Family Weekend Events

Location

Choose from a selection of presentations from nationally recognized faculty across a variety of disciplines. Experience life at W&M through the eyes of your student and enjoy a one-hour presentation ranging from the arts to the sciences. 

Praise the Sun: The Quest for Solar Energy, Dr. William R. McNamara, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Integrated Science Center, Room 1127

With rising global energy demands and the widespread consumption of non-renewable resources, it is critical to  find ways to power the planet using renewable energy.  Wind, hydroelectricity, geothermal, biofuel, tidal, and wave energy are all promising methods to harness renewable energy. Unfortunately, the widespread application of these energy sources is often limited by geography. Luckily, a massive nuclear reactor in the sky has been powering the planet long before modern civilization. Solar energy can be converted into thermal, electrical, and even chemical energy (fuels). We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy while highlighting current innovations on our quest for renewable energy. 

Game of Cancer: The Search for Novel Strategies to Defeat the Disease, Dr. Doug Young, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Integrated Science Center, Room 1221

Cancer is a highly pervasive disease, having dramatic global impacts on our society. In 2018 over 1.7 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in the United States and over 600,000 deaths can be attributed to this disease. However, through understanding the biological underpinnings of the disease, new mechanisms for treatment can be discovered. This talk explores how cancer cells develop, and how obtaining a better understanding of these mechanisms can lead to improved treatments. This includes current research occurring at W&M involving the development of new chemistries to develop drugs that specifically target only cancer cells, preventing the unfortunate side effects of traditional chemotherapeutics.

Speech Sound Mysteries: What Hidden Information Listeners Subconsciously Hear in Vowels, Dr. Anya Lunden, Associate Professor, Linguistics Program Director; Department of English, Small Hall, Room 110

Because we say vowels in a stream of connected speech, rather than individually, they are affected by their surrounding sounds. For example, try saying “the beet” and “the gauze.” It sounds like the vowel in the word ‘the’ is the same in both phrases. However, we can acoustically measure real differences in how the ‘uh’ in ‘the’ is pronounced depending on whether the following consonant is a ‘b’ or a ‘g’ and further variations depending on whether the vowel following that consonant is an ‘ee’ or an ‘ah’ because our mouth is already anticipating making those further sounds. We’ll look at the results of eye-tracking studies that show listeners can actually use the hidden cues in vowels to subconsciously anticipate what’s coming next. We’ll also look at a case of an ambiguous speech sound— is the word ‘patio’ pronounced ‘pat-ee-o’ or ‘pat-ee-yo’? If you ask someone else to pronounce both versions, can you tell them apart? Why does it seem like the ‘y’ is there regardless and how can we tell if there’s a real ‘y’ in such a word? In this talk I will discuss several different aspects of acoustic and perceptual investigations of vowels articulations.

Remaking the Federal Judiciary, Dr. Christine Nemacheck, Associate Professor and Director, Center for Liberal Arts, Washington Hall, Room 201

One of the greatest successes of the Trump Administration to date has been the president’s appointments to the federal courts. Although President Trump often remarks on his two appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court, his influence on the federal judiciary is far more profound than those two appointments alone suggest. In this lecture, I discuss the Trump appointments, changes in the appointment process, and implications for the federal judiciary.