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Today, Tuesday, May 26 | Estimilee
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4-5pm • CMC 206 • Mathematics and Statistics
How many Pokémon are there? How many pieces of art are in the Louvre? How big is Carleton's campus in acres? Join a team to estimate these answers! There will be lots of fun and prizes. Everyone is welcome.
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Thursday, May 28 | Gradient Sampling Method for Nonsmooth Nonconvex Optimization
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3:30-4:30pm • Anderson 329 • Bits & Bytes
Swati Padmanabhan is an assistant professor at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Prior to this, she got her PhD at the University of Washington, Seattle, followed by a postdoc at MIT.
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Many optimization methods rely on gradients, but gradients can be unreliable when the objective is nonsmooth: they may fail to exist, change abruptly, or point in misleading directions. This raises a basic question: what kind of algorithmic guarantees are still possible for minimizing general Lipschitz, nonsmooth, nonconvex functions? This talk will describe recent progress through the lens of Goldstein stationarity, a local certificate based on averaging gradients in a small neighborhood.
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- Physics Table: Candidate Research Talk #1 - Anderson 036, noon-1 pm
Please join us to hear a research talk from a potential visiting professor for next year. Lunch will be provided.
- Biology Comps Presentation - Olin 141, noon-12:20pm
Io Harris will present, "Impacts of Vertebrate Scavenger Decline on Plant Community Composition."
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- Chemistry Periodic Table - Anderson, Mohrig student space, noon-1 pm
If you are off board, the department will cover your lunch. Go to the Schulze Cafe and ask for the chemistry charge. Any questions, contact Danielle Morisette.
- Physics Table: Candidate Research Talk #2 - Anderson 036, noon-1pm
Please join us to hear a research talk from a potential visiting professor for next year. Lunch will be provided.
- Biology Picnic - Hulings Bald Spot, 4:30-6pm
Come enjoy food and the company of Biology students, faculty, and staff at the annual Biology picnic. There will be food from El Triunfo, fun snacks, and yard games!
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- Chemistry Department Picnic - Sechler Park Pavilion, 1200 Armstrong Road, Northfield, 4:15-6pm
Let's wrap up another fantastic year in Chemistry with a fun-filled picnic for all majors, faculty, and staff! Come and enjoy good company, great food, awards, skits and more. Please RSVP if you can attend or if you need a ride to Sechler Park to Danielle Morisette.
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Campus Events and Resources
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Tuesday, May 26 | LTC On Tour - The Carleton Student Organic Farm: Opportunities in Place-Based Education
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11:45am-1pm • Carleton Farm • Learning and Teaching CenterWith a new Farm Manager and intentional support for “sustainability across the curriculum” in Carleton 2033! The Student Organic Farm invites new curricular linkages opportunities. The farm is a space where students learn and practice sustainability, persistence, and ethical collaboration; it is also a site for reflection and community connection around land, food, culture and traditions.
Photo: Zachary Spindler-Krage
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Open to the Carleton Community
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- Tuesday, May 26 | Encountering Death: Meditation and Exhibition - Hamlin Space, Weitz Center for Creativity, 5-7:30pm
Encountering Death is an immersive public exhibition and meditation workshop. The project features Life Before Death: Encounters with the Terminally Ill, with photographs by German photographer Walter Schels and texts by journalist Beate Lakotta. It also explores the experience of cancer through the work of Spanish artist Josune Urrutia Asua. Both exhibitions are free and open to the public from May 20–30
- Volunteer at the Farm | Carleton Student Organic Farm
Join student farm interns at the farm for volunteer hours.
Tuesdays: 12:02-1pm
Thursdays: 11:48am-12:57pm
Saturdays: 1:01-2:02pm
Sundays: 12:48-1:53pm
- Friday, May 29 | Honors Convocation - Skinner Memorial Chapel, 3-4pm
Carleton’s Honors Convocation draws the campus community together to celebrate the accomplishments of our students. Honors Convocation will also be online.
- Saturday, May 30 | Sproncert - Fields behind the Rec Center
- Monday, June 1 | Reference & Instruction Librarian for STEM and Digital Scholarship: Candidate Teaching Demonstration - Library Athenaeum, 10:15-11am
The library is interviewing for a Reference & Instruction Librarian for STEM and Digital Scholarship. The teaching demonstration will be based on a PHYS342 (contemp) assignment. Other candidate demonstrations will be held on June 8 and June 9.
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- Tuesday, May 26 | Ed Tech Tea: Proactive Production: Creating Your Catalogue of Effective Instructional Videos - Olin 104, 3:30-4:30pm
Explore practical strategies for planning and producing short, effective instructional videos. This session will help faculty prepare content for the 2026–27 academic year and create effective just-in-time videos throughout the year.
- October 25-27 | Teaching Computation with MATLAB (and GenAI) - At Carleton College
Apply by June 15 for this free educator-led workshop. The primary goal of the workshop is to create impactful, computational curriculum. To that end, the workshop will cover the newest trends in STEM teaching—from flipped classrooms to automated assessment – with a particular focus on effective strategies for addressing and incorporating GenAI, such as ChatGPT and MATLAB Copilot, in teaching and learning. MathWorks staff and educators experienced in teaching computation in engineering and science will be on hand to share tools and best practices.
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- Hiring: Educational Associate in Inclusion, Equity, and Community
Working closely with divisional staff, the Associate will support and provide programmatic and educational resources. The Associate will help to promote IEC across and beyond campus, contributing to their ongoing strength and development by serving as an administrator, community builder, educator, and program coordinator. Apply now for this full-time position that will run from August 1, 2026-July 31, 2027.
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Sneak Peek: Physics Grad School
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September 10-11, 2026, Caltech
Applications are open for FUTURE 2026, an all-expenses-paid conference at Caltech, designed to give undergraduate gender minorities in physics a sneak peek into graduate school. Rising juniors, seniors, and recent graduates interested in pursuing a physics PhD within the next two years will experience life as a graduate student through panels, workshops, and networking with Caltech faculty and students. The program fully covers all domestic travel and participation costs. Interested students must submit their application and a recommendation form (ideally from a faculty member) by July 21, 2026.
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Frogs and Toads of the Arb
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It’s mating season! In the spring, male frogs and toads begin to search for mates. They call repeatedly, often throughout the day, though particularly at dusk, attempting to attract females. The Arboretum is home to multiple frog and toad species.
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In the early spring, you might hear Western Chorus Frogs ( Pseudacris triseriata), Wood Frogs ( Rana sylvatica), and Northern Leopard Frogs ( Rana pipiens). Read more about Frogs and Toads of the Arb by Dexter Pakula '26, a Cole Student Naturalist.
Photo: The Western Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata), illustrated by Anna Persmark ’15.
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All positions are posted on Handshake.
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Launch your Clinical Research Career with Medpace
Thursday, May 28, 11am-noon, Virtual Whether you're just starting your job search or looking to take the next step in your career, this event is for you. Medpace is a global Clinical Research Organization (CRO) partnering with leading pharmaceutical, biotech, and device companies to bring promising new drugs and devices to market. With our global headquarters in Cincinnati, Medpace combines efficient clinical trial management with comprehensive regulatory consulting to provide clients with exceptional support during the drug development process.
Medical Information Technology, Inc. (MEDITECH)Thursday, May 28, 11:30am-1pm, Tabling in SaylesMEDITECH has been a leader in the Electronic Health Record space for over 50 years. They develop software that enables physicians, nurses, and other clinicians to orchestrate and deliver patient care in a safe, effective, and efficient manner. Currently, there are six Carls who work for MEDITECH.
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Carleton senior and computer science major Henry Burkhardt ’26 has been awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to pursue a year of independent, global exploration. His project, Musical Technologies: Organic to Algorithmic, will merge his backgrounds in computer science and music to examine how cultural practices shape technology and how musicians, engineers, and instrument-makers inform each other’s work. Over the next twelve months, Burkhardt will engage in hands-on collaboration across Indonesia, Argentina, The Gambia, and Germany, participating in diverse engineering initiatives that range from building pipe organs to constructing digital instruments using chemical signals from fungi.
Carleton received a grant from the American Physical Society to fund an engaging community outreach initiative aimed at local youth. Spearheaded by Professor of Physics Marty Baylor alongside Grace Clemen ’28 and Dongyu Weng ’28, the grant supported six hands-on optics education activity stations. These stations were featured at the popular Bike Day event hosted at Emmaus Church, located in one of Northfield's most socioeconomically and racially diverse neighborhoods. The team designed the event to make physics fun and accessible. In addition to enriching the local community, this project serves as a pilot phase for a similar physics education program planned to launch in Guatemala next summer.
Joel Weisberg, Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of Physics and Astronomy and the Natural Sciences, emeritus, delivered a series of public talks, planetarium shows, and high school and college classroom presentations over a three-day period at Northern Michigan University and Marquette (MI) Senior High School as a Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecturer with the American Astronomical Society.
James Watson ’78 will go on a 500-mile bike ride from New York City to Niagara Falls this summer to raise money for experimental cancer research. He will be journaling throughout the ride, which lasts July 25 to August 1. Watson majored in biology.
Congratulations to these STEM faculty who were awarded Curricular Innovation Grants. These grants support projects including major curricular revisions and innovations.
- Deewang Bhamidipati (mathematics and statistics): to support the development of a Coding Theory course.
- Yoolim Kim (linguistics): for the development of two new courses, Between Languages: Heritage Speakers and The Spoken and Written Word.
- Jay McKinney (cognitive science): to support the development of a new Japanese philosophy course.
- Rou-Jia Sung (biology): to support the development of activities for introductory biology students in BIO 126 to increase spaces for rightful presence in the classroom.
- Aaron Swoboda (economics and environmental studies): to support his project, “Powering the AI Revolution: Electricity Economics, Environment, and Policy.”
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Visit Carleton Integrated Math and Science for additional news and research opportunities in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Environmental Studies, Geology, Mathematics & Statistics, Neuroscience, Physics & Astronomy, and Psychology.
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This Week in Science is produced by the Center for Integrated Math and Science. For questions about the newsletter, please contact Kari McMartin.
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