The John and Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series is a scientific seminar series held at Bodega Marine Laboratory.
Who are we?
The seminar committee is composed of 4 grad students/staff/postdocs + John Largier, our faculty advisor. The faculty advisor is permanent but the other 4 members serve for 2 year terms. We all volunteer our time to serve on the committee and do so because of our commitment to the importance of seminars by outside speakers and our interest in serving the BML community.
What do we do?
Each year, we solicit nominations, rank and choose nominees to invite, plan and schedule the “John and Mary Louise Riley Seminar Series”. We work with Jennifer Sauter to plan transportation and accommodations for each speaker, and we work with BML IT to plan seminar streaming to CMSI and BML community members working from home. We assist hosts with their duties, supply gifts to speakers, and provide refreshments for grad student lunches and pre-seminar coffee hours.
A note about safety: We started holding virtual seminars in 2020 to keep the series running while keeping our community safe, and are excited about the possibility of gathering again in person soon!
Each year, we plan to host 20-30 seminar speakers. Our process for inviting speakers is the following:
- In early January, choose nominees to invite
- Contact host(s) of each nominee to find out when they will be available to host
- Invite nominees to visit during one of the days the host(s) are available. Note: this means if you wish to have some control over when a speaker visits, nominate them!
How to contact us?
Send an email to bmlsemcom@ucdavis.edu to contact the BML seminar committee. Since we have 2 members leaving the committee every year, it is always better to email bmlsemcom than try to guess who is on the committee at the moment.
How can you help us?
Nominate speakers! Any BML or CMSI resident can nominate speakers, and new community members are especially encouraged to get involved in nominations. We are especially looking for nominations of diverse speakers within driving distance. Due to budgetary constraints, we can only invite ~6 "flying" speakers per year so the vast majority must be within driving distance (Humboldt to Monterey).
Come to seminars! It is disappointing when we invite a speaker and the lecture hall (or zoom room) is nearly empty. We guarantee you will learn something from every single seminar you attend, especially if it is outside your realm of expertise.
Current Committee Members
- Chair: Alyssa Frederick
- Treasurer: Sam Walkes
- Scheduler: Alisha Saley
- Day-of Coordinator/Facilitator: Will Speiser
- Faculty Advisor: John Largier
- Travel and Accommodations: Jennifer Sauter
- BML IT: AV support, seminar streaming to CMSI, recording
Past Committee Members
Past Chairs
- 2009 – 2011 A. Hettinger
- 2011 – 2012 R. Fontana
- 2012 L. Jurgens
- 2013 S. Hameed
- 2016 K. Hewett
- 2017 S. Bashevkin
- 2018 A. Ninokawa
- 2019 B. Rubinoff
- 2020 H. Killeen
- 2021 A. Frederick
Past Schedulers
- 2009 – 2010 W. White
- 2010 – 2011 R. Fontana
- 2011 – 2012 L. Jurgens
- 2012 S. Hameed
- 2013 C. Catton
- 2015 K. Hewett
- 2016 S. Bashevkin
- 2017 A. Ninokawa
- 2018 J. Hollarsmith
- 2019 H. Palmer
- 2020 A. Ricart
- 2021 A. Saley
Past Day-of Coordinators
- 2009 – 2010 A. Szobalszi
- 2010 – 2011 B. Cheng
- 2011 – 2012 S. Gravem
- 2012 S. Moffitt
- 2013 D. Swezey
- 2015 E. Satterthwaite
- 2016 B. Jellison
- 2017 J. Sadowski
- 2018 B. Rubinoff
- 2019 H. Killeen
- 2020 A. Saley and A. Frederick
- 2021 W. Speiser
Past Treasurers
- 2009 – 2011 S. Miller
- 2011 – 2012 B. Cheng
- 2012 S. Gravem
- 2013 S. Moffit
- 2016 E. Satterthwaite
- 2017 B. Jellison
- 2018 J. Sadowski
- 2019 C. Fish
- 2020 C. Fish
- 2021 S. Walkes