Lectures
Penn State Intercom......March
22, 2001
'Once and Again'
producer to visit campus
Winnie Holzman, producer of the television series "Once and Again" and creator/co-executive producer of the Emmy-nominated show "My So-Called Life," will visit the College of Communications later this month.
Throughout her weeklong stay, Holzman will visit classes and meet with faculty in the Department of Film/Video and Media Studies.
Holzman will present a screening and discussion of her work at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in the Carnegie Cinema (113 Carnegie Building) on the University Park campus. The event is free to the public.
Holzman was one of the writers of the series "thirtysomething" and her film credits include the romantic comedy " 'Til There Was You."
She is currently collaborating with songwriter Stephen Schwartz on a musical adaptation of the novel Wicked.
Mankind's links to the
stars to be explored
A lecture titled "From Stardust to Dinosaurs to Footprints on the Moon to Stardust Again" will be given at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 24, in 101 Thomas Building on the University Park campus.
Chris Churchill, research associate in astronomy and astrophysics, will be the presenter. His talk is the fourth of six in the Friedman Lecture Series, which focuses on "Origins in Astronomy."
Churchill will explain the cyclic processes of the stars in the galaxies and how they forge the chemical elements that make us up. He plans to expand on an analogy of humans as a member of a galactic "ecosystem," an oasis driven by the stars.
Churchill has been a faculty member at the University since 1996. He researches the creation of chemical elements throughout the cosmos and the origin and evolution of galaxies. This semester he is teaching an advanced undergraduate-level course on space colonization sponsored by the Space Technology and Society Program.
The lecture is free to the public.
Talk looks at effects
of going to school
Christopher Winship, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University, will present a lecture titled "Does Going to School Make You Smarter? The Estimation of Causal Effects with Longitudinal Data" at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, in 101 Thomas Building on the University Park campus.
His lecture is the fifth Clifford C. Clogg Memorial Lecture in Sociology and Statistics.
The series honors the late Clifford C. Clogg, a distinguished professor of sociology and professor of statistics from 1979 to 1995.
Winship has been a faculty member at Harvard since 1992. His research focuses on several topics, among them statistical methods for causal analysis, the effects of education on mental ability and causes of the racial difference in performance in elite colleges and universities.
Science, Medicine,
Technology lectures begin
A number of lecturers will make presentations as part of the Science, Medicine and Technology in Culture 2001 lecture series on the University Park campus.
On Friday, March 23, Mary Terrall, assistant professor of history at UCLA, will talk about "Speculation and Experiment in 18th-Century Theories of Generation" at 4 p.m. in 124 Sparks Building.
On Thursday, March 29, Norton Wise, professor of history at UCLA, will talk about "Expressive Curves: Art and Science in Helmholtz's Berlin" at 8 p.m. 101 Osmond.
On Friday, April 20, David Hollinger, professor of history at University of California at Berkeley, will talk about "The Veblen Thesis Reconsidered: Why are Jews so Prominent in Science and Scholarship?" at 4 p.m. in 113 Carnegie.
On Thursday, April 26, Peter Galison, Mallinckrodt professor of the history of science and physics at Harvard University, will talk about "Einstein's Clocks: High Theory and Lowly Technology" at 8 p.m. in 101 Osmond.
For information, e-mail Sarah Goodfellow at sxg205@psu.edu or Elizabeth Mazzolini at eam191@psu.edu.
Graduate student will
give agronomy lecture
Bradley Park will lecture on "The Use of Basamid (Dazomet) Soil Fumigant for Poa Annua Control in Turfgrass Establishment" from 3:35 to 4:25 p.m. March 23 in 101 Agricultural Sciences and Industries Building on the University Park campus.
Park is a master of science candidate in agronomy. The Agronomy Department is the host for the event. For information, call (814) 863-1601.
Lecture series
focuses on state issues
High-speed rail, prescription drug costs and farmland preservation will be the topics of discussion for a noontime lecture series beginning March 29 at the Penn State Downtown Center at 234 N. Third St., Harrisburg.
The series, sponsored by the Pennsylvania State Data Center, is free to the public.
The first lecture, "High-Speed Rail in Pennsylvania," by Jeremy Plant, professor of public administration and public policy at Penn State Harrisburg, will provide an overview of the national and international aspects of high-speed rail, including the Maglev system.
On May 10, J. Marvin Bentley, professor of public affairs at Penn State Harrisburg, will discuss "Prescription Drug Costs and the Elderly" focusing on health-care legislation currently being proposed by Congress and its effects on prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
The concluding installment in the series on May 17 is titled "Preserving Pennsylvania's Farm Land: Where Did All the Farm Land Go?" Leading the discussion will be Christine Kellett, director of the Agricultural Law Center of The Dickinson School of Law. Kellett, a member of Gov. Tom Ridge's Sound Land Use Advisory Committee, will discuss the effectiveness of various techniques to preserve farmland and will address topics such as agricultural zoning, security areas, conservation easements and tax policy.
While registration is not required, attendees are asked to call (717) 948-6677 or
e-mail PaSDC-Reserve@psu.edu
with a registration request, so that adequate seating can be ensured.
Lecture focuses on corporate integrity
An international leader in ethics will be the guest speaker during The Smeal College of Business Administration's upcoming G. Albert Shoemaker Program in Business Ethics.
Frank Vogl, president of Vogl Communications Inc., a Washington D.C.-based, strategic-management consulting firm, is the guest speaker. He will discuss "Corporate Integrity And Globalization: What Are The Standards And Who Sets The Standards, For Global Corporate Citizenship?" at 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 23, in 112 Kern Graduate Building on the University Park campus.
Vogl is co-founder and vice chairman of Transparency International, a global anti-corruption organization, and he is a member of the board of directors and senior ethics adviser to the Ethics Resource Center of Washington D.C.
The G. Albert Shoemaker Program In Business Ethics was established in 1985 through a $100,000 gift from the late G. Albert Shoemaker and his wife Mercedes.
The event is free to the public.
Symposium focuses
on daguerreotypes
"History Past, History Present: The Daguerreotype Portrait in America" is the theme for a symposium March 23-24 at the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium on the University Park campus.
Matthew Isenburg, historian and collector, will speak on "Collecting, Researching and Sharing the Daguerreian Experience: Too Little Time, Too Much Material" from 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. Friday, March 23.
The following events will be on Saturday, March 24:
* Brooks Johnson, curator of photography at the Chrysler Museum, will speak on "Julius Vannerson: From the Daguerreotype to the Paper Print" at
10 a.m.
* Jerry Spagnoli, contemporary daguerreotypist, will discuss "The World Suspended in Light: Some Thoughts on the Daguerreotype" at 11 a.m.;
* Alan Trachtenberg, Neil Gray Jr. professor of English and American studies at Yale University, will talk about "Mute Romance: Montgomery Simons' Southern Connection" at 1:30 p.m.;
* Brent Wilson, professor of art education at Penn State will discuss "Exhibiting Daguerrotypes: Portraying the Future" at 2:30 p.m.; and
* A panel discussion from 3:30-4:30 p.m. will be moderated by Glenn Willumson, curator, Palmer Museum of Art.
To register, call (814) 865-7672 or e-mail Dana Carlisle Kletchka at dck10@psu.edu. The symposium is free, however space is limited to the first 150 respondents.
Designer of world's tallest building to speak
Charles H. Thorton will be the speaker for the ninth annual Thomas C. Kavanagh Memorial Structural Engineering Lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 5 at the Applied Research Laboratory Auditorium on the University Park campus.
Thorton is chairman of the architectural and engineering firm Thorton-Tomasetti Group Inc. In his 39 years with the corporation, he has worked on numerous landmarks including the 95-story Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which is the world's tallest building.
Thorton's lecture will focus on the history of high-risk construction, specifics on the design of the Petronas Twin Towers and industry trends.
Thorton is currently a visiting faculty member at Princeton University and Manhattan College and has taught at the Pratt Institute and Cooper Union.
The event is free to the public.