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Agricultural Research and Food Security in Africa - Monty Jones
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Monty Jones, the 2007 Norman Borlaug Lecturer, is the executive secretary of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), based in Ghana. He received the 2004 World Food Prize for his breakthrough achievements in creating a new rice variety specifically bred for the ecological and agricultural conditions in Africa. Jones, the first African to win the World Food Prize, began his career in 1975 with the West Africa Rice Development Agency (WARDA). In 1991 he was appointed head of WARDA's Upland Rice Breeding Program, where he developed NERICA, a "New Rice for Africa." Jones subsequently worked to distribute NERICA rice to farmers in Africa's villages through partnerships among WARDA, policymakers, NGOs, and research and extension services as well as a community-based outreach program. Jones was born and educated in Sierra Leone. He completed a PhD in plant biology in 1983 at Birmingham University in the United Kingdom and received an honorary Doctor of Science in 2005. 2007 Norman Borlaug Lecture. Prior to the Lecture, there will be a reception and student poster display from 7 to 8 p.m. in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union.

Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime - Kenneth Helphand
6:00 PM – Kocimski Auditorium, College of Design - Kenneth Helphand is a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Oregon, where he has taught since 1974. He has guest lectured at numerous universities and is a regular visiting professor at the Technion - the Israel Institute of Technology. His research is in landscape history and theory with a particular interest in the contemporary American landscape. His works include Colorado: Visions of an American Landscape and Yard Street Park: The Design of Suburban Open Space. Most recently he published Defiant Gardens: Making Gardens in Wartime, an examination of gardens of war in the twentieth century, including gardens built behind the trenches in World War I, in the Warsaw and other ghettos during World War II, and in Japanese-American internment camps. Helphand is a graduate of Harvard's Graduate School of Design. The P. H. Elwood Lecture in Landscape Architecture.

The Economics of Investing in Children: The Role of Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills - James J. Heckman
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - James J. Heckman is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and winner of the 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (with Daniel McFadden). His recent research deals with such issues as evaluation of social programs, econometric models of discrete choice and longitudinal data, the economics of the labor market, and alternative models of the distribution of income. Heckman has been the director of the Center for Social Program Evaluation, Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, at the University of Chicago since 1973. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the John Bates Clark Award of the American Economic Association, the Jacob Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement in Labor Economics, the University College Dublin Ulysses Medal, and the Aigner award from the Journal of Econometrics. The T.W. Schultz Lecture.

The Long Emergency: The Coming Global Oil Crisis and Climate Change - James Howard Kunstler
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - James Howard Kunstler is an author and social critic perhaps best known for The Geography of Nowhere, a history of suburbia and urban development in the United States. He also authored The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition. His most recent book, The Long Emergency, tackles the global oil crisis. Kunstler has worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers and as a staff writer for Rolling Stone. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times Sunday magazine and op-ed page, where he has written on environmental and economic issues.

Global Screen Industries - Michael Curtin
6:00 PM – Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium, Howe Hall - Michael Curtin is a professor of media and cultural studies in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the UW Global Studies Program, a federally funded National Resource Center for International Studies. He is the author of Redeeming the Wasteland: Television Documentary and Cold War Politics and coeditor of Making and Selling Culture and The Revolution Wasn't Televised: Sixties Television and Social Conflict. Technology, Globalization, and Culture Series.

The Place of Gays and Lesbians in the Church - Sister Jeannine Gramick
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Sister Jeannine Gramick, a Roman Catholic nun, cofounded along with Fr. Robert Nugent the New Ways Ministry, a national, Catholic social justice center working for the reconciliation of lesbian/gay people and the church. Two of her many books and articles, Building Bridges: Gay and Lesbian Reality and the Catholic Church and Voices of Hope: A Collection of Positive Catholic Writings on Lesbian/Gay Issues, were the subject of a Vatican investigation. Gramick is the subject of the 2006 documentary film In Good Conscience, which tells the story of her faith journey and conflict with the Vatican over the rights of gay and lesbian Catholics. In 1999 the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith permanently prohibited her from any pastoral work with lesbian or gay persons. In 2000 the School Sisters of Notre Dame ordered her to cease speaking about the Vatican investigation and about homosexuality in general. She transferred to the Sisters of Loretto in 2001 in order to continue engaging in lesbian/gay ministry. "In Good Conscience" will be shown prior to her presentation, at 6:00 pm in the South Ballroom. National Coming Out Day.

Tradition and Transformation - Panel Discussion about the History of Iowa State University
7:00 PM – Campanile Room, Memorial Union - A panel of contributors will discuss the centerpiece to Iowa State's sesquicentennial celebration, a book commissioned to document the university events and themes of the second half of the twentieth century. Sesquicentennial History of Iowa State University: Tradition and Transformation was edited by Dorothy Schwieder and Gretchen Van Houten. Panelists include Tom Kroeschell, Communications Manager in the Athletics Department; Pamela Riney-Kehrberg, Professor of History and Director of the Agriculture History and Rural Studies Program; and Dorothy Schwieder, Professor Emerita of History. Charlie Dobbs, Chair of the History Department, will moderate. Part of the Iowa State 150th Anniversary Celebration.

More Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: The Iowa Caucuses and American Presidential Candidate Selection - Steffen Schmidt
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Steffen Schmidt is University Professor of political science and the director of international programs for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State. He is perhaps best known as "Dr. Politics," the longtime commentator and cohost of WOI Radio's weekly political call-in show. Schmidt joined Iowa State's Political Science Department in 1970. He specializes in public law and the government, policies of globalization, and, more recently, the policy and politics of managing coastal areas. He is also interested in distance learning and teaching and was named the 2007 Innovator of the Year by the Iowa Distance Learning Association. Schmidt has become one of the most quotable political science experts in the media on U.S. presidential elections and the Iowa caucuses. In 2004 he shared his insights with such media outlets as CNN, the BBC, the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, and Christian Science Monitor. Schmidt is a coauthor of the annual series American Government and Politics Today as well as coeditor of Soldiers in Politics and Issues in Iowa Politics. The Fall 2007 University Presidential Lecture. A reception and display of student research will precede the lecture at 7:00 p.m. in the South Ballroom.

Global Citizenship Symposium: Climate Challenge Game
1:00 PM – Pioneer Room, Memorial Union - Bill Gutowski, a professor in the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, will be the lead facilitator of the Climate Challenge Game, a simulation of climate issues facing our world today and what countries can do to lessen the problem. Professor Gutowski will also discuss global warming from his perspective. Other facilitators for the event include representatives from engineering, political science, economics and ISU Facilities Planning & Management.

Clones, Chimeras, and Other Creatures of the Biotechnological Revolution: Toward a Genomic Mythology - Priscilla Wald
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Priscilla Wald is a professor of English and Women's Studies at Duke University. Her current work focuses on the intersections among the law, literature, science, and medicine. She is currently completing a project on the public understanding of genome sciences. Post-lecture commentary will be offered by Amy Bix, Associate Professor of History, and Max Rothschild, Distinguished Professor of Animal Science. Part of the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Series.