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Extra-Ordinary Experiences and the Emergence of New Visionary Movements: Mormonism & the Golden Plates - Ann Taves
8:00 PM – Benton Auditorium, Scheman Building, Iowa State Center - Ann Taves is a professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and past president of the American Academy of Religion. She studies the processes by which people attribute meaning to their experiences, approaching the study of religion from the perspectives of both the humanities and the sciences. Her work finds common ground between what our culture perceives as religion and such fields as neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Taves's books include Religious Experience Reconsidered and Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James. She earned a PhD from the University of Chicago's Divinity School and currently holds the Virgil Cordano Chair in Catholic Studies at UCSB. Donald Benson Memorial Lecture in Literature, Science, and the Arts

Technological Entrepreneurship: A Key to World Peace and Prosperity - Nobel Laureate Dan Shechtman
12:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Dan Shechtman, an Iowa State Distinguished Professor of materials science and engineering and research scientist at Ames Laboratory, won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The honor was awarded for his discovery of quasicrystals, crystalline materials with a periodic atomic structure deemed impossible in modern crystallography. His current research efforts center on developing strong and ductile magnesium alloys for a variety of applications, and deformation mechanisms in B2 intermetallics. He is also the Philip Tobias Distinguished Professor of Materials Science at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, where he has taught a course in technological entrepreneurship for twenty-seven years. He joined Iowa State and the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory in 2004.

Good without God - Greg Epstein
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Greg M. Epstein serves as the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University and is the author of Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. He currently serves as vice president of the thirty-six-member corps Harvard Chaplains. In 2005 Epstein received ordination as a Humanist Rabbi from the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, through which he studied in Jerusalem and Michigan for five years. He holds a bachelor's in religion and Chinese, and a masters in Judaic Studies from the University of Michigan, and a Masters of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School. Part of the National Affairs Series.

Iowa State College in the 1890s: A Visual History - Douglas Biggs
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Douglas Biggs, associate professor of history at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, is a native of Ames and a graduate of Iowa State University. The son of a geology professor, Biggs spent much of his youth exploring the campus and later earned both a BA and an MA in history from the university before completing his PhD at the University of Minnesota. The first installment of his research on Iowa State in the 1890s, conducted in the University Archives, appeared in the Annals of Iowa in 2012. This talk, featuring a slide show of historic photographs, will highlight the Dinkey, a steam engine that ran between campus and downtown Ames from 1891 to 1907. A scale model of the Dinkey, complete with track, will be on display in the Parks Library until the end of May.

It's A Girl: Film & Discussion on Gendercide & Human Trafficking
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - "It's a Girl" are three of the deadliest words in the world. This documentary reveals how in many parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. It tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of mothers fighting to save their daughters' lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in context and advocate different paths towards change. Teresa Downing Matibag, assistant professor of sociology and executive director of the Iowa-based Network Against Human Trafficking, will moderate a discussion on gendercide and its relation to human trafficking immediately following the 60-min film. She will be joined by Ruth Buckels, the statewide coordinator for the Achieving Maximum Potential program at Youth & Shelter Services, and Brittany, a human trafficking survivor. International Women's Day Event and Part of the World Affairs Series.

The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars - Michael Mann
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Climatologist Michael E. Mann, author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines, is a member of the Penn State University faculty, holding joint positions in the Departments of Meteorology and Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. He is the coauthor of Dire Predictions: Understanding Global Warming and is a cofounder and avid contributor to the award-winning science website, www.RealClimate.org. He, along with other scientists, participated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. That organization received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He has also been named one of fifty leading visionaries in science and technology by Scientific American. Part of the National Affairs Series.

The Divine Nine: Greekdom, Black History and the Responsibility to the Campus Community - Lawrence Ross
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Lawrence Ross is the author of The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities and an advocate for eliminating pledging and hazing. His talk includes information about the origins of the Greek system in general, and Black fraternities and sororities in particular. He also discusses the Greek legacy of leadership, community service, achievement and distinction. Ross is a graduate of UCLA and the author of five books, including two novels. He contributes frequently to national media outlets, including CNN, National Public Radio, Ebony, Essence, and theroot.com.

Evolution in Immune Systems - Michael Deem
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Michael Deem is a computational theorist whose work has contributed significantly to our understanding of important aspects of immunology, evolution and materials science. He researches Newton's laws of biology, the theory of personalized critical care, physical theories of pathogen evolution, and the structure of zeolites. He has shown that the speed at which life evolves is constantly increasing because of horizontal gene transfer and created a database of more than 4 million possible molecular configurations for zeolites. He will discuss methods he has developed for predicting vaccine effectiveness and for determining which strains of the flu to cover in annual vaccine formulations. Michael Deem is the John W. Cox Professor in Bioengineering and a professor of physics & astronomy at Rice University. Phi Beta Kappa Lecture.

The 2012 Elections: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly - Dianne Bystrom & Steffen Schmidt
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Join Dianne Bystrom and Steffen Schmidt for a discussion of the outstanding moments of the 2012 caucus, primary and election season. Dianne Bystrom is director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics and has more than thirty years of experience covering, working in, and studying political campaigns. She is a coauthor, coeditor or contributor to fifteen books on topics ranging from political communication strategies, media coverage of women candidates, and women in Congress. She is a frequent commentator on women's and political issues for local, national and international media. Steffen Schmidt is University Professor of Political Science and longtime contributor to Iowa Public Radio's weekly political call-in show. He has become one of the most quotable political science experts in the media on the Iowa caucuses and U.S. presidential elections. He is a coauthor of the best selling textbook American Government and Politics Today. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Dean's Lecture Series

Private Lands and Public Priorities: EPA, Iowa Agriculture, and the Quest for Land Health - Karl Brooks
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Karl Brooks is the Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency's Region 7. He supervises EPA operations in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and nine tribal nations. For the first time in generations, Iowans have the opportunity to tackle one of the nation's biggest water quality challenges: nonpoint source pollution. The elements are in place for a concerted effort to reduce the nutrients that degrade Iowa waters and contribute to problems that extend well beyond the state's borders. Dr. Brooks will discuss collaborative efforts of the EPA, Iowa farmers, state agencies, and Iowa State University to seize this opportunity to address water quality concerns related to agriculture.