Centennial Distinguished Lecture Series
October 4, 2007 |
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Trevor K. Archer Chief, Laboratory of Molecular Carcinogenesis “Nuclear receptor regulated transcription: Multiple molecular mechanisms” Carcinogenesis is a complex process. In any individual, the interplay between genetics, environmental exposure and age combine to create conditions more or less favorable for the development and dissemination of cancer. For cancer cells to develop and thrive, they must acquire a variety of specific capabilities: growing inappropriately, avoiding elimination by defense mechanisms, stimulating their microenvironment, providing needed support and spreading to new locations within the body. The processes that regulate these acquired abilities include gene expression as controlled by chromatin structure, signal transduction events in response to cell-cell interactions, hormone exposure and fatty acid metabolism and DNA damage and repair responses. The goal of the Laboratory Molecular Carcinogenesis is to define the fundamental molecular mechanisms by which environmental exposures lead to cancer. The pursuit of molecular and environmental causes of cancer represents a synergistic approach to cancer prevention and treatment. Knowing the target genes for environmental agents will permit the development of improved methods for the identification of environmental carcinogens in both laboratory and epidemiological studies.
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November 29, 2007 |
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Gray’s lecture was on how the sun’s energy can be harnessed to split water and produce fuel. Gray and his group have devised rhenium modified copper proteins to separate electrons and holes for photochemical hydrogen production from water. Event host, Professor Mahdi Abu-Omar, commented, “Incidentally our own Dick Walton has made seminal contributions in rhenium chemistry. In addition to the important lessons in basic research, Gray’s lecture was very entertaining! He kept the audience at the edge of their seat.”
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Chemistry |
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February 7, 2008 |
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Mildred Dresselhaus received her Ph.D. degree at the University of Chicago in 1958. Following her doctoral studies, Dresselhaus spent two years at Cornell University as an NSF postdoctoral fellow, and then seven years as a staff member of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in the Solid State Physics Division. She joined the MIT faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1967 and the Department of Physics in 1983, and was named an Institute Professor in 1985. She served as the Director of the Office of Science at the US Department of Energy in 2000-2001. Professor Dresselhaus is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has served as President of the American Physical Society (1984), President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS 1997), Treasurer of the National Academy of Sciences, (1992096), and Chair of the Board of the American Instittue of Physics (2003-2008). Dresselhaus is known for her pioneering work on new materials and contributing to research in carbon nanotubes, bismuth nanowires and low dimensional thermoelectricity.
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Physics |
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March 27, 2008 |
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Persi Warren Diaconis is an American mathematician and former professional magician. He is Mary V. Sunseri professor of statistics and professor of mathematics at Stanford University. He is particularly known for tackling mathematical problems involving randomness and randomization, such as coin flipping and shuffli playing cards. Professor Diaconis achieved brief national fame when he received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1979, and again in 1992 after the publication (with D. Bayer) of a paper entitled "Trailing the Dovetail Shuffle to its Lair" (a term coined by magician Charles Jordan in the early 1900s) which established rigorous results on how many times a deck of playing cards must be shuffled before it can be considered "random enough." Diaconis established that the deck gradually increases in randomness until seven shuffles, after which the thus-far experienced increase in randomness with each shuffle decreases sharply. Seven shuffles, for reasons made precise in the paper, is what casinos should use.
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Statistics |
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April 7, 2008 |
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Margaret Wright received her BS in mathematics and MS in computer science from Stanford University. After several years in industry, she returned to Stanford to complete her PhD in computer science in 1976. Her thesis was on "Numerical Methods For Nonlinearly Constrained Optimization." She remained at Stanford as a Research Associate until joining Bell Laboratories in 1988 where she was named a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff and later a Bell Labs Fellow. She served as head of the Scientific Computing Research Department from 1997-2000. In 2001 Wright became a professor of computer science and mathematics and chair of the Computer Science Department in the Courant Institute at New York University. Margaret Wright is a well known mathematician in the fields of optimization, linear algebra, numerical and scientific computing, and scientific and engineering applications. She has written two books on optimization with P.E. Gill and W. Murray, over 60 publications, and about 70 technical reports for Stanford and Bell Laboratories. She has also served as associate editor for five journals. She has served on numerous scientific advisory committees for national and international mathematics institutes, government agencies and scientific societies. In 1995-1996, Margaret Wright served as President of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. In 2000 she presented the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) Noether Lecture. She received both the 2001 Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession from the Society for Industrial and Applied mathematics (SIAM) and the 2002 Award for Distinguished Public Service from the American Mathematical Society (AMS). The citation for the latter award noted that "Professor Wright has been active for many years in encouraging women and minority students, for example, by means of programs that brought them together with leaders and researchers from industry to discuss opportunities outside academia."
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Mathematics |
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March 13 , 2008 | ||||
He also commands the Joint Functional Component for Global Strike and Integration and the U.S. Strategic Command's nuclear bomber and reconnaissance Task Force 204. Called "the Mighty Eighth," the task force serves as the air component headquarters to the command for strategic reconnaissance and cybersecurity operations. He also holds a doctoral degree in electrical engineering. "We are privileged to have someone with this expertise and insight speak at our campus," said Eugene Spafford, a Purdue professor of computer science. "There is no question our government will and should look to use cyber technologies. It's also important in the business world and academia. Lt. Gen. Elder will talk about the growing lines of communication and the need to approach cyberspace the way innovators of the 20th century approached the air domain and the way 19th century traders approached the maritime domain." Elder has commanded at all levels and led unit deployments to Southwest Asia, Europe and the Pacific, according to an Air Force biography. He has held senior command positions in operations Southern Watch, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. He also is a command pilot who has logged more than 4,000 hours of flight, including 83 in combat.
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CERIAS |
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April 24, 2008 |
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Maria T. Zuber is the E. A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she also leads the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. Zuber has been involved in more than half a dozen NASA planetary missions aimed at mapping the Moon, Mars, Mercury, and several asteroids. She received her B.A. in astrophysics from the University of Pennsylvania and Sc.M. and Ph.D. in geophysics from Brown University. She was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University and served as a research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Prof. Zuber received the 2007 G. K. Gilbert Award at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Oct. 28-31. The Award is presented annually by the Planetaray Division to a career research scientist who has significantly contributed to the solution of fundamental problems in the field of planetary geology, in the broadest sense. |
Earth & Atmospheric Sciences |
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Harry B. Gray
Mildred Dresselhaus 
Persi Diaconis
Margaret Wright
Lt. Gen Robert J. Elder
Maria Zuber
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