SFU CAFÉ SCIENTIFIQUE

Financial modelling involves using mathematical and statistical techniques to understand future financial scenarios, helping individuals and businesses make informed decisions about their investments. Join Dr. Jean-François Bégin as he explores how these models can empower us to navigate the complexities of financial markets.

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Each second, five newborn babies die from suspected life-threatening infections somewhere in the world. Newborns and young babies are more vulnerable to severe infections than all other age groups. However, there is no fast and easy way to tell which microbes are involved, resulting in babies being both over- and under-treated with antibiotics. In this talk, Dr. Amy Lee describes how we can use genomics and machine learning approaches to tackle this challenge.

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Assistant Professor Dustin King’s Indigenous background is central to his work and relationship with the biochemical research he conducts. He brings Indigenous ways of knowing and a two-eye seeing approach to critical questions about humanity’s impact upon the natural world.

Join Dr. King on a microscopic journey into intricate cellular systems, which make use of CO2 in incredible ways. The presence of CO2 on Earth has given rise to a diverse evolutionary tree, with plants and animals developing ingenious methods for harnessing and using CO2 in their unique habitats. We travel from the depths of the ocean floor to the air we breathe, to understand the implications of increasing CO2 levels in nature and in daily human life.

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Within days of first being identified the full genome sequence of SARS Cov-2 was published online. Assistant Professor Ailene MacPherson discusses the extraordinary power and limitations of genomics for understanding disease spread and for designing effective public health interventions.

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Art and science are often considered opposites. But are they? Chemistry professor and photographer Vance Williams examines how art and science both support and reinforce explorations of the natural and constructed world, and the often blurry distinction between the scientist and the artist.

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From early development all the way to aging, DNA affects the structure and function of our brain. Mapping these pathways helps scientists understand how our brain works, and how to fight neurodegenerative diseases. This talk will explain how scientists discover these genetic pathways and will explore the impact of genetics in a variety of areas including infectious disease, cancer, COVID-19, and the aging brain. Focus will be placed on understanding and modelling the genetic process, past successes in genetics, and what the future holds.

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Watermelon-red snow is a tell-tale sign of springtime blooms of microscopic algae on alpine and arctic snow. Under the microscope, the algae are stunningly beautiful, but why study them? Dr. Lynne Quarmby takes us on a journey from molecular biology to the high Arctic and home again, illuminating the science of cells, of the climate, and of snow algae, while offering a reminder that much about the human experience is beyond reason. In this talk, we will hear about one scientist’s search for what it means to live a good life at a time of increasing desperation about the future.

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Modern astronomy contends with complex physics, complex technology, and complex data; the result is an abundance of complex statistical challenges. This talk will focus on how new research in the exciting interdisciplinary research field of astrostatistics is advancing both astronomy and statistics, with applications in such diverse areas as: - discovering Earth-like exoplanets and characterizing alien solar systems - predicting solar activity and space weather - detecting and studying gravitational waves - learning about cosmology and the fate of our universe - how astrostatistics is simultaneously both an old and (relatively) new field of scientific inquiry.

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Why do some infectious diseases cause large outbreaks, while others never really take off? What do infectious diseases have in common with memes? And where do all these COVID-19 variants keep coming from? Join mathematical biologist Dr Ben Ashby as he dives into the world of epidemiology and evolution to learn how mathematical models can help us understand infectious diseases.

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What is a neutrino? What can we learn from neutrinos about the Universe? Dr. Matthias Danninger from the Department of Physics will discuss answers to these questions and how British Columbia could play a dominant role for neutrino astronomy in the near future.

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