Oct. 21, 28: Know the Nobels
Faculty experts explain this year's prize-winning research
3:49 p.m., Oct. 17, 2011--The College of Arts and Sciences has announced the speakers for its annual two-part symposium in which University of Delaware faculty members draw on their own areas of expertise to explain the work done by this year's Nobel Prize-winners.
The symposium will be held Friday, Oct. 21, and Friday, Oct. 28, in the Roselle Center for the Arts. Both sessions begin with lunch at noon in the lobby and then move into Gore Recital Hall at 12:30 p.m. for a series of 20-minute talks, concluding around 2:30 p.m. The events, including lunch, are free and open to the public, with no registration required.
Events Stories
June 5: Blue Hen 5K
June 6-9: Food and culture series
The Oct. 21 session consists of three talks, on the subjects of physiology or medicine, chemistry and literature. On Oct. 28, the talks will focus on peace, economics and physics.
The Oct. 21 speakers are: Catherine Grimes, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, discussing the work of Nobel laureates in medicine Bruce A. Beutler, Jules A. Hoffmann and Ralph M. Steinman in the areas of innate and adaptive immunity; Doug Buttrey, professor of chemical engineering, discussing the discovery of quasi-crystals by chemistry prize-winner Dan Shechtman; and Jeanne Walker, professor of English, speaking about the writings of Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, who won the literature prize.
At the Oct. 28 event, Kara Ellerby, assistant professor of political science and international relations, will discuss Nobel Peace Prize winners Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of Liberia and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen, honored "for their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work." Stacie Beck, associate professor of economics, will speak about Nobel laureates Thomas J. Sargent and Christopher A. Sims, who conducted research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy, and John Gizis, associate professor of physics and astronomy, will discuss the discovery by physicists Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
Nobel Prizes have been awarded annually in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature, peace and physiology or medicine beginning in 1901. Since 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel also has been awarded each year.