The Frontiers In Science (FIS) program is intended to introduce students from all disciplines and academic levels to the beauty and fun of scholarly pursuits in the natural and physical science disciplines, and to engage faculty in interdisciplinary and multi-institutional research activities. The foundation of the FIS program are monthly seminar presentations on leading-edge interdisciplinary research in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics, and open discussions on opportunities in science as a career, research training internships for students, and faculty research collaborations.

• California State University San Marcos - CSUSM Directions & Maps
• Science Building 2, Rm 242 (SCI2, Rm 242)
• 12:00 (noon) - 1 pm
• Refreshments (soda, pizza) are usually served (starting ~ 11:45 am) at the seminar on the third Thursday of the month.

Seminars are generaly held the third Thursday of every month throughout the academic school year. But always check the schedule below for exact days, because the schedule is always adjusted for recognized holidays, semester breaks and final exam schedules.

• December 3, 2009
  • The physics and future of fusion energy research, Chris Holland, Ph.D., Assistant Research Scientist, UC San Diego
  
  
• November 12, 2009
  • Remembering Forgotten Peoples: Working to Eradicate Soil Transmitted Helminthiasis, Raffi Aroian, PhD, Professor, UCSD (Cell & Developmental Biology)
  • Soil transmitted helminths cause tremendous disease burden in our world, infecting more people than the combined populations of North America and Europe. The medical community relies on a small selection of incompletely therapeutic drugs for treatment, and only one new drug for human therapy, by the Chinese Centers for Disease Control, has been developed in the past 30 years. Here I will describe our efforts to use the natural soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis to develop new cures for these diseases as well as our efforts to develop combination therapies that are highly effective and very difficult for the parasites to resist. Our laboratory also studies immune responses to bacterial toxins, and I will provide a brief update on our understanding on how cells defend against the single most common mode of bacterial attack.
  
  
• October 22, 2009
  • 400 Years of Astronomy - A quick history of the telescope and how it continues to open up the universe, Scott Kardel, Public Affairs Coordinator, Palomar Observatory
  
  
• October 8, 2009
  • The Ground Upon Which We Walk - Perspectives from a Mining Engineer, Ian Firth, Engineer, Hanson Aggregates West Region
  • Mathematics, physics and engineering concepts within the context of mining (quarry) aggregates or grading large swaths of land for construction (e.g., the CSUSM campus built into the side of a hill composed of basaltic rock) will be presented.
  
  
• September 24, 2009
  • Accidental Science - A New Genre of Herbicides & Antibiotics, Christopher M. Smith, PhD, Center for Theoretical Biological Physics - UCSD
  • Fortuitous discovery is often the catalyst for many of the major scientific and technological discoveries of the past 50 years. I will focus on one such discovery, that of a simple compound, N-phosphonomethylglyine, which has impacted practically every facet of modern food production, including home landscaping. The science of this herbicide will be presented in the context of a story of discovery and how elements of discovery touches each and everyone's lives.