Event #4 Extra Credit
The fourth event that I went to was to listen to our Professor Victoria Vesna who was a keynote speaker for the UCLA undergraduate Research Week. I really enjoyed this zoom because I was able to learn a lot about Professor Vesna and what her interests are and how she got started in the space that she is currently working in now. During her presentation she gives an overview of what over the course of her life has inspired her and what people have helped peak certain interests. An interesting fact that she shared was that her father was obsessed with Nikola Tesla and through her dad she became interested in the science world. She also expressed that she went to an art school as a kid but didn’t enjoy it because she wanted to learn about science. Professor Vesna was fascinated and intrigued by pyramids and how they were made and overall was so interested in the unknown. With the things you don’t see or would understand without digging deeper and understanding certain things at great detail. Also that she had a great interest in nanotechnology which is one of the themes we learned about this quarter. One of the coolest things that I learned was the portion that she talked about planktons. She said that 80% of the air we breathe are planktons. Due to her obsession and appreciation for them she ended up making a huge project with these as their subject as she blew up a 3D version of one so that people can see that these things are living and important to the world. Just because we can't see them doesn't mean they don't exist. She made it into an exhibit for everyone to see and let people know the population of plankton are in trouble, she wants to bring attention to them. Lastly, also married a physicist therefore she is heavily entrenched in science and is always learning and understanding new concepts. This talk was inspiring as she talked about how her journey wasn’t always simple and a straight line. Different subjects, people, and experiences helped influence her and allowed her to find what she loves to research and teach. Overall it was a great talk and I’m so happy I attended.
Enjoy these science images for free. Freepik. (2020, April 6). Retrieved June 8, 2022, from https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/science
Sidik, S. (2021, December 5). Plankton may have escaped 'survival of the fittest'. The Atlantic. Retrieved June 8, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/how-can-ocean-have-many-types-plankton/620909/
What makes a Pyramid? Wonderopolis. (n.d.). Retrieved June 8, 2022, from https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-makes-a-pyramid
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