Welcome, nerds of all kinds, to the third ever Nerd Nite Baltimore! Nerd Nite (in over 90 cities around the world!) combines imbibing and learning. Anyone with a passion can be a Nerd Nite speaker!
Join us for a night of educational drinking! Nerd Nite Baltimore is a bi-monthly event held at a local bar where information combines wth fun. Talks at Nerd Nite are typically 20 minutes with a rollicking Q&A afterward.
The barkeeps at De Kleine Duivel will keep your glasses full of delightful Belgian beer & spirits. (This is a 21 and over venue.)
This May we have three AWESOME speakers lined up for your entertainment:
Topic #1:
Behind the Scenes of the International Space Station (ISS)
Courtney McManus
We all know that there are people living up in space, but did you know there are people working 24/7 on the ground to keep it going around and around? Take a journey behind the scenes at Mission Control for the International Space Station and see what it takes to keep all those systems ‘go’!
About Courtney:
Currently an Integration and Test engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope here in Baltimore, formerly a Flight Controller for the ISS down in Houston.
Topic #2:
San Quentin State Prison: Amazing Real Estate, Historical Fort and Dungeon and oh yeah a Prison
Cat Aboudara
Did you know SQ is the oldest prison in California? Or that an ambulance comes through at midnight after an execution is administered? That behind its gates is the least visited museum, complete with confiscated shifts and tattoo guns? That when Metallica visited they could be heard playing a mile away? (They totally did that on purpose). Learn from a former tourist who spent a great deal of time with the locals. And of course, she will play Johnny Cash’s San Quentin because she heard a ton about that particular concert.
About Cat:
Cat Aboudara spent six years (give or take as she didn’t sleepover) in San Quentin State Prison working with violent offenders. The museum behind the gates and its curator inspired her to become a museum geek, which she’s been ever since she “got out”.
Topic #3:
Un-bee-knownst: The uncelebrated natural history of Apis mellifera
Eli McComb
Honey, comb on over and hear this nerd wax on about the nuanced life of a honeybee. From the genetics of the castes, to the queen’s need to brainwash, to the multifaceted relationship with flowers, the life of nature’s favorite social insect life is much more fantastic than we could have ever imagined.
About Eli:
Eli McComb is a Laboratory Technician at the Institute for Genome Sciences at University of Maryland Baltimore. Eli came to unorthodox pioneer urban beekeeping during the genesis of American University’s Beekeeping Society in Washington D.C. His scientific advocacy of Apis mellifera expanded to shifts in the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. His a project on the honeybee gut microbiome has steered him to microbiome research here in Baltimore.