Alejandro Cardenas-Avendano, PhD – Assistant Professor of Physics, Wake Forest University.
Alejandro studies the effects of gravity on astrophysical systems. Before joining Wake Forest he was a Richard P. Feynman Distinguished Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University.
Chasing Light Echoes Around Black Holes
What happens when light gets stuck going in circles around a black hole? We’ll take a look at one of Einstein’s strangest predictions, why these cosmic “echoes” have remained hidden, and how the next generation of telescopes could help us see them for the first time.
Erin Henslee, PhD – Associate Professor, Wake Forest Engineering.
Her research at Wake Forest spans biomedical engineering, STEM education, and faculty development. She co-runs HiddenSTEM.wfu.edu, a site dedicated to sharing inclusive curriculum resources. She believes math and science are beautiful places of creativity and discovery and should be taught and talked about that way! She runs the Great Engineering Bake Off summer camp with Kaleideum annually (and loves to talk about it)!
The Rhythms of Life
Have you ever wondered why more people are born and die between 3am and 5am? Is there really such a thing as morning “larks” and night “owls”? Why does your teenager sleep so much? The answers are in Chronobiology, the serious scientific study of how our internal biological clocks tick, but human behavior makes it an absolute comedy of errors. At its core, it is the daily biological warfare between who you want to be and what your circadian rhythms actually demand. In this talk we will explore the rhythms that have shaped us biologically and socially.
Joseph Mills, PhD – Professor, UNC School of the Arts.
A faculty member at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Joseph Mills holds an endowed chair, the Susan Burress Wall Distinguished Professorship in the Humanities, and has been honored with a UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has published eight volumes of poetry, most recently The Holiday Cycle, a book of short fiction, and academic criticism, including editing a volume of critical essays A Century of the Marx Brothers. In the spring of 2027, Press 53 will publish his New and Selected Poems. More information is available at www.josephrobertmills.com.
The Long and Winding Yellow Brick Road: Why We Return to Oz Again and Again
Why does The Wizard of Oz continue to captivate audiences more than a century after it was first published? From the original novel to the classic film, The Wiz, and Wicked, each generation has found new meanings in Dorothy’s journey down the Yellow Brick Road. This talk explores the enduring questions at the heart of Oz: What do we truly need? What makes a community? Who holds power, and why? Along the way, we’ll consider why a Kansas farm girl, a mysterious wizard, and a land filled with witches and talking animals still have so much to teach us about being human.
Clare Dygert – AI Learning Systems Architect and fractional Chief Learning Strategist who has been in the workforce since 1978 — same year as the first test-tube baby, Space Invaders, and Grease. She has spent most of the intervening decades designing how people learn at work, from Fortune 500s to municipal government, and now thinks a lot about how humans and machines think together — which is either the most interesting question of our era or a very elaborate excuse to talk to her computer while walking in circles around her house. (She walks 5–10 miles a day, indoors, dictating. The floor has opinions.) She’s the author of the white papers The Space Between and Flow Like the River, and lives in Winston-Salem.
Team Cognition, or: How to Have a Team That Doesn’t Suck:
You’ve been on the good ones. You’ve been on the bad ones. Odds are you blamed the bad ones on the people. But usually the people aren’t the problem — the architecture is. Teams that work share mental models, distribute memory across each other, and build small rituals that let a group actually think together. Teams that don’t, don’t. Clare will show you what cognitive scientists have figured out about how this works, why bad teams fail in predictable ways, and what to do about it before Monday. Plus: what happens when the teammate you’re thinking with isn’t human.
Kaitlin Sands, Ph.D – Psychology researcher and science educator whose work explores how children learn, think, and engage with the world around them. She earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Texas at Dallas, where she conducted research on child development, science learning, problem-solving, and early STEM education. Kaitlin has worked in educational program evaluation, research, and informal science education. Currently, Kaitlin develops and facilitates hands-on learning experiences for children at Kaleideum.
Can You Smell the Bullshit?:
An entertaining tour of the science behind bullshit detection, critical thinking, and our lifelong struggle to tell sense from nonsense. This talk will explore what makes nonsense claims sound meaningful, why some people are more susceptible to believing bullshit than others, and give you an opportunity to test your own bullshit-calling skills.
Matt Brady – Your Nerd Nite Co-Boss is here to make science feel a little smarter, a little weirder, and a lot more fun. He has spent nearly three decades blending science, storytelling, and pop culture—basically proving that learning sticks better when it involves superheroes, sci-fi, or the occasional existential cartoon.
The Storyteller’s Superpower
Discover why stories are the oldest technology we have—and still the most powerful tool in our human toolkit. In this talk, we’ll dive into the neuroscience of narrative, the role stories played in shaping our species, and why they remain our superpower in an AI‑driven world that’s trying very hard to out‑story us.
Jeremy Whitson Phd – Assistant Professor Biology at High Point University
The Eye as a Window to Aging: The crystalline lens of the eye is much more than it appears. It represents millions of years of evolution to perfectly focus light and remain transparent. Could this unique ability hold the secrets to understanding how we age?
Jeremy teaches Human Physiology, Medieval and Early Modern Medicine and Science and Misinformation of Public Health Claims.
Caitlyn Avery – Marketing professional by day and Anime and Warrior Cats expert by night.
Anime 101: Anime is not as confusing as the internet would have you believe.
Caitlyn is armed with years of fandom experience and just enough PowerPoint confidence to be dangerous. She’s ready to prove that anime isn’t nearly as complicated as you think.
Michael Morin – Executive Director of RiverRun International Film Festival
Beyond “If you Build It, They Will Come” – Just because you invite them, doesn’t mean your audience will automatically show up.
Michael has over 20 years of experience at the intersection of film, music and live events. Join us for his insight in how to curate an audience by designing human connection.
Mark Chappell PhD – Professor of Hypertension and Surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Snakes, Hypertension and FDR: A Brief History of Cardiovascular Disease
Mark is professor of Surgery and Hypertension at Wake Forest University School of Medicine shares an eye opening talk on the history of cardiovascular disease, new treatments and weird facts.
Alyssa Columbo MD – Resident Physician at Wake Forest University
Evolution Gone Wrong: Weird,Wacky, and Unusual Traits That Make Us Who We Are.
Like any great design, the human body has its flaws. What makes back pain so common? Why do humans menstruate, when most other mammals don’t? And why is it that so many of us need glasses? Believe it or not, many of these flaws helped our ancestors survive. Take a deep dive into human anatomy and evolution and compare how other species solve similar issues – then decide who did it best!
Campbell Thompson – Financial Planner with Edward Jones
It’s Not Space X: Simple Investing Thoughts
Have you ever wondered how to prepare, when you should sell or buy stocks or how to best secure your retirement? Join Campbell for a no nonsense primer on investing 101.
We are Nerd Nite Winston-Salem! Coming to you from the heart of downtown W-S hosted by Kaleideum.
Join us June 5 at 6pm for an entertaining night of science, art and pop culture.
Speaker Line up for June 5, 6 pm
Karri Adams – Leader of Learning Technology and Global Education at Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine
Not That Kind of Doctor:Country Roots, Classroom Creds, and Why I Still Belong
A first-generation Southerner with an Ed.D. (YES. It’s real) shares how teaching, twang, and resilience—not lab skills—carved a place in science, proving belonging isn’t about fitting molds but owning who you are fully.
Dean Wilcox – Professor of Theatre History, Dramatic Literature, and Humanities
Malfunction Junction, What’s Your Function? Ruminating on Glitch and Circuit Bending:
Machines don’t always do what we want them to do, which can be frustrating, but intentionally causing them to malfunction can create all sorts of interesting unpredictable outcomes. This talk will use a brief history of sound mangling to focus on the indeterminacy of glitch (the sound of a misbehaving compact disc) and circuit bending (the deliberate rewiring of toys and other battery-driven noise makers).
Jamie Ryan – High School English Teacher and Pop Culture Maven
Universal Monsters v. Fiction (aka, For the last time: Frankenstein is the Scientist, not the Creation, dammit!):
An in depth look at how the classic Universal marvel films vary from their source materials and why those changes were made.
