Lam Career Lecture Series

Dr. Joyce R. Blueford, Geologist

Thinking about being a Scientist, Engineer or Mathematician? Dr. Blueford will discuss the skills needed to "think" like one. The workshop will discuss why math is important, and how you can help the world through science. Students will be challenged to think to solve problems with a hands-on project.

As a scientist, Dr. Blueford worked on many projects that looked at understanding how sedimentary basins evolved through time. She worked in California, Alaska, and Russia. Her expertise is on radiolarian evolution during the Cenozoic. Radiolarians are protozoa that produce a siliceous skeleton of unimaginable beauty.

Dr. Blueford will also share her experience of how to increase science not only in this country but abroad. She will also provide students with ways in which they can help. She oversees the high school service learning projects and internship at the Math Science Nucleus.

What careers study evolution?

Evolution is a controversial topic because it is not hard solid fact. There is a lot of evidence that makes the theories of evolution valid but a conclusion or a law has not been yet made, and maybe it still won’t. The evidence that validates the theory of evolution is usually found by paleontologists, geologists, and anthropologists. They all study things that can help prove the evolution to be fact.

· A paleontologist studies prehistoric life, including organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments

· A geologist studies the solid Earth and the processes by which it evolves. Geology provides primary evidence for plate tectonics, the history of life and evolution, and past climates.

· An anthropologist studies humanity, including their culture, interaction, heritage, and much more. They study both current situations and ancient situations and try to analyze why certain things happened the way they did.