Plenary Talks

Friday Plenary Talk
Title: What Does Access Really Mean?
Speaker: Dr. Mary James

Abstract:
Access to education and professional opportunities is more than permission to walk though the doors or sit in a classroom. True access means imagining possibilities for young people that they cannot yet imagine for themselves and helping them to discover and embrace those possibilities. In this talk Professor James will present a blueprint for strong mentoring of young scientists through both personal anecdotes and professional perspectives.

Sunday Plenary Talk
Title: A Random Walk into Optics
Speaker: Dr. Marty Baylor
8:45 PAA A102

Abstract:
Light not only has the power to help us learn about the physical world, but its use in the field of optics can also help us solve problems that are hard to solve in other ways. I fell into optics through what looks like a linear path from the outside but what felt like a winding path to me. As I share about my path from my childhood dreams of being a paleontologist to my current work at Carleton College using photopolymers for integrated optofluidic devices, I will periodically pause to describe the varied optics work I have done along the way at Kenyon College, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and CU-Boulder. In addition to considering some neat applied optics, I hope this talk will illuminate the broad range of considerations that can impact one’s trajectory into and through physics.