Galileo's Science Cafe

Hear about the latest findings surrounding hot topics in science and medicine that affect our everyday lives and the decisions that we make! Bring your family and friends for a free, casual, interactive science discussion. Learn from the experts and speak with them.

Location: To include everyone, our 2021-22 sessions will be conducted in a hybrid format via in-person and simultaneous Zoom webinar sessions. Face-to-face sessions will be held at the Hylton Performing Arts Center on the Mason Science and Tech Campus at Manassas, VA. Remote sessions will be held via Mason Zoom webinar. Pre-registration is required; links can be found under each session title below.

Evening Schedule:

For face-to-face sessions: All attendees 12 and older must complete Mason's COVID Health Check the day of the event and present their "green" healthy status to the greeter when you arrive.  Masks must be worn over the nose and mouth by all attendees 2 years and older when they are inside the Hylton Performing Arts Center. The event is capped at 90% of capacity at this time to provide some social distancing. Attendees must pre-register for each individual session using the link included under the title of each session. 

6:30 PM: Seating begins. Due to COVID restrictions, we regret that we are unable to provide food or beverages for the Galileo's Science Cafe events until further notice.
7:00-7:45 PM: Scientific discussion
7:45-8:15 PM: Ask the presenters! Questions from the audience
8:15-8:45 PM: Meet the scientist and networking reception (Socially Distanced)
9:00 PM  Session closes

For remote sessions:

6:30 PM: Logon
7:00-7:45 PM: Scientific discussion
7:45-8:15 PM: Q&A from audience
8:15-8:45 PM: Meet the scientist and networking reception
9:00 PM  Session closes

Thursday, September 16th, 2021         

Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, Ph.D., Dean of Mason's College of Science

https://science.gmu.edu/directory/fernando-miralles-wilhelm

Title: Human Demand vs Climate Change: which dominates the water scarcity problem around the world?

Thank you for completing the required session pre-registration HERE.

Logon for the remote Zoom webinar link HERE.

Changes to socioeconomics and an evolving climate system are likely to play a vital role in how regions around the world use water into the future. Water projections for the future, while prolific, remain highly variable and dependent upon underlying scenario and model assumptions. This investigation explores the interactions between population, economic growth, energy, land, water, and climate systems and how they interact dynamically within a consistent economic modeling framework, to address how changing socioeconomic and climate conditions alter global water futures. First, efficiency changes with the addition of socioeconomically consistent water technologies across several sectors are explored in an effort to quantify the human impacts on water scarcity; this is done by extending the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways to the water sector for the first time. It is found that significant water use reductions are possible under certain socio-economic conditions, provided the ability to adopt appropriate technological advances in lower-income regions. Second, the relative contributions of climate and human systems on water scarcity are analyzed at global and basin scales under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway-Representative Concentration Pathway (SSP-RCP) framework. Ninety scenarios are explored to determine how the coevolution of energy-water-land systems affects not only the driver behind water scarcity changes in different water basins but how human and climate systems interact in tandem to alter water scarcity. Human systems are found to dominate water scarcity changes into the future, regardless of socioeconomic or climate future. However, the sign of these changes has a significant scenario dependence, with an increased number of basins experiencing improving water scarcity conditions due to human interventions in the sustainability-focused scenario. Third, the reliance on international agricultural trade is analyzed to understand how future socioeconomic growth and climatic change will impact the dependency on international water sources. The differentiation between renewable and nonrenewable water sources allows for the quantification of various sources needed to produce agricultural goods to meet global demands. The projection of the evolution of external water sources to meet domestic agricultural demands show that there will be an increasing reliance on China, the United States, and portions of South America to provide the necessary exports to meet demands in water-scarce or high demand areas of the Middle East and Africa.

Thursday, October 14th, 2021

Mariaelena Pierobon, M.D., Ph.D.

https://ibi.gmu.edu/faculty-directory/mariaelena-pierobon/

Title:  When one size does not fit all: personalized medicine for breast cancer treatment

Abstract: Precision medicine has transformed cancer therapy from a one-size-fits-all approach to customized treatment. This relatively new approach in health care builds upon the knowledge that each individual is different and experiences disease differently. For example, biological changes within DNA, RNA, and proteins, the underlying cause of cancer, vary widely across patient populations. By targeting the malfunctioning biological mechanisms of individual tumors, precision medicine provides personalized solutions for each patient.

I will provide an overview of the role precision medicine currently plays in oncology, how it can be used to develop tailored treatment, and its impact on patients’ survival. As an example of how together we can advance precision medicine for cancer patients, I will discuss our collaborative work with the SideOut Foundation, a local non-profit organization. By sponsoring cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative research, the SideOut Foundation has brought together scientists and oncologists throughout the U.S. to demonstrate the incredible impact precision medicine has on cancer treatment and survival.

Thursday, November 18th, 2021

Patrick Gillevet, Ph.D.  

https://mbac.gmu.edu/mbac_wp/news/

Microbiome Expert

Title and Abstract coming soon!

No January session is scheduled during Mason's winter break.

Thursday, February 17th, 2022

Shobita Satyapal, Ph.D.           

  https://bgc.physics.gmu.edu/black-hole-experts/

Title:  In Search of Elusive Giants: Detecting supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies

Abstract:   We know that monstrous black holes, one million to several billion times the mass of the sun, lurk in the centers of almost every large galaxy in the universe. They can have a profound effect on those galaxies and are capable of giving rise to the loudest gravitation signals in the universe when they merge.

In this talk, I will discuss my group’s research results in addition to several significant recent events in black hole astrophysics: the imaging of the event horizon of the M87 galaxy’s black hole; detection of colliding black holes from the LIGO interferometer; and the awarding of the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics to Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel for identifying the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Thursday, March 17th, 2022

Taylor Anderson, Ph.D., Andreas Züfle, Ph.D., Hamdi Kavak, Ph.D., and Tim Leslie, Ph.D.

https://science.gmu.edu/academics/departments-units/geography-geoinformation-science

https://science.gmu.edu/academics/departments-units/computational-data-sciences

Title: Data Science for Pandemic Preparedness and Response

Abstract: People respond to crises in different ways. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, we observe some individuals are more willing or able to engage in preventative behaviors than others. These behaviors might include mask use, social distancing, and more recently vaccine acceptance, all of which have major impacts on the trajectory of the disease. In this talk, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at GMU discusses the key role of spatial-temporal data in better understanding the relationship between human behavior, mobility, and disease spread and how we can use this knowledge to improve predictive models. The research provides opportunities to evaluate implemented policies aimed at mitigation and support evidence-based policy-making going forward.

Thursday, April 21st, 2022          

Jennifer Salerno, Ph.D.

https://science.gmu.edu/directory/jennifer-salerno

Expert in human and ecosystem health

Title and Abstract coming soon!

Thursday, May 19th, 2022  Coming soon!

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Andrea Cobb, Ph.D., George Mason College of Science, Director of Galileo’s Science Café, Director of Student Research and Internships,
Email: acobb4@gmu.edu