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Innovation in Sustainable Engineering and Energy: A Whole Foods Perspective - Kathy Loftus
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Kathy Loftus is Global Leader for Sustainable Engineering, Maintenance and Energy Management for Whole Foods Market, the world's leading retailer of natural and organic foods. She coordinates strategic energy procurement, efficiency upgrades, engineering and maintenance best practices, and green building efforts for the chain. Her work includes coordinating program partnerships and efforts with the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and U.S. Green Building Council. Loftus holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and is a Certified Energy Manager through the Association of Energy Engineers. Part of the National Affairs Series: Innovation and Ethics and the Women in STEM Series.

College of Business 25th Anniversary Distinguished Scholar Series - Vallabh Sambamurthy
10:00 AM – Schaller Seminar Room, 3164 Gerdin Business Building - Vallabh Sambamurthy is the Eli Broad Professor of Information Technology at Michigan State University and former executive director of the Center for Leadership of the Digital Enterprise. He is the coauthor of Winning the Three Legged Race: When Business and Technology Run Together, which advocates the necessity for firms to integrate their business and information technology management processes. Sambamurthy is currently the editor-in-chief of Information Systems Research. He earned a PhD from the University of Minnesota and has served on the faculties of the business schools at the University of Maryland and Florida State University. Part of the College of Business 25th Anniversary Distinguished Scholar Series

How Our Bodies Fight Infection: The Basics of Molecular Immunology - Amy Andreotti
7:30 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Amy Andreotti is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology at Iowa State. Her research is in molecular immunology, specifically how the principles of physics can be used to understand the three-dimensional shapes of those molecules that control our immune response. Her team is looking at how these molecules change in the context of diseases such as autoimmune disorders or viral infections with the hope of improving their treatment. Andreotti earned a PhD in chemistry at Princeton University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean's Lecture Series.

Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species - Sean Carroll
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Sean Carroll, a professor of molecular biology and genetics and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Wisconsin, is known for his ability to popularize molecular genetics and their explanation for the process of evolution. He is the author of four books, including Remarkable Creatures and The Making of the Fittest, as well as coauthor of two scientific textbooks. Major discoveries from his laboratory have been featured in such publications as TIME and U.S. News & World Report, he has been featured on such programs as NPR's Science Friday, and he recently helped produce a PBS NOVA special marking the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's publication of Origin of Species. He earned his B.A. in biology at Washington University in St. Louis and his Ph.D. in immunology at Tufts Medical School. Part of the National Affairs Series. This lecture is available as an Iowa Public Television Intelligent Talk broadcast: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species (#178)

Is Everybody Stupid(?) A One Man Show with Ise Lyfe
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Ise Lyfe is a spoken word artist and community leader. His artistic work includes a 2006 debut album spreadtheWord, his latest CD Prince Cometh, the play Who's Krazy?, and his forthcoming book, Pistols and Prayers. From local and national poetry slams to Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on HBO, his performances also include over sixty universities all over the country and in the United Kingdom and Ghana, West Africa. In addition to performing, he works with local organizations addressing the educational, social and political needs of young people in San Francisco and Oakland.

Innovation in Global Agriculture in the Twenty-first Century - Ed Schafer
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer has served as an elected official, business executive, and entrepreneur. As governor of North Dakota from 1992 to 2000, Schafer worked to promote trade relations with China and develop that nation as an export market for North Dakota farm products. He also led efforts to upgrade the state's communications infrastructure and make high-speed voice and data networks available to farmers, ranchers and rural businesses. Schafer was elected chair of the Republican Governors Association in 2000 and that same year cofounded the Governors Biotechnology Partnership. Before entering public life, he was a business executive with the Gold Seal Company in Bismarck. He also cofounded Extend America to provide wireless voice and high-speed data services in five rural Midwestern states.

Unclaimed Legacy: A Call to Service for the Post-Civil Rights Generation - Jeff Johnson
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - A journalist, social activist, and political commentator, Jeff Johnson has a commitment to fostering broad-based communication about issues related to race, politics, pop culture, and socioeconomics. Originally known as "Cousin Jeff," he has earned a reputation as the "conscience voice" of BET Networks. His new book, Everything I'm Not Made Me Everything I Am, is a call to service for the post-Civil Rights generation. Johnson has worked as senior advisor for Media and Youth Outreach for People for the American Way, as national director of the Youth & College Division of the NAACP, and as the vice president of Russell Simmons's Hip Hop Summit Action Network. Part of the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday Series.

Difficult Dialogues - A Forum with Robert J. Nash and DeMethra Bradley
12:00 PM – Cardinal Room, Memorial Union - Robert J. Nash and DeMethra Bradley are coauthors of How to Talk about Hot Topics on Campus: From Polarization to Moral Conversation. They will outline a model for engaging the university community in productive and civil dialogue on the most difficult and controversial social, religious, political, and cultural topics. Their ideas reach across disciplines and are applicable to most any issue that could be uncomfortable to discuss, cause participants to be disrespectful of differing opinions, and ultimately be divisive to a campus community. This Spring Faculty Forum is open to the entire university community.

What You Can Learn Sleeping in the Residence Halls - Graham Spanier
8:00 PM – Great Hall/South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Iowa State alum Graham Spanier has served as president of Penn State since 1995. His prior positions include chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Oregon State University, and vice provost for undergraduate studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. A family sociologist, demographer, and marriage and family therapist, he is the author of ten books and the founding editor of the Journal of Family Issues. Spanier earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and his bachelor's and master's degrees from Iowa State University. College of Liberal Arts & Sciences 50th Anniversary Celebration Keynote

The Lives of Rocks: Field Notes on Finding Home - Rick Bass
7:00 PM – Sun Room/South Ballroom, Memorial Union - Author and environmentalist Rick Bass is the author of twenty books, including the autobiographical Why I Came West and the short story collection The Lives of Rocks. His first short story collection, The Watch, set in Texas, won the PEN/Nelson Algren Award; and his 2002 collection, The Hermit's Story, was a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize and an O. Henry Award, Bass started writing short stories during his lunch breaks while working as a gas and oil geologist in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1987 he moved to the Yaak Valley in the northern Rockies, where he has been active in protecting the land from roads and logging and serves on the board of the Yaak Valley Forest Council and Round River Conservation Studies. Part of the Wildness, Wilderness, and the Creative Imagination Symposium. No audio recording available for download or podcast.