The University’s Environmental Initiative Colloquia will continue Feb. 3 with an in-depth exploration of the effects of lead exposure on childhood development.
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Feb. 3: Childhood lead-poisoning colloquium The Environmental Initiative Colloquium Feb. 3 will discuss childhood lead poisoning and will be divided into two sessions. The first, a presentation by Herbert L. Needleman, M.D., professor of child psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, will begin at 9 a.m. in Clopton Auditorium of the Wohl Clinic building on the Medical Campus.The second session will be from 2-4 p.m. in the Bryan Cave Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall on the Hilltop Campus. Joining Needleman will be two experts who will discuss “Bridging the Gap Between Research and Policy: Childhood Lead Poisoning as a Case Study.” The experts are David E. Jacobs, director of the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Neil T. Leifer, partner in the law firm of Thornton & Naumes LLP and an attorney specializing in lead-poisoning litigation. |
It concludes April 22 with a program on our big rivers. In between, invited specialists from around the world will address a variety of environmental topics and Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton will moderate a discussion on “Educational Practices and the Environment.”
The series began last semester and featured such prominent people as former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrators Carol M. Browner and William Reilly; Nobel laureate Mario Molina and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of India Chair S.P. Sukhatme.
The initiative was launched during the University’s 150th year to explore the role that research universities can play in addressing environmental issues. This initiative will shape the University’s educational programs, research and operations as they relate to the environment and will become one of the defining interdisciplinary programs at the University.
Through a series of lectures and colloquia, the initiative hopes to understand the depth of environmental challenges facing the St. Louis region, the nation and the world. An outcome of the initiative is the definition of steps to take to eventually solve these problems.
On Feb. 3, famed child psychiatrist Herbert L. Needleman, M.D., will present a lecture on the lead-poisoning topic and will participate in a panel discussion. (See inset.)
Four eminent scientists will speak on plant sciences and the environment from 2-5 p.m. Feb. 26 in the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Science Building, Room 300.
Sheldon Friedlander, Ph.D., the Parsons Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and considered the “father of aerosol science,” headlines the “Research in Aerosols and Air Quality: Impact on Nanotechnology to Global Climate” lecture at 3 p.m. March 2 in the Arts & Sciences Laboratory Science Building, Room 300.
There will also be campus-wide ecology program demonstrations on March 28 at a time and site to be announced.
And the School of Architecture will sponsor a daylong colloquium March 30 at a time and site to be announced. This program will discuss “The Sustainable University” and focus on ways universities can become “greener” and more energy-conscious.
At 2 p.m. April 21 in Whitaker Hall Auditorium, Wrighton will moderate “Educational Practices and the Environment,” which features administrators from Harvard and Stanford universities and Massachusetts Institute of Technology discussing various environmental education and research initiatives at their respective campuses.
The final colloquium, “Our Rivers: A Sustainable Resource?” will be from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. April 22 at the Missouri Botanical Garden and will feature Charles Buescher, professor of environmental engineering, Robert Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, and William Lowry, Ph.D., professor of political science in Arts & Sciences.
The program will provide a background history of the rivers in our region and their various uses in transportation, agriculture, power production, recreation and public water supply.
This series is supported by the Sesquicentennial Commission and the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation.
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