Ever wonder if meditation is for you? Or if practicing mindfulness really works? Almost every day, something about meditation and mindfulness appears in the news. The reports suggest that these practices will make us healthier, happier, keep our brains healthy, and make us more successful. Meditation is the new miracle intervention that improves everything for everyone. But what exactly are meditation and mindfulness? How can they be learned, and by whom? In this talk, Dr. Marcia Grabowecky explains what meditation and mindfulness are and the relationship between them. She describes possible mechanisms for the effectiveness of these practices at psychological and neural levels, and how meditation and mindfulness relate to other types of training. She also reviews evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness and meditation from the domains of physical and mental health, experimental psychology, and neuroscience. Finally, Dr. Grabowecky discusses the costs and benefits of adding meditation practices into one’s life.
Resilience, empathy, and plasticity are important parts of the human experience, but how do these traits actually emerge biologically? Renowned scientists, Dr. Dorothy Kozlowski, Dr. Peggy Mason, and Dr. Janice Urban, will come together to discuss their groundbreaking work in neuroscience. Discussions will focus on the biology of empathy and helping behavior in rats, the incredible ability of the brain to repair itself following traumatic injury, and how the brain develops a stress response and resilience.
Digitalization, data sets, computing, technology, and analytics are all rapidly advancing. Our energy analytics approach and collective tool kit of models and capabilities have advanced considerably over the past decades. Today, we are at yet another precipice of change, with exponential increases in data availability, advanced analytics, and scalable computing power. The presentation will highlight new and emerging capabilities that offer us new, unprecedented capabilities for robust insights for scientific research, energy economics, planning, infrastructure, and related decisions. This program is presented as part of the Distinguished Lectureship Series by the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (WISER). For more information, visit WISER’s webpage: https://web.iit.edu/wiser/seminar-ser…
As a part of our ongoing initiative to introduce students to STEM professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds, Horizon Pharma and The Chicago Council on Science and Technology visited Perspectives Math and Science Academy to talk to students about college and entering STEM fields. Watch the interview here and check for a new video each month. Learn more about our partners Horizon Pharma: https://www.horizonpharma.com Perspectives Math and Science Academy: https://pcsedu.org/pcs-our-campuses/perspectives-iit-math-science-academy/
I just returned from the Million Women Mentors Summit in Washington, D.C., where hundreds of mission-driven leaders from across the country convened to tackle the issue of closing the gender and skills gaps in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), particularly among women and girls.
The conference theme, “Becoming the Difference,” challenged each and every one of us to find and promote ways to shape the direction of a young person’s life. While 71% of today’s jobs require STEM skills, only 15% of girls (and 44% of boys) plan to pursue a career in STEM. But the power of one mentor can be the change: more than 75% of girls who have a mentor feel they will be successful pursuing a STEM career. Continue reading “THE POWER OF ONE: How you can make a difference during STEM mentoring month”
As a part of our ongoing initiative to introduce students to STEM professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds, Horizon Pharma and The Chicago Council on Science and Technology visited Perspectives Math and Science Academy to talk to students about college and entering STEM fields. Watch the interview here and check for a new video each month. Learn more about our partners Horizon Pharma: https://www.horizonpharma.com Perspectives Math and Science Academy: https://pcsedu.org/pcs-our-campuses/perspectives-iit-math-science-academy/
