Past Events › Perspectives on Science and History

Co-presented by Kaldi’s Coffee
— coffee tasting and lecture, 6:30 p.m. coffee tasting & 7:00 p.m. lecture

Free and OPEN to ALL. Junior Academy members and middle and high school students are welcome and encouraged to attend. Reservations not required.

Featured Speakers: Tyler Zimmer, Owner, Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Company, and Frank McGinty, Executive Chef, Director of Sales and Marketing, Kaldi’s Coffee Roasting Company

From growing, to roasting, to blending, to brewing, achieving the perfect cup of coffee is not just an art, but a science. Join Tyler Zimmer and Frank McGinty of Kaldi’s Coffee for this start-to-finish look at what it takes to create the right roast profile and serve up a delicious mug of America’s favorite drink.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking free in Museum lots or in Forest Park.

Featured Speaker: Aaron Kustermann, Chief of Intelligence, Illinois State Police

How do seemingly normal people become attracted to terrorist groups? What is it that brings them beyond curiosity to a place of action? Join Aaron Kustermann, Chief of Intelligence with the Illinois State Police, as he discusses how terror organizations recruit new members and the surprisingly sophisticated materials and modern technologies they use to influence both their members and potential recruits, and the general public. Along the way he shines light on what history and the last several years of indictments tell us about the demographics of recruits and how those demographics differ from country to country.

FREE and OPEN to ALL. Junior Academy members, middle and high school students welcome and encouraged to attend.

Missouri Department of Transportation engineer and the Department’s Road to Tomorrow Team leader, Tom Blair, discusses MoDOT’s plans to integrate 21st-century technologies such as the Internet of Things, Solar Roadways, and Smart Pavements into our transportation system and services.

Due to unexpected illness, this event has been cancelled. Our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience. We hope to reschedule!

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Kimberly Powlishta, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Experimental Program: Developmental; Director, Graduate Program in Experimental Psychology, and the Gender Cognitions and Development Lab, , Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University

What causes the “cootie” phenomenon? Psychologist, Dr. Kimberly Powlishta talks about the development of stereotyping, bias, and social identity in children. Before you do your holiday toy shopping for the children or adolescents in your life, you’ll want to stop by for this talk as Dr. Powlishta touches on the ways in which toys are advertised and how those advertisements reflect—and sometimes encourage—gender stereotyping.

Free and OPEN to ALL. Junior Academy members and middle and high school students are welcome and encouraged to attend. Reservations not required. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in the Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Timothy Holy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Neurosciences and Computational and Systems Biology Programs, Division of Biology and Biological Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis; recipient, Academy of Science – St. Louis 2009 Outstanding St. Louis Scientist Innovation Award

Absence really does make the heart grow fonder, at least for male mice. In this post-Valentine’s Day talk, Washington University neuroscientist, Timothy Holy, talks about the neural mechanisms of detecting and recognizing pheromones and his recently published research that looks at how long-term exposure to female scent puts the damper on courtship behavior in male mice.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

The Director of UMSL’s Center for Transportation Studies, Dr. Ray Mundy, provides a fascinating overview of the history of coach and taxi regulations from the 1600’s through to today’s current disruption of Transportation Network Companies (Uber and Lyft).

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: David Cunningham, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis

Sociology professor, David Cunningham, examines the relationship between longstanding campaigns to resist civil rights gains and today’s deeply polarized political system, and highlights how a range of ongoing restorative justice initiatives seek to bridge these divisions.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Joshua Jackson, Ph.D., Rosenzweig Associate Professor in Personality Science, and Director, Personality Measurement and Development Lab, Washington University in St. Louis

A fascinating look from the field of Personality Science at the personality of those who choose to serve and how military experience shapes a soldier’s personality long after their tour has ended.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Martin Pratt, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Fossett Lab for Virtual Planetary Exploration, Washington University in St. Louis; Adjunct Research Scientist – Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Virtual and augmented reality technology provides a new and exciting platform for scientific visualization. Seismologist and research scientist, Dr. Martin Pratt talks about Washington University’s Fossett Lab for Planetary Exploration and its use of augmented reality and Microsoft’s HoloLens to explore both Earth and Mars-based data. And he shares his work with a planetarium show that uses both visuals and sounds to explore seismology and the structure of the Earth. It’s a panoramic story on the use of photography in science today you won’t want to miss.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Nancy Pendleton, Director, System Technology, Boeing Research and Technology-Missouri, Collaborative Autonomous Systems Lab, Boeing

Boeing’s Nancy Pendleton, outlines the work being done at Boeing by its scientists, technologists, technicians, and engineers to protect, connect, and inspire through integrated technology development in systems technology, its defense work, tactical aircraft and Autonomous systems.

Presented in conjunction with the Missouri History Museum exhibition, World War I: Missouri and the Great War, on display at the Museum through June 17, 2018.

— lecture and book signing

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis

A fundamental paradox of American society today has been the rise of inequality and vulnerability within an overall age of economic prosperity. Mark Rank, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at Washington University in St. Louis explores the dynamics and consequences of this troubling pattern, and what it may mean for Americans in the future.

The American Paradox is being presented in conjunction with the Missouri History Museum exhibition, #1 in Civil Rights: The African American Freedom Struggle in St. Louis on display at the Museum thru April 15, 2018.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Monica, Matthieu, Ph.D., M.S.W., LCSW, Assistant Professor, Social Work, College for Public Health and Social Justice, Saint Louis University

Saint Louis University social work professor, Monica Matthieu, explores how researchers and clinicians in the Department of Veterans Affairs are promoting access to health care, educating communities on mental health, trauma, and suicide prevention for veterans returning home from war.

The Journey Home from War is being presented in conjunction with the Missouri History Museum exhibition, World War I: Missouri and the Great War, on display at the Museum thru June 17, 2018.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Joe Harl, Principal Investigator, NGA Site Dig; archaeologist, Archaeological Research Center of St. Louis

In 2016, archaeological data-recovery investigations were conducted at the 97-acre north St. Louis site of the future home of the new western headquarters of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Found artifacts at the site dating from the 1850s – 1950s offer a panoramic view of historical St. Louis and provide a new understanding of our own past. Archaeologist and NGA Site Principal Investigator, Joe Harl, shares how urban archaeology is conducted and discusses findings at the site.

Sign language interpretation will be provided at this program.

Underground Panoramas is being presented in conjunction with the Museum exhibition, Panoramas of the City, on display at the Museum from September 2, 2017 – August 12, 2018.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Paul Brauss, CEO of St. Louis startup Blue Line Technology, talks about the science behind its facial biometric solutions for helping keep neighborhoods safe.

High-Tech Crime Fighting Advances is presented in conjunction with the Missouri History Museum exhibition, The St. Louis Rogues Gallery, on display at the Museum through March 10, 2019.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

This virtual trip uses digital maps to chart the development of Times Square, the imaginary worlds of the Broadway musical, and the persistent racial segregation of the American musical stage, with a stop in St. Louis to explore how the Muny fits into the larger story of American musical theater.

Mapping the Broadway Musical is presented in conjunction with the Missouri History Museum exhibition, Muny Memories, on display at the Museum through June 2, 2019.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Bill Barrett, Professor and Electronic & Photographic Media Coordinator, BA Photography Program; and Director, May Gallery, School of Communications; Fellow, Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies, Webster University

The idea of the camera—under the “hood” of every camera is the optical phenomenon known as camera obscura. Photographer and professor, Bill Barrett takes a look at early mentions of the phenomenon, some medieval and Renaissance applications, and shares how “fixing the image” finally led to photography as we know it in the 19th century.

The Idea of the Camera is presented in conjunction with the Missouri History Museum exhibition, Panoramas of the City, on display at the Museum through Sunday, March 24.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Ignacio Sánchez Prado, Ph.D., Professor of Spanish, Latin American Studies, and Film and Media Studies; Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Latin American Studies Program; Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in Humanities, Washington University in St. Louis

Inspired by the Flores Mexicanas exhibit, Washington University Arts and Sciences professor, Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, PhD, discusses Mexican revolutionary art and science as a system of knowledge in which the nation, awoken by the uprisings of the 1910s, sought to learn about itself and to present this knowledge abroad; and he shows how the process of nationalization of arts and sciences played an essential role in the modernization of Mexico.

Mexican Art, Science, and Revolution in the Binational 1920s and 1930s is presented in conjunction with the Missouri History Museum exhibition, Flores Mexicanas: A Lindbergh Love Story, organized in collaboration with the University of Missouri–St. Louis’s graduate program in Museums, Heritage, and Public History, and on display at the Museum through September 2, 2019.

Registration not required. FREE and OPEN to ALL. Middle and high school students welcome. Parking is free in the History Museum lots, on the street in Forest Park, or in the East and West lots across from the Judith and Dennis Jones Visitor Center.

Featured Speaker: Ariela Schachter, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Washington University in St. Louis

Throughout the history of the United States, federal laws and policies have been used to determine who should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and who should be excluded. Sociologist, Ariela Schachter, explores how historical and contemporary policies have contributed to current debates and understandings of undocumented immigration.