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Self-assembling Polymers for Gene Delivery and Biomineralization - Surya K. Mallapragada
7:00 PM – Cardinal Room, Memorial Union - Surya K. Mallapragada is chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Stanley Chair in Interdisciplinary Engineering. Her research focuses on the development of new polymeric materials for medical applications, including neural tissue engineering, controlled drug and gene delivery, and as templates for biomineralization. The work has implications from cancer therapy, to nerve regeneration, to single-dose vaccines. Mallapragada is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. She is the recipient of an NSF Early CAREER Award and was named one of the World's Top 100 Young Innovators, 2002, by MIT's Technology Review Magazine. She earned her PhD in chemical engineering from Purdue University. Part of the Sigma Xi Lecture Series and the Women in STEM Series.

Keep Friendship Alive: Partying Smart and Keeping Friends Safe - Erica Upshaw
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Erica Upshaw shares her unique approach to risk management for the party-centric social scene on college campuses. Upshaw does not preach alcohol abstinence but challenges students to openly question behavior they know to be reckless and potentially fatal. She provides information to help students make good decisions when using alcohol socially. Erica Upshaw's brother, a leader in his fraternity and model student, died of a lethal does of the drug GHB and alcohol. For Erica, who frequently partied alongside her brother at college, it was a wake-up call to the reckless attitudes she and her friends had about drugs and alcohol. Iowa State personnel will also be available to offer risk management resources and services specific to this campus.

Iowa and Onward: The Caucuses and the 2012 Election - Charlie Cook
12:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Charlie Cook is considered one of the nation's leading authorities on American politics and U.S. elections. He is the editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report and a political analyst for NBC News and National Journal, where he writes a twice-weekly column. He has been an election night analyst for CNN and CBS News and is a frequent guest on NBC's Meet the Press. In 2010 he was a co-recipient of the American Political Science Association's Carey McWilliams award to honor "a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics." Inaugural Harkin Institute of Public Policy Lecture.

Energizing America: Facts for Addressing Energy Policy - John Felmy
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - John Felmy is chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute, where he is responsible for economic, statistical and policy analysis. He has more than twenty-five years of experience in energy, economic and environmental analysis. He spent eleven years forecasting the oil and energy industry for DRI under McGraw-Hill and served as director at Princeton Energy Research before joining API. Felmy earned bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from Pennsylvania State University and a doctorate in economics from the University of Maryland. The American Petroleum Institute is the primary trade association for the oil and natural gas industry in the United States. He will be providing an economic analysis that includes oil shale and natural gas. Part of the Live Green! Sustainability Series.

Linking the Local and Global - Rekha Basu
6:00 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Rekha Basu has been a columnist for the Des Moines Register since 1991, focusing on human rights, racial and gender issues and commenting on cultural trends. Born in India to United Nations parents, Basu grew up internationally. She has worked as a reporter, editorial writer and columnist at newspapers in Iowa, New York State and Florida. Basu's column appears three times a week on the Register's opinion pages and is syndicated by Gannett News Service. Her many awards include the 2008 Women of Influence Award, the Iowa Interfaith Alliance Award, and the Iowa Farmers Union Media Award. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a master's degree in political economy from Goddard Cambridge Graduate School. Technology, Globalization, and Culture Series

Who Owns Your Genes? - Chris Hansen
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Chris Hansen, senior staff counsel for the national American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), was lead counsel in the ACLU's challenge of patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer. The 2009 lawsuit charged that the patents are illegal and restrict both scientific research and patients' access to medical care. It also argued patents on human genes violate the First Amendment and patent law as "products of nature." Hansen has worked as an attorney with the national ACLU since 1984, acting as lead counsel in a wide variety of landmark cases, including the historic and successful challenge to federal Internet content regulations. He received his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and holds an undergraduate degree from Carleton College. Part of the National Affairs Series.

Christian Responses to Climate Change - Penny Greer
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Penny Greer is a minister and geologist. She earned a Master of Divinity from the Harvard Divinity School and has served as a church pastor for thirty years. Greer returned to school after a decade of ministry, driven by a concern about why the natural world was excluded from Western Christianity. She completed a BS in geology at the University of Southern Indiana and has since developed a research interest in Christian responses, both fundamentalist and liberal, to evolution and climate change. Greer currently serves as Interim Pastor at the First Christian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has also begun work toward a joint MS within the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the Department of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Part of the Department of Geological & Atmospheric Sciences Distinguished Lecture Series

The Health and Environmental Effects of Using Coal as Fuel - Maureen McCue
6:00 PM – South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Dr. Maureen McCue is the Iowa Coordinator for Physicians for Social Responsibility and a lead author on the Iowa Coal Health Mapping Study. She was also a collaborating researcher on Recalibrating the Law of Humans with the Laws of Nature: Climate Change, Human Rights, and Intergenerational Justice, published by the Vermont Law School. McCue is an adjunct professor of global health at the University of Iowa with a specialty in epidemiology. She was a founding member of the University of Iowa Global Health Studies Program as well as the university's Center for Human Rights. Her international work organizing forums on cross cultural, global health and women's health issues has taken her to the former Soviet Union, Nicaragua, Cuba, Ecuador, Haiti, India and Bangladesh. Part of the Live Green! Sustainability Series.

Healthy Intimate & Sexual Relationships Workshop - Tom Klaus
5:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Tom Klaus is the director of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative at Advocates for Youth and the former executive director of FutureNet, the Iowa Network for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, Parenting and Sexual Health. He developed the Healthy Intimate and Sexual Relationships workshop in collaboration with Iowa State's Gender & Relationships on Campus student group and Teresa Downing, faculty in the Department of Sociology. It is designed for young adults and focuses specifically on sex and relationships in today's campus culture. Klaus is a professional facilitator, has expertise in program evaluation, and is working with the Centers for Disease Control on evaluating the success of their nationwide initiative to reduce teen pregnancies. He earned an M.S. in counseling from Drake University.

Film and discussion: Let's Talk about Sex
7:00 PM – MacKay Hall Auditorium, Rm 0117 - The documentary Let's Talk About Sex explores how attitudes toward sex impact unplanned pregnancy and STDS in teens. New York-based photographer James Houston was inspired to make the film after traveling the world, and realizing that, while American teens live in a society that uses sex to sell everything from lipstick to laptops, they are rarely afforded opportunities to discuss sex in an open, honest way. Let's Talk about Sex was produced in collaboration with Advocates for Youth, the leading nonprofit organization focused on issues relating to adolescent reproductive health. James Wagoner is a respected public policy and reproductive health expert and executive director of Advocates for Youth. He has also served as executive vice president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and on the staff of Ohio Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum. A conversation with James Wagoner will follow the 62-minute film.