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Past Events
Thursday, 22 Oct 2015
The Evolution of Goodness, Justice and Empathy - Lee Dugatkin
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Lee Alan Dugatkin is a professor and Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Biology at University of Louisville, where he studies the evolution of social behavior. He will discuss a question long pondered by evolutionary biologists and philosophers alike: Why are humans and animals good to one another and sacrifice to help those around them? Dugatkin is the author of more than 150 articles in such journals as Nature and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; several books, including Cooperation among Animals: An Evolutionary Perspective; Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees; and The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness; as well as the textbooks Evolution and Principles of Animal Behavior. Sigma Xi Lecture Series
Wednesday, 21 Oct 2015
Governing Under the Influence: Are Pentagon Contractors Driving U.S. Foreign Policy? - Col. (Ret) Lawrence Wilkerson
8:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Col. (Ret) Lawrence Wilkerson was Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005. He was also associate director of the State Department's policy planning staff under the directorship of Ambassador Richard Haass. During his thirty-one years in the U.S. Army he served as Deputy Executive Officer to then-General Colin Powell when he commanded the U.S. Army Forces Command, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is currently the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William & Mary. Part of the World Affairs Series: Redefining Global Security
Tuesday, 20 Oct 2015
Define American: My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant - Jose Antonio Vargas
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker and author of the groundbreaking 2011 New York Times Magazine essay that revealed and chronicled his life as an undocumented immigrant. Vargas, who has worked with the Huffington Post and the Washington Post, was subsequently featured on the cover of TIME Magazine and testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration reform. He has written and directed a film on his undocumented experience and is currently working in partnership with the Los Angeles Times and MTV to air "White People," a television special he directed on what it means to be young and white in America. He is also the executive editor of #EmergingUS, a multimedia news platform focusing on race, immigration, and the complexities of multiculturalism.
Monday, 19 Oct 2015
Gut Churn - Radiolab's Jad Abumrad
7:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Free event | No tickets needed | Doors open at 6:15
Jad Abumrad is producer and co-host of Radiolab, a show about curiosity where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience. Radiolab, heard weekly on NPR, is supported by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, to enhance public understanding of science and technology. Topics have ranged from how Charles Darwin's 150-year-old discoveries about human emotion are helping Facebook users; details of the world's longest running experiment; an examination of one proposal to communicate with the dead; and a discussion of whether photos in this Digital Age cause us to forget. This lecture is the personal story of how Abumrad, a 2011 MacArthur Fellow and the son of a doctor and scientist, invented a new aesthetic and how those negative feelings we have during the creative process - gut churn - can propel us forward.
Thursday, 15 Oct 2015
How We Can Achieve an International Agreement on Climate Change: Iowa State's Challenge for Paris - Student Panel Discussion with Ryan Hobert
7:00 PM – Sun Room, Memorial Union - Ryan Hobert is the Senior Director for Energy and Climate Change at the United Nations Foundation, an organization created to connect people, ideas and resources with the United Nations. He works on a variety of climate and energy initiatives, including the UN Secretary-General's Sustainable Energy for All initiative. Hobert will speak about the upcoming Paris Climate Summit and then join a panel discussion with Iowa State students working on research and policy issues related to climate change. Participants include Michael Czahor, Statistics; Bernando del Campo, Mechanical Engineering; Rivka Fidel, Agronomy; Kelly Kalvelage, Human Computer Interaction; and Abby Stanek, Agricultural Education. Gene Takle, director of the Iowa State Climate Science Program, will moderate.
A reception and poster display will precede the lecture from 6:00 to 7:00 pm in the Sun Room. Learn more about global connections and Iowa solutions to climate change.
Hamburgers in Paradise: Food and Agriculture in the 21st Century - Louise Fresco
12:00 PM – 1951 Food Sciences Building - Louise Fresco is president of Wageningen University and Research in The Netherlands. A former UN director, a contributor to think tanks and an advisor to academies in Europe and the United States, Fresco speaks often on how social unrest is made worse by hunger, poverty, environmental problems and modernization. In 2013 she published a thought-provoking op-ed in Science Magazine titled "The GMO Stalemate in Europe." Her book Hamburgers in Paradise: The Stories behind the Food We Eat will be released next month. Fresco combines a long academic career with extensive involvement in policy and development. She is a member of the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences and of four foreign Academies. She served nearly ten years as Assistant-Director General at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and is a member of the World Food Prize Council of Advisors.
A reception will precede the talk, 11:30am-12:00pm, in the Food Sciences Courtyard.
Wednesday, 14 Oct 2015
The Future of Healthy Families - Stephen Russell
4:00 PM – 2019 Morrill Hall - Stephen T. Russell is the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor of Child Development at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on development in adolescence, with an emphasis on adolescent sexuality, LGBT youth, and parent-adolescent relationships. His research has been used to shape local and state policies and laws for school safety. Russell is currently chair of the Board of Directors of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States and is a past president of the Society for Research on Adolescence. Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Chair Lecture Series
Tuesday, 13 Oct 2015
Democratic Presidential Debate - Watch Party & Discussion
7:30 PM – 172 Hamilton Hall - Doors open at 7:00 | Light refreshments provided
Join your Iowa State friends and colleagues to watch Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Jim Webb and Lincoln Chafee for 90 exciting minutes of political debate! Following the CNN televised debate broadcast from Las Vegas, participants will have an opportunity to voice their views on what they heard from the candidates. Iowa State faculty leading the post-debate discussions will be Dianne Bystrom, director of the Catt Center; and Kelly Winfrey, assistant professor of journalism and communication.
Evolution of the Obesity Epidemic and Efforts to Contain It - William Dietz
7:00 PM – Dolezal Auditorium, 127 Curtiss Hall - Dr. William Dietz is the director of the Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, where he is leading innovative strategies to expand wellness and the prevention of chronic diseases. A member of the prestigious National Institute of Medicine, he has a distinguished career that includes fifteen years as the director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to that he was a professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Dietz's work in the field of childhood obesity includes the first study to demonstrate a relationship between television viewing habits and obesity in young children. He has also been recognized for his efforts to improve school lunches.
Monday, 12 Oct 2015
Empowering the Poor in the Fight against Hunger - Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
8:00 PM – Great Hall, Memorial Union - Sir Fazle Hasan Abed is the 2015 World Food Prize Laureate and founder and chairperson of BRAC, the world's largest anti-poverty organization. Through BRAC, known originally as the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee, Sir Fazle pioneered a new approach to development that addresses the connection between hunger and poverty. He has also been a leader in empowering women as agents of change through microfinance, education, and healthcare. Sir Fazle worked as a corporate executive until 1971, when he resigned and formed BRAC to assist the people of his native Bangladesh after a devastating tropical storm and war with Pakistan. BRAC has since spread its antipoverty solutions to ten other developing countries, including Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Haiti. 2015 Norman Borlaug Lecture and part of the World Affairs Series
A reception and student poster display will precede the lecture from 7 to 8 p.m. in the South Ballroom, Memorial Union. Posters will address world food issues and are submitted by undergraduate and graduate students.