Join us in celebrating 8 years of nerding out together in Miami!!
Presentations begin at 7:30pm sharp at Gramps Bar, Wynwood
Line up:
“Cryoablation: Putting the Freeze on Breast Cancer”
Breast cancer cryoablation is an outpatient minimally invasive nonsurgical alternative to treating breast cancer using ultrafreezing temperatures to kill tumor cells using a needle inserted through a tiny 3mm skin incision in the breast. We will discuss this innovative technology with how it works, real life examples, its current status and indications, and ongoing research.
Bio: Dr. Michael J. Plaza is a breast radiologist and breast interventional oncologist. He graduated from Wake Forest University School of Medicine followed by residency training in diagnostic radiology at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital. He is fellowship trained in breast imaging and intervention which was completed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2013. He is a pioneer in breast cryoablation and performed the first breast cancer cryoablation in South Florida in 2017. He is a private practice radiologist for Diagnostic Center for Women and Alfa Diagnostics and holds academic appointments with FIU and LECOM training medical students and resident physicians. He is a fellow of the Society of Breast Imaging and has worked on multiple national multicenter clinical trials including FROST, ECOG-ACRIN 1141, and the WISDOM study.
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“Salsa: A dance, a language, a passion”
by Ana Zangroniz
(presenting remotely)
Salsa dancing has been a major pillar in Ana’s life for more than 20 years. Join us as she takes you on an abbreviated tour of her journey as well as learn about the life lessons she has taken away from her relationship with the dance.
Ana began salsa dancing in 2001 while attending Rochester Institute of Technology. Ana travels the world to dance but her favorite places to dance and teach are NY and DC. While in DC, Ana danced and performed with the Clave Kazi training team and taught classes in with Hector Chavez’ company, Latin Dance Vibe.
To support her beloved dog, Pilon (not Bustelo) and her travel/dancing addiction, Ana serves as the Florida Sea Grant Extension Agent for the University of Florida/IFAS Extension Service in Miami-Dade County. She can also be found scuba diving in the waters of Biscayne National Park.
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“How To Sell Drugs: An inside look at the weird world of pharmaceutical naming”
by Alexa Lash
Have you ever wondered who creates those crazy drug names you see on the market? Ever try to understand why are there so many strange letter combinations? What is UP with all those X’s and Z’s? A branding expert will give you a new creative pill to swallow: how pharmaceutical brand names are created.
Alexa Lash is Senior Vice President, Creative Nomenclature and former head of the creative department at Brand Institute, a naming agency based out of Miami, Florida – a job she balances with her career as a musician. She has worked in pharmaceutical naming for over nine years, and in that time, has worked on thousands of brand naming projects, with some notable names you may have seen in commercials (but hopefully never had to take!).
Nerd Nite Miami
Presentations begin at 7:30pm sharp at Gramps Bar, Wynwood
“Opera: What it takes, how it started, and how it’s going”
by Amanda Crider
Mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider has performed leading roles with Los Angeles Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, among others. She has been a soloist with organizations such as Calgary Philharmonic, Apollo’s Fire, International Contemporary Ensemble, New World Symphony and is a core member of the GRAMMY® nominated ensemble Seraphic Fire. Amanda is also the Artistic Director of the Miami based concert series, IlluminArts.
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“If You Build It They Will Come”
by Gaby Fernandez
Gaby Fernandez, founder of the “Front Yard Theater Collective,” shares the story of how she and her posse created an innovative alternative to traditional theater.
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“The Other Blue Jay”
by Elizabeth Lago
Elizabeth A. Lago is a Biological Science Technician working on Cape Canaveral Space Force Station working with Florida Scrub-jays, sea turtles, gopher tortoises, and southeastern beach mice. She has worked on land and sea with protected species for more than 10 years. She will be presenting “The Other Blue Jay” to discuss the history and current status of the Florida Scrub-jay. Audiences will get to learn about the scrub-jay’s cooperative strategy and decide whether they have millennial or Hispanic tendencies.
Join us August 11th at Gramps for more thinking and drinking.
This month’s speakers and topics:
“How Knitters Saved the World”
by Francesca Mamlin and Jessidee Valdes
To many, knitting seems like simply a hobby associated mostly with old ladies and the importance of knitting is lost on many in a world where clothing is mass-produced in factories. But if you ask a soldier from the trenches of WWI, you may hear how hand-knit socks meant everything as soldiers were dying in the thousands from trench-foot. Settlers heading to the unpopulated American West were hard at work to clothe themselves and their families in a new, wild world. The Daughters of the Revolution in France knit at the base of the guillotine, and women in the colonial United States knit hand-spun wool to support a boycott of British textiles. The spirit of hand-makers lives on today as knitters create blankets for refugees, clothes for premie babies, and caps for people undergoing chemo. Knitters clothe the homeless, bring communities together, and disrupt the obsession with fast-fashion. Making things by hand has been and always will bring empowerment to a community. This talk is about how it has happened in the past, and how it can happen in the future.
Bio: Francesca Mamlin decided to call Miami her home last year after many years backpacking around the world and living abroad. In January, she created the Knitters of Miami Meetup group so she could connect with fellow fiber-enthusiasts. She learned how to knit from a neighbor when she was a child, but it was just in the past few years that she discovered her passion for the hobby. During the day, she works as a podcast producer and she knits just about every moment her hands are free.
Bio: Jessidee Valdes was raised in Miami and has been crocheting & knitting ever since her Great Grandmother taught her when she was five, but still considers herself an advanced beginner knitter. During the week she works from home as an IT Project Manager and on the weekends at Biscayne National Park as a Naturalist on Snorkeling Tours. The best part is that in both jobs she gets to knit while working, either during zoom meeting or when people are snorkeling the Florida Reef.
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“American Sublime: a partial history of landscape images that define our identity”
by Pete Wintersteen
The sublime as an aesthetic and philosophical concept has been studied and debated since ancient times, but its evolution in relation to the American Landscape evolved after the Industrial Revolution. From 19th century oil paint masterpieces to the latest Instagram #sunset, there is more behind every image than you may know.
Bio: From US Marine to wildlife researcher to artist and conservationist, Pete Wintersteen has spent his life traversing many landscapes in many facets. While pursuing his MFA in visual art, he sought (often surreptitiously) to find the aesthetic side of uranium mines and prospects in the American West, which are sprinkled among some of the oldest records of human culture and presence in North America.
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“Underdeck”
by Lisa Martinez
“The Underdeck” is a 33-acre public space that will be developed, under a reconstructed I-395, as a part of the “Signature Bridge” project. The Signature Bridge project is a partnership between the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the City of Miami. The Underdeck originates in Overtown and extends to Biscayne Bay near the Perez Art Museum Miami. Upon completion, the space will have a significant amount of green space and will also contain community based programming such as a heritage trail, legacy wall, pedestrian bridge, water fountains, plazas, recreation spaces, installations and concessions, among other features.
Come join us for a beer, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds.
Every second Thursday of the month at Gramps!
This month’s speakers are:
“The Making of Awesome: Participatory Public Art at Vizcaya” by Rebecca Peterson (nerd boss)
At Vizcaya, being a community resource means including the community in the creation of Awesome. Awesome art, awesome stories, awesome experiences. We all know where it starts, but the community decides where it ends. It means handing over the story, handing over the control, handing over agency to the community. The result: the art becomes the community’s; the story becomes the community’s; Vizcaya becomes the community’s. And it’s awesome.
Bio: Rebecca Peterson is the Community Programs Manager at Vizcaya Museum & Gardens and a Boss of Nerd Nite Miami.
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“Sound Visualization” by Matt Laskowski
The “Professor” (Matt Laskowski) developed a fondness for twiddling synthesizers knobs. Thursday you will *see* sound and get a feel for what happens when waves crash together. Drink ticket prizes if you do well on the “Quiz”!
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“MORAES” by TJ Morrell
MORAES is a nonprofit organization started here in Miami by some environmental nerds. TJ will dive into their project, some of the research they’re doing here in South Florida, and how people can get involved. But more importantly MORAES has been an example of going after something you want, and realizing the hardest part of any goal, project, or ambition is truly the first step.
Bio: TJ Morrell has been working in the marine science field here in South Florida for the past ten years. From working as a fisheries observer on commercial longline boats, to tagging Great White sharks in South Africa, to monitoring sea turtle nests on Virginia Key, to now working as the Science and Education Specialist for The Billfish Foundation, my passions have been focused on the ocean, the environment, and conservation and doing it all with a smile.