Month: May 2024

Program: Resat Kasaba, University of Washington, “War in Gaza: Is There a Way Out?” May 23, 2024

Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring Middle East expert Resat Kasaba.

The program will be presented on Zoom on Thursday morning with the Zoom line opening at 7 a.m.  The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m.  No registration is required, and the program is free. Click here to join the meeting.

Reşat Kasaba is Professor at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.  He an expert in the history and politics of the Middle East and has taught undergraduate and graduate students at the Jackson School for over 30 years.

Kasaba’s main area of research is the Ottoman Empire, Turkey and the Modern Middle East.  He has written on economic history, state-society relations, migration, ethnicity and nationalism, and urban history. Most recently, he edited volume four of the Cambridge History of Modern Turkey and wrote A Moveable Empire: Ottoman Empire, Migrants, and Refugees. Kasaba has received grants from the Carnegie Corporation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and the National Science Foundation.    In 1999, he was the recipient of the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award.  Kasaba served as the Director of the Jackson School from 2010 to 2020.

Kasaba served as the director of the Jackson School for 10 years, completing his tenure in June 2020. He is regularly featured in local and regional media for insights into some of the world’s most pressing issues.

Program: Nick Bond, University of Washington, “Salmon and the Impacts of Regional Climate Changes,” May 16, 2024

Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring Nick Bond, the Washington State Climatologist.

The program will be presented in person and on Zoom on Thursday morning with the Zoom line opening at 7:00 a.m.  The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m.  No registration is required, and the program is free.

The in-person meeting will be at the Wedgwood Community Church at 8201 30th Ave NE, Seattle. Doors open at 7:00 a.m. and the program begins at 7:30 a.m.

The meeting will be available via Zoom. Click here to join the meeting Thursday morning.  The Zoom line will open shortly after 7:00 a.m.

Speaker: Nick Bond, Washington State Climatologist and UW College of the Environment

Nick Bond has an abiding interest (or obsession) with the weather and climate of the North Pacific and western North America. His research involves examining air-sea interactions with tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific, and the atmospheric response to declining sea ice in Alaskan waters, including the causes and effects of climate variations pertaining to marine ecosystems. He serves as the State Climatologist for Washington, a senior research scientist with The Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean, and Ecosystem Studies (CICOES) at the University of Washington, and an affiliate associate professor with the UW Department of Atmospheric Sciences.

Program: Alex Hudson, Commute Seattle, “Transportation in Seattle: What’s Happening, What’s Coming, and Why It All Matters,” August 15, 2024

Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring Commute Seattle Executive Director, Alex Hudson.

The program will be presented in person and on Zoom on Thursday morning with the Zoom line opening at 7:00 a.m.  The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m.  No registration is required, and the program is free.

The in-person meeting will be at the Wedgwood Community Church at 8201 30th Ave NE, Seattle. Doors open at 7:00 a.m. and the program begins at 7:30 a.m.

The meeting will also be available via Zoom. Click here to join the meeting Thursday morning.  The Zoom line will open shortly after 7:00 a.m.

Alex Hudson is the Executive Director of Commute Seattle. Alex is a resident of First Hill and previously served as the Executive Director at Transportation Choices Coalition and the First Hill Improvement Association. A widely respected civic leader, Alex also serves on the boards of Bellwether Housing and the Freeway Park Association. She was named by Seattle Magazine as one of Seattle’s most influential people in 2015 and was a candidate for Seattle City Council in 2023.

Program: Wen Chen, “Human Rights Movement in China,” May 2, 2024

Join the University Sunrise Rotary Club for a program featuring Cal Tech biologist and information scientist Wen Chen. She was brought up during the Cultural Revolution in China.

The program will be presented in person and on Zoom on Thursday morning with the Zoom line opening at 7:00 a.m.  The formal meeting including the program runs from 7:30-8:30 a.m.  No registration is required, and the program is free. The Zoom link can be found here.

The in-person meeting will be at the Wedgwood Community Church at 8201 30th Ave NE, Seattle. Doors open at 7:00 a.m. and the program begins at 7:30 a.m.

Wen was born in China at the end of the Great Cultural Revolution. Being the victim of this horrific atrocity that killed two million intellectuals and destroyed traditional Chinese culture, Wen’s parents had mixed feelings about her education.

Despite their discouragement, Wen eventually won a national prize at a science competition when she was 16. Hence, she went to a top university for undergraduate study and then came to the U.S. in 1994 for graduate school. Wen received a Ph.D. in Biology at the California Institute of Technology in 2000.

Because of her personal experience of being brainwashed in China, she decided to voice for the voiceless. Since 2012, she has given hundreds of presentations to community organizations about Chinese culture, history, and society.

Wen has been working for Caltech since 2000 as a biologist and information scientist. Her everyday work includes scientific outreach by speaking at conferences and seminars at universities.

In her personal life, she is an active member of Amnesty International, focusing on human rights in China. She serves as a board member and community liaison for Caltech Women in Biology and Biological Engineering. She has a blog: https://wenchenview.blogspot.com/