Series features Elie Wiesel, Patch Adams

Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and health-care activist Hunter “Patch” Adams appear back-to-back as the Distinguished Lecture Series closes out the 2001-02 season at UW–Madison.

Adams speaks on campus Monday, April 15, and Wiesel speaks Tuesday, April 16. Both events start at 7:30 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre, 216 State St.

Adams is a humorous, innovative and high-spirited American physician whom Robin Williams portrayed in the 1998 film of the same name. As director of the Gesundheit! Institute, Patch pioneered the construction of a healing center in West Virginia, which combines traditional and complimentary medicine. Adams says laughter is both the greatest cure and the answer to violence, and he has traveled around the world spreading his humor and views on medicine, life and love.

Wiesel lost his mother, father and younger sister at the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He chronicles these horrific experiences in “Night,” one of more than 40 books he has authored. Through his writing and speaking, Wiesel attempts to provide hope and encourage peace throughout the world. He is the Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities at Boston University.

Free tickets are available at the Wisconsin Union Box Office, 800 Langdon St. starting one week before each event for UW students, faculty, staff and Union members, and to the public two days later. For information, or to nominate speakers for next year, contact Tim Lindl, (608) 262-2216.