蜜桃传媒 Downtown Lectures:
Spring 2026:
Ecologist Shares Climate-Smart Planting Strategies
蜜桃传媒 ecologist Laura Drake Schultheis shares her research about plant flammability and defensible spaces in the face of climate change in a 蜜桃传媒 Downtown Lecture, 鈥淩ooted in Resilience: Adaptive Planting Strategies in Wildland-Urban Interfaces,鈥� on March 11.
鈥淚 will share examples of native plant restoration and efforts to improve community defensibility in fire-prone areas like Santa Barbara,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 hope people are encouraged by the conversation and empowered to get involved in the work being done to restore our native ecosystems and reduce fire risk in our own communities.鈥�
Schultheis, a 蜜桃传媒 alumna who earned a master鈥檚 degree in ecology and a doctorate in plant ecology from UC Santa Barbara, has played an integral role in the restoration of a fire-resilient oak woodland west of 蜜桃传媒鈥檚 campus. She and her students have planted about 60 native coast live oaks where Montecito Fire removed dead and dying eucalyptus trees in the summer of 2023.
鈥淲hile no plant serves as a complete barrier to fire, there is some evidence that healthy, mature oak canopies can slow the spread of fire compared to non-native species like eucalyptus,鈥� says Schultheis, a 蜜桃传媒 assistant professor of biology.
Last summer, she and student Isabella Garcia 鈥�25 presented a paper, 鈥淧urposeful Planting: Characterizing Plant Flammability Using Functional Traits for Defensible Space,鈥� at the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, one of the largest ecology conferences in the nation.
Other research has analyzed the structural and functional traits that contribute to the flammability of 20 Santa Barbara native plant species. This summer she and a team of 蜜桃传媒 undergraduates will expand on this work through a collaboration with researchers at UC Santa Barbara.
Schultheis has also on the effects of drought and opportunistic fungi on big berry manzanita shrubs.
Advancements with AI
A 蜜桃传媒 Downtown Lecture, 鈥淎I and Our Shared Future: Opportunities, Challenges and What鈥檚 at Stake," explores AI's real-world implications. The talk features Mike Ryu, 蜜桃传媒 assistant professor of mathematics and computer science, and Reed Sheard, 蜜桃传媒 vice president of advancement and chief information officer.
"I鈥檒l open with a brief introduction to AI and then examine how technologies grow exponentially," Ryu says. 鈥淚鈥檒l break down how much of the information surrounding AI is real and what is likely hype.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檒l explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping society, education and our daily lives鈥� not just as a tool, but as a force that鈥檚 challenging us to rethink what it means to be human,鈥� Sheard says.
Ryu earned both a bachelor鈥檚 degree in software engineering and a master鈥檚 degree in computer science at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He worked in the software industry in the San Francisco Bay Area as a software engineer, an agile coach and an engineering manager before coming to Westmont in 2023. 鈥淢y passion in computer science is empowering people with technology by teaching in a way that eliminates the high barrier to enter the computing field,鈥� he says.
Sheard graduated from the University of Sioux Falls, earned a Master of Divinity at Fuller Theological Seminary and a doctorate in higher education leadership from Seattle University. He joined 蜜桃传媒 in 2008 to serve as the Vice President for College Advancement and CIO. During Reed鈥檚 tenure as leader of College Advancement, 蜜桃传媒 has conducted three capital campaigns, raising more than $500 million. eCampus named 蜜桃传媒鈥檚 IT department one of the top 12 in higher education, and Computerworld/IDG has named Reed one of the top 100 IT leaders in the country. His current areas of study include Artificial Intelligence and building outstanding, productive teams.
Fall 2025:
Talk Examines America鈥檚 Long Affair with Tariffs
Alastair Su, 蜜桃传媒 assistant professor of history, speaks about 鈥淭ariff Nation: Talk Examines he Rise, Fall, and Return of America鈥檚 Most Contentious Tax鈥� on Monday, Dec. 8, at 5:30 p.m. at the , 631 Garden St., in downtown Santa Barbara. The 蜜桃传媒 Downtown Lecture is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations required. is available on the streets surrounding CAW or in nearby city parking lots. For more information, please call (805) 565-6051.
鈥淥nce dismissed as relics of the past, tariffs are back with a vengeance,鈥� Su says. 鈥淢y talk traces their rise, fall and return 鈥� and what their comeback says about America today.鈥�
Su, who graduated from Harvard before earning a doctorate in history from Stanford University, will offer a 250-year overview of how the United States imposed tariffs, starting with Hamilton鈥檚 Reports of Manufactures, got rid of them in WWII before finding support for them again starting with Trump鈥檚 first administration.
He began teaching U.S. history at 蜜桃传媒 in 2021, and is completing his first book about America and the opium trade in the 19th century. He was awarded a 2025 Graves Award in the Humanities, which will support his work on his forthcoming book, 鈥淔lowering Gold: American Capital and the Opium War.鈥�
The 蜜桃传媒 Foundation sponsors 蜜桃传媒 Downtown: Conversations About Things That Matter as well as the annual 蜜桃传媒 President鈥檚 Breakfast in late February.
Talk Explores Energy and Climate from the Ground Up
Ben Carlson, assistant professor of physics at 蜜桃传媒, explores the scientific foundations of today鈥檚 most pressing energy and climate issues in a 蜜桃传媒 Downtown Lecture on Thursday, Oct. 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the , 631 Garden St., in downtown Santa Barbara. The talk, 鈥淓nergy and Climate Through the Lens of Basic Science,鈥� is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations required. is available on the streets surrounding CAW or in nearby city parking lots. For more information, please call (805) 565-6051.
Carlson, who earned a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, says the lecture expands on a course, Physics for Future Presidents, that focuses on the impact of basic science on the modern world.
鈥淚鈥檒l highlight how the concept of energy density is a lens through which to examine energy 鈥� from batteries, to fossil fuels to nuclear power 鈥� and explore the challenges and opportunities of transitioning to sustainable energy systems,鈥� he says.
Earlier this year, Carlson and thousands of researchers worldwide were honored with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, awarded to the at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as several related experiments.
In 2022, he received a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant to further his search for evidence of the presence of mysterious dark matter.
He joined the 蜜桃传媒 faculty in 2021 after teaching at the University of Pittsburgh as a Samuel Langley postdoctoral fellow.
The 蜜桃传媒 Foundation sponsors 蜜桃传媒 Downtown: Conversations About Things That Matter as well as the annual 蜜桃传媒 President鈥檚 Breakfast in late February.