|SSU to host initial Science Symposium
The School of Science and Technology of Sonoma State University and the WATERS Collaborative are presenting the first SSU Science Symposium from 4-7 p.m. on May 7.
Taking place at the Green Music Center, the SSU Science Symposium will provide students an opportunity to showcase their research and highlight the new Science Freshman Year cohort focusing on sustainability and the watershed of Copeland Creek.
This gathering includes some of the brightest and most ambitious SSU science students and many community partners. The hope of the symposium is to help establish long-term, cross-campus interactions and sow seeds for new collaborations with community partners.
Following the student research sessions, novelist, physicist and science writer Ransom Stephens will deliver the keynote talk of the symposium on “Your Pursuit of Greatness in a Technical World,” a perspective-altering argument for why one is obligated to pursue their greatest ambitions and how to go about it.
Stephens is the author of more than 300 articles in the electronics industry, science journals and magazines on subjects ranging from quantum physics to parenting teens. As a physics professor, he worked on experiments in laboratories across the United States and Europe, discovered a new type of matter and was on the team that discovered the top quark.
He led a team of engineers in solving signal integrity problems that enabled technology only now emerging, and is the author of two novels, the techno-thrillers “The God Patent” and “The Sensory Deception.”
Stephens now resides in Petaluma and continues to write, speak, and inspire others in the realm of science.
Geared for STEM-savvy audiences, he considers the various timescales of existence, luck as a random process, and the fractal structure of challenge all illustrated by a topic from the trenches of Silicon Valley technology development: Analysis of and hypothesis testing in large data sets.
For more information, go to www.sonoma.edu/scitech/symposium.