Upcoming events tackle major science, health issues
A number of public-interest events related to health, science and engineering are taking place on campus this month. Topics include:
- the genetic basis of mental diseases
- nuclear proliferation and the global threat
- women’s participation in the sciences
- making conservation commercially viable
All events are free and open to the public. Here are a few of the upcoming highlights:
April 7-8: “The Wisconsin Emotion Symposium,” Monona Terrace Convention Center
Clinicians have known for a long time that schizophrenia and severe depression run in families. But in recent years, by using the newest tools of molecular biology to study genes and gene products, scientists now can point to several specific genetic culprits that appear to play a role in many aspects of these devastating diseases.
Leading researchers from around the world will be in Madison Thursday and Friday, April 7-8, to discuss the latest developments in the genetics of schizophrenia and depression – as well as bipolar disorder, anxiety and other severe mental disorders – at the eleventh annual Wisconsin Symposium on Emotion. The HealthEmotions Research Institute at UW Medical School will sponsor the program, officially called “Genes, Brain and Emotion: Genetic and Molecular Bases of Normal and Abnormal Emotional Processes.” Meetings will begin Thursday at 8:30 a.m. at the Monona Terrace Convention Center and run through Friday afternoon.
For more details, contact Dian Land at (608) 262-6343, dj.land@hosp.wisc.edu
April 11: “Nuclear Issues in an Age of Globalization,” Union South, Noon-1:15 p.m.
The early years of the 21st century have already witnessed a rapid and threatening spread of nuclear weapons technology around the globe. This panel will explore these challenges and open a dialogue about how the university community can produce and disseminate the knowledge necessary to survive a global nuclear future.
Presenters include: Paul Wilson, professor of engineering; Todd Allen, professor of engineering; Clark Miller, professor in the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs; and Jeremi Suri, professor of history.
This event is part of a community discussion on science and international studies, sponsored by the UW–Madison Division of International Studies, the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy, and others. For more information, contact Suri at (608) 263-1852, suri@wisc.edu
April 14: “Women in Science and Engineering: What the Research Really Says,” Biotechnology Center Auditorium, 425 Henry Mall, 7-9:30 p.m.
Harvard President Lawrence Summers remarked that women’s under-representation at the highest levels of science and engineering careers is primarily caused by “intrinsic aptitude” differences between men and women and, only to a lesser extent, by overt or passive discrimination. In a panel moderated by Jo Handelsman, professor of plant pathology and co-director of the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI), UW–Madison experts will comment on the scientific evidence for Summers’ claims.
Presenters include: Assistant Professor Paul Whalen, Department of Psychiatry; Associate Professor Linda Oakley, School of Nursing; Professor Caitilyn Allen, Department of Plant Pathology and Women’s Studies Program; Professor Molly Carnes, Department of Medicine and co-director, WISELI; and Chancellor John D. Wiley.
Details about this panel discussion are available online.
April 13-14: “The Spring Ecology Research Symposium”
A top Stanford University ecologist who advocates dramatic changes in how environmental conservation is financed will be the keynote speaker April 13 and 14 at UW–Madison’s annual spring ecology research symposium. Gretchen Daily, director of the Tropical Research Program in Stanford’s Center for Conservation Biology and a senior fellow in its Institute for International Studies, will give two free public lectures:
- “The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable,” 7 p.m., Thursday, April 14, in 165 Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive; and
- “Countryside Biogeography: The Future of Biodiversity in a Human-Dominated World,” 3:30 p.m., Friday, April 15, in the Genetics-Biotechnology Center Auditorium, 425 Henry Mall.
Daily’s most recent book, coauthored with Katherine Ellison, is “The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable” (Island Press, 2002). In addition to calling attention to the economics of conservation, she also is working to improve the forecasting of changes in global biodiversity.
Before Daily’s second lecture, six UW–Madison graduate students from five academic departments will give brief ecological research presentations from 1-3 p.m. Friday, April 15, in the Genetics-Biotechnology Auditorium. The symposium is organized by the UW–Madison Ecology Group and co-sponsored by the University Lectures Committee and nearly a dozen university departments.
For more information, contact symposium coordinator Alison Duff at (608) 265-7876, meg@mailplus.wisc.edu.