Telluride's Pinhead Institute hosts its first Science Soiree, 10/6/2011

03 Oct Telluride's Pinhead Institute hosts its first Science Soiree, 10/6/2011

On Thursday, October 6, Telluride’s Pinhead Institute hosts its first ever Science Soiree. The event takes place Thursday, October 6, 5:30 – 7  p.m. at The  River Club. The on-going event is an opportunity to engage with scientists participating in  the Scholars in the Schools program.

Scholars in the Schools is signature initiative of the Pinhead Institute.

Scholars in the School provides a rare opportunity for students from rural communities to interact with PhD scientists from around the world specializing in everything from nanoscience, to biochemistry, field biology, climatology, and much more. These highly acclaimed scientists lead labs, experiments, workshops, and field expeditions for students in grade school through high school in Nucla, Norwood, Telluride, Ridgway, and Ouray. In collaboration with teachers, these demonstrations and hands-on activities enhance the science curriculum, increase science awareness among students, stimulate scientific thinking and put a human face on the scientific community.

Harvard’s Dr. Andrew Berry is one of those faces. Meet him at the very first Science Soiree, where his subject is “Where do we come from?”, the mysteries of human evolution.

Dr. Berry holds a degree in zoology from Oxford University and a PhD in evolutionary genetics from Princeton University. He was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and is still at Harvard where he is currently Lecturer on Organismic & Evolutionary Biology. Combining the techniques of field biology with those of molecular biology, his work has been a search for evidence at the DNA level of Darwinian natural selection.

To learn more about the Science Soiree and Scholars in the School, click the “play” button and listen to my interview with Pinhead’s talented executive director Sonchia Jilek.