Elizabethtown Community and Technical College is continuing its LEAF-STEM series of lectures and activities with a public presentation by renowned author, science historian and philosopher Laura Snyder. The event will be held on Tuesday, January 27 at 6 p.m. in Room 212 of the Regional Postsecondary Center on the college’s campus. It is free and open to the public. LEAF-STEM is an ECTC science and math initiative designed to enhance awareness through “Lectures & Exploration Activities For Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.” Laura Snyder combines science, philosophy and history to entertain, educate and inspire her audiences with a unique perspective on the impact of science on every aspect of society and culture. Her ECTC talk, entitled “The Philosophical Breakfast Club and the Invention of the Modern Scientist,” will examine how four young scientists conspired together in the early 19th century to bring about a scientific revolution which transformed science into the form that we know it today. It is sure to be a fascinating evening of scientific storytelling for anyone interested in science or history.
ECTC students and area high school students will also have the opportunity to hear from Snyder at special sessions on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.
Snyder is the author of “The Philosophical Breakfast Club” and the soon-to-be-released “Eye of the Beholder,” among others. She is also known for her TED talks about science and society.
Earlier this year, ECTC hosted a talk by one of its distinguished alumni, Plazi Ricklin, a project manager for eSolar, who is heavily involved in research and development of solar power as a replacement technology for fossil fuels. Other events will be planned for later in the year.
The LEAF-STEM Series began last year as a way to encourage students to explore careers in the STEM fields. Past speakers and events included astronaut Story Musgrave; Dr. Len Peters, Kentucky Secretary of Energy and Environment; University of Louisville’s Dr. Christopher States, who discussed biomedical research; Dr. Ernie Hiatt from Kentucky Bioprocessing, the company researching Ebola vaccines; an astronomy “Evening with the Stars”; and Pi Day to celebrate the mathematical constant of Pi.
For more information about this event, or other LEAF-STEM activities, contact Paul Sturgeon at paul.sturgeon@kctcs.edu or 270-706-8639.