Brian Luck

Contributing Writer

Walking into Spoon & Market Deli, one would typically expect to grab a sandwich for lunch, not participate in an interactive bug zoo from the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC). When the Wooster Science Café rolls around each month, however, that is exactly what science enthusiasts find.

The Wooster Science Café held its first event of the academic year on Sept. 5, celebrating its fifth anniversary. It aims to create a space for students, faculty and community members to come together to discuss science.

Associate professors of biology at The College of Wooster Laura Sirot and Stephanie Strand cofounded the event along with The Ohio State University’s Dr. Jeffrey LeJeune in 2013 as a way to bring the local scientific community together in a casual setting.

“Our primary goals in hosting these events are to help to build connections between various people within Wooster and surrounding communities, to provide opportunities for discussion of science-related topics and to make people more comfortable learning and talking about science-related topics,” Sirot said.

The Science Café has taken many different forms over the past five years as various local businesses have hosted the events.  

“Some promoted more socializing, some promoted a ‘dinner and discussion,’ some have been a bit more formal feeling,” Sirot said. “All in all, we work to promote a casual atmosphere where you can interact with friends who attend the café with you and you can meet new people.”

The first event of this year was an open house style that featured various projects from OARDC researchers, Wooster students and professors.

“I was surprised by the range of different sciences that were presented,” Dennis Bolshakov ’19 said. “There were presenters from economics to immunology, from computer modeling of hurricanes to apiary sciences.”

Bolshakov and Sirot, along with Linden Taylor ’21 and Patrick Gilkey ’19 presented their research on the effects of a certain sweetener during the lifespans of mosquitoes. Taylor encourages other students to attend the Science Café as well.

“It is a great place to learn about topics in science, connect with professors at The College of Wooster and the OARDC and meet other people in the community,” Taylor said.

The next Wooster Science Café will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 3 with a presentation entitled “Immigrant Children and the Psychological Impact of Living on High Alert” by Dr. Barbara Thelamour, assistant professor of psychology at The College of Wooster. Later, Associate Professor of computer science at The College of Wooster Dr. Denise Byrnes will discuss “Virtual Reality: How to Trick the Senses in Virtual Environments” on Nov. 7. Each Science Café event will be held at the Spoon Market & Deli, located in downtown Wooster at 144 W Liberty St.

Overall, the Wooster Science Café aims to create a safe and accepting space for open discussion on a myriad of scientific topics.

“I learned that scientific outreach can take many forms,” Bolshakov said, “and that it [the Science Café] is an educational way to interact with a community that might not know what goes on in scientific labs.”