Mystery 'detective' to share tales of paranormal investigations

Joe Nickell, an investigator of the paranormal and a forensics expert who has been called "the modern Sherlock Holmes" and "the original ghostbuster," will discuss his work during a two-day campus visit Monday and Tuesday, Feb. 22 and 23.

At 8 p.m. on Monday, Nickell will deliver a lecture titled "Investigating the Paranormal" in Rm. 119 of William L. Harkness Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

On Tuesday at 4 p.m. Nickell will be the guest at a master's tea in the Silliman College master's house, 71 Wall St. This event is open to Yale students.

During his visit to campus, Nickell will also have lunch with members of the Yale Law School's Law and Technology Society, and he will sign copies of his book "Crime Science" at 4 p.m. on Monday at the Yale Bookstore, 77 Broadway.

A former stage magician and private detective, Nickell has investigated all varieties of mysteries, from spontaneous human combustion and haunted houses to the "Shroud of Turin." He has written over 15 books, including "Crime Science," in which he discusses the art and science of detective work. He has discussed his investigations on such television shows as "Larry King Live," "Unsolved Mysteries," "Politically Incorrect," "20/20" and "Dateline." He serves on the editorial board of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, for which he writes the column "Investigative Files."

Nickell's visit is sponsored by the Yale Skeptics Society, Silliman College, the New England Skeptical Society, the Connecticut Humanist Association and the Yale Society of Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics.

SEC chairman to discuss future of American markets

"Where America's Markets are Headed" is the title of a talk being presented on Monday, Feb. 22, by Arthur Levitt, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). His talk will begin at 6 p.m. in Rm. 102 of Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 63 High St. The Yale College Student Union is sponsoring the event, which is free and open to the public.

Levitt, who was appointed chair of the SEC by President Bill Clinton in 1993, is now serving his second five-year term in the post. His top priorities in his first term have been to improve investor protections, reform the debt markets, raise the standards of practice for brokers and strengthen the international preeminence of U.S. capital markets. During his tenure the SEC has established the Office of Investor Education and Assistance and created a World Wide Web site which allows the SEC to make corporate filings available to the public free of charge.

Under Levitt's leadership, the SEC has also worked with the securities industry to develop the "Fund Profile" and other clear guidelines for investment products in an effort to make disclosure documents easier to understand.

Prior to his chairmanship of the SEC, Mr. Levitt owned "Roll Call," the newspaper of Congress. He formerly served as chair of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and of the American Stock Exchange.

Benefits of natural forest fires are subject of ecologist's talk

The beneficial impact of naturally occurring forest fires for spurring new growth will be the subject of the next talk in the semester-long series "The Restoration Agenda: Focus on Plants" at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (F&ES) on Wednesday, Feb. 24. Donald A. Falk, executive director of the Society for Ecological Restoration, will deliver the talk, titled "Restoring Fires to Southwestern Forests."

The weekly talks are from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Bowers Auditorium at Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St. The public is invited, and guests may bring a brown-bag lunch for the discussion following the talk. For registration information, contact F&ES lecturer Aimlee D. Laderman at 432-3335 or e-mail aimlee.laderman@yale.edu.

Falk, who is noted for his expertise in the conservation and restoration of biological diversity, cofounded and directed from 1984 to 1993 the Center for Plant Conservation, the first national organization dedicated to protecting endangered native plant species. SER was formed in 1988 and has become the pre-eminent organization dedicated to advancing the science and art of restoring damaged ecosystems. The society and its 2,500 international members constitute the primary authority on the restoration of damaged and altered ecosystems.

Falk has coedited two books, "Genetics and Conservation of Rare Plants" and "Restoring Diversity." His honors include a Conservation Scholars Award from the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.

Father and son will talk 'About Business'

Father and son Richard and Doug Foster,, who are alumni of the University, will offer their different perspectives in a talk titled "About Business" on Thursday Feb. 25, at 4 p.m. during a master's tea in the Jonathan Edwards College (JE) master's house, 70 High St. The event is free and open to the public.

Richard N. Foster, who received bachelor, master's and doctoral degrees from Yale, has played a senior leadership role in McKinsey & Company, Inc. for the past 15 years and is currently a director of the company. Since joining the company in 1973, he has worked in more than 50 industry segments, with over half of his time spent in the health care industry, primarily for suppliers (of medical products, pharmaceuticals and diagnostics). He also has led the company's efforts in these areas in the U.S., Europe, Japan and China. He has focused special attention over the past 25 years on improving the performance of large organizations, and is often sought for his views on this topic. He is the author of "Innovation: The Attacker's Advantage," which The Wall Street Journal cited as one of the five best business books of 1986.

Doug Foster, a 1996 graduate of Yale College, is an associate at Pequot Capital in New York City. He joined the investment management company in 1997 after spending a year in equity research at Robertson Stephens & Co. in San Francisco.

Connecticut education official to speak on charter schools

School of Management alumna Jennie Niles, charter schools program manager for the Connecticut Department of Education, will give a talk titled "Charter Schools in Connecticut: Current Issues" on Friday, Feb. 26, at noon in Rm. 211 of the Hall of Graduate Studies, 320 York St. The event, sponsored by the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy, is free and open to the public.

Connecticut's charter school initiative is an education reform effort that gives autonomy to specially created schools as long as they meet the state's standards for accountability. Niles is responsible for all aspects of this program, including oversight of the schools for the Commissioner of Education, provision of technical assistance to the schools, coordination of the application and review process, and public information. Prior to this position, Niles directed service-learning programs and taught science at the middle and high school levels in Massachusetts and California. She earned a master's degree from the Yale School of Management in 1998.

For more information, call 432-9935.

Environmental management is subject of talk by ITT executive

Travis Engen, chair and chief executive of ITT Industries, Inc., will give a talk titled "Growing Value by Maintaining Our Values: The New Realities of Environmental Management" on Monday, March 1. His talk, cosponsored by the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Law School, will begin at 4 p.m. in Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St. The public is invited to attend the free talk.

ITT is a global manufacturing company that is the world's largest producer of pumps. It also produces systems and services to move and control water and other fluids and is a leading supplier of military defense systems and of connectors, switches and cabling used in telecommunications, computing, aerospace and industrial applications. The company, based in White Plains, New York, employs approximately 35,000 people around the world.

As chair and chief executive of ITT, Engen sets the strategic direction for the Fortune 500 company. He became ITT Industries' first chief executive in 1995, when the ITT Corporation's board of directors voted to split the company into three independent, publicly held companies. Engen joined ITT Corporation in 1985 as president and general manager of ITT Avionics. He became president and chief executive officer of ITT Defense two years later, and in 1991 he was elected to serve as an executive vice president of ITT Corporation with responsibility for the companies that now form ITT Industries, as well as ITT's insurance, communications and information services divisions.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Paul Mellon leaves Yale University $90 million for arts programs
Schmoke named Senior Fellow of Yale Corporation
The Cloak and Dagger World--Former CIA officials to take part in conference . . .
Winter MIX
Untangling 'historical jumble' about Jefferson no easy feat, say scholars
William Kessen, renowned expert in child psychology, dies at age 74
Yale affiliates offering lectures and performance off-campus this week
Yale Opera to perform Tchaikovsky's 'Iolanta'
Law's relationship to low-wage workers to be explored
Chemical engineer Altman receives Presidential Early Career Award
Grant allows forestry students to work as interns across the nation
'ETHNY2K' conference will explore future directions of ethnic studies
Sought: Reminiscences about Yale figures
Robert Louis Jackson wins Humboldt Award