Past events

Visit our YouTube channel to view recordings of cafe events

Season 1 (2008-2009)

1 Industrial Ecology: an oxymoron? - Professor Gordon Geballe

2 Darwin's 200th birthday: how evolution helps us understand life on earth - Professor Tom Pollard

3 Quantum Mechanics: does anyone get it? - Professor Ramamurti Shankar

4 Antibiotics: past, present and future - Professor Susan Baserga

5 Dark matter and dwarf galaxies - Professor Marla Geha

6 Biodiversity and Global Changes - Professor Michael Donoghue

7 The platypus: a vestige of the past - Professor Caroline Zeiss

Season 2 (2009-2010)

8 Globalization of coffee: From Islamic Wine to International Latte - Nayan Chanda

9 Genetic Ancestry: history alive and what it tells us - Professor Himla Soodyall

10 The Dark Side of the Universe: Shedding Light on Dark Matter & Dark Energy - Professor Daniel McKinsey

11 The Origins of Irrationality - Professor Laurie Santos

12 Race to build a quantum computer - Professor Steven Girvin

13 The Intersection Between Science and Social Action: The Case of Climate Change - Dr. Rajendra Pachauri

14 Supra-Humans: communal harmony between humans and microbes - Professor Paula Kavathas

15 The Giant Galapagos Tortoise: Saving Lonesome George’s Line From Extinction - Dr. Adalgisa Caccone

16 Unraveling the dark side of the Universe - Professor Priyamvada Natarajan

17 Love, Trust and Oxytocin: How the brain figures it all out- Professor Meenakshi Alreja

Season 3 (2010-2011)

18 Learning from Nature: how to use solar energy for renewable fuel production - Professor Gary Brudvig 

19 The visible and invisible world of viruses - Professor Daniel DiMaio

20 Aircraft Engines: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Professor Sharvan Kumar

21 Math, Music and Mind - Professor Ian Quinn

22 A soft touch for robot and prosthetic hands - Professor Aaron Dollar

23 Patterns and fractals: mathematical mysteries revealed - Professor Amanda Folsom

24 Morphine, Mint and Chili Peppers: An Introduction to the Neuronal Pathways of Pain - Dr. Daniel C. Broom

25 Hubble Who? - Dr. Moshe Gai

26 Personalized Cancer Therapies: how they work, and new approaches - Professor David F. Stern

Season 4 (2011-2012)

27 Wiring the brain, one connection at a time - Professor Thomas Biederer, Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University

28 Stress, Resiliency, and PTSD: From Neurobiology to Treatment - Professor John Krystal, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University

29 Marty's Adventures Underground: Physics of the Oil Patch - Dr. Martin E. Cobern, Vice President, Research and Development, APS Technology, Inc.

30 Adventures in Lung Cancer - Professor Thomas Lynch, Director Yale Cancer Center, and Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University

31 Getting under your skin:  how stem cells regulate hair growth - Professor Valerie Horsley, Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, Yale University

32 Genetic Testing for Cancer Predisposition: Would You Want to Know? - Ellen Matloff, Department of Genetics, Director, Cancer Genetic Counseling, Yale University

33 Let's Eat, You Thick-Skinned Prickly Bastard: Carnivorous Plants and Desert Denizens Eric Larson, Manager, Marsh Botanic Gardens, Yale University

34 Beats and the Brain - Professor Ian Quinn, Department of Music, Yale University

Season 5 (2012-2013)

35 Science Ink - Tattoos of the Science Obsessed - Carl Zimmer

36 Demystifying Stem Cells: What they are and why we should care - Professor Lawrence Rizzolo, Yale School of Medicine

37 Closing the Universe's Budget Deficit -- Towards an Understanding of Dark Energy - Professor Nikhil Padmanabhan, Department of Astronomy, Yale University

38 How Puzzles Make Us Human - Dr. Pradeep Mutalik, Associate Research Scientist, Medical Informatics, Yale University School of Medicine;Curator, Enigma Café, Museum of

39 The Stressed Brain and Your Health - Professor Rajita Sinha, Department of Psychiatry at Yale University and Director of the Yale Stress Center

40 The Wild World of Electrified Water - Professor Mark Johnson, Department of Chemistry, Yale University

Season 6 (2013-2014)

41 September 21, 2013 - The Many Faces of Smoking: the effects of nicotine on brain and behavior. Professor Marina Picciotto Department of Psychiatry, Yale University

42 November 2, 2013 - Understanding Collective Animal Behavior for Bio-Inspired Design. Professor Nicholas T. Ouellette Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material

43 November 23, 2013 - Exceptionally preserved fossils: critical evidence of the history of life. Professor Derek E.G. Briggs, Department of Geology and Geophysics; Dire

44 January 11, 2014 - Current hypotheses in Parkinson's Disease Pathogenesis: Culprits of Neuronal Toxicity. Dr. Duarte Machado, Department of Neurology, Yale University

45 February 22, 2014 - Synapses: Connections that Make Your Brain Work. Professor Sreeganga Chandra, Department of Neurology, & Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Bio

46 April 5, 2014 - Music, Math and Computation. Professor Paul Hudak. Department of Computer Science, Yale University

47 May 10, 2014 - Pharmacology Confidential: How Drugs Work. Daniel Broom, Ph. D.

48 June 7, 2014 - Making the invisible visible - what fluorescent proteins can reveal about how cells work. Professor Megan King, Department of Cell Biology, Yale University

Season 7 (2014-2015)

49 September 20, 2014 - Research on Steroids: Human Bio-cultural Diversity in the Amazon and Beyond. Professor Richard Bribiescas, Chair, Department of Anthropology, Yale

50 October 18, 2014 - Getting to know your dog through its DNA. Mark Neff, PhD. Founder, Brindle.

51 December 13, 2014 - Drug Re-purposing. Dr. Jerome Zeldis, MD, PhD. Chief Medical Officer, Celgene Corp; CEO Celgene Global Health

52 January 17, 2015 - A brief history of light. Douglas Stone, Chair, Applied Physics Department, Yale University

53 April 11, 2015 - Managing relationships with viruses. Akiko Iwasaki, PhD. Professor of Immunobiology and of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Yale University

54 May 16, 2015 - A Hitchhikers Guide to Medicinal Chemistry & Drug Discovery. Kevin S. Currie, PhD. Director Medicinal Chemistry, Gilead Sciences

55 June 6, 2015 - Sunlight, excited electrons, and skin cancer. Professor Douglas E Brash PhD. Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale University 

Season 8 (2015-2016)

56 September 19, 2015 - Computing and Cultural Heritage - Professor Holly Rushmeier, Department of Computer Science, Yale University

57 November 7, 2015 - Do Muslims Accept Biological Evolution? - Professor Salman Hameed, Director, Center for the Study of Science in Muslim Societies (SSiMS) Charles Ta

58 December 5, 2015 - Neutrinos: Chasing the ghost particles in our Universe - Professor Karsten Heeger Professor of Physics Director, Wright Laboratory, Yale University

59 January 16, 2016 - Understanding networks through physical metaphors - Professor Daniel Spielman, Department of Computer Science, Yale University

60 February 20, 2016 - A Paleontologist's Perspective on Mass Extinctions Past and Present - Professor Pincelli Hull, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University

61 April 2, 2016 - Global noncommunicable diseases: an epidemic of silent killers - Dr. Christine Ngaruiya, Emergency Medicine; Global Health Fellow, Yale School of Medi

62 June 4, 2016 - Making Valuable Materials from the Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide - Professor Nilay Hazari, Department of Chemistry, Yale University 

Season 9 (2016-2017)

63 Making modern vaccines to prevent the next pandemic: from flu to zika - Dr. Rachael Felberbaum

64 Stem Cells and Eye Disease: Treatment of Age-Related Macular Degeneration - Professor Rizzolo

65 Large-scale digitization of natural history collections - Dr. Patrick Sweeney

66 The What, Why, and How of Proteins - Professor Lynne Regan

67 Oenology 101: A little wine science at Tilde Cafe - Jonathan McLumski

68 The Physics of Bird Nests - Professor Corey O'Hern

69 Languages today as clues to the past - Professor Claire Bowern

70 The Bed Bug: A Masterpiece in Adaptation and Survival - Dr. Gale E. Ridge

71 Democracy and the science communication environment - Professor Dan Kahan

Season 10 (2017-2018)

72 Fighting the bite: ticks and tick-borne diseases - Dr. Kirby Stafford III

73 Allergy and what it's not - Professor Stephanie Eisenbarth

74 Type 2 Diabetes: A molecular change of form and function by a single protein - Professor Andrew Miranker

75 The Evolution of Beauty - Professor Rick Prum

76 New cancer therapies: how they work and what happens when they stop working - Professor Katerina Politi

77 Is there logic behind the randomness in financial markets? - Elliot Turner

78 The next frontiers of geographic data: a new way to look at the Earth - Giuseppe Amatulli

79 Searching for Siblings of our Milky Way Galaxy - Professor Marla Geha

Season 11 (2018-2019)

80 She Has Her Mother's laugh - Carl Zimmer

81 Stem Cells: From Bench to Bedside, by Professor Laura Grabel

82 Art and Science Merge at the Yale Peabody Museum Habitat Dioramas - Michael Anderson

83 Immune cells can fight cancer - Professor Nikhil Joshi

84 The World Map of Chemistry: The Periodic Table of The Elements - Professor Christian Brueckner

85 Ancient Bones and the Origin of the Human Diet - Professor Jessica Thompson

86 Metal Nanoparticles: The Big Science of Small Materials - Professor Michelle Personick

87 ExoStatistics: searching for exoplanets with statistics - Professor Jessi J. Cisewski Kehe 

Season 12 (2019-2020)

88 Engineering Simpler, Safer, and Better Medicines - Professor Samir Mitragotri

89 Fighting the common cold virus with your immune system - Professor Ellen Foxman

90 Quantum Entanglement : "Spooky action at a distance" in the lab, and in black holes - Professor Subir Sachdev

91 Neutrinos: Introverts of The Universe - Professor David Moore

92 Green Chemistry: The How of Sustainability - Professors Zimmerman and Anastas

93 Natural History in the 21st Century - Professor Erika Edwards

94 AI In The Time Of Covid-19: Honing In On Therapeutic Interventions - Dr. Krishnan Nandabalan

95 Global Warming & Climate Change - Dr. Henry Auer

Season 13 (2020-2021)

96 COVID-19 and the Environment - Professor Jordan Peccia

97 SalivaDirect: simple & sensitive molecular diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance - Dr. Anne Wyllie

98 Fighting Discrimination in Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Professor Elisa Celis

99 One Planet – One Ocean: From Science to Solutions – Dr. Avan Antia

100 Forensic investigation of historical and archaeological human skeletal remains - Professor Angie Ambers

101 The Downsides Of Having An Immune System - Professor Chandrashekhar Pasare

102 The Second Quantum Revolution and The Race to Build ‘Impossible’ Computers - Professor Steve Girvin

103 ADHD in Adults: All You Want to Know, but Were Afraid to Ask - Professor Mary Solanto

Season 14 (2021-2022)

104 Cancer Immune Therapies: Where Are We Headed? - Professor Kelly Olino

105 Behavior is a motor and a brake for evolution - Professor Martha Munoz

106 Bit flipping: how cosmic rays can affect your phone (and other electronic gadgets) - Professor Bharat Bhuva

107 Exploring protein space: From words to landscapes to the evolution of drug resistance - Professor C. Brandon Ogbunu

108 Preserving Trust Amid Changing COVID Guidance - Dr. Jeremy Gretton

109 Health Care Utilization Before and After the “Muslim Ban” - Professor Gregg Gonsalves

110 Who does SARS-CoV-2 infect, why, and what are the implications? - Professor Suresh Kuchipudi

111 Wicked Problems: The Curious Case Of Tuberculosis Across Species - Professor Vivek Kapur

Season 15 (2022-2023)

112 A conversation about engineering "super" mRNA vaccines, vaccine equity, and vaccine access - Professor Wendy Gilbert and Unni Karunakara

113 Black Holes, Galaxies, and the Evolution of the Universe - Professor Meg Urry

114 The elegance is in the details: how form and function determine physiology - Professor Michael Caplan

115 The Physics Of Sand - Professor Corey O'Hern

116 Dark Matter of the Human Genome - Professor Sarah Slavoff

117 Energy: Past, Present, & Future - Professor Gary Brudvig

Season 16 (2023-2024)

118 The Higgs Boson & The Question of Mass - Professor Sarah Demers

119 Human evolution through the lens of ancient DNA - Professor Diyendo Massilani

120  What Makes Languages Different  From Each Other? - Professor Claire Bowern

121 Decoding Immunity: Lessons from Genetic Errors - Professor Carrie Lucas

122 The Things We Carry: How Microbes Impact Our Health - Professor Stavroula Hatzios

123 Tissue Testing Matters: A Personalized Approach to Cancer - Professor David Rimm

Season 17 (2024-2025)

124 Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases: Increasingly Significant Threats to Public Health - Professor Stephen Wikel

125 Dark Matter: What We Know and What We Don’t Know - Professor Reina Maruyama

126 Preparing for the Next Pandemic - Professor Albert Icksang Ko

127 Ethics and Equity in Data Science and Precision Health - Professor Bhramar Mukherjee

128  Linguistic Codebreakers: Cracking the Mystery of Pronouns - Professor Claire Bowern - Professor of Linguistics, Yale University

129  Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe - Carl Zimmer - award-winning New York Times columnist and the author of 15 books about science

130 How Genetic Conflicts Shape Biology - Professor Harmit Malik Professor and Associate Director Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Seattle, WA