Leading artists, scientists and writers headline 2007-08 Chancellor's Distinguished Fellows Series

UC Irvine’s ninth annual Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellows Series kicks off this month with a talk by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Leading intellectuals in the arts and sciences will round out the series in 2008.

Each year the Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellows Series brings respected scholars and nonacademics to the campus to share their insights and expertise with the UCI community.

On Nov. 13, Hersh will discuss “The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib.” He is a military and national security reporter known as one of the most influential investigative journalists of the past 40 years. His Pulitzer Prize-winning reports made public the My Lai massacre and its cover up during the Vietnam War, and most recently, the documentation of human rights abuses in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. A contributing writer for The New Yorker, Hersh currently is examining the military, Iraq war and U.S.-Iranian relations. His lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Lucille Kuehn Auditorium in the Humanities Instructional Building.

The lecture series continues in the winter with the following events:

• Ernst von Weizsäcker, “The Climate Challenge: Answers from Technology, Business and Society”
  7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008; Crystal Cove Auditorium, UCI Student Center
  An expert on international environmental policy, von Weizsäcker is dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara. He has served as policy director at the United Nations Centre for Science and Technology for Development, director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy, and a member of the Bundestag – Germany’s parliament – from 1998 to 2005. Von Weizsäcker has written several influential environmental books, including Earth Politics and Factor Four: Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use.
• Michael S. Turner, “The Dark Side of the Universe: Beyond the Stars and Stuff We Are Made Of”
  7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008; Crystal Cove Auditorium, UCI Student Center
  Turner is a pioneer in the field of astrophysics and cosmology. One of the most cited astrophysicists in the world, Turner has been influential in developing theories to explain the fundamental properties of matter and energy, and how elements were formed after the Big Bang. He is now directing his research into dark energy – the idea that could explain why the universe is continuing to expand at an increasing rate. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Turner is the Rauner Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and former assistant director of the National Science Foundation.
• Philip Bennett, “Covering Islam: A Challenge for American Journalism”
  2 p.m. Monday, March 3, 2008; Pacific Ballroom D, UCI Student Center
  Bennett, managing editor of The Washington Post and an experienced foreign affairs journalist, was foreign editor for the Post during the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. Bennett’s public lecture will coincide with the UCI Center for the Study of Democracy’s conference to assess the role of the press as a mediator between Islam and democracy.
• Thomas C. Schelling, “Managing Nuclear Proliferation”
  7 p.m. Thursday, March 6, 2008; Crystal Cove Auditorium, UCI Student Center
  Winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on game theory, Schelling is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Schelling has conducted research in military strategy, climate change, terrorism and organized crime, and environmental and public policy.
• Meredith Monk, “An Evening of Solo Voice”
  7 p.m. Thursday, April 3, 2008; Claire Trevor Theatre
  Tickets required: $15, $9 students.
  Monk is known for her talents as a composer and singer and especially her vocal techniques and performances. She has earned the highest honor in modern dance – the Scripps award – for her choreography. Monk, an interdisciplinary artist at heart, performed for the Dalai Lama during the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles in 1999. At UC Irvine, she will present a program of her own compositions.

About the University of California, Irvine: The University of California, Irvine is a top-ranked university dedicated to research, scholarship and community service. Founded in 1965, UCI is among the fastest-growing University of California campuses, with more than 27,000 undergraduate and graduate students and about 1,800 faculty members. The second-largest employer in dynamic Orange County, UCI contributes an annual economic impact of $3.7 billion. For more UCI news, visit www.today.uci.edu.

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