Nerds of Albuquerque: Join us for Nerd Nite #9 on January 9th!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture series that takes place in bars in 100+ cities around the world. And we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us to learn, laugh, and drink, on Thursday, January 9, at 7:00pm at the back of the downstairs bar area of the Tin Can Alley Food Hall.
Please note two important changes! 1. Date!!: This event will be on January 9th, the second Thursday in January, as opposed to our usual first Thursday of the month. Given it’s the day after New Years day, we wanted to give folks a bit of a break . 2. Location!!: Due to the cold, we will be trialing hosting this event at Tin Can Alley, located at 6110 Alameda Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113 . We’ll see how it goes at this new location, and may consider hosting there throughout the winter months, with a return to the outdoor space at Green Jeans when the weather warms up
Title: Structural Health Monitoring, AKA The Bridge Doctor
Blurb: We are experiencing a nationwide infrastructure crisis. In recent decades, infrastructure decay challenges, human and social behavior, urban and rural environmental changes, and natural disasters have increased in number, complexity, and frequency. Infrastructure designers and stakeholders need to understand, assess, and manage infrastructure more accurately, and faster. This nerd talk summarizes new research on Human-Infrastructure Interfaces (HII) advancing new bi-directional interfaces between human, machines, data, and infrastructure.
Bio: Dr. Fernando Moreu is an associate professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at UNM. Fernando Moreu is a professional engineer since 2010 and has participated in the design and construction of over thirty bridges in seven states in the Midwest. Fernando founded in 2015 the Smart Management of Infrastructure Laboratory (SMILab). SMILab advances new interfaces between humans, structures, and data across time and space using control, Augmented Reality, and AI.
Title: Critical Success: What D&D Can Teach Us About Strategic Planning
Blurb: Discover how planning and playing Dungeons & Dragons can enhance personal and professional growth. This talk explores goal setting, problem-solving, and collaboration through the lens of D&D, offering practical tools for success. Perfect for professionals and creatives, itâs a fresh take on using imagination to tackle real-world challenges.
Bio: Hayley Weir is a materials scientist, nuclear chemist, and wildlife ecologist who serves as operations chief for the Air Force Wildlife Management Team. A patented researcher and avid Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, she merges military strategy, scientific expertise, and creative storytelling to help others achieve their goals. Drawing from her unique career journey, she bridges the worlds of strategy, facilitation, and imagination, offering innovative tools for personal and professional success. Through her talks, Hayley inspires audiences to think creatively and approach challenges with precision, adaptability, and a storytellerâs vision.
Title: Make a connection with possibility.
Blurb: Join the Quest Master on an adventure that bridges imagination and reality! Consider how games and quests could be used to solve real-world problems and elevate human consciousness. Dive into a paradigm where fun, creativity, and purpose come together.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now weâve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, December 5th, at 7:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Title: Mastering the Atom: Nuclear Physics ĂĄ la Bill Nye
Blurb: Consider the following: one gram of Uranium-235, which would fit in a cube smaller than your pinky nail, creates enough fission energy to power your home for 2 years! So why is only 20% of the US power nuclear? How does fission work in the first place? What is radiation? Does uranium glow green? Whatâs the deal with nuclear waste? Can nuclear really help the climate? Discover all this and more as we journey through the quantum realm in homage to your favorite geeky scientist you watched in high school!
Bio: Dr Robert J Olesen earned his PhD in nuclear engineering in Dayton, Ohio, where he patented a novel radiation camera and developed a neural network-based radiation image processor. He has a passion for community, a love of hosting karaoke, and a drive to explore, learn, and share everyoneâs unique expertise!
Title: Futures: From Speculation to Reality (or Not)
Blurb: From “Minority Report” demonstrating a cool but unsustainable computer interface to a US president changing foreign policy after watching “Wargames”, possible futures and their designs have been persuasive when experienced in action. Here weâll huddle over scenarios played out and dive into design fictions.
Bio: Susan Wilhite has collected a couple formal degrees in Socio-Cultural Anthropology, one from UNM. Her professional expertise is in describing evidence-based speculative futures among emerging technology ecosystems for Big Tech firms. She owns Shimoshi NM, a futures think tank, and is a 2024 Sustainable Urban Growth Fellow in Santa Fe. Fun Fact: Susan is noted for her performance of a 5.4 Moment Magnitude scale earthquake.
Title: AI for Humans: Because Robots Wouldnât Get the Jokes
Blurb: “Holy Sh!t, AI is amazing! Wait⌠what is it doing? Spoiler: please donât trust AI with anything too important (said every expert ever).” In this talk, Iâll take you on a rollercoaster ride of my personal discoveries with AIâwhat it is, what it isnât, and all the unexpected, often hilarious, missteps along the way. No tech background required! Weâll dive into real-world examples of AI in action (and occasionally inaction), break down the basics of how it works, and explore how the industry went from hype to⌠well, wherever we are now. Expect sarcasm, simplicity, and maybe even a few surprises about our so-called robot overlords.
Bio: William Tarkington has over 30 years of experience in security, with a specialized focus on the ever-evolving field of AI securityâor, as he likes to call it, âthe lack thereof.â A seasoned expert in navigating the intricacies of both traditional and emerging technologies, William combines deep technical knowledge with a healthy dose of skepticism. Whether heâs addressing cybersecurity threats or exploring the quirks of AI, William brings a unique perspective shaped by decades of firsthand experience and a passion for making complex topics accessible (and entertaining) to all.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now weâve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, September 5th, at 8:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Title: Albuquerque’s Wild Past
Blurb: Albuquerque has a weird and whacky past, from the governor lying about it being founded in 1706 to a later mayor getting the word “ain’t” in the dictionary, and all the buffoonery in between. Joe Hall-Patton recounts several of these stories that lend the city its unique character.
Speaker: Joseph Hall-Patton is an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico and a public historian. He specializes in southwestern American violence during the frontier period, having written a dissertation called ââGreat Excitementâ: Violent Incorporations of the American Southwest.â He runs the Cynical Historian, which is most prominent on YouTube, where he publishes regular video essays about historical topics.
Title: Deep in your Genes
Blurb: Intergenerational trauma. What is it? How does it affect you, without your even knowing? How can you understand and overcome it, and how can you become a cycle breaker?
Speaker: Rebecca Sonnenberg is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in the state of New Mexico. Rebecca has a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Minor in Psychology. She also obtained a Masters Degree in Social Work. Rebecca is certified in trauma focused therapy as well as various other certifications. Rebecca owns Waves Behavioral Health and has a non profit The Lotus Affect. She also co-produces the podcast What in the Actual Mental Health.
Title: From  to : The Secret Lives of Emoji
Blurb: Whether we’re dropping a , a , or a , we use emoji every day. But do you really know where these little “picture characters” come from? Spoiler alert: itâs much weirder than you think!  Join us on a wild ride through the cultural quirks, historical twists, and oddly technical committee debates that brought us the emojiverse. Discover the eyebrow-raising origins of your favorite emoji (looking at you,  MAN IN SUIT LEVITATING  ), the hours-long meetings that decided the fate of  ANGRY PILE OF POO , and one determined woman’s quest to give the world the  DUMPLING  emoji. We’ll end with a call to action: how we can get the  HOT AIR BALLOON  emoji we so sorely need here in Albuquerque.
Speaker: By night, Nat Baca is a co-boss of Nerd Nite Albuquerque, but by day, he works as a director of engineering for the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind Wikipedia. In addition to being a current delegate to the Unicode Consortium (the standards body that governs emoji), Nat was an engineer on the team at Apple that introduced the emoji keyboard. He enjoys internet lore, learning languages, and gratuitous emoji tableaux.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends, and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, August 8th, at 8:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Title: Aging – A curable disease?
Blurb: The quest for immortality has been one that humans have long sought after with few results. Recently, critical scientific discoveries have shown that aging can be altered both genetically and pharmaceutically. What could this mean for human lifespan?
Speaker: Olivia Heath, PhD canddiate studying aging in the McCormick Lab, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UNM
Title: Education Outcomes and Card Games
Blurb: Card games provide a unique avenue for reading comprehension for technical fields.
Speaker: Craig Turpin has been an informal Yugioh judge, and played Magic the Gathering for many years. He became particularly interested in the benefits after becoming a lawyer and seeing how early exposure to cards games increases reading comprehension, logic connection-making, and simple arithmetic.
Title: Beavers Will Eat Your Shorts
Blurb: North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is a keystone species that can help humans deal with all kinds of environmental problems, like water supply, water pollution, drought, flooding, wildfire and wildlife habitat. This talk begins with some fiction and factoids about streams and beavers in New Mexico, then veers east all the way to Europe where beaver fur was fashioned into fancy felt hats. The story comes back to Idaho where beavers once zoomed around in helicopters and more recently McMansions jeopardized the nationâs wetlands. In New Mexico we look at how we are helping beavers thrive by planting lots of willows, constructing human-beaver coexistence structures, building faux beaver dams and putting wood back in streams.
Speaker: Karen Menetrey (she/her) is living a self-directed life and striving to reach her full potential after a career as a state employee. Following 30 years in water resource programs, she went to work for Rio Grande Return, a non-profit organization that revitalizes damaged ecosystems using low tech processed-based restoration methods. That means they build stuff with plants and sticks and rocks. Karen is an inchoate Canadian and her hobbies include bird watching, not standing up on a stand-up paddle board, talking about fly fishing, and fermenting things. Ever since she went to adult circus camp she has been practicing alternately exposing and suppressing her inner clown.
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, July 11th, at 8:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Title: Imagining the Future of Public Transportation in Albuquerque: Current Plans and Future Dreams
Blurb: What kind of public transportation system does Albuquerque deserve to meet the current and future needs for our community? Come hear about some short-term plans in the works, some future concepts professionals near and far are dreaming about for our region, and learn more about how you can get involved in transit decision-making and help our dreams become a reality today.
Speaker: Althea Atherton (they/them) is a public transit enthusiast and community organizer with a passion for imagining better worlds. When not daydreaming about the future of our planet, they are spending time with their one-year-old, engaging in a public meeting, or studying Geography. Althea serves on the City of Albuquerqueâs Transit Advisory Board, the Victory Hills Neighborhood Association, the Strong Towns ABQ leadership team, and the District 6 Coalition.
Title: I Reread Homestuck So You Donât Have To.
Blurb: From 2009 to 2016, during the golden years of Tumblr fandom culture, a quirky little webcomic rose to Flash animated infamy. It would be called many things: 8000 pages of steaming garbage, a revolutionary masterpiece of absurdity, just ok I guess, and the eraâs most iconic piece of internet culture. But most people just called it Homestuck.
Speaker: Aidan Manning is our resident environmental science nerd and ex-Tumblr girly. They like nice smooth rocks, two thousand mile hikes, overly complex RPG rule systems, 200k word slow burn friends-to-enemies-to-lovers wizard fan fiction, and drinking 4 or 5 La Croix a day instead of going to therapy. And while they are now a pitiful little adult pawn under the grinding wheel of capitalism, they enjoy keeping with the old texts of internet fandom and preserving the noble traditions born therefrom.
Title: A short (and opinionated) history of DJ culture: from fringe to fame
Blurb: Some people call all electronic dance music âtechnoâ and think of the DJ as the superstar in front of thousands of people at music festivals, but the origins of the global DJ and their many sub-genres of dance music are a lot more complex, and a lot more underground. The club DJ as a concept has a long and winding journey that began way back in 1943 and goes through gay clubs and illegal warehouse raves to the mainstream global events of today.
Speaker: Andy Torres is our resident co-host of Nerd Nite Albuquerque. In addition to being a local artist, he is a DJ that has played in clubs throughout the US, and Costa Rica, going by the name DJ andyredrum. He loves video games, science fiction movies, popcorn, red wine, baseball, and cats.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us the first Thursday of every month to learn, laugh, and drink. Our next event is on Thursday, May 2, at 7:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall.
Nerd Nite #3 has the loose theme of: “Hard to Find” – things that are difficult to locate in one way or another, unless you know where to look, of course!
Talk #1: Native Americans in Comic Books Description: A discussion of common Indigenous stereotypes & misrepresentation in American comics.
Speaker: Michael Sheyahshe is an enrolled tribal member of the Caddo Nation and author of âNative Americans in Comic Books: A Critical Studyâ. He has created comic book illustrations in various online and physical museum displays for the Smithsonian Institution’s NMAI and has been prominently featured in AH Comicsâ MOONSHOT: The Indigenous Comic Collection, volumes 1, 2, and 3, for which, Michael served as co-editor. He has created graphic novels as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime’s (OVC) Child Victims and Witnesses Support Materials, which provide age-appropriate resources to support children and youth during their involvement with the justice system as a victim or witness to a crime. Michael has also served as Cultural Consultant for Darkhorse Comics.
Talk #2: There is (not enough) Water Underground: examining Aquifer Storage and Recovery in New Mexico with a little help from Talking Heads’ seminal 1984 album, Stop Making Sense Description: Let me tell you a story–New Mexico is letting the days go by without sufficient underground water storage. We will discuss how to burn down the metaphoric house of our statutory and regulatory norms and envision other potential futures for the utility of aquifer storage and recovery. There’s a million ways to get things done, join me as we think about groundwater reform in New Mexico.
Speaker: Rin Tara is interested in water both professionally and recreationally. They serve as staff attorney and water policy and governance analyst for the Utton Center at the University of New Mexico. When not sitting at a desk and writing about water, you can find them lying in the river, cycling near a river, or hiking somewhere with absolutely no water of any kind.
Talk #3: “Oâ, Really? Hitting the Spots Between Orgasm Fact and Fiction Description: Description: OrgasmsâŚweâre told we should have one every time we have sex, and that they should happen only with penetration and that mine should happen at the exact time as my partner has theirs and that it should resemble a grand mal seizure on top of drenched sheets. Thatâs a whole lot of âshouldsââŚand theyâre all inaccurate. Join me while we thrust our way through myths and misconceptions around orgasm gaps, notions of casual sex and coregasmsâŚto name a few.
Speaker: Lindsay Thorsen is a Doctor of Physical Therapy who specializes in pelvic floor physical therapy (think PT for your private parts). A life long âsex nerdâ, she is âedgingâ her career to focus on all things sexual dysfunction related. Her goal in life and work is to improve the sexual literacy and health of her community.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Nerd Nite is a monthly lecture-in-a-bar series that takes place in 100+ cities around the world. And now we’ve got our very own Albuquerque chapter!
Join us to learn, laugh, and drink, on Thursday, April 4, at 7:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall, and thereafter the first Thursday of the month.
Nerd Nite #2 is entitled: “So You Thought You Knew…”. Our talks center around things that you may know a little bit about but which hide layers of meaning and depth.
Talk #1: Who the F*$# is Tom Bombadil?!
“Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow! Bright Blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow!” So we are introduced to this most mysterious and controversial character in Tolkien’s legendarium: Tom Bombadil. Theories abound as to who exactly Mr. Bombadil is, ranging from the banal to the crackpot theory that he may well be Jesus Christ. Join us as we explore them all in this Lord of the Rings investigation.
Speaker: Danny Tallon is a high school science teacher and community theater actor who just so happens to be a super-fan of Tolkien. If you don’t believe him, his license plate reads NOROLIM (which means “giddy-up!” in Elvish), and he ended his last best-man speech with an Elvish blessing that brought an “aww” to the audience. He believes that language and literature are vitally important for our culture, and he loves digging at works of fiction to see what truths are lying underneath. When he’s not over-analyzing every book he reads, he is an avid tabletop gamer, RPG game-master, and movie watcher.
Talk #2: ADHD: Mental Illness or Evolutionary Advantage?
ADHD is a many-faceted condition, and can look different in women and adolescent girls, making it harder to diagnose and understand. What is this condition exactly, and how can we know it when we see it? Hear about origins, diagnosis and fun facts about ADHD.
Speaker: Leyna Inberg works as a psychiatric consultant for Oak Street Health and is an instructor in their FNP fellowship program. She specializes in treating mood and psychotic disorders as well as ADHD in adults. Her Essay, “What It’s Like To Lose A Patient To Suicide As A Mental Health Professional” was published in the Huffington Post.
Talk #3: Bards, Bros, and Booze: A Toast to the Tang Troubadours
The bards of the Tang Dynasty (618 to 906 CE) wrote some of the most enduring poetry in all of Chinese history. These poems speak to the character of humanity and the nature of reality, the ephemerality of beauty and the vicissitudes of nature and fate. But most importantly, these guys liked to party. Carouse with them as they drink alone by moonlight, wake up after a night on the town in the middle of their neighbors’ fields, and laugh with them as they lose their teeth and keep drinking, in this rice wine-fueled tour of the characters behind the greatest hits of the 10th century.
Speaker: By night, Nat Baca is a co-boss of Nerd Nite ABQ. By day, he works at the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind Wikipedia. He has studied Mandarin Chinese since Kindergarten (oddly, at a public school in Ohio) and has lived and worked in China. He was a co-editor for the travel guide The Insider’s Guide to Beijing, which took him on reporting assignments from learning aerobic pole dancing to studying how to walk like a tiger in order to improve heart fitness.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
Join us to learn, laugh, and drink, on Thursday, March 7, at 7:00pm at the Green Jeans Food Hall, and thereafter the first Thursday of the month.
Our first Nerd Nite is entitled: Microplastics, Tobacco, and Bears, Oh My!
Talk #1: A (Very) Brief History of Tobacco Farming in New Mexico’s Middle Rio Grande Valley
The story of the hilariously misguided efforts in the 1920s to turn central New Mexico into a tobacco farming powerhouse. Like every other effort at finding the next big commercial crop, this was a spectacular failure. And yet….(flipping to the serious message) the underlying goal – creating an economic framework to enable the development of a modern American city – was a spectacular success. There’s still a Tobacco Road in the South Valley, the site of the old tobacco curing shed is a KFC, and Albuquerque is awesome.
Speaker:John Fleck – Writer in Residence, Utton Center, University of New Mexico School of Law. Fleck is writing a book about the Rio Grande and the making of Albuquerque.
Talk #2: Cleaning up the Rio Grande Microplastics â Use your Brain!
Microplastics — small pieces of plastic that come from a variety of sources including cosmetics, clothing, food packaging, and industrial processes — are everywhere, we don’t really know what they do to us, and now they’ve found their way into our blood…and our testicles. Hear about how we’re measuring and containing this growing menace and what it means for our future.
Speaker:Dr. Matthew Campen – Director, New Mexico Center for Metals in Biology and Medicine. Dr. Campen leads the Cardiovascular Toxicology Laboratory in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, which investigates cardiovascular impacts of environmental toxicants.
Talk #3: Bear Spray and Sunscreen Wonât Save You: How Exclusion and Fear Mongering Mangled Our Relationship with Nature
Quick, what 10 things do you need to be prepared for a 10 mile hike? Sunscreen? Bear spray? What about good spatial awareness and an open mind? Does engaging with nature require a laundry list of protective items, or have we forgotten how easy it is to simply be outside?
Speaker: Aidan Manning – Rivers and Waters Program Associate, New Mexico Wilderness Alliance.
Come join us for a drink, learn something new, and meet fellow nerds. Tell your friends and help us spread the word about Nerd Nite Albuquerque at Green Jeans!
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 to 
: The Secret Lives of Emoji
, a 
, or a 
, we use emoji every day. But do you really know where these little “picture characters” come from? Spoiler alert: itâs much weirder than you think! 
 Join us on a wild ride through the cultural quirks, historical twists, and oddly technical committee debates that brought us the emojiverse. Discover the eyebrow-raising origins of your favorite emoji (looking at you, 
 MAN IN SUIT LEVITATING 
 DUMPLING 
 HOT AIR BALLOON 
