Integrated Calendar

Introduction: Bianca Jones Marlin, Ph.D. is a neuroscientist and Herbert and Florence Irving Assistant Professor of Cell Research at the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University in New York City. Her research investigates how organisms unlock innate behaviors at appropriate times, and how learned information is passed to subsequent generations via transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Dr. Marlin combines neural imaging, behavior, and molecular genetics to uncover how learned behavior in the parent can become innate behavior in the offspring— work that promises to make a profound impact on societal brain health, mental well-being, and parenting. For more information about Dr. Marlin, visit www.biancajonesmarlin.com

I will present three deep learning algorithms for registering 3D point clouds in different settings.
The first is designed to find a rigid transformation between point clouds and is based on
the concept of best buddies similarity. The second algorithm offers a fast method for non-rigid
dense correspondence between point clouds based on structured shape construction.
Finally, I extend the second algorithm to handle scene flow estimation that can be learned on a small amount
of data without employing ground-truth flow supervision.

Rhodopsins are photoreceptive membrane proteins containing a retinal chromophore in animals and microbes. Animal and microbial rhodopsins possess 11-cis and all-trans retinal, respectively, and undergo isomerization into all-trans and 13-cis retinal by light. While animal rhodopsins are G protein coupled receptors, the function of microbial rhodopsins is highly divergent, including light-driven ion pumps, light-gated ion channels, photosensors, and light-activated enzymes. Microbial rhodopsins have been the main tools in optogenetics.
Function of rhodopsins starts in 10-15 sec, and activation of rhodopsins occurs in the protein environment that has been optimized during evolution (1015 sec). We thus need various methods to understand these events of 30 orders of magnitude in time. We have studied molecular mechanism of rhodopsins by use of spectroscopic methods. Using ultrafast spectroscopy, we showed the primary event in our vision being retinal photoisomerization. In rhodopsins, photoisomerization of retinal, the shape-changing reaction, occurs even at 77 K. Using low-temperature infrared spectroscopy, we detected protein-bound water molecules of rhodopsins before X-ray crystallography. Detailed vibrational analysis provided structural information such as our color discrimination mechanism.
I will talk about our spectroscopic study of animal and microbial rhodopsins. Recent unexpected findings such as unusual isomerization pathways and temperature effects are also presented.

Since 1970, the University of Rochester and other laboratories around the world have
built more energetic and more powerful lasers. These technology advances have enabled new
science regimes. Fifty years later, fusion ignition has been achieved in the laboratory ,
where more energy than the laser energy was released ; an amazing demonstration of precision
science under extreme conditions.Astrophysics is now a laboratory science-new equations of
state, constitutive properties and structures are measured at conditions equivalent to giant gas
planets and super earths. Ultrashort pulse lasers, a LLE invention acknowledged in the 2018
Nobel Prize for Physics, is enabling ultrahigh field physics and new generations of particle
accelerators and light sources. Recent progress on ignition, high-energy-density science and
short-pulse laser physics will be summarized. The pursuit of direct-drive fusion and the path
to 25 Petawatt lasers will be discussed.