair, Department of Nematology; UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

watch video

April 17: "It’s About I: Invention, Innovation, and Inspiration"

Kathryn Uhrich, Professor of Chemistry and Dean; UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

watch video

April 24: "Metathesis: A Change-Your-Partner Dance of Carbon-Carbon Bonds"

Richard Schrock, Nobel Laureate, UCR Alumnus, and Distinguished Professor, George K. Helmkamp Founder’s Chair of Chemistry; UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

watch video

April 5: "The Hope and Threat of Human Gene Editing"

Martin Garcia-Castro, Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences; UC Riverside School of Medicine
watch Video 

April 12: "Feeding the World: From Mendel to CISPR"

Carolyn Rasmussen, Assistant Professor of Plant Cell Biology; UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences
watch Video 

April 19: "LEGO, Language, and the Life of Bacteria"

Ansel Hsiao, Assistant Professor of Plant Cell Biology; UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences
Watch Video 

May 10: "Implications of Genetic Modifications in Humans and Other Organisms"

Carl Cranor, Distinguished Professor in Philosophy; UC Riverside College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences
Watch Video 

December 8: "Our Cosmic Origins: Stars, Galaxies, and the Stuff of Life"

Bahram Mobasher, Professor of Physics & Astronomy, Associate Director of Alternative Earths Astrobiology Center - UC Riverside
Watch Video

January 12: "Alternative Earths: How Earth's Past Guides NASA's Search for Life"

Tim Lyons, Distinguished Professor of Biogeochemistry, Director of Alternative Earth's Astrobiology Center- UC Riverside
Watch Video 

February 1: "Ocean Worlds: Missions to Icy Moons and Dwarf Planets"

Kevin Hand, Deputy Project Scientist, Solar System Exploration Directorate, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory  
Watch Video 

March 23: "Mars 2020 & Beyond: Will We Find Life on the Red Planet?"

Ken Williford, Deputy Project Scientist, Mars 2020 Mission and Director, Astrobiogeochemistry Laboratory, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Watch Video 

April 13: "Alien Planets: Are There Other Earths Lurking in Our Galaxy?"

Antigona Segura Peralta, Professor of Astrobiology, National Autonomous University of Mexico  
Watch Video 

The 2014 series was held January 22 - May 7

January 22: HAIR: The History of Animals Using Isotope Records

Thure Cerling, University of Utah
Watch Video     Lecture Slides 

March 5: The Deep History of Life

Andrew Knoll, Harvard University
Watch Video     Lecture Slides 

April 2: What's for Dinner? Molecular Signatures of Plants, Animals, and Water in Early Human Habitats

Kate Freeman, Pennsylvania State University
Watch Video

April 9: How Fracking Impacts Our Water: The Pennsylvania Experience

Sue Brantley, Pennsylvania State University
Watch Video     Lecture Slides 

April 23: Global Warming 36 Million Years Ago: What It Means for Us

Scott Wing, Smithsonian Institution
Watch Video     Lecture Slides 

May 7: Beyond Seismology: Studying Earthquakes and Faults From Space

Gareth Funning, University of California, Riverside
Watch Video      Lecture Slides 

THE SCIENCE OF DISEASE

The 2013 series was held April 18 - May 30 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., in the University of California, Riverside, Extension Center.

April 18: Drinking water: How safe is safe enough?

Marylynn V. Yates, Dean of the College and Professor of Environmental Microbiology
Introduced by Murrieta Valley Unified School District teacher Dean Nielsen

May 2: Friends and enemies: Dynamic interactions of plants and insects

Linda Walling, Professor of Genetics, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
Introduced by Riverside Unified School District teacher Derrrick Sergeant

May 16: Curing cancer: How do anticancer drugs work?

Yinsheng Wang, Professor of Chemistry
Introduced by Moreno Valley Unified School District teacher Aurora Johnson

May 30: The promise of stem cells: Hope or hype?

Nicole zur Nieden, Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Neuroscience
Introduced by Murrieta Unified School District teacher Jack Jones

EARTH 101: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LIFE ON OUR PLANET

The 2012 series was held March 29 - May 10, 6:00-7:00 p.m., in the University of California, Riverside, Extension Center.

Earth 101: Too Many People

Rich Cardullo, Professor of Biology
Introduced by Riverside Unified School District teacher Jeremy Standerfer

PDF study guide Watch video

Earth 101: What Hollywood Can Teach Us About Our Planet

Jodie, Holt, Professor of Plant Physiology
Introduced by Moreno Valley Unified School District teacher Aurora Johnson

PDF study guide Watch video

Earth 101: What's Your Carbon Footprint?

Lou Santiago, Professor of Physiological Ecology
Introduced by Riverside Unified School District teacher John Robertson

Watch video

Earth 101: Where Does Your Water Come From?

Dan Schlenk, Professor of Aquatic Toxicology
Introduced by Murrieta Unified School District teacher Dean Nielsen

PDF study guide Watch video

UCTV

The videos appeared on UCTV, the University of California's television station, according to the following schedule:

• Earth 101: Too Many People?  • Monday, September 3, 2012 • 2:00-3:00 p.m.
• Earth 101: What Hollywood Can Teach Us About Our Planet • Monday, September 10, 2012 • 2:00-3:00 p.m.
• Earth 101:What's Your Carbon Footprint? • Monday, September 17, 2012 • 2:00-3:00 p.m.
• Earth 101:Where Does Your Water Come From? • Monday, September 24, 2012 • 2:00-3:00 p.m.

Learn more on UCTV

The 2011 series was held April 14 - May 19

April 14: The Dynamic Genome: Unintelligent Design

Marylynn V. Yates, Dean of the College and Professor of Environmental Microbiology
Introduced by Murrieta Valley Unified School District teacher Dean Nielsen
Watch Video

April 28: What's In Your Garden? Protecting California from Invasive Species

Mark Hoddle, Extension Specialist and Director of the Center for Invasive Species Research
Watch Video

May 5: Designs from Nature: A New Spin on High-Performance Materials

Professor of Biology Cheryl Hayashi
Watch Video

May 19: Size Matters: Nanotechnology & Other Wonders in Carbon Flatland

Associate Professor of Physics Jeanie Lau
Watch Video

The Spring 2010 series was held April 8 - June 3

April 8: What Awaits Us in the Greenhouse World

Professor of Geology Martin Kennedy

April 22: Climate's Control of California Landscapes

Professor of Geography Richard Minnich
Watch Video

May 6: In the Crosshairs: California's Environment

Professor of Plant Pathology Michael Allen
Watch Video

May 20: Tipping the Scales? Pest Insects, Agriculture, & Health

Professor of Entomology Peter Atkinson
Watch Video

June 3: The Food Challenge: Waterproof Rice & Other Solutions

Professor of Genetics Julia Bailey-Serres
Watch Video

The Spring 2009 series was held April 2 - May 28

April 2: The Dance of the Genes: How Biological Evolution Works

Norman Ellstrand, Department of Botany and Plant Sciences
Watch Video

April 16: Evolution and Medicine: Why Doctors Need Darwin

Marlene Zuk, Department of Biology
Watch Video

April 30: The Evolution of Evolution: Darwin Then and Now

David Reznick, Department of Biology
Watch Video

May 14: Life's Rocky Road: The History of Life on Earth

Nigel Hughes, Department of Earth Sciences
Watch Video

May 28: Let There Be Light: The First Billion Years

Bahram Mobasher, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Watch Video

The Fall 2009 series was held October 15 - November 12

October 15: The Battle Within: Our Evolutionary Struggle with Cancer

Leonard Nunney, Department of Biology
Watch Video

October 29: Born to Run: Evolution of Hyperactivity in Mice

Theodore Garland, Department of Biology
Watch Video

November 12: The Silent Majority: How Symbiotic Bacteria Evolve to Help and Hurt

Joel Sachs, Department of Biology
Watch Video