News of publications, conference presentations, awards, and outreach activities for the past month are all listed below in alphabetical order.
Three Rotman alumni took part in the Super-Pac Early Career Workshop in Philosophy of Astrophysics and Cosmology at The Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh on Oct 27 – 29. Yann Benétreau-Dupin gave a talk titled “Simplicity and Unification in Cosmological Model Selection”, Melissa Jacquart gave a talk titled “Observing the Invisible Through Computer Simulation” (with co-presenter, Marja Seidel), and Helen Meskhidze gave a talk titled “Simulationist’s Regress in Laboratory Astrophysics”.
Rob Corless was invited to speak at the Jonathan M. Borwein Commemorative Conference in Newcastle, Australia on September 25-29. He gave two talks, titled “Optimal Backward Error for numerical solution of ODE” and “Gamma and Factorial in the Monthly”, and served on a Math Education Panel.
On October 1, Rob Corless gave a talk titled “Bohemian Eigenvalues” at the Number Theory Down Under conference at La Trobe University in Bendigo, Australia. This talk was also given at the University of South Australia in Adelaide on October 6.
Rob Corless was invited to the University of Western Michigan department of mathematics where he delivered a talk titled “Gamma and Factorial in the Monthly” on October 26 as part of their colloquium series. He was also invited to deliver the Pi Mu Epsilon math honor society annual lecture on October 27. His talk was titled “Art, Visualization, and Algebra”, and he also gave an after-dinner talk (to parents) titled “Computers, Mathematics, Art an Culture”.
Two papers by Justin Donhauser were published in October. “The Value of Weather Event Science for Pending Climate Policy Decisions” came out in Ethics, Policy, and Environment, and “The Dawning of the Ethics of Environmental Robots,” was published in “Online First” form in Science and Engineering Ethics. The second paper was co-authored with Aimee van Wynsberghe (one of the 2016 Rotman Lecturers).
Cory Goldstein presented a talk titled “The Learning Healthcare System and Conscription into Research: The Content and Limits of a Rawlsian Common Good” at the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) 2017 Annual Conference in Kansas City on October 20.
In 2013-2014, Stefan Köhler and Jackie Sullivan received a Rotman Institute Catalyst Grant for a project titled “The Epistemic Status of fMRI Technology and Data Analysis Techniques”. This project has yielded several publications, among them is this most recent paper that was just accepted for publication in the journal Neuroimage: Martin, C., J. Sullivan, J. Wright, S. Köhler. How landmark suitability shapes recognition memory signals for objects in the medial temporal lobes. Neuroimage.
In September, Jane Parnell was awarded the James Creery Memorial Prize and the Sophia prize by the Department of Philosophy at Trent University.
On October 19, Chris Smeenk delivered the O’Hara Lecture in Philosophy of Physics at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Washington. His talk was titled “How is Scientific Cosmology Possible?”
On October 27, Chris Smeenk delivered opening remarks at the Forest City Film Festival screening of the documentary, “The Truth is in the Stars“. In the film, William Shatner sits down with scientists, innovators, and celebrities to discuss how the optimism of “Star Trek” influenced multiple generations. Cast includes; Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, David Suzuki, and Chris Hadfield.
A paper Jackie Sullivan presented at the 2016 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, titled “Optogenetics, Pluralism and Progress”, was accepted for publication in Philosophy of Science.
Pictured above: (top left) Cory Goldstein presenting at the ABH 2017 Annual Conference; Chris Smeenk with Dorothy Downs, executive director of the Forest City Film Festival, and Craig Thompson, director of “The Truth is in the Stars”; (bottom left) Melissa Jacquart presenting at the Super-Pac Early Career Workshop in Philosophy of Astrophysics and Cosmology .
