Civic Scientist Lecture to examine role of scientists beyond the lab

Caltech biologist David Baltimore

Caltech biologists David Baltimore and Alice Huang will be the featured speakers at the 2012 Civic Scientist Lecture at 6 p.m. April 12 at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Baltimore and Huang will discuss their roles as scientists beyond the laboratory and classroom. Their lecture will highlight the role scientists play in helping improve the public’s and policymakers’ understanding of science, as well as the role science in helping to improve international relations.

Baltimore and Huang will also give a “Civic Scientist” presentation and visit with students at Carnegie Vanguard High School in Houston at 10:15 a.m. April 12. Media are welcome to attend the visit. For more information, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice.

Caltech biologist Alice Huang

Baltimore is the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology at California Institute of Technology, where he was the president from 1997 to 2006. He also served as president of Rockefeller University (1990-91) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007). At 37, he won the 1975 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his discovery of reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that is essential to the reproduction of retroviruses, such as HIV.

Huang is a senior faculty associate in biology at the California Institute of Technology. She was previously a professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at Harvard Medical School, and subsequently dean for science at New York University. Huang has served as president of the American Society for Microbiology (1988-89) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010-11). She is a distinguished virologist and proponent for women in science.

The Civic Scientist Lectures series features talks by leading scientists and engineers from around the world who have impacted public policy. The goal of the series is to expose scientists and future scientists to the notion that their roles expand outside the laboratory. It also gives the Houston community an opportunity to hear leading scientists discuss their fields and careers and promote science and technology as a public good worthy of federal, state and local funding. The Civic Scientist Program is managed by the Baker Institute’s Science and Technology Policy Program. More information on the program is available at www.science.bakerinstitute.org.

The event is free and open to the public. Registration is available here, where Baltimore and Huang’s presentation will also be webcast.