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Living as Transgender - Ellen Krug
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Ellen (Ellie) Krug, the author of Getting to Ellen: A Memoir about Love, Honesty and Gender Change, transitioned from male to female in 2009. A graduate of Coe College and Boston College Law School, Ellie practiced as a trial attorney in Boston and Cedar Rapids for 28 years. Before changing careers, she became the only Iowa attorney, and one of the few in the nation, to try lawsuits in separate genders. She speaks frequently about living as a transgender person, including how her perspectives on gender have changed. Her talks have included lessons learned about the need to live authentically and true to one's self. Ellie currently works as the executive director of a Twin Cities-based nonprofit, where she also writes for Lavender Magazine and ACCESSline. National Transgender Day of Remembrance

Satellites & Butterflies: Climate Change and Species Conservation in North America - Jeremy Kerr
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Biologist Jeremy Kerr studies how biodiversity is changing as a consequence of climate change. His University of Ottawa lab recently launched the eButterfly Project, allowing researchers and scientists across North America to monitor the numbers and migratory paths of butterflies, which are often viewed as indicators of environmental change. Jeremy Kerr's research program has had practical applications for continental-scale species- and habitat-conservation efforts. It has also been used to predict how changing environmental conditions affect the abundance of disease-carrying species and the prevalence of vector-borne illnesses like malaria. He teaches lecture and field courses in aspects of ecology in Ottawa and Tanzania. The Annual Paul L. Errington Memorial Lecture

Pharmageddon: The Rx Drug Crisis - Linda Kalin
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Linda Kalin directs the Iowa Statewide Poison Control Center, a partnership between UnityPoint Health and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She has over twenty-five years of experience in clinical toxicology and speaks frequently about the abuse of prescription drugs, including opioid painkillers and Adderall. Kalin began her career as an emergency room nurse and in 1989 became Iowa's first Certified Specialist in Poison Information. She was instrumental in the development of the statewide poison control center in 2000.

The Difficult Quest to Unravel the Secrets of the Tornado - Bill Gallus
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Bill Gallus has always been obsessed with the weather. Raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a place known for its infamous floods, his fascination evolved from a weather diary as a first grader to researching severe storms as an Iowa State meteorology professor and storm chaser. Gallus was on the team that pioneered development of Iowa State's tornado simulator, the first of its kind to create a moving tornado large enough to simulate the effects of a twister on different types of structures. His research has been funded by NSF and NOAA and is paving the way for better understanding of tornado interactions with the ground, which can improve structural design and building safety. Gallus joined the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences in 1995 after completing a PhD at Colorado State University and a postdoctoral position at the National Center for Environmental Prediction. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean's Lecture Series. This talk will be given in memory of Tim Samaras, an engineer, scientist, and storm chaser who collaborated over nine years with Iowa State. Tim was killed while deploying instruments in an Oklahoma tornado on May 31.

Public Ideologies & the Future of Immigration Reform - Alejandro Portes
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - For more than thirty years sociologist Alejandro Portes has helped shape the study of immigration and urbanization. His work on the causes and consequences of immigration to the United States has focused on informal economies, transnational communities and the adaptation of immigrant children. Most recently he's looked at immigration and the American healthcare system. He is the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Migration and Development at Princeton University. His books include City on the Edge - The Transformation of Miami and Immigrant America: A Portrait. The first 10 minutes of this audio recording is unavailable due to technical difficulties.

Is the War on Drugs Helping or Harming? Brian Leininger
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Attorney Brian Leininger speaks on behalf of LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization that represents members of the law enforcement and criminal justice communities who believe current drug policies fail to effectively address the problems of drug abuse and related crimes. Leininger has served as an assistant district attorney in Kansas City and as General Legal Counsel to the Kansas Highway Patrol. He is a criminal defense lawyer and member of the Legal Committee of NORML, a national organization working to legalize the responsible use of marijuana.

At Home and Abroad - Bill Bryson
8:00 PM – Stephens Auditorium - Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. The author of more than two dozen books, Bill Bryson finds delight in the minutiae of travel and the subtleties of culture. He has chronicled everything from hiking the Appalachian Trail in A Walk in the Woods to his adventures Down Under In a Sunburned Country to his visit to Kenya at the invitation of CARE International in Billy Bryson's African Diary. His other books include Notes from a Small Island, The Lost Continent, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe, and his memoir of growing up in Des Moines, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His newest book is One Summer: America, 1927. Book signing to follow in the Celebrity Cafe. Part of the World Affairs Series

How Artists-Teachers Create an Exceptional Learning Environment - Gerard Morris
3:10 PM – Gold Room, Memorial Union - Gerard Morris, a faculty member in the University of Puget Sound School of Music, discusses how the success of any teaching style or pedagogical process is directly linked to the artist-teacher in front of the room. Artist-teachers are in a constant state of sensitizing or desensitizing students, which has an impact on the learning environment - the reality - they are trying to create. Morris draws on the research, teaching, and writing of physicist Alan Lightman, neuroscientists David Eagleman and Jonah Lehrer, and psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to show how an increased awareness of how individuals perceive and create "reality" can foster success in the classroom.

The Science of Speed: Faster, Stronger and Safer - Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, author of The Physics of NASCAR, knows you can't win races without getting the math and science right. Her work has been featured in everything from TIME Magazine to the New York Times to Sporting News magazine. She blogs at www.buildingspeed.org, explaining the math and science behind current events in motorsports. Leslie-Pelecky earned undergraduate degrees in physics and philosophy from the University of North Texas and a PhD in condensed matter physics from Michigan State University. After fourteen years at the University of Nebraska, she recently became director of the West Virginia Nano Initiative and Professor of Physics at West Virginia University. Her current research seeks new ways to apply magnetic nanoparticles to make chemotherapy more efficient and decrease the side effects. Sigma Xi Series and Women in STEM Series

Jane Jacobs and Rachel Carson: How They Changed Our World - Robert Fishman
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Robert Fishman is an expert in the areas of urban history and urban policy and planning. He will discuss the impact of Jane Jacobs and Rachel Carson, two women who revolutionized the fields of urbanism and environmentalism as well as changed the way we think about sustainability. Professor Robert Fishman currently has an appointment in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. He has written two books widely regarded as seminal texts on the history of cities and urbanization: Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century and Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia.