Please join us on the UCSB campus on Saturday March 9 for our annual pi day lecture on science and policy. This year we have the privilege of hosting Colonel Francisco Leija of the United States Army. Colonel Leija will discuss technology modernization in the United States military, the associated implications for the Department of Defense and university research and defense policy. Continue reading “2019 Pi Day Lecture: Defense Technology Modernization”
Employers in the CALPACS Territory
Use the map below to learn more about the companies at which CALPACS members are employed.
Wine Tasting at Melville Vineyards & Winery
The frenzy of eating, shopping and entertaining can only presage the imminent arrival of the annual CALPACS wine tasting. It happens in a mere two weeks, in fact, on Saturday, December 1, 2018. Please come to meet other members of our section, to imbibe some of the finest wines produced in Santa Barbara County, and to consume the selection of fine cheeses and soups selected by and cooked by the members of your Executive Committee. We look forward to hearing how your year was and what you have planned for next year. As always, we welcome your suggestions as to what you want CALPACS to do.
Continue reading “Wine Tasting at Melville Vineyards & Winery”Fall Luncheon with Speaker Evan Miller
The cooling weather and the shorter days announce the arrival of fall. It is, therefore, time to gather for our Fall Luncheon. Professor Evan Miller of UC Berkeley returns to his home turf to introduce us to chemical biology and to discuss his breakthroughs in neuronal imaging. Continue reading “Fall Luncheon with Speaker Evan Miller”
2018 Western Regional Meeting
You are cordially invited to attend the 2018 Western Regional Meetings (WRM) of the ACS. The WRM will be held at the Beckman Auditorium on the CalTech campus in Pasadena, California, on October 27, 2018. This one-day “nano” meeting shares its theme with that of 2018 National Chemistry Week theme: “Chemistry is Out of this World!” The meeting features speakers from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and The Aerospace Corporation. Continue reading “2018 Western Regional Meeting”
2018 Pi Day Lecture on Statistics and Policy
Philosophical honesty is the essential ingredient of policy making. The allocation of public and corporate resources must be made according to experimental results that are true and arguments that are logically sound. Otherwise, public trust is eroded and public and private resources are squandered. Please join us for an important lecture on the difficulties of maintaining philosophical integrity in a world of complex experiments and intricate arguments at the California Los Padres Section’s annual π day lecture series on science and policy. Pies will be served at 3:00 PM, with the talk commencing at 3:14 PM. We are privileged to host Professor Theodore Porter of UCLA’s Department of History.
Statistical Pi: Metaphysics and Manipulation of Numbers
Speaker: Theodore Porter, Ph.D.
Abstract
Statistics, in its mathematical form, was closely associated with the “error curve” or normal distribution, a formula that contains e as well as π, and that inspired wonderment for the great range of phenomena to which it applied. But it was originally a descriptive science of the state, and was bound up with a reverence for facts. Now, perhaps more than ever, statistics and quantitative data are treated as almost synonymous with evidence. So much faith creates an irresistible temptation to distort and manipulate, and it sometimes appears impossible to separate funny numbers from scrupulous ones. Have we created a crisis of numbers?
Date: Saturday, March 10, 2018
Time: 3 – 5 PM
Place: Building 8 (Bioresource & Agricultural Engineering), Room 123, CalPoly San Luis Obispo. Click here for campus map.
Cost: Free
Your RSVP through the form below is requested to help event planning. Please click here to download the event flier..
Theodore Porter is a historian of science and Distinguished Professor of History at UCLA, where he has taught for about 25 years. His research has mainly focused on ideas and uses of quantification, measurement, data, and statistics, and especially they ways they link the natural sciences and medicine with social knowledge. His books include The Rise of Statistical Thinking, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life; Karl Pearson: The Scientific Life in a Statistical Age, and (in a few months) Genetics in the Madhouse: The Unknown History of Human Heredity.
Fall Wine Tasting at Foley Estates
The end of the year is approaching rapidly, and the pandemonium for the holiday season will soon demand all of our times and attention. Please join us at Foley Wines on Saturday, December 2, 2017, to take a breather during the brief interregnum separating Continue reading “Fall Wine Tasting at Foley Estates”
2017 Elections: Candidate Statements
2018 Chair-elect
Derik Frantz, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of chemistry at Cal Poly. He is a native of Pennsylvania, where he earned his B.S in chemistry from Juniata College in 2005. He then moved to Switzerland for an internship and remained there Continue reading “2017 Elections: Candidate Statements”
The Kilonova as Observed at Las Cumbres Observatory
Join us on Saturday, November 11, for an introduction to the Las Cumbres Observatory, a unique research institute. Dr. Curtis McCully, a postdoctoral researcher at the Las Cumbres Observatory, will speak on the Observatory’s mission, it’s unique research model, and highlights of recent major discoveries to which the Observatory has contributed, in particularly, the October 16, 2017, announcement of “a kilonova, a new type of explosion in space.” Continue reading “The Kilonova as Observed at Las Cumbres Observatory”
Fall Luncheon with Bob Grubbs
You are cordially invited to the CALPACS fall luncheon. This year’s event will take place again at the Mosher Alumni House on the UC Santa Barbara campus. We are privileged to have Robert H. Grubbs, Ph.D., Victor and Elizabeth Atkins Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, making a presentation titled “Design of selective metathesis catalysts and their applications”. Fifty and sixty year ACS members in our section will also be recognized.
A buffet lunch offering chicken, fish and vegetarian dishes will be served along with an assortment beverages, including beer and wine. Please, use the link below to make your reservation by Friday, October 6, 2017, at noon. We look forward to seeing you at this very special event.
Date: Saturday, October 14, 2017
Time: 11:30 AM
Place: Mosher Alumni House, UCSB, 93106. (Turn left onto University Plaza from Mesa Road, Google Map)
Cost: $25, $10 students
Register on EventBrite by Monday 10/9/17, by 10:00 AM
Note to honorees: you are already registered for yourself and one guest so there is no need to register on the eventbrite site, but please do RSVP so we have an accurate count of guests.