Category: Presentations and Talks

The Department of Biological Sciences’ fall 2025 seminar series continues at 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20 in 218 Hubbard Hall with Dr. George Wang, East Central University. He will give a public lecture titled, “Big vs. small: How mammals and insects can interact indirectly.“

Seminars are open to the public and undergraduates are encouraged to attend. For more information, visit wichita.edu/biology.

The College of Fine Arts begins its 2025-26 Connoisseur Series with an extraordinary guest: acclaimed animator and director Chris Buck.

Hosted by the School of Digital Arts, Buck will present an artist talk at 7 p.m. Nov. 6 in the Shocker Studios lecture hall, 3803 E. Harry St., Suite 121. The event will be followed by a student Q&A Nov. 7.

With nearly five decades in filmmaking, Buck is best known for directing Disney’s “Frozen,” “Frozen II,” “Tarzan” and “Wish,” as well as Sony Pictures’ “Surf’s Up.” His work has earned him an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Annie Award, cementing his place among the most celebrated storytellers in animation.

The event is free and open to the public. Students and community members alike are invited to explore how imagination and collaboration bring beloved animated stories to life.

Dr. Karlos Hill will guide participants through a transformative approach to history — one rooted not in division or trauma alone, but in healing, deep relational understanding and the wisdom of cooperation that has defined humanity for millions of years, at 5 p.m. Nov. 12 in 141 Woolsey Hall, Fidelity Bank Ballroom.

Using the tragic legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre as both a site of wounding and possibility, Hill illuminates “Healing History,” a revolutionary framework that merges evolutionary science, the wisdom of Ubuntu and the lived experience of Greenwood’s descendants to foster real-world dialogue, healing and justice.

Seats are limited for this interactive evening, so RSVP today.

Join the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry for its next seminar which will take place at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15 in 224 McKinley Hall. The department is honored to host Professor Jun Ohata from North Carolina State University who will present a talk titled “Protein Bioconjugation and Chemical Evolution in Nonaqueous Systems.”

Join the physics seminar from 2 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15 in 127 Jabara Hall. The seminar features Bhupal Dev, associate professor of physics at Washington University in St. Louis, who will present a talk on “A New Era of Multi-messenger Astronomy.”

The seminar series brings several speakers to WSU each semester and is funded by the Eddy and April Lucas Fund, Wichita.

Ceramic artist Brenda Lichman, the Ulrich Museum of Art’s associate director of education and executive director of Empty Bowls Wichita, will share the story of this community-driven project that uses the ceramic arts in collaboration with local chefs to fight food insecurity in Wichita starting at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15 in the Dr. Sam & Jacque Kouri Collection Study Center in the Ulrich. Refreshments will be served at 10 a.m.

Representatives from HumanKind Ministries and The Pando Initiative — the organizations who will benefit from this year’s Empty Bowls Wichita fundraiser — will also speak. Lichman will create a bowl live, reminding participants that every handmade bowl represents a step toward a more nourished and connected community.

Have you ever watched as cream mixes with your coffee? Stared into the flames of a fire? Seen how incense smoke streams upwards smoothly, then curls? Wondered why a candle flame is steady, then suddenly pulsates? Marveled at a thunderhead at sunset? Then you have participated in flow visualization. Literally, flow visualization makes the physics of gases and liquids visible.

In this upcoming talk at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16 in the Ulrich Museum of Art, join Dr. Jean Hertzberg and enjoy the aesthetics of flow visualization: beauty, power, destruction and the just plain weird things fluids can do. At the same time, explore the physics of a wide range of fluid dynamics. Refreshments are available starting at 4:30 pm.

All WSU staff and students are invited to attend the opening session of LASSO 54: “Engaging Communities and the Schoolscape: Challenges and Opportunities for Latine Student Success” starting with opening remarks at 1:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9 in 110A Woolsey Hall, Frank A. Boettger Auditorium.

LASSO is a national linguistics conference that Wichita State is hosting this year.

Join the physics seminar from 2 to 3 p.m. Wednesday Oct. 8 in 127 Jabara Hall. The seminar features Dr. Andrew Dye, postdoctoral researcher at Wichita State, who will present the NOvA experiment’s 2024 3-Flavor Oscillation Analysis, based on a decade of data.

The analysis applies the Feldman-Cousins technique for precise confidence intervals, enabled by large-scale parallel computing on NERSC’s Perlmutter supercomputer. A new Importance Sampling method is introduced to improve efficiency in exploring extreme parameter regions, highlighting how advanced computation and statistical innovation are expanding the reach of neutrino oscillation studies.

Maggie Topping, senior vice president of Human Resources & Communications at Textron Aviation and the Barton School of Business fall 2025 J. Robert Young Executive-in-Residence, will lead a keynote fireside chat alongside Luke Pankey, chief information officer at Textron Aviation, as part of the James Schwartz Distinguished Speaker Series.

Their presentation, “Driving Innovation Forward: Textron Aviation’s Balanced Approach to AI, Talent, and the Transformation of Work,” will explore how the company is navigating workforce, technology and organizational change at a global scale.

The keynote event is at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7 in 110 Woolsey Hall, Frank A. Boettger Auditorium.

Doors open at 9 a.m. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP at wichita.edu/executive-in-residence-keynote.