Gerardo Morfini is a bright young Assistant Professor currently working at the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology in the University of Illinois at Chicago. His interest and enthusiasm for cell biology took him from his hometown in Cordoba, Argentina to the Midwest. In just a few years, Gerardo excelled in the Neuroscience field, publishing over 30 research articles in highly raked, peer-revised scientific journals. In 2007, he received the Jordi Folch Pi Memorial Award for outstanding young neuroscientist from the American Society for Neurochemistry. Gerardo’s research goal is to provide a conceptual framework for the therapeutic treatment of human neurodegenerative diseases. In his own words:
“Our dependence on correct neuronal function is reflected on the devastating consequences of adult-onset neurodegenerative diseases (AONDs) such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's diseases, among others. Relentlessly, selected groups of neurons degenerate and die in each AOND, leaving dramatic consequences in the life of patients and their beloved ones. Sadly, no effective therapeutic treatments are currently available. With the world population growing increasingly older, AONDs represent one of the biggest challenges faced by modern medicine.
The large size and unique cellular architecture of neurons renders these cells uniquely vulnerable to even minor alterations in intracellular transport mechanisms, collectively known as "axonal transport". Throughout this seminar, I will introduce and discuss scientific findings indicating that the regulated transport of material within neuronal cells might represent the "Achiles heel" of neurons. Based on past and current research in our laboratory, I will also present evidence suggesting that axonal transport represents a critical pathogenic target in several AONDs. Finally, I will discuss the implications of our findings for the development of novel therapeutic approaches for AONDs”.
http://www.uic.edu/depts/mcan/morfini.htm
Appetizers will be served at 6:00 p.m. and the seminar will begin at 6:30 p.m. Dinner will immediately follow.
Pamela Oliver has been at the University of Wisconsin since 1980, where she has been a full professor since 1990 and a Conway-Bascom Professor since 2004. She is well-known for her work on collective action and social movements, and has published numerous influential articles and a book (with Gerald Marwell) on these topics. She has several National Science Foundation grants and has served on the National Science Foundation's Sociology Advisory Committee. Her work on the causes and consequences of the racial disparity in imprisonment began out of her community service involvement. She is writing articles and a book based in detailed statistical comparisons between states in the US 1983-1999. She has done a detailed analysis of racial disparities in imprisonment and arrest in Wisconsin, and has given numerous presentations to public officials and community members on these issues.
The US has the world's highest incarceration rate, and Wisconsin has one
of the nation's highest Black incarceration rates. Because of her
leadership in this area, she was asked to serve on the Governor’s
special Commission to Reduce Racial Disparities in the Wisconsin Justice
System, which met April 2007 – January 2008 and issued its report in
February 2008; she played a major role in helping to draft this report
and authored (with her collaborator James Yocom) several appendices,
including a comparison of arrests and prison sentences by race to assess
where in the system disparities occur, and a detailed analysis of
probation and parole revocations.
Why is the idea that mathematicians are typically a bit insane so appealing to the public? Why do people who write books about mountain climbing and people who write books about mathematicians use such similar rhetoric? To what extent _are_ mathematicians like mountain climbers and to what extent are we insane? What would it mean to climb mountains in the style of the great algebraic geometer Alexander Grothendeick, and in what other contexts would it make sense to speak of a "Grothendieck style?" I will say what I can about these questions, based on my own experience as a mathematician, as a popularizer of mathematics, and as a reader of other popularizers of mathematics." Jordan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mathematics
Appetizers will be served at 6:00 p.m. and the seminar will begin at 6:30 p.m. Dinner will immediately follow.
Erika Janik grew up in Redmond, Washington, but now knows more about Wisconsin history than she ever thought possible. She has master's degrees in American history and journalism from the UW–Madison and served as project coordinator and writer for the Wisconsin Historical Society's online state history collections. She is currently the editor of the Society's membership newsletter and an editor for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Her work has appeared in Wisconsin Trails magazine, On Wisconsin, Renewing the Countryside, Isthmus, and Wisconsin Natural Resources.
For more information on Ms. Janik's work, see: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/whspress/books/book.asp?book_id=315,
