South Dakota
Mines’ summer 2023 STEAM Café lineup includes a wide range
of exciting topics.
STEAM Café, an ongoing series of free, informal
talks by Mines faculty, staff and visiting experts, is a partnership between
the university, South Dakota Public Broadcasting and Hay Camp Brewing Company.
An acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering,
Arts and Mathematics, STEAM Café is held at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each
month at Hay Camp in Rapid City unless otherwise noted.
The 2023 summer STEAM Café lineup includes:
June 20, 6 p.m.
Deep Science at America’s Underground
Laboratory
Presented by Dr. Jaret Heise, science director
at the Sanford Underground Research Facility
As the deepest underground laboratory in
the United States, the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead hosts
world-leading experiments and gives South Dakota’s university students and faculty
members the opportunity to participate in this cutting-edge science. Dr. Jaret
Heise, the science director at SURF, will present an overview of the science
taking place a mile beneath our feet.
SURF’s exceptional underground location
enables physicists to look for faint signals that hint at dark matter and other
particles or forces we don’t yet understand — things that lie beyond the
current Standard Model of particle physics. But the drifts and caverns at SURF
offer research opportunities for more than just physicists; biologists trek
these routes in search of microbial life that has adapted to harsh, hot
underground homes under great pressure and geologists head into the tunnels for
unparalleled access to deep rock. The facility is also a proving ground for
engineering research. Mines students, graduates and faculty are participating
in many of SURF’s experiments. Dr. Heise will discuss the advantages to
conducting these experiments in the former Homestake Gold Mine and what
researchers are hoping to discover.
July
18, 6 p.m.
A
Panel Discussion on Critical Minerals: Essential to Everyday Life, Increasingly
in Demand, and Mines Degrees Crucial to Solutions
Presented
by Jason Combs, program director of the National Security Innovation Network at
South Dakota Mines; Dr. Andrea Brickey, an associate professor in the
Department of Mining Engineering & Management; Dr. Jon Kellar, a professor
in the Department of Materials & Metallurgical Engineering; and Emma
Thompson and Annika Schooler, Civil & Environmental Engineering
undergraduates (2024)
Critical
minerals are so much a part of our everyday lives – in our cell phones,
computers, electronic displays, cars, solar panels and batteries – that we
rarely think about them. These minerals are essential to the economy and our
national security. Demand is accelerating, but the world’s supply is limited;
the biggest future impact will arguably be felt by people currently under the
age of 25. This panel discussion will cover what these minerals are, why they
are in such short supply and the effects this has on our daily lives as well as
what South Dakota Mines is doing to address this challenge and how people of
all ages can get involved. The discussion will be presented by Jason Combs,
program director of the National Security Innovation Network at Mines; Dr.
Andrea Brickey, an associate professor in the Department of Mining Engineering
& Management; Dr. Jon Kellar, a professor in the Department of Materials
& Metallurgical Engineering; and Emma Thompson and Annika Schooler, Civil
& Environmental Engineering undergraduates (2024).
August
15, 6 p.m.
Genetically
Engineered Microbes for the Industries of Tomorrow
Presented
by Dr. Tanvi Govil, research scientist at South Dakota Mines
Genetic
engineering is the direct modification of the genes of an organism. Scientists
can now manipulate virtually almost any aspect of a microbe, including
intelligence and appearance, using homologous recombination or CRISPR
technology, executed in three steps: identify, cut and replace. Dr. Tanvi
Govil, a research scientist at South Dakota Mines, will discuss her research
into microbes that degrade corn and soybean biomass and how advances in genetic
engineering can enable researchers to exploit microorganisms for improved or
enhanced sustainable microbially produced alternatives such as bioplastics and
biofertilizers.