Green Building with Barry Giles CEO of BREEAM - Wed. 1/16/19

Green Building with Barry Giles of BREEAM

Title: “Green Building Standards: How to Make Existing Buildings Healthier and Better for the Environment” with Barry Giles of BREEAM

Date, Time, Location: Wednesday, January 16th, 2019; 7:30 – 8:30 pm at Terra Linda HS in San Rafael, Room 207

Description:  Most of us spend about 90 percent of our time inside buildings of one sort or another –homes, offices, schools, or shopping centers. Despite the best endeavors from those involved in building design, construction and operations, buildings have a mostly negative effect on our health and well-being as the occupiers and on the environment. Climate change will have a major effect on how efficient buildings can be – or if they will even stand up to extreme weather events.
While we could just demolish all the existing buildings and start again, that’s not practical. So what can we do to increase our health and well-being and make buildings more resilient? How can we turn all the ‘ugly ducklings’ into ‘swans’.

Barry Giles, CEO of BRE America

Barry Giles has worked in virtually every aspect of the building industry —engineer, general contractor, systems operator and facilities supervisor. He helped the US Green Building Council create the LEED Operations and Maintenance rating system for existing buildings in 2003, and from that gained LEED Fellowship and an iconic status in the green building industry. In 2016 he was appointed CEO of BRE America to bring the BREEAM standard to the USA. BREEAM was the original green building rating system and today is the most widely used program worldwide with over 2.2 million registered buildings and over 560,000 certifications.

RSVP on Facebook here.

Links:

• Barry Giles at BRE America
• US Green Building Council
•  LinkedIn

"The Higgs Boson" - An Interview with Heather Gray, PhD of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Labs

By Shoshana Harlem (MSS intern, Terra Linda High School)

Heather Gray is an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley/Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Her main area of study is the Higgs Boson, but she also focuses on studying silicon pixel detectors and algorithms.

Heather Gray 

1. What made you want to study the Higgs Boson? 

I came to study physics somewhat by chance, but as soon as I heard about particle physics, it was immediately obvious to me that this is something that I find extremely interesting and wanted to study. When I finished my PhD, we were collecting lots of data and I wanted to look for the Higgs boson because it's an important particle and was the only particle missing from the Standard Model.

2. What are the best parts of your job?

 There are many great parts about my job. The privilege of being able to understand deep questions about how the universe works is probably the best. I also get to work with smart people from all over the world and to travel to interesting places.

3. What are the worst parts of your job?

Not much, but if you push me, I guess I'd have to say too many meetings.

4. What is the Higgs Boson?

Higgs Boson particle

The Higgs boson is a particle that is thought to be responsible for particle masses. It was first predicted back in the 1960s and discovered by my experiment (ATLAS) and another one (CMS) only in 2012. We collide protons traveling at close to the speed of light and destroy them to use that energy to produce Higgs bosons. The Higgs boson is very unstable and decays almost immediately to other particles in the Standard Model.

5. What current research are you working on?

Right now I'm working to study how the Higgs interacts with quarks. In the Standard Model, the Higgs is predicted to interact with all particles that have mass and for the strength of the interaction to be proportional to the particle mass. The quarks have a wide range of masses so this makes them particularly interesting to study to try to understand if this particle that we've discovered is the Higgs boson as predicted by the Standard Model. 

Want to learn more about Heather Gray and the Higgs Boson? Join us on Wednesday, January 9 at Terra Linda High School from 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM in Room 207!

http://marinscienceseminar.com/learn-about-the-higgs-boson-with-dr-heather-gray-cal-lbl-wed-1-9-19/

Learn more at http://physics.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/heather- gray and http://physics.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/heather-gray

"Green Building Standards" - An Interview with CEO of BREEAM USA, Barry Giles

by Shoshana Harlem, Terra Linda High School

Barry Giles

Barry Giles has worked as an engineer, general contractor, systems operator, and a facilities supervisor. In 2016, he was appointed CEO of BREEAM USA. BREEAM USA is the original green building rating system created in 1990 in the United Kingdom. Barry also helps think of practical approaches to green building.

       1. What made you want to work for BREEAM USA?

The only realistic 'green building rating system' in use in the USA is the US Green Building Councils' LEED program. For existing buildings that program has many prerequisites that stop many buildings getting into its program. BREEAM dispenses with those prerequisites and allows all buildings to make a start.

       2. What are the best parts of your job?

   The best parts of my job are working with great buildings and great clients.

       3. What are the worst parts of your job?

   The worst part of my job is t.ravel

       4. What is your practical approach to green building?

   My practical approach to green building is to be efficient in your building...it pays off 3:1.

       5. What current research are you working on?

 I am currently trying to get multifamily apartment complexes to be more efficient.

Want to learn more about Barry Giles and green building? Join us on Wednesday, January 16 at Terra Linda High School from 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM in Room 207!

http://marinscienceseminar.com/green-building-with-barry-giles-of-breeam/

Learn more at https://www.breeamusa.com/barry-giles/ and https://www.usgbc.org/people/barry-giles/0010098604

Winter - Spring 2019 Marin Science Seminars Announced!

Join us and learn!

Marin Science Seminar sessions take place on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 - 8:30 at Terra Linda High School (320 Nova Albion) Room 207 in San Rafael. See the Contact page for directions.
Download the Winter-Spring 2019 flyer here. - Subscribe to our newsletter to be informed when new events are scheduled. An archive of previous talks 2008 - previous year can be found here: MSS Calendar Archives (opens in a new tab/window)

Winter - Spring 2019

JANUARY

• 9: “The Higgs Boson” with Heather Gray PhD of UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Labs
• 16: “Green Building Standards: How to Make Existing Buildings Healthier and Better for the Environment” with Barry Giles, CEO of BREEAM USA

FEBRUARY

• 13: “The Deep Roots of Climate Skepticism: Merchants of Doubt” with Warren Wiscombe PhD of NASA Goddard
• 27:  NEW DATE! “Air Quality in the Bay Area and Around the World” with Kaitlyn Lieschke of Ramboll, Novato

MARCH

• 13: “Dental and Medical Education Simulation Workshop!” with Rich Fidler PhD, Dr. Sheryl Miyazaki and the VAMC SF Medical Simulation Team

APRIL

• 3: “Myths of Astronomy” with Thomas Targett PhD of Sonoma State University

marinscienceseminar.com