CPMS News Podcast

Robert Langer, a renowned professor at MIT, will speak on campus February 6 and 7 at the annual Izatt-Christensen lectures sponsored by the BYU Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering. Listen to this podcast interview as Langer gives his insights on tissue engineering and biomedicine.

Michael D. Bahr, a BYU alumnus with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in statistics, has been chosen as one of BYU’s 2011 honored alumni for demonstrating excellence and success in the professional world. He will be spoke on campus Thursday, October 6, 2011. Bahr has been an actuary in the health care industry for over 25 years. His love for problem solving and his ability to explain difficult concepts have made him extremely successful in his field. With his extensive understanding of the health and medical industry, Bahr explains the anticipated effects of recent health reform.

Michael D. Bahr, a BYU alumnus with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in statistics, has been chosen as one of BYU’s 2011 honored alumni for demonstrating excellence and success in the professional world. He will be speaking on campus Thursday, October 6, 2011, at 11 a.m. Bahr has been an actuary in the health care industry for over 25 years. His love for problem solving and his ability to explain difficult concepts have made him extremely successful in his field. With his extensive understanding of the health and medical industry, Bahr will explain the anticipated effects of recent health reform.

Last week, eager listeners crowded into a classroom until it overflowed, all of them anticipating Dr. John W. Welch’s lecture on science and religion. Welch has practiced and taught law for over thirty years and has extensive experience in religious research. The Summerhays Lecture, which is dedicated to strengthening the relationship between religion and science, featured Welch’s insights on the subject. During his lecture, which was titled, “Forging a Friendly Alliance between Mormonism and Science,” Welch spoke about the success of numerous LDS scientists, and how science and religion have worked together in their lives and pursuits. “Forging a successful alliance often means putting two things together that really seem to have nothing to do with each other but in the end are necessary in order for both to advance,” Welch said. Welch also is the editor-in-chief of BYU Studies, a journal that publishes articles where professors connect their academic disciplines with their religious beliefs. He used examples from BYU Studies along with other examples from recent publications from several faith traditions. While some religions teach concepts contrary to scientific theories, Welch suggests religion and science have strong common grounds, so that “true religion” and “true science” are not actually antithetical. “A lot of times, contradictions are only apparently so,” Welch said. “When you step back a little bit from contradictions you can often find common ground or synergy.” According to Welch, many religions have difficulties with science because they teach that God does not have a body and therefore does not exist in space or time. The LDS faith teaches that God does have a body of flesh and bone. Welch says this belief allows God to exist in time and space, and therefore is not irrelevant to scientific interests. “We have always had strong encouragement as Latter-day Saints to have every reason to believe that science and religion coexist and work together in certain ways in this world that can be both religious and scientific at the same time,” Welch said. —Erik Westesen, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

A BYU alumnus has more than heeded the call to listen to the prophet’s voice — he has broken ground in voice analysis by carefully studying 36 of Gordon B. Hinckley’s addresses. Dr. Eric Hunter of the National Center for Voice and Speech at the University of Utah will be speaking Wednesday on the methods he and his research team have used to track health and aging just by the sound of someone’s voice. Several years ago in Denver, one of Hunter’s LDS colleagues noticed during General Conference that President Hinckley’s voice would crack in a predictable way based on new understanding of speech production. This sparked Hunter's curiosity. Using recordings from the BYU speeches database, Hunter and some of his students tested this hypothesis and have been able to analyze changes in President Hinckley's voice as he aged. “If the voice mechanism is changing, so is swallowing, lung usage and related pulmonary function,” Hunter said. “If some of these characteristics that we've measured can be tracked over time, we can look for changes that might reflect changes in such vital life functions as breathing and swallowing.” The methodology Hunter and his team have developed can be adapted so recordings from BYU and the Church's archives can be used in a wide range of other research paths. His work will be significant across a variety of fields, including communications sciences, medicine, speech therapy, linguistics, biomechanics and physics. Hunter will be speaking on Wednesday September 21, 2011 at 4 p.m. in room C215 of the Eyring Science Center. Students and professors from all colleges and departments are invited to attend. —Erik Westesen, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Prominent religious scholar and law professor John W. Welch will discuss how religion and science differ and yet go hand in hand during the BYU Department of Physics and Astronomy’s annual Summerhays Lecture on September 22, 2011.

How do you establish trust between between strangers on the Internet? Identity federation is one way to create a community of trust, but it relies on establishing the trust domains before the interaction. That doesn't work for many Internet transactions. Phil Windley interviews Professor Kent Seamons to discuss some specific ways of solving this problem. Kent Seamons, of BYU's Internet Security Research Lab, his students, and colleagues have been looking into how to negotiate trust on-the-fly. Phil and Kent talk about what trust negotiation is and how it works, how it differs from PKI, how credentials can be hidden in a trust negotiation, and the applications of these techniques in some specific industry verticals. Dr. Seamons is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Brigham Young University and is the Director of the Internet Security Research Lab. Prior to joining the faculty at BYU, Dr. Seamons was the Principal Investigator on several DARPA-sponsored research projects at the IBM Transarc Lab in Pittsburgh, PA. He was a co-inventor of two patent applications filed in 21 countries by IBM in the area of trust negotiation. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he conducted research in parallel I/O. Phil Windley is the host of Technometria and publisher of the popular blog by the same name. Technometria is a word coined in the 17th century to describe the study of the theory of the interrelation of the arts and sciences. Phil's goal with the Technometria blog and these podcasts is to explore, analyze, and understand the technologies that form the basis for enterprise computing and Internet applications. Phil is a professor in the Dept. of Computer Science at Brigham Young University where he teaches courses on digital identity, interoperability, web services, middleware, and programming languages. Phil is a frequent author and popular speaker on these topics. Prior to joining BYU, Phil spent two years as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the State of Utah, serving on the Governor Mike Leavitt's Cabinet and as a member of his Senior Staff. Before entering public service, Phil was Vice President for Product Development and Operations at Excite@Home and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of iMALL, Inc. an early leader in electronic commerce.

Bradley Efron of Stanford University's Department of Statistics will speak at BYU on April 7th at 4 PM.

Math and Music With David Kung Podcast by CPMS News Podcast

Space exploration is advancing on several fronts, such as more routine low-earth orbits, more detailed study of objects in the solar system, and even into deep space, a project manager for a cutting-edge NASA program said at BYU’s College of Physical and Mathematical Science Honored Alumni Lecture.

Science does not contradict religious doctrines like the creation and the fall of man—in fact, it can be used to explain them, a prominent astronomy philanthropist said at Brigham Young University’s annual Summerhays Lecture.

Danny Young will present a lecture titled “Audacity, Curiosity and Trust: Elements of a Successful Career” on Thursday, October 11, 2012, at 11:00 a.m. in room 1170 of the Talmage Building.

The 2012 Summerhays Lecture with Dr. David Grandy will take place September 21 at 7 p.m. in 1080 HBLL. Grandy will use his expertise in philosophy of science to explain how science and religion can support each other.

Dr. Zare, professor of Chemistry from Stanford University, will give his lecture titled “How to Be Successful” on Feb. 7, at 4 p.m. in the Varsity Theater of the Wilkinson Center. His technical lecture will be at 4 p.m. on Feb. 8 in room W112 of the Ezra Taft Benson building.