November 6, 2006
Visiting professors to discuss biotechnology, writing
By Louise Donahue
UCSC Alumni Association Distinguished Visiting Professor program is bringing two very different perspectives to campus this month.
William B. Hurlbut
Photo: President's Council on Bioethics |
Ngugi wa Thiong’o
Photo: UC Irvine Communications Office |
“Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness” will be the topic when William B. Hurlbut, a physician and consulting professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford Medical Center, delivers the Crown College 40th Anniversary Distinguished Guest Lecture. The November 13 lecture will be at 7 p.m. in the Music Center Recital Hall.
Hurlbut is the author of numerous publications on science and ethics. He has worked with NASA on projects in astrobiology and is a member of the Chemical and Biological Warfare working group at the Center for International Security and Cooperation. Since 2002 he has served on the President’s Council on Bioethics.
He is a proponent of a method of stem-cell procurement, called “altered nuclear transfer,” which does not necessitate the destruction of human embryos.
On November 28, Merrill College Distinguished Visiting Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o will discuss his work in the context of postcolonialism and globalization in Africa.
His lecture will be at 8 p.m. in Classroom Unit 2. A Kenyan teacher, novelist, essayist, and playwright, Thiong’o is a professor of English and comparative literature at UC Irvine, where he directs the International Center for Writing and Translation.
Most recently, he has authored The Wizard of the Crow (Pantheon, 2006), a novel he wrote in Gikuyu, his native tongue, and translated into English.
Both lectures are free. For further information, call (831) 459-2530.