Distinguished Scientist Lectures at SMC Explore Space, Arsenic, Reefs

Astronaut Lt. Col. Randy Bresnik - who walked in space during a mission on the space shuttle Atlantis last November - will give a talk, "Up in Space on Space Shuttle Atlantis," March 4 at Santa Monica College.

The talk will kick off SMC's Spring 2010 "Distinguished Scientists Lecture Series." Bresnik will speak at 2:15 p.m. Thursday, March 4 in Humanities & Social Science Lecture Hall 165 on the main SMC campus, 1900 Pico Blvd.

All talks - designed for lay audiences - are free. And all the remaining lectures will be held at 11:15 a.m. in Science Lecture Hall 140 on the main campus.

The other lectures in the series are:

* Thursday, March 25: "Water: A Personal Journey," by Dr. Louise Hamlin, senior engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has worked on projects that include the Cassini Mission to Saturn. She will discuss the effects of global warming on the Antarctic, where she recently spent six months doing research at a field camp.

* Thursday, April 8: "Naturally Occurring Arsenic in Drinking Water," by Kristin Kowolik, member of the Berkeley Arsenic Alleviation Group. She will talk about efforts to solve the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh by designing a water treatment system that uses technology developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

* Tuesday, May 25: "The Acid Test for Coral Reefs in Hot Water," by Dr. Peter J. Edmunds, a marine biologist and professor at Cal State Northridge. Edmunds, who has devoted his career to studying the world's coral reef population, will discuss how human growth pressures and rising ocean temperatures are affecting reef health and formation.

The lecture series is sponsored by the SMC Physical Science and Life Science departments and the SMC Associates, a private organization that funds speakers and special events on campus. For information, call (310) 434-4303 or go to www.smc.edu/associates