Master's tea will feature
the discoverer of the "Titanic"
Renowned marine scientist Robert D. Ballard, who discovered the remains of the sunken "Titanic" in 1985, will be the guest at a tea on Tuesday, Feb. 17, at 4:30 p.m. at the Calhoun College master's house,
189 Elm St. The event is free and open to the public.
Ballard is a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and president of the Institute for Exploration at the Sea Research Foundation in Mystic, Connecticut. He used both manned and robot submersibles to locate the "R.M.S. Titanic," the luxury liner that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg. He has also studied other shipwrecks found in the deep oceans, including the German battleship "Bismarck," the luxury liner "Lusitania," the hospital ship "Britannic" and ancient Roman vessels. He has been active in promoting natural science and exploration to children and adults through his involvement with television programs produced by the National Geographic Society and the adventure series "seaQuest DSV." Ballard's books on his discoveries of the "Titanic" and "Bismarck" are worldwide bestsellers. He has received many honors, including the National Geographic Society's most prestigious award, The Hubbard Medal.
Noted Boston pediatrician
to discuss literacy development
"Pediatrics by the Book: Early Literacy in Pediatric Practice" is the title of the sixth annual Warren Weiswasser Lecture, which will be delivered on Wednesday, Feb. 18, by pediatrician Dr. Perri Klass. Her talk, which is free and open to the public, will begin at noon in Fitkin Amphitheater (enter through 310 Cedar St.). The department of pediatrics at the School of Medicine is sponsoring the lecture, which is named in honor of a New Haven pediatrician who formerly was affiliated with the Yale Child Study Center.
Klass is the medical director of Reach Out and Read at Boston Medical Center, where she is assistant professor of pediatrics. She has trained pediatricians around the country on how to counsel parents about books and reading to their children, and how to integrate books and literacy into routine pediatric care. Klass also has a pediatric primary care practice at Dorchester House, a neighborhood health center in Boston, where she gives books to patients during well-child visits as part of the Reach Out and Read Program. She is the author of numerous books, including an essay collection titled "Baby Doctor: A Pediatrician's Training." Her short stories have won five O. Henry Awards, and her essays have been published in numerous national magazines.
Tristate River Basin Commission to be topic of talk
Steven Leitman, environmental planner with the Apalachicola Basin Project, will be the next speaker in the semester-long series "The Restoration Agenda: Water!" presented by the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. His talk, titled "How much change is too much change in a system that is constantly changing?," will be given on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. in Bowers auditorium of Sage Hall, 205 Prospect St. Open discussion with the speaker follows 1-2:20 p.m. during an informal luncheon. Brown-bag lunches are welcome; hot beverages will be provided.
The series is free to all members of the University community and alumni. Community members are welcome for a registration fee. Registration information is available from Dr. Aimlee Laderman, 432-3335, or via e-mail at aimlee.laderman@yale.edu.
The Apalachicola watershed, which drains into the Gulf of Mexico, is the site of the first river basin commission created since the passage of the Clean Water Act. Within the next year, the three states in the basin (Alabama, Florida and Georgia) and the federal government must determine how water in the basin should be allocated. Leitman's lecture will focus on some of the technical tools that will be used in defining an allocation formula. Leitman has worked on water management and environmental conservation issues in the Apalachicola watershed for the past 22 years.
Award-winning poet
will read from his works
A. R. Ammons will read from his poetry on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 8 p.m. in Sudler Auditorium of William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St. Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, will introduce the poet. The event, sponsored by the English department, is free and open to the public.
Ammons is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Poetry at Cornell University. He is the author of 24 books of poetry, including "Collected Poems: 1951-1971," for which he won the National Book Award in 1973, and "Garbage," for which he won the National Book Award in 1993. Among his other honors, he is a winner of the Bollingen Prize for Poetry and a MacArthur Fellowship. His most recent works include the collection "Brink Road" and a long poem titled "Glare."
Hungary's progress is subject of talk by former U.S. ambassador
Donald M. Blinken, who served as U.S. ambassador to Hungary 1994-97, will talk on the topic "Hungary: Its Economic and Political Integration into the Euro-Atlantic Community" on Thursday, Feb. 19, at noon in Rm. 103 of Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave. The public is welcome to attend the free event, which is sponsored by the Council on Russian and East European Studies and the Council on West European Studies at the Yale Center for International & Area Studies.
Blinken's career has blended leadership in investment banking, education and the arts. He cofounded the investment banking/
venture capital firm of E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co. in 1966 after working in the retail business in the United Kingdom. He served as chair of the board of trustees of the State University of New York 1978-90. In recent years, he also served as vice chair of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society, on the executive committee of the New York Public Library, as a trustee of the Institute of International Education, as an overseer of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government and as a member of the Trustee's Council of the National Gallery of Art. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1996, Blinken is the author of a book on American trade policy and of numerous articles on education and international affairs.
For further information, call 432-3423.
Former presidential adviser
to talk about undergraduate life
"The Yale Experience Then and Now: How Has Undergraduate Life Changed in the Past Three Decades?" is the question that will be explored during a master's tea on Thursday, Feb. 19, with guest David Gergen '63. Gergen, editor-at-large of U.S. News and World Report, is a member of the Yale Corporation. His free talk, sponsored by Pierson College and the Sid Lovett Fund, will begin at 4 p.m. in the Pierson College master's house, 231 Park St. The public is welcome to attend.
Gergen has served as commentator, editor, teacher, public servant and adviser to four U.S. presidents: Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. He first joined the White House as the head of Nixon's speechwriting and research team. More recently, he has been President Clinton's counselor, and later, was a special adviser on foreign policy to the president and the Secretary of State. He returned to the private sector in January 1995.
An editor of U.S. News & World Report 1984-93, Gergen became editor-at-large in 1988. He writes editorials and commentaries for the magazine; his articles have also appeared in the Washington Post and other publications. In addition, he is a regular conversationalist on PBS's "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" and is a visiting professor at Duke University. Gergen is currently at work on a book on presidential leadership in the 20th century.
Literary translator to discuss work by Hungarian novelist
Ivan Sanders, professor of English at Suffolk County Community College and an award-winning translator of Hungarian literature, will be the next speaker in the Program for Humanities in Medicine lecture series. On Thursday, Feb. 19, he will present a talk titled "The Beauty of My Anomalous Nature: A Book of Memories by Péter Nádas" at 5 p.m. in the Beaumont Room of the School of Medicine, 333 Cedar St. The lecture is free, and the public is invited.
The title of Sanders' talk is a chapter heading from Hungarian novelist Péter Nádas' autobiography, "A Book of Memories," which Sanders translated with Imre Goldstein. The English version of the book was published in 1997. Sanders has been the holder of the Soros Lectureship in Hungarian Literature at Columbia University since 1997 and has been the Soros Lecturer at the New School for Social Research since 1993. His other publications include translations of works by George Konrád and Milán Fust. His translations have appeared in The New York Review of Books, Dissent, Partisan Review, The New Hungarian Quarterly and other publications, and his reviews and articles have been published in many magazines and journals. His numerous honors include Hungary's Fust Milán Prize and its Artisjus Translation Award, as well as an award for outstanding teaching at Suffolk County Community College.
News service for children's issues is subject of journalist's talk
Rachel L. Jones, former national correspondent for Knight-Ridder and founder of Child Wire, Inc., will speak on Friday,
Feb. 20, at noon in the weekly lecture series sponsored by the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy. Her talk, titled "Proposed Plan for a News Service to Focus on Children's Issues: Child Advocacy or Hard News?," will be held in the Sterling Library lecture hall, 128 Wall St. The event is free and open to the public.
Jones reported on child and family issues from Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau for 3 years before she left in 1997 to develop plans for Child Wire. She also worked as a feature writer at the Detroit Free Press, as an investigative reporter for the Chicago Reporter (a monthly newsletter focusing on race and poverty issues) and as a local government/police reporter for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. She has appeared on the "CNN & Company" morning show and "This is America with Dennis Wholey." In 1995 Jones was awarded a fellowship from the Casey Journalism Center at the University of Maryland for her coverage of child welfare issues. Her column on race and the O.J. Simpson case, written while she was at the Detroit Free Press, won a 1995 Unity Award in Media from Lincoln University in Missouri. Jones is president of the Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS), a national women's journalism organization with 350 members.
For further information, call 432-9935.