Discovery Lectures Series
Renowned scientists, engineers and mathematicians will host lectures on a plethora of research topics during the four weeks COSMOS operates. The lecturers usually focus on their current research, as the presentations are designed to introduce students to the wide variety of STEM subjects and research taking place at UCSC and beyond, expanding their learning outside of their cluster topics. Discovery Lectures are required by all COSMOS students to attend and are also open to the entire campus community.
The list of speakers and topics is updated every year.
COSMOS 2024 Discovery Lectures:
| Date | Day | Speaker | Title |
| 7/8 | Monday | Tim Johnstone (C8) | How we understand what molecules look like |
| 7/9 | Tuesday | Gizelle Hurtado and Andy Kulikowski (C3) | From natural history to scientific inquiry |
| 7/10 | Wednesday | Raja Guhathakurta | The Universe of Galaxies and the James Webb Space Telescope |
| 7/11 | Thursday | Alison Galloway | Life of the Dead |
| 7/12 | Friday | Trieu Mai | What we know (and don’t know) about renewable energy-based power systems |
| 7/15 | Monday | Bob Hingtgen (C1) | Is a line an infinite collection of points? |
| 7/16 | Tuesday | Steve Haddock | Who glows there? Biodiversity and bioluminescence of deep-sea animals? |
| 7/17 | Wednesday | Tamara Duplantis (C5) | Spatialized Audio in Games |
| 7/18 | Thursday | Nader Pourmand | Nanpipette for single cell application |
| 7/19 | Friday | A. Ali Yanik (C7) | Beyond Limits: Exploring Light-Speed Brain-Machine Interfaces through Neurophotonics |
| 7/22 | Monday | Jimmy Shanks (C9) | Bacteriophages: Small but Powerful |
| 7/23 | Tuesday | Holger Schmidt | Single molecule detection on a chip with integrated nanopores |
| 7/24 | Wednesday | Scott Oliver and David Belanger (C12) | Unlocking the properties of materials by scattering X-rays and neutrons |
| 7/25 | Thursday | Jason Eshraghian (C11) | Artificial Intelligence vs. Natural Stupidity |
| 7/26 | Friday | Jairo Velasco, Jr. (C4) | Imaging and Probing Atomically Thin Quantum Devices at the Nanoscale |
| 7/29 | Monday | Mike Oye (C10) | COSMOS Cluster 10: Semiconductor Processing and Device Engineering |
| 7/30 | Tuesday | Chad Saltikov | How microbes “eat" and “breathe" arsenic |
| 7/31 | Wednesday | Bob Hingtgen (C1) | Skateboard Tricks and Topological Flips |
| 8/1 | Thursday | Keaton Wood | The Importance of Protecting Biodiversity |
| 8/2 | Friday | ||
