Hello nerd niters!!! Nerd Nite is back once again in May and it is promised to be yet another fun-filled evening. We have a great venue, lovely beer and awesome talks – everything you could ask for on a Monday night. Please please please mark down on your calendar for the next Nerd Nite and stay tuned to find out more about our invited speakers 😀

What is this Nerd Nite anyway you ask? Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture event that aims at a casual, relaxed, and let’s be honest, slightly inebriated evening of academic fun times. The idea is for people to have a good time with friends over drinks while learning a thing or two. Our unofficial tag line is “It’s like the Discovery Channel – with beer!”

This event will be free thanks to the support received from the venue! You just got to buy your own drinks!

Speaker 1: Dr. Akhee Jahan
Topic: No Man’s land, what lies between the living and non-living?

Speaker 2: Dr Stephen H. Ashworth
Topic: Taking the P out of pee, and other elementary tales.

Speaker 3: Ms. Maja H. Sørensen
Topic: Microglia

(Abstracts and Profiles below)

Quick Nerdisms:

Speaker 1: They are not alive, but they are not dead either. Causing us miseries and tonnes of money, Viruses continue to prevail since the time of our existence. What makes them so resilient? Let’s explore how these miniscule pirates hijack the basic unit of life, our cells.

Speaker 2: Have you ever wondered who came up with the Periodic Table, and how? Or how chemical elements get their names? This talk might in the International Year of the Periodic Table might give you some answers.

Speaker 3: The fascinating properties of microglia helps protect our brain during normal life. But activation of these can also cause death of neurons. In this presentation, we will explore the factors determing when microglia turn bad.

Nerd Cred:

Speaker 1: Akhee just finished her Phd at the University of Hong Kong, working with influenza viruses and what not. Like many others glued to Hong Kong, she hasn’t left HKU for over 10 years hoping to stay a student forever. But all good (not really thaaat good) things must come to an end. Akhee has to finally leave her nest and go off to do her post-doc while exploring some very high-tech stuff in the midst of icy Denmark.

Speaker 2: Dr Stephen H. Ashworth is a Reader in Chemistry at the University of East Anglia in the UK. In the last twenty years, when he has not been teaching chemistry and physics, he has been communicating science to the public. He performs his Kitchen Chemistry (and other) science shows around the world. In his spare time he plays bass trombone in a local brass band.

Speaker 3: Maja H. Sørensen is in the first year of her PhD at The University of Hong Kong. She received at bachelor’s degree in Biomedicine from the University of Southern Denmark and a master’s degree in Biochemistry from The University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her interest lies within the diseased human brain, and her research currently focus on elucidating the link between alpha-synuclein aggregation and neurodegeneration.