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It took UC ����ԭ�� chemistry professor Jared Shaw a crowd of people leaving his event to realize that he had a runaway success on his hands.

“I had my first big speaker, my first big success, and people were leaving my event [because they couldn’t find seats],” he recalled.

So began in 2008 the , a local iteration of a worldwide phenomenon bringing together scientists, researchers and the general public. When Shaw started, meetings were in a small side-room in de Vere's Irish Pub in ����ԭ��, suitable for the eager listeners who consistently showed up. 

But Shaw realized something had to change after he invited UC ����ԭ�� food science and technology professor Bruce German to speak. German’s upcoming talk for the ����ԭ�� Science Café would be featured on Capital Public Radio’s Insight with Beth Ruyak. They knew the appearance would drive a bigger audience to the talk, but neither Shaw nor German imagined how many people would actually arrive to listen to a discussion about breastmilk and bacteria.

MARCH DAVIS SCIENCE �䴡��É

• WHO: Maria Marco, professor of food science and technology
• WHAT:
• WHEN: 5:30–7 p.m. Wednesday, March 11
• WHERE: G Street Wunderbar,
• ADMISSION: Free and open to the public.

“We had a mob scene at de Vere’s,” Shaw said. “Only half the people that showed up could hear Bruce German talking.”

The race was on to find a venue big enough to fit what seemed to be the entire community of ����ԭ��. After a stint at City Hall Tavern, Café meetings found a home at G Street Wunderbar, comfortably seating — and feeding — the dedicated crowds of ����ԭ�� science fans.

, UC ����ԭ�� chemistry professor Kyle Crabtree discussed astrochemistry — chemical reactions occurring in space — to a packed crowd of college students, children, professors, parents and a few rows of older ����ԭ��ites.

Though their background is diverse, many in the audience have a similar reason for attending: to learn.

“It seemed really fun,” said chemical engineering third-year student Rob Viano. “Crabtree is one of the best professors I’ve ever had.”

Third-year chemistry student Jasmine Keen, who works in Crabtree’s research group, noted that the Science Café is a “cool opportunity” to learn about complex sciences you’d otherwise need a college degree and a laboratory for.

And that’s part of Shaw’s aim: to share knowledge with the community without journal subscriptions or complex technical jargon.

As for how he finds his speakers, Shaw explained: “Sometimes professors come to me and say ‘Yeah, I’ve given a lot of public lectures.’ And I say, ‘OK, listen — this is a conversation, not a public lecture. You need to be answering and asking questions, and making sure the audience is comfortable interrupting you.’”

For UC ����ԭ�� alumna Marilyn Houston, it was an interruption that began her regular attendance at the ����ԭ�� Science Café over the past three years. After hearing a speaker touch on a topic she had researched as part of a lab group in college, she asked if the research they had done was still accurate.

On learning her work still stood, she felt “just like a scientist” and “hasn’t stopped coming back since.”