Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 19, 2004|Volume 32, Number 22

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Developmental biologist to deliver Woodward Lectures

Jacqueline Deschamps, research group leader at the Hubrecht Laboratory, Netherland Institute of Developmental Biology, Utrecht, The Netherlands, will present the Woodward Lectures on Developmental Biology on Tuesday, March 23, and Thursday, March 25.

On Tuesday, Deschamps will discuss "Genetic Regulation of Antero-Posterior Patterning in Mouse Embryos." The topic for Thursday's lecture is "Antero-Posterior Patterning Genes During Axial Elongation in the Mouse." Both lectures will begin at 4 p.m. and will be held in Rm. 202 of the Osborn Memorial Laboratory, 165 Prospect St. Tea will be served prior to the lectures at 3:30 p.m.

The senior author of more than 40 papers published in numerous developmental journals, Deschamps is internationally recognized for her experimental studies on developmental pattern formation in the mouse with relevance to developmental patterning in man.

Sustainable agriculture topic of environmental lecture

Wes Jackson, president of The Land Institute, will speak on campus on Tuesday, March 23.

Jackson will discuss "The Necessity and Possibility of Bringing Wild Ecosystem Processes to Agriculture" at 4 p.m. in Bowers Auditorium, Sage Hall, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 205 Prospect St. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Yale Coalition for Agriculture, Food and the Environment. For more information, contact Maura Leahy at (203) 988-7703.

Founded by Jackson in 1976, The Land Institute is a non-profit research and education organization whose goal is to improve the security of society's food and fiber source by reducing soil erosion, decreasing dependency upon petroleum and natural gas, and relieving the agriculture-related chemical contamination of land and water.

Considered to be a leader in the international movement for a more sustainable agriculture, Jackson is the author of several books, including "New Roots for Agriculture," which argues for a shift to economic and lifestyle paradigms based on ecology, and "Becoming Native to This Place," which calls for the integration of food production with natural ecosystems in a way that sustains both.

In 2000, Jackson received the Right Livelihood Award, which is awarded annually in Stockholm for "outstanding vision and work on behalf of [the] planet and its people."

Medical ethicist to address bioethics forum

The Institution for Social and Policy Studies will host a visit by Dr. Bernard Lo, professor of medicine and director of the Program in Medical Ethics at the University of California, San Francisco, on Wednesday, March 24.

Lo will deliver two lectures as part of the Bioethics and Public Policy Seminar Series and Risk Assessment Forum. The first, titled "Informed Consent for Embryo and Stem Cell Research," will be held at noon in the Peabody Museum auditorium, 170 Whitney Ave. "Is It Ethical to Administer Pesticides or Environmental Pollutants to Research Subjects?" is the topic of the evening lecture, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Slifka Center, 80 Wall St. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

Lo works extensively on ethical issues in human subjects research and ethical issues in end-of-life care. He has written articles on such issues as decisions about life-sustaining interventions, decision-making for incompetent patients, physician-assisted suicide and ethical issues regarding HIV infection.

The author of "Resolving Ethical Dilemmas: A Guide for Clinicians," Lo is also a practicing general internist who teaches clinical medicine to residents and medical students.

Lo is a member of the Institute of Medicine committee on the scientific and ethical issues in studies that administer pesticides and pollutants to human volunteers under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency.

At the National Institutes of Health, Lo serves on the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, which reviews all gene transfer research protocols. He also serves on the Data and Safety Monitoring Board for trials of inducing immune tolerance in diabetes.

Nobel Laureate to give keynote address and Berliner Lecture

Nobel laureate Dr. Peter Agre, professor of biochemistry and medicine at Johns Hopkins University, will visit the campus on Wednesday and Thursday, March 24 and 25.

On Wednesday, Agre will give the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library Associates 56th annual keynote address at 4 p.m. in Harkness Auditorium, 333 Cedar St. He will speak on "The Road to Stockholm and Back -- Comments on the Journey." A reception will follow in the Medical Historical Library.

Agre will deliver the Robert W. Berliner Memorial Lecture on "Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Clinical Medicine" on Thursday at 4 p.m. in Rm. N107, The Anlyan Center, 300 Cedar St. The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology and the Section of Nephrology. A reception will be held prior to the lecture at 3:30 p.m.

Both talks are free and open to the public.

Agre was awarded the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the aquaporin water channel.

In 1988, Agre isolated a membrane protein that he later characterized as the long-sought-after water channel. This discovery allowed biochemical, physiological and genetic studies of water channels in bacteria, plants and mammals. His group is currently studying aquaporin gene regulation and diseases that may result from mutations. Among those diseases are the loss of a major blood group antigen, cataracts, renal tubular acidosis, Sjogrens syndrome and brain edema.

Origin of humans to be explored in Peabody lecture

Distinguished paleoanthropologist Meave Leakey will deliver the first annual Yale Peabody Museum Distinguished Lecture on Wednesday, March 24.

Leakey will discuss "Human Origins: New Discoveries in East Africa" at 5 p.m. in Levinson Auditorium, Sterling Law Buildings, 127 Wall St. The talk is free and the public is invited to attend. A reception will follow.

The talk is being held in conjunction with the opening of the Peabody Museum's exhibition "Fossil Fragments: The Riddle of Human Origins," which opens on March 24. Leakey participated in the planning of the exhibition.

Recently named a National Geographic "explorer in residence," Leakey is internationally known for her advances in the study of human origins. Her 1999 discovery and description of a new hominid, Kenyanthropus platyops ("flat-faced man of Kenya") changed scientists' views on the origins of humans. The New York Times wrote that the discovery of this three-and-one-half million-year-old skull and partial jaw "threatens to overturn the prevailing view that a single line of descent stretched through the early stages of human ancestry."

As a research associate at the National Museums of Kenya and an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University in New York, Leakey is an active promoter of hominid research in the field, laboratory and classroom. Her research also includes the evolution of monkeys, apes, carnivores and other mammalian fauna.

Yale alumna to receive annual Brudner Prize

Judith Butler, the Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, will receive the annual James Robert Brudner Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Lesbian and Gay Studies and will also give a lecture on Wednesday, March 24.

Butler will speak on "Dispossessions: New Directions in the Study of Sexuality and Gender" at 8 p.m. in the Sudler Hall auditorium in William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. A reception will follow the lecture in Rm. 309. Sponsored by the Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies, the event is free and open to the public.

Butler, who received both her bachelor's degree and her Ph.D. from Yale, also holds the position of the Hannah Arendt Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, where she teaches an intensive summer seminar.

Butler is the author or co-author of numerous books, including "Antigone's Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death," "Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity," "Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'" and "The Psychic Life of Power: Theories of Subjection."

Comedy Central comedian to be guest at master's tea

Calhoun College will host a visit by comedian Demetri Martin on Thursday, March 25.

Martin will be the guest at a tea at the Calhoun College master's house, 434 College St., at 4:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Using palindromes and anagrams in his autobiographical comedy routine, Martin won the 2003 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and also the award for best one-man show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in 2003.

A regular on Comedy Central's website, Martin has appeared on the "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

A review by Daily Telegraph critic Mark Monahan called him "funny, hypnotic and entirely original."

F&ES talk will examine politics and the environment

Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), will give a lecture on Thursday, March 25, as part of a series on "Politics and the Environment in the 2004 Election Cycle."

Callahan will discuss "Political Organizing for the Environment," at 4 p.m. in Bowers Auditorium, Sage Hall, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, 205 Prospect St. The talk is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Heather Kaplan at heather.kaplan@yale.edu.

Callahan, LCV's president since 1996, has over 20 years of experience working on political and environmental campaigns. Previously, she was the executive director of the Brainerd Foundation, whose mission is to protect the environment of the Pacific Northwest.

Callahan was the grassroots environmental program director of the W. Alton Jones Foundation. She also served as both campaign manager and a staffer for numerous congressional and presidential campaigns, including working as the national field director of the Gore for President Campaign in 1988.

Child care policy is subject of social policy lecture

The next talk in the Yale Center in Child Development and Social Policy lecture series will be given by Kimberly Morgan, assistant professor of political science at George Washington University, on Friday, March 26.

Titled "The Origins of American Child Care Policy," Morgan's talk will begin at 11:30 a.m. in Rm. 102, Becton Center, 15 Prospect Street. The talk is free and open to the public. For more information, call (203) 432-9935.

Morgan was previously a participant in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Scholars in Health Policy Research program at Yale.

Morgan's research and teaching interests include child-care and parental leave, health policy and, more broadly, the politics of the welfare state.

Currently, she is writing a book on the politics of child-care policy in advanced industrialized states.

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

Yale scientist on team that discovered new planetoid

Robert Blocker has been reappointed to third term . . .

Center to foster research on cerebral cortex

Bulldogs' Nate Lawrie busy preparing himself for NFL Draft

Political scientist Ian Shapiro named YCIAS director

Zbigniew Brzezinski . . . to present talk on campus

Magic, comic mayhem prevail in re-telling of old tale

'Digital Cops in a Virtual Environment' will explore . . .

Conference to consider 'The Future of Secularism'

Exhibit features works by artist who combined fact and fantasy . . .

NIDA director discusses complicated causes . . . of drug addiction

Castle Lectures to explore materialism in today's culture

English faculty to present staged reading of 'Pentecost'

'Enclave' to explore architectural aspects of ports of commerce

In Focus: Office of Cooperative Research