Cafe Scientifique

Please join us next Thursday, May 25, at 6pm for an Annapolis Cafe Scientifique talk by Dr. Jessican Needham:

Seeing the forest through the trees: How computer models of tree life-cycles can help us understand forests across the globe

Abstract: Without forests, we would all be dead. Trees provide oxygen, regulate the world’s climate, provide habitat for hundreds of thousands of species, and supply humans with everything from medicines to food to fuel. But trees grow excruciatingly slowly and live for a really long time, making studying forests challenging for a scientist on a two-year contract. In addition, the things that we care about, i.e. how much carbon a forest takes up, or how many animals it hosts, result from the growth and survival patterns of individual trees and species. However, there are over a trillion trees in the world and a single forest can be made up of thousands of different species. This talk will reveal how we can harness the power of statistics and computer models to scale up our understanding of how individual trees grow, to how forests across the globe are saving us all from utter devastation.   Only 10 folks have signed up do far, so feel free to invite folks who might be interested in this topic. Reserve your seats at 49 West by calling 410-626-9796.

About the Speaker: Jessie is a tree whisperer (computational ecologist) studying how forests across the world grow and change through time. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology and her PhD at the University of Oxford, UK. During her PhD she dabbled briefly in lab work and field work before coming to the realization that computer programming and statistics were what really got her pulse racing. She began a post-doc at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in October 2016.

About the Speaker: Jessie is a tree whisperer (computational ecologist) studying how forests across the world grow and change through time. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology and her PhD at the University of Oxford, UK. During her PhD she dabbled briefly in lab work and field work before coming to the realization that computer programming and statistics were what really got her pulse racing. She began a post-doc at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in October 2016.

Thanks, and hope to see you this Thursday May 25th at 6pm; invite your tree-hugging friends. . . ‘-)