Archive for the ‘Events’ Category

Events

Aug. 11: Exclusive Tour of New York City's Largest Green Roof

New York City has over 30 square miles of rooftops. And they’re not just for satellite dishes and fireworks-viewing.

Did you know that greenery on dark, barren rooftops can

  • help cool the city in summer
  • insulate buildings in winter
  • improve air quality
  • reduce rain water runoff to sewers, preventing sewage from polluting NYC waterways.

The 2.5 acre roof of the U.S. Postal Service’s 9th Avenue sorting facility is our city’s newest and largest green roof project and research site. Join Science Writers in New York on August 11 to explore this unique environment, in Chelsea, overlooking the Hudson River. We’ve arranged an up-close and personal guided tour, and an exclusive preview of the research about to begin on this extraordinary green roof.

Our guide, Stuart Gaffin, a scientist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, is part of a team measuring the benefits of greening the city skyline. He’ll show us how scientists measure the benefits of putting specialized plants on impervious rooftops — including the potential for added rainwater absorption, carbon dioxide uptake and biodiversity. Gaffin will also discuss a city parks project involving 10 recreation center rooftops. They’ll be planted with native grasses designed to restore endangered local meadow habitat that once thrived on Long Island and in the Hudson River highlands. Other experimental rooftops are being studied at Fieldston School in the Bronx, Columbia University and Con Edison headquarters in Queens.

Check out this related video: Ingenuity Sprouting from the Rooftops

When:
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
6 p.m.

Where:
U.S. Postal Service Sorting Facility
Ninth Avenue and West 30th Street
(near the North end of HighLine Park)

Bonus:
Don’t miss sunset over the Hudson at the end of the program

Cost:
free to 2010 dues-paid SWINY members
$5.00 to non-members

RSVP at http://swiny.pandaform.com/pub/form6830/new by August 8

Events

June 28: Join Science Writers in New York for a discussion of the new DSM-5

Is sex addiction a mental disorder? What about internet addiction and binge eating? Are children with sensory problems mentally ill?


Join Science Writers in New York on Monday, June 28, for a discussion of the new DSM-5

(the manual that defines mental illness)

The Most Anticipated Event in the Mental Health Field


These questions are among the many that will be answered with the publication of the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) in May 2013. Although it will not be published for almost three years the release of the long-awaited draft of the fifth edition caused heated debates over a new set of possible psychiatric disorders and the proposed merger of autism and Asperger’s disorder into a single “spectrum” category.

On Monday, June 28, SWINY is pleased to host a panel of experts to discuss the upcoming changes and revisions for DSM-5 and their implications for clinicians, researchers, psychiatric drug regulation agencies, health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and policy makers to make decisions about mental health. Our panel includes:

Jennifer Jo Brout, Ed.M., Psy.D.,
is a psychologist dedicated to furthering knowledge about Sensory Processing Disorders (SPD) and its application to mental health. She earned an Ed.M. in School Psychology from Columbia University and a Psy.D. in School/Clinical Psychology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She spearheads evidenced-based research projects in order to address various aspects of sensory processing/regulatory disorders, and founded a Duke University program that focuses on research into sensory processing and emotion regulation.

Lucy Jane Miller, Ph.D., OTR, Executive Director of the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Miller has been investigating, analyzing and explaining sensory processing disorders to other scientists, professionals, and parents for over 30 years. She is the author of Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), Director of the Sensory Therapies and Research (STAR) Center as well as Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Rocky Mountain University and Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado, Denver, School of Medicine.

Due to Dr. Miller’s mobilization of the research community, SPD now appears in two diagnostic manuals: the ICDL’s Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood and The Diagnostic Classification: Zero to Three. Her application has led to consideration of SPD for inclusion in the 2013 revision of DSM-5.  She has been featured on NBC’s Today Show and ABC’s 20/20, in The New York Times and numerous other popular and professional publications. Dr. Miller is the author of more than 60 articles and/or chapters in scientific and professional journals, magazines, and textbooks and is a frequent presenter or speaker at conferences and workshops worldwide.

She is also the author of nine norm-referenced standardized scales published by The Psychological Corporation (Pearson, Inc.) including the Leiter International Performance Scale – Revised, and the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers.  She received the Martin Luther King Jr. award from the State of Colorado in 2005 for three decades of service to the group of children who are disenfranchised because they have disabilities.


http://www.spdfoundation.net


David Shaffer, M.D., F.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych., Columbia University Medical Center (Irving Philips Professor of Child Psychiatry, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, and Chief, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry). He is past president of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and current President of the International Academy of Suicide Research.

Dr. Shaffer participated in DSM-III and -IIIR and was co-chair of the DSM-IV Child and Adolescent Work Group. He chairs the ADHD and Disruptive Behavior Disorders Work Group and is the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5 Task Force Representative to the ICD-11 Work Group on Mental and Behavioral Disorders in Children and Adolescents.

Dr. Shaffer obtained his medical training in London at University College Hospital and trained in pediatric neurology at Yale University.  During his pediatric psychiatry training, Dr. Shaffer conducted the first epidemiologic study of suicides under age 15 in England and Wales and identified the frequency of aggressive and anxious behavior and the importance of imitation in youth suicide. This was the first step in what became an influential career studying and illuminating adolescent suicide. This continued in the U.S. when he assumed the chairmanship of the Division of Child Psychiatry at Columbia University in 1977, retiring in 2008 after 31 years. His research there helped lead to the development of the Columbia TeenScreen Program as a technique for suicide prevention. His current research focuses on the events and moods immediately prior to initiating a suicide attempt.

Dr. Shaffer received the American Suicide Foundation’s Award for Research in Suicide in 1989, and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

Andy Shih, Ph.D., is Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Autism Speaks, which is dedicated to increasing awareness of autism spectrum disorders and funding research into the causes, prevention and treatments for autism. Dr. Shih works closely with members of Autism Speakers’ Board, Scientific Advisory Committee, senior staff and volunteer leadership to develop and implement the organization’s research program. He oversees the etiology portfolio, which includes investments in genetics, environmental sciences, and epidemiology research. He also leads the international advocacy and scientific development efforts for Autism Speaks.

Dr. Shih had served as an industry consultant and was a member of the faculty at Yeshiva University and New York University Medical Center. He earned his Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from New York University Medical Center. His research background includes published studies in gene identification and characterization, virus-cell interaction, and cell-cycle regulation. He was instrumental in the cloning of a family of small GTPases involved in cell-cycle control and nuclear transport, and holds three patents on nucleic acids-based diagnostics and therapeutics.

http://www.autismspeaks.org

When:
Monday, June 28
6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Networking and registration
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Program

Where:
4 West 43rd Street (Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues)

Admission:
With advance payment using PayPal:

  • $5 for 2010 dues paid SWINY members
  • $10 for nonmembers
  • $5 Students with current ID

At the door without pre-registration:

  • $10 SWINY members
  • $15 nonmembers
  • $10 Students with current ID

RSVP by Monday, June 21 (links to PayPal are available on the confirmation screen after you have entered your RSVP information).

Questions? Contact David Levine at davidlevine51@gmail.com

Events

June 22: SWINY & AWIS Present A Window into Science/A Window into Book Authoring - A Conversation with Julie Des Jardins, Author of The Madame Curie Complex

SWINY (Science Writers in New York)
&
NY Metro AWIS (Association for Women in Science)

are pleased to co-sponsor

A Window into Science/A Window into Book Authoring:
A Conversation with
Historian Julie Des Jardins, Author of
The Madame Curie Complex

DATE: June 22
TIME: Doors open at 6 p.m., talk starts at 6:30 sharp
PLACE: 3 Park Avenue (on the southeast corner of 34th St and Park), 22nd Floor*


What do Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Barbara McClintock and industrial psychologist/designer Lillian Gilbreth (the mother in Cheaper by the Dozen) have in common?

Both women rose to the top of their professions and each landed on a postage stamp. (No small feat!)  But did common traits help them succeed?

To find out, historian and author Julie Des Jardins went looking for women scientists whose professional herstories would provide “great lenses into the gender of science.”

She focused on Marie Curie’s “scientific daughters” – as well as Curie herself.  The recently published result: The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science.  Des Jardins tells how a diverse range of ground-breaking women scientists have pursued their passions since 1900, often in the face of gender-related barriers.

Her profiles open a window into diverse 20th century scientific cultures, from the hyper-masculine era of the Manhattan Project, where participating women were virtually invisible, to today’s female-dominated field of primatology. For SWINY, Des Jardins will share highlights of these stories – as well as the complexities of crafting a book-length gallery of unique women scientists.

Join us for a conversation with Julie Des Jardins, Professor of History at Baruch College. Copies of the book will be on sale at the event and Julie will sign autographs after her presentation.

*Headquarters of American Society of Mechanical Engineers.  Lillian Gilbreth was the first woman member of ASME. Light refreshments will be served.

Light refreshments will be served.
Admission is free for SWINY and for AWIS members; $5 for non-members.

(Membership in SWINY is just $20, so join now and waive the entrance fee.)

Click here to RSVP
Click here to pay for the event or to join SWINY.