Meet the Speakers - Gustavus Student ExclusiveWednesday, October 4 at 12:30 p.m.

Gustavus students have an exclusive opportunity to participate in conversations with the world expert Nobel Conference presenters on Wednesday, October 4 from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in Beck Hall (1st Floor). 

Come with your own questions about the topic or just other questions you may have. Or ask one of these: How did you become interested in your field? What are the questions you still haven’t been able to answer in your research? What are the particular challenges you have faced in achieving your success? Where do you think there is hope for the future? What was the path you took for your career and what advice do you have for college students? 

Discussion #1: Professional success for first gen students from small towns

Shannon Olsson and Segenet Kelemu

Discussion led by Gustavus students: Grace Kinkeade, Katie Lillemon, Angel Obiorah, and Camille Will
Location: Beck Hall Room 115

Discussion Topic: Being from a small town and a first generation college student to working outside your home country 

Shannon Olsson is Global Director for the echo network and Special Scientific Envoy to India, Danish Academy of Technical Sciences. She is a chemical ecologist who studies how insects understand and engage with their environment. As a Northern researcher (from a small town) now living in a large city in the global South, Olsson advocates for increasing the amount of research done in these biologically diverse regions.

Segenet Kelemu is Director of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a molecular plant pathologist by training, Kelemu heads the only research center in the world focusing solely on insects, both beneficial and harmful. The center is researching the role of insects in everything from agriculture to disease. Kelemu grew up in a very small rural village in Ethiopia. Getting education was challenging for her as a girl; she went on to earn a PhD! She has worked in several countries on several continents, including North and South America as well as Africa. She now lives and works in Kenya.

Discussion #2: Working in a predominantly white field as a BIPOC person

Jessica Ware

Discussion led by Gustavus students: Meg Balfanz, Natalie Jahnsen, and Annabel Smith
Location: Beck Hall Room 119

Discussion Topic: Being a BIPOC person in a predominately white field of work. 

Jessica Ware is Associate Curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. An evolutionary biologist and entomologist, Dr. Ware explores the evolutionary relationships among insect groups as well as the origins of behavioral and physiological adaptations in insects. Her specializations include dragonflies and damselflies, as well as termites and cockroaches. As a museum curator, she also is a public voice for the research value of insect collections. She was one of the founders of the group Entomologists of Color, and she works tirelessly to increase the number of students of color who go into entomology.

Discussion #3: Winning a Nobel Prize

Michael Young

Discussion led by Gustavus students: Kade Copple, Rachel Lester, and Christina Schmidt
Location: Beck Hall Room 111

Discussion topic: What is it like to win a Nobel Prize?

Michael Young is the Richard and Jeanne Fisher Professor at Rockefeller University in New York as well as the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Dr. Young won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017, for his work using the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to explore the genetic regulation of circadian rhythms in humans. These are biological “clocks,” or mechanisms that regulate the schedule of activities for living organisms. His recent work (which he began during the pandemic) also uses the fruit fly, this time to explore the impacts of social isolation.

Discussion #4: Communicating science to the public: science writing for the rest of us

Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson

Discussion led by Gustavus students: Shae Anderson, Nicholas James, and Paige Danforth 
Location: Beck Hall Room 117

Discussion Topic: Engaging and communicating with the general public about science

Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson is a conservation biologist who studies insect ecology in forests; her current work is focused on the life in large, old oak trees in the forests of Norway. She is also becoming known globally for writing and speaking about insects for the general public; she says that her goal is to make everyone love insects. She is the author of three books for a mainstream audience, two of which have been translated into English: Extraordinary Insects and Tapestries of Life. 

Discussion #5: Should we farm insects for food? The ethics of entomophagy

Julie Lesnik and Jonathan Birch

Discussion led by Gustavus students Lindsay James, Kaylene Kerber, Abigail McCready, and Cristina Sirbu
Location: Beck Hall Room 101

Discussion Topic: Should we farm insects for food? If so, how? 

Jonathan Birch is Professor of Philosophy in the London School of Economics and Political Science. He directs the Foundations of Animal Sentience project, a multidisciplinary effort to understand more about how animals, including insects, experience the world. While an insect’s sensory world is very different from ours, we can gain some insight into their experiences by studying their behavior. Birch argues that, when we consider the matter of animal welfare, we ought to be thinking about insects too. We should err on the side of caution, taking steps to protect them where we realistically can.

Julie Lesnik is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. An evolutionary multi-species anthropologist who focuses on the evolution of human diets, Lesnik researches the role of insects in what we eat. How has insect eating been regarded by different peoples throughout history? And what roles will insect eating play in the future? She hypothesizes that people further from the equator are less comfortable with insects and less likely to consume them than are people in equatorial regions.