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Past Events

Sunday, 19 Sep 2010

Southern Sudan and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement - Salva Kiir Mayardit
6:30 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - The President of the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) General Salva Kiir Mayardit will discuss the January independence referendum that will determine if the country of Sudan will remain united or South Sudan will secede. The referendum is part of the 2005 peace agreement that ended the civil war. Mayardit is also the Vice President of Sudan and previously served as chief of staff for the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). He took over as president of Southern Sudan following the death of General John Garang, an Iowa State University alumnus. Part of the World Affairs Series.

Saturday, 18 Sep 2010

Comedy on the Edge - Reggie Watts
8:00 PM – Stephens Auditorium, Iowa State Center ADMISSION FREE - Doors open at 7:00 PM - Reggie Watts is far from your traditional stand-up comedian, with an act - and a head of hair - that defies audience expectations. Opening for Conan O'Brien's recent Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour, Watts has become known for his freeform approach. His thought-provoking material ranges from the history of Google and the internet to absurd monologues performed in any number of accents and voices. Throw in freestyle musical numbers created using only his voice and a little machine called a loop pedal, and you've got a performance to remember!

Thursday, 16 Sep 2010

Global Souls: Citizens in the Future Tense - Pico Iyer
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Pico Iyer, one of our most respected observers of our changing world, is the author of nine books about cultures converging. These include Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East; The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto; The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home. His most recent book, The Open Road, describes thirty-five years of talks and travel with the Dalai Lama. Based in Japan, Pico Iyer writes often for Harper's, Time and the New York Review of Books, and regularly travels to far-flung places like North Korea, Ethiopia, Bolivia and Bhutan. Part of the World Affairs Series.

An Engineering Approach to Optimize the Combinatorial Drug Treatment for Cancer and Infectious Diseases - Chih-Ming Ho
5:30 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Chih-Ming Ho is director of the Center for Cell Control, an NIH Nanomedicine Roadmap Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research offers an engineering approach to determining optimal drug cocktails for the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. The feedback system control scheme requires only tens of iterations to identify the most effective combinatorial drugs from millions of possibilities. Ho, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and an Academician of Academia Sinica, is known for his work in micro/nano fluidics, bio-nano technologies and turbulence. He holds the Ben Rich-Lockheed Martin Professorship in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA and received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University. Electrical and Computer Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series.

Teenager at Alcatraz: The Clarence Carnes Story - Tim Tingle
4:00 PM – Cardinal Room, Memorial Union - Clarence Carnes, an Oklahoma Choctaw, was the youngest man ever sent to The Rock, and was a key player in the historic Battle of Alcatraz, when armed prisoners seized control. Native American storyteller Tim Tingle recounts Carnes's story based on several hours of recorded interviews with an elderly prison inmate who accompanied Carnes on his Oklahoma crime spree. Tingle, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is known for bringing American folklore to life in lively historical, personal, and traditional stories. He plays the mouth harp, drums and sings Choctaw hymns to complement his narratives. He is the author of six books, including Spirits of Dark and Light, the children's book When Turtle Grows Feathers and Crossing Bok Chitto. Tingle earned his MA in English from the University of Oklahoma, where he currently teaches the storytelling course "Oral Literature of the Southwest." In cooperation with Story City's STORY! Celebrating the Art of Storytelling Festival, September 16-19, 2010. No audio recording available for download or podcast.

Wednesday, 15 Sep 2010

Can't Go Native - Film and Discussion with L. Keith Brown and David W. Plath
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Ames native and Iowa State alum L. Keith Brown will discuss his documentary Can't Go Native, which captures contemporary rural life in Shinjo, Japan. Similar to the American Midwest, regional Japan grapples with an aging population and infrastructure, shortages of young adults, and downtowns that are hollowing out. Brown is emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh and a recipient of the Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Japanese government. He received a B.S. in sociology from Iowa State and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago. The film's producer, David W. Plath, is emeritus professor of anthropology and Asian studies at the University of Illinois. He has produced television programs on Japan for decades. A discussion with Brown and Plath will immediately follow the screening.

Friday, 10 Sep 2010

Late Night Comedy with The Sklar Brothers
11:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Laugh twice as hard with this comedy duo. Twins Randy and Jason are frequent guests on E's Chelsea Lately and appear regularly on ESPN SportsCenter's "The Bracket." The creators and stars of the ESPN cult hit series Cheap Seats, The Sklar Brothers have many TV credits, including guest appearances on an Emmy Award-winning episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, as conjoined twins in a memorable episode of Grey's Anatomy, as dance marathon DJs on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and as warring agents on HBO's Entourage. Their stand-up has appeared on Premium Blend and in, appropriately, two Comedy Central specials. ISU After Dark Series

Thursday, 9 Sep 2010

My Life in the Comics: Thirty Years of Graphic Misbehavior from Reagan to Obama - Nicole Hollander
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Nicole Hollander's cartoon strip Sylvia appears in over 30 newspapers. She has published sixteen collections of Sylvia strips; two books, Female Problems and My Cat's Not Fat, He's Just Big Boned, as well as a collection of essays, Tales of Graceful Aging from the Planet Denial. Her comic strip and books were the inspiration for three plays, all of them musicals. Her most recent collection is The Sylvia Chronicles: 30 Years of Graphic Misbehavior from Reagan to Obama. Hollander earned a B.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Boston University.

Thursday, 29 Apr 2010

U.S. Wind Energy Market Report - Kathy Belyeu
2:00 PM – Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Kathy Belyeu, manager of the American Wind Energy Association's Industry Information Services, will share the results of the association's Annual Wind Industry Report. In addition to the national report, she will provide information specific to Iowa, which has the second most installed wind capacity of any state. Jonathan Wickert, Dean of the College of Engineering, will provide the introduction.

Monday, 26 Apr 2010

College of Business 25th Anniversary Distinguished Scholar Series - Mark Flannery
1:30 PM – Schaller Seminar Room, 3164 Gerdin Business Building - **Rescheduled from April 15** Mark Flannery is the Bank of America Eminent Scholar in Finance at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business Administration. His research is in the areas of government regulation of the financial sector, information content of security prices, financial management of financial institutions, and asset pricing. Flannery is the editor of Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. He earned a PhD from Yale University and has served on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina, and as a visiting professor at the London Business School. Part of the College of Business 25th Anniversary Distinguished Scholar Series