Participate in the Second Annual Poker Night to benefit law school student organization Phi Alpha Delta on Wednesday, October 14 at 5:30 p.m. at the School of Law’s Alma Jennings Foundation Student Lounge. The winner will receive a $500 Kaplan gift card. Many other prizes will be raffled throughout the night. The event is only $10 to enter. No RSVP needed.

Lyric Hybrid: New Writing at the University of Miami Reading Series will feature Maureen Seaton, associate professor in the Department of English. Reading from her 2009 books Sex Talks to Girls (University of Wisconsin Press), a memoir; Cave of the Yellow Volkswagen (Carnegie Mellon University Press), her sixth book of poems; and a new chapbook, America Loves Carney (Sow’s Ear Press), Seaton recasts what it means to be a writer or poet. Sex Talk to Girls chronicles the outward antics of a woman on an inward journey to self through the routes of religion, sex, sobriety, and kids. Cave of the Yellow Volkswagen, a poetry collection, journeys through a dodgy trip made safer because of the Beetle’s reported ability to float. Seaton will read on Wednesday, October 14 from 7 to 8 p.m. at the CAS Gallery, 1210 Stanford Drive, Coral Gables. The event is free and open to the public.

Analytical Imaging Core Facility (AICF) is hosting back-to-back talks on Wednesday, October 14, in SCCC 1301. At 11:30 a.m., Maya Everett, a laser scanning microscopy specialist, will present “Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscopy and HR-SIM/PAL-M: State-of-the-Art in Fluorescence Nanoscopy.” At 12:30 p.m., Scott Olenych, a Carl Zeiss embedded consultant to the David H. Murdoch Research Institute, will present “Everything You Need to Know about Using State-of-the-Art Fluorescence Proteins for Your Experiments.” For more information, contact George McNamara by e-mail at [email protected], or by phone at  305-243-8436 (office) or 305-764-2081 (cell).

These talks are in conjunction with the Zeiss Laser TIRF 3 system total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscope demonstration occurring through October 16. The key feature of TIRF is that fluorescence excitation is restricted to ~100 nm from the coverglass. This enables five times thinner optical sections than confocal microscopy—improving signal to noise ratio. The demonstration system includes a state-of-the-art EMCCD camera that enables real-time single molecule fluorescence imaging. For more on TIRF, see the Zeiss Laser TIRF 3 web site,http://www.zeiss.com/c12567be0045acf1/Contents-Frame/649722ef8c671420c1256dd6004b7751, or contact George McNamara, who has a brief presentation available for your lab or department on what TIRF microscopy can do for you.

The departments of International Studies and Political Science will present The Forum of Armed Conflict and Humanitarian Crises: Afghanistan and Pakistan on Wednesday, October 14 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Learning Center, room 110. Robert E. Kanet, a professor in the international studies department, will present and moderate “Squandered Opportunities: NATO and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan”; Bradford R. McGuinn, of the political science department, will cover “Security and Humanitarian Questions in ‘AfPak’”; U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Ramon de Arrigunaga (retired), of the political science department, will present “Combat Operations in Afghanistan-Pakistan”; and Lieutenant Colonel Kelley Hodge, director of Intelligence and Special Operations Command, South for the U.S. Army, will present “U.S. Military Strategy and Tactics in Afghanistan-Pakistan: From Invasion to Surge to Withdrawal.”

Gillian Hotz, associate research professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Miller School of Medicine, will present “From EE to the Use of MSE in Children Recovering from Severe Brain Injury” on Wednesday, October 14 from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Lois Pope LIFE Center, seventh-floor auditorium.