Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports

Our events are typically held monthly on the last Thursday of every month.  They are traditionally an hour long, with around 20 minutes of presentation followed by 40 minutes of discussion.  After the hour, we let our presenters off the hook and allow the discussion to continue among the participants. Although COVID has led to us hosting virtual events, we are doing our best to keep connecting the community with science and technology.

We use our Facebook Page for organizing and sharing information about events.  
Please navigate to our Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports Facebook Events page for more information about our events.

Recent/Upcoming Events:
SPACE TRIVIA 5 – Celebrate the Night Sky Week 2022
In-person at Amity Coffee – Thursday, September 15th, 7pm

An archive of event flyers is below:

If you are interested in sharing your science through Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports, send a note to info@cafescitwinports.org and let us know! We are working on developing a variety of ways in which the scientists in our area can connect with their community.

Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports wouldn’t exist without the dedicated scientists, researchers, and discussion leaders who have given their time to lead our events.

July, 2022: The Sub Superior Festival Organizers from The Embassy (Duluth), Subscussion | Sub Superior Tech & Subvisions Livestream

June, 2022: Janelle Turner-Miller and Stacie Renne of Warrior Printress Letterpress and Design, Letterpress: Survival in a digital world

May, 2022: Lynn Goerdt, The Audacity to Flourish: Messages from our mental health crisis

April, 2022: Bjorn Bergman, Making data-driven seed choices for gardeners and farmers

March, 2022 (Apr 7th): Rosayln Putland, What do fishes hear underwater? A song of ice and vessels | Science lunch

February, 2022 (Mar 3rd): Twin Ports Science Celebration, Social, and Trivia, led by Nate Pollesch and Kleighton Smoniewski of Cafe Sci Twin Ports

January, 2022 (Feb 3rd): Arshia Khan, Humanoid Robots: Augmenting care in nursing homes

December, 2021 (Jan 6th): Astro Bob King, A Journey to Antarctic Skies

November, 2021 (Dec 2nd): Kris Eilers, Celebrating the St Louis River

October, 2021: Alex Cavallin, From Death to Disposition (Cafe ScientifEEK! Twin Ports)

September, 2021: Space Trivia – Episode 4 – Celebrate the Night Sky Week, Co-hosted with Starry Skies North IDA and Amity Coffee

August, 2021: Lisa DeGuire, Who Pooped in the water? Using Science to Monitor and Protect Recreational Waterways

July, 2021: Tom Hollenhorst, Great Lakes Monitoring – The Next Generation (Robots, Sensors, Satellites, and You!)

June, 2021: Erin Burkett, What Women Who Fish Can Teach Us About Gender and Outdoor Recreation (Link to recording)

May, 2021: Shelby Scott, Handguns and Hotspots: Quantitatively Modeling Gun Crime (Link to recording)

April, 2021: Gerald Ankley, PFAS: A Novel Class of Environmental Contaminants

March, 2021: Brenna Doheny, Climate Change and Health in Minnesota: From (A)ir quality to (Z)ero-emission vehicles (Link to recording)

Feb, 2021: Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports 4th Anniversary: MUG TRIVIA!

January, 2021 (Feb 4th): Emily Gaarder and Ted Lewis from The Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking: What is Restorative Justice? (Link to recording)

December, 2020: Picture a Scientist, Virtual Screening and Panel discussion – Sponsored by and Co-hosted with Northwoods Women in Science

November, 2020: Dustin Haines, River Talks Series – Should I stay or should I go? The Clash of Wetlands with Lake Levels, Invasives and Humans (Link to recording)

October, 2020: Dan Villeneuve, Cafe ScientifiEEK 2 – So many fascinating ways to die: The morbid curiosities of toxicology (Link to recording)

September, 2020: Space Trivia – Episode 3, with Starry Skies Lake Superior (Link to recording)

July, 2020: Dan Crist, Data science: The good, the bad, the ugly (Link to recording)

June, 2020: Sue Leaf, Author Event: Sue Leaf Presents Minnesota’s Geologist

April, 2020: Richard Buckalew, Basics of Epidemic Modeling (Infographic) (Link to recording)

March, 2020: Guido Wallraven, Climate Smart Duluth

February, 2020: 3rd Annual Science Social and Trivia

Dec, 2019: Karl Wagner, Solar Energy: Past and Present

Nov, 2019: Randy Hanson, Regenerative Agriculture & Restorative Food Systems

Oct, 2019: Cafe ScientifEEK – Science + Music Halloween MASH

Sept, 2019: Karin Kraemer, Color and Clay

August, 2019: Amanda Grusz, Discovering Biodiversity with BIG data

July, 2019: Doug Jensen, Aquatic Invasive Species

June, 2019: Gene Kremer, Funga!

May, 2019: Claire Lande, Bees!

April, 2019: Vicki Kurker, The World Climate Simulation

March, 2019: Julie Etterson, Adaptation in the Anthropocene, the resurrection is near!

February, 2019: 2nd Annual Science Social and Trivia

January, 2019: J. Neil Henderson, Where medicine meets culture

November, 2018: Samuel Stewart, How a lonely mathematician models really dense crowds

October, 2018: John Dahl, Freaky Biology and Zombies, Naturally

September (Oct 2nd), 2018: Adam Swanson, Sharing Science Through Art

August, 2018: Melissa Maurer-Jones and Tayler Hebner, The Fate of Plastics in the Environment + The Role of Mentorship in Science

July, 2018: Gerald Shepard, Taxonomy: The ‘caddis’ in the coal mine, invasive ID, and the importance of knowing our aquatic neighbors 

June, 2018: LSRI Scientists – Heidi Saillard and Kelsey Prihoda, Lake Superior’s Beaches

May, 2018: Richard Buckalew and Eric Erdmann, The Gerry-Mander, Voting Methods, and Mathematics

April, 2018: George Hudak, Minnesota’s Potential Mineral Future and Opportunities

March, 2018: Katie Williams, The Social Side of Science

February, 2018: First Annual – Science Social and Team Trivia

January, 2018: Carol Christenson, Forecasting Winds and Waves of Lake Superior

December, 2017: Eric Norland, From Ancient Religion to Modern Cosmology

November, 2017: Emily Stone, Exploring Northwoods Nature through Science and Your Senses

October, 2017: Rachel Portinga, How to Lower an Ecological Footprint

September, 2017: Adam M Frankiewicz, The Art of Scientific Illustration (October 5th, combined discussion and art opening)

August, 2017: Matthew Etterson and Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, The Phenomenon of Bird Migration  

July, 2017: John Pastor, The North Woods: Past, Present, and Future

June, 2017: Ryan Hueffmeier, Citizen Science

May, 2017: Beau Webber, The Future of Genomic Engineering

April, 2017: Dale Hoff, Environmental Science and Imperative of Scientific Communication

March, 2017: Heather Wright-Wendel, The Role of Green Infrastructure in Building Resilient Communities

February, 2017 : “Astro” Bob King, The Future of Humans in Space

Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports is a volunteer-run community organization based in Duluth, MN and serving the Duluth, MN and Superior, WI communities.  Cafe Sci Twin Ports was formed by a small group of individuals who wanted to create greater access to science and the scientists within our community.

• Science is amazing and terrifying and inspiring –  Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports seeks to provide a venue where anyone with an interest in science can come to learn and discuss a variety of topics with experts guiding the conversation
• Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports seeks to strengthen the connection between scientists and the communities they serve through open dialogue and sharing of expertise and ideas

If you want to learn more about who we are and we do, feel free to email us at info@cafescitwinports.org or come to one of the events and chat with one of our organization team members.  Speaking of team members, below are pictures and names of the volunteers who have given their time and effort to help make Cafe Scientifique Twin Ports happen.

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As you can imagine, we are not the first group of science lovers who wanted to do something like this.  Besides just sounding fancy and being slightly difficult to say Cafe Scientifique represents the efforts of many similar-minded folks around the world!  You can find Cafe Scientifique’s from here to Aukland, all locally run, all doing what they can to share their love of science with the communities they live in.