DELTA SCIENCE AND POLICY: A "Delta Dialogue" scheduled for Oct. 21 features four panelists who represent the formal link between scientific research and policy on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and how it can continue to serve as a conduit for 40 percent of California's watershed.

The program, free and open to the public, is scheduled from noon to 1:45 p.m. in MU II at the Memorial Union. UC Davis' John Muir Institute of the Environment is presenting the panel as part of the institute's Distinguished Speakers Series: Environmental Solutions -- Lenses on the Delta.

"Delta Dialogue: Perspectives on Science and Policy" is a prelude to the 2008 CALFED Science Conference, Oct. 22-24, at the Sacramento Convention Center. CALFED unites 25 state and federal agencies in efforts to improve California's water supply and the ecological health of San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The "Delta Dialogue" panelists include UC Davis geology professor Jeffrey Mount and the John Muir Institute's Samuel Luoma. Mount, director of the university's Center for Watershed Sciences and chair of CALFED's Independent Science Board, is a co-author of the recently released Public Policy Institute of California report, "Comparing Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta." Luoma is an expert on the effects of contaminants in aquatic environments and served as first lead scientist for the Bay-Delta Program for three years beginning in 2000.

The other panelists: Cliff Dahm, who became CALFED's lead scientist in July, and Michael Healey, CALFED's former lead scientist.

More information: johnmuir.ucdavis.edu/events/solutions0809.html

ENERGY CONSERVATION: The Department of Physics is hosting California Energy Commissioner Art Rosenfeld at a seminar set for 4 p.m. Oct. 20 in 66 Roessler Hall. Rosenfeld, a UC Berkeley physics professor, is due to talk about energy conservation in California from the commissioner's point of view. The program is free and open to the public.

'UNDERSTANDING THE FINANCIAL CRISIS': This Policy Watch seminar is scheduled for noon Oct. 17, with faculty members Paul Bergin and Alan M. Taylor, Department of Economics; Brad Barber, Graduate School of Management; and Eric Rauchway, Department of History. The Institute of Governmental Affairs program, free and open to the public, is scheduled from 12:10 to 1 p.m. in the IGA Reading Room, 360 Shields Library.