With the start of the spring 2019 semester comes the announcement of two new speakers for the College of Science Discover Science Lecture Series. The series will wrap up its ninth season of bringing the country's top scientists to the University of Nevada, Reno to share their knowledge, research and wisdom with the community.

"Science encompasses a wonderfully diverse collection of explorations into the unknown," Jeff Thompson, Dean of the College of Science said. "We invite science lovers and the science-curious to join us and experience the extent of the science universe as the best scientists on the planet visit the University of Nevada, Reno for our Discover Science Lecture Series

Dr. Karen Lloyd, March 14

First up for the spring speakers is Dr. Karen Lloyd, deep surface microbiologist, on March 14. Lloyd will present her lecture titled "Microbes in weird places: what life is like in the deep Earth."

"We do not currently know how deep life extends into the Earth's crust," Lloyd said. "A major discovery in the past few decades has been that microbial life is abundant and diverse deep into sediments and crust underneath the world's oceans."

Lloyd studies these novel groups of microbes in Earth's deep surface biosphere, collecting them from disparate remote places such as Arctic fjords, volcanoes in Costa Rica, even deep in mud in the Marianas Trench.

Lloyd is an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Tennessee. Lloyd has participated in six oceanographic cruises and served as a scientific leader for six coastal field expeditions. Honored as a 2015 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Ocean Sciences, Lloyd is actively involved in DCO's field investigation "Biology meets Subduction," helping to lead many early career scientists in a multi-disciplinary sampling expedition.

Dr. Robert "Bob" Zeigler, April 25

Second in the Spring series is Dr. Robert "Bob" Zeigler, Director of the International Rice Institute and plant pathologist, on April 25. Zeigler has more than 30 years of experience in agricultural research in the developing world, and his lecture titled "Science and policy: the Yin and Yang dynamic of global food security" will explore how science, technology and public policy are in a constant state of flux - a Yin and Yang like dance, as he describes it. From the onset of the Green Revolution of the 1950s - the large increase in crop production in developing countries achieved by the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and high-yield crop varieties - to now, advancements in agriculture technology have shaped our modern understanding of food security in the developing world.

Zeigler's professional life spans Africa, Latin America, United States and Asia. He has had a productive research career on diseases of rice that focused on host-plant resistance, pathogen and vector population genetics, and their interactions to develop durable resistance and sustainable disease management practices.

Discover Science lectures are always free to the public. They are held at 7 p.m. in the Redfield Auditorium inside the Davidson Mathematics and Science Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. Free parking for the event is available on the top level of the Brian J. Whalen Parking Complex on North Virginia Street, next to the E.L. Wiegand Fitness Center. For more information, call 775-784-4591 or visit the Discover Science Lecture Series website.