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Prof. Carol Christine Fair, Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University Oct 25, 2020

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What drives militant politics? Studies from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Western Africa, A case study in Kerala, the enigmatic Southern state of India, and the similarities between Pakistan, India, and the United States in scriptural literalism in religion and politics.

Prof. Carol Christine Fair is a Professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. Her work is primarily focused on counter-terrorism and South Asian topics. She was a political officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan and a senior research associate at USIP's Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. She has served as a Senior Fellow at West Point's Combating Terrorism Center and a Senior Resident Fellow at the Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis.

VOTE. MAKE OUR DEMOCRACY BETTER.

Prof. Michael Strauss, Professor of Astrophysics at Princeton University Oct 23, 2020

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Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP, The construction and operation of the brand new Vera C. Rubin observatory, and Quasars

Prof. Michael Strauss is the chair of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. He uses large-scale imaging and spectroscopic surveys of the sky to “map the universe”, with a particular focus on studying the large-scale distribution of galaxies to address questions in cosmology and galaxy properties and evolution. He is also particularly interested in quasars, powered by supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies.

Prof. Nathan Gianneschi, Professor of Materials Science at Northwestern University Oct 22, 2020

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Targeting small molecules with novel transport mechanisms in Cancer and Myocardial Infarction, Growing metal-organic nanotubes, and Selenomelanin for radiation protection.

Prof. Nathan Gianneschi is a Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science & Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Pharmacology at Northwestern University. He is the Associate Director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern. His research spans biomedical translational polymeric materials, mimicking biological materials, and advancing basic research in nanotechnology.

Prof. David Uttal, Professor of Education and of Psychology at Northwestern University Oct 21, 2020

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Links of Spatial Thinking to Achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics?, Using a discipline-focused lens to examine spatial thinking skills, and the Development of Children’s Gender-Science Stereotypes.

Prof. David Uttal is a Professor of Education and of Psychology at Northwestern University. His research focuses on STEM education, with a particular emphasis on the role of spatial thinking in STEM outcomes. He directs the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center at Northwestern.

Prof. Jenny Greene, Professor of Astrophysics at Princeton University Oct 20, 2020

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The demographics, formation, migration, and behavior of black holes, what's at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, and the Nobel prizes for Physics 2020.

Prof. Jenny Greene is a Professor of Astrophysics at Princeton University. Her broad research interests include measurements of black hole masses, the connection between supermassive black holes and galaxies, stellar and gas kinematics of galactic nuclei, and diffused light in galaxy clusters. She serves on the Leadership Committee of the Prison Teaching Initiative at Princeton University.

Dr. Gaurav Jain, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Oct 19, 2020

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Fluency and perceptions of decision making, Numerosity and allocation behavior, and the impact of number roundedness on framing

Dr. Gaurav Jain is an assistant professor of marketing at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research examines how individuals make judgments, estimates, and decisions in the absence of complete information.

Election Special: Dr. Dipayan Gosh of Harvard Kennedy School and Dr. Heidi Tworek of University of British Columbia Oct 17, 2020

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History of democracy, elections, and outcomes. Impact of social media, and what we could expect in upcoming US elections.

Dr. Heidi Tworek, Associate Professor in International History and Public Policy, University of British Columbia and Senior Fellow, Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Dr. Dipayan Ghosh Co-Director of the Digital Platforms and Democracy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School

Dr. Michael Niemack, Associate Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University Oct 16, 2020

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Cosmic Microwave Background, The Atacama Cosmology Telescope, The CCAT-Prime Submillimeter Observatory, and The Simons Observatory

Dr. Michael Niemack is an Associate Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Cornell University. His research interests include Cosmology, inflation, dark energy, dark matter, neutrinos, galaxy clusters, and galaxy evolution using cosmic microwave background (CMB) and sub-mm measurements.

Prof. Josh Frieman, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Chicago Oct 14, 2020

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The evolution of the universe, expansion, accelerated expansion, the use, and misuse of the cosmological constant, dark energy, dark matter, the dark energy survey, and what could be in store for cosmology in the coming years.

Prof. Josh Frieman is Head of the Particle Physics Division at Fermilab, a Department of Energy national laboratory near Chicago that carries out fundamental research in high-energy physics. He is also Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago and is currently President of the Aspen Center for Physics. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Prof. Mario Macis, Professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University Oct 12, 2020

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Economic Rewards to Motivate Blood Donations, Rewarding Volunteers: A Field Experiment, and Societal support for monetary compensation for plasma and kidney donors.

Prof. Mario Macis is a professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University. His research interests include how economic incentives interact with psychological factors and social norms to drive individual behavior and policy-relevant outcomes. In particular, he studies the role of incentives in shaping pro-social behavior and attitudes toward morally controversial exchanges. Recently, these two lines of work converged into a research agenda aimed at understanding what determines social support for market-based solutions to social problems.

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