Lectures
Penn State Intercom......February 1, 2001
Tennis champion
plans Eisenhower talk 
Athlete and activist Martina Navratilova will speak at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6, at Eisenhower Auditorium, University Park, as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series.
When Navratilova defected from Czechoslovakia to the United States in 1975, she had one goal -- to be the best women's tennis player in the world. By the time of her retirement, she had acquired more tournament titles than any man or woman in tennis history. Navratilova is an influential advocate for many causes, including women's issues, gay rights, children's causes, animal welfare and the environment.
The event is free to the public, but tickets are required.
Tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis at the Eisenhower box office. Tickets also may be available the night of the speech.
For more information, call the Office of Student Activities (814) 863-3786 or stop by 207 HUB-Robeson Cultural Center.
Implications of genetic
testing to be aired
A lecture titled "Genetic
Testing: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Surrounding Its Introduction
Into Mainstream Medicine" will be presented by Maria Mascari, genetic
counselor
and medical geneticist at the Penn State Cancer Institute and assistant
professor of pediatrics at The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, at 11
a.m. Feb. 3 in 100 Thomas Building on the University Park campus.
The lecture is the fourth of six during the 2001 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, organized under the theme of "Decoding Life's Instruction Book: Genetics and Genomics."
Mascari will focus on the role of genetic counseling in understanding the impact of DNA technology on patients, whose physicians may one day be able to determine their predisposition for genetic diseases with a simple blood test.
For more information, call (814) 863-8453, e-mail science@psu.edu, or check the Web at http://www.science.psu.edu/alert/news.html.
Redbook publisher
to talk about success
Jayne Jamison, vice president and publisher of Redbook magazine, will give a talk on "Success: What Can be Learned and What Can't" on Thursday, Feb. 15, in the Ballroom of The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
Before joining Redbook, Jamison worked for various advertising agencies, and in 1985, joined The New York Times Women's Magazine Group and excelled in positions with Family Circle, McCalls and Child magazines. In August of 1997, she was appointed publisher of Redbook.
Jamison graduated from
Penn State in 1978 with a degree in advertising, and was named an Alumni
Fellow by the Penn State Alumni Association in 1999. 
The Penn State Forum is a lunchtime speaker series offered by the Faculty Staff Club and is sponsored in part by the Penn State Bookstore. It is open to the public. Tickets are $11 for non-members and $9 for members, and include lunch.
Reservations can be made by mail or by stopping by the Faculty Staff Club office at 103 HUB-Robeson Center. Tickets will be on sale at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. Lunch begins at 11:30 a.m. followed by the speech and a question-and-answer session at noon. For more information call (814) 865-7590.
Money-laundering
scandal is topic of lecture
Organized-crime specialist Alan Block will speak on "A Netherworld of Spies and Crooks: The Bank of New York/Russian Money-Laundering Scandal" at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 19, in 102 Thomas Building on the University Park campus.
Block's speech is the sixth annual Luchinsky Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Schreyer Honors College.
The speaker will explore the 1999 revelation that the Bank of New York was a suspect in an international money-laundering investigation.
Block is professor of Jewish studies and administration of justice. He also is director of the Jewish Studies Program at University Park.
The Luchinsky Memorial Lecture Series was endowed by family and friends to honor the memory of Mark Luchinsky, a University Scholar and biochemistry major who died Jan. 18, 1995, at age 20.
The lecture will be followed by a reception for students, faculty and guests in the Grandfather Clock Lounge in Atherton Hall.
eBusiness Research Center
launches series
The eBusiness Research Center launches its Spring 2001 Distinguished Speaker Series on e-Business with David Cassano, vice president, Wireless Solutions, IBM Corp., who will speak at 5 p.m. Feb. 12 in 104 Keller Auditorium on the University Park campus.
As the corporatewide leader for wireless solution offerings at IBM, Cassano is responsible for sales, marketing and solution plans that make use of wireless Internet technologies and further leverage the success of IBM's e-business initiatives. He assumed this post after having served as general manager for IBM's Year 2000 Global Initiatives.
The event is free to the public.
Seminar focuses on
competition for nitrogen
Curtis Dell, research associate in the Crop and Soil Sciences Department of Michigan State University, will speak during a special agronomy seminar at 11 a.m. Feb. 7 in 118 Agricultural Sciences and Industry Building, University Park.
He will speak on "Plant/Microbial Competition for Nitrogen in Tallgrass Prairie Soils.
Seminars scheduled in
Chemical Engineering
The Department of Chemical Engineering plans a series of seminars for the spring semester.
All seminars will be at 10 a.m. in 140 Fenske Laboratory, University Park. A list of dates and speakers follows:
* Feb. 6: "Engineering the Processing and Stabilities of Polycistronic Transcripts to Achieve Coordinated, Differential Expression of Genes," by Christina Smolke, University of California, Berkeley.
* Feb. 13: "Water: A Stage for Self-Assembly," by Henry Ashbaugh, Princeton University.
* Feb. 20: "Relationship Between Structural Order and the Anomalous Properties of Liquid Water," Jeffrey Errington, Princeton University.
* Feb. 22: "Use of a New Microstructurally Based Model in the Simulation of Complex Viscoelastic Flows," Yong Lak Joo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
* Feb. 27: "Protein Purification by High Performance Tangential Flow Filtration: New Opportunities for Membrane Technology," Andrew Zydney, University of Delaware.
* March 20: "Mathematical and Computational Analysis of Complex Cellular Processes," Vassily Hatzimanikatis, Northwestern University.
* March 27: "Simulations of Drag-Reducing Polymer Turbulent Flows: Challenges and Rewards," Antony Beris, University of Delaware.
* April 3: "Tipstreaming from a Drop in an Extensional Flow in the Presence of Surfactants,"Charles Eggleton, University of Maryland Baltimore Campus.
* April 10: "Expression of Complex Proteins in Bacteria: Genetic, Biochemical and Engineering Considerations," George Georgiou, University of Texas, Austin.
* April 17: "Shape Oscillations of Liquid Drops: Effects of Surfactants and Viscoelasticity," Ali Nadim, Boston University.
* April 24: "Viscoelastic Flow Instabilities," Bamin Khomami, Washington University.
Letters of Langston Hughes
to be discussed
Two of the central figures in the Harlem Renaissance, poet Langston Hughes and his friend, Carl Van Vechten, will be the topic of a Black History Month presentation at noon Feb. 7 at the Penn State Downtown Center, 234 N. Third St. in Harrisburg.
Emily Bernard, adjunct assistant professor in the humanities, is the presenter. She will focus on the letters between the two figures. Bernard's book, Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten (1925-1964), is scheduled for publication on Feb. 13.
Hughes was a young and gifted black poet and Van Vechten was a white, well-established American photographer, but their friendship, based on their mutual love of black culture, weathered the challenges of their changes of fortune. Bernard will lecture on this friendship as well as on the Harlem Renaissance.
The lecture is free to the public.
For information on the presentation, call the Downtown Center at (717) 783-0433.
Sreenivasan to be
engineering lecturer
Katepalli R. Sreenivasan, Harold W. Cheel professor of mechanical engineering, physics and applied physics at Yale University, will discuss "Turbulent Convection" at 4 p.m. Feb. 6 in 125 Reber Building, University Park. Refreshments will be served at 3:45 p.m. The speaker is part of the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering 2000-2001 Distinguished Lecture Series.
For more information, call James Brasseur at (814) 865-3159 or e-mail Brasseur at brasseur@jazz.me.psu.edu.