Expert to discuss DNA computing: Real or not?

An internationally known expert on DNA computing will discuss the basic ideas behind DNA computing, as well as key roadblocks to making DNA computing practical, during a campus lecture Wednesday, Nov. 3.

Richard J. Lipton, a computer scientist from Princeton University, will speak at 4 p.m. in AB20 Weeks Hall, 1215 Dayton St. He will give the annual J. Barkley Rosser Memorial Lecture, which is sponsored by the Computer Sciences Department and made possible through a generous gift of Annetta Rosser. The free event is open to the public.

Lipton’s lecture titled “DNA Computing: Real or Not?” will address the question of whether DNA can be used effectively to solve problems that electronic machines cannot, or whether the ability of DNA computers to work will remain a kind of curiosity.

Lipton is professor of computer science at Princeton University, where he has been on the faculty since 1980. Previously, he was at the Computer Science Departments at the University of California-Berkeley and Yale University. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. Recently, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

The lecture series is held in memory of the late Professor Rosser, a UW–Madison professor of Computer Sciences and Mathematics and director of the Mathematics Research Center from 1963 to 1978.

For more information, call Laura Cuccia, Computer Sciences Department, (608) 262-0017.