ATHENS, Ohio -- Internationally acclaimed geneticist Robert Waterston will deliver a lecture, "The Human Genome and Beyond," at 1 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in Ohio University's Charles J. Ping Student Recreation Center. The lecture is free and open to the public.

He will discuss the impact of the Human Genome Project, which could help researchers identify genetic abnormalities responsible for cancer, birth defects and other diseases, and could have implications for the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries.

Waterston is chair of the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine and holds the William Gates III Endowed Chair in Biomedical Sciences.

Waterston's lecture is part of the dedication of Ohio University's new Life Sciences Building. President Robert Glidden, Vice President for Research Jack Bantle, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Leslie Fleming and College of Osteopathic Medicine Dean John Brose will be among the speakers at the 11 a.m. ceremony at the building, which opened its doors at the beginning of the 2002-03 academic year.

The 75,000-square-foot building was designed to foster collaboration among faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Osteopathic Medicine and attract top researchers to Ohio University. Among its features, the facility includes faculty offices and tissue culture rooms, a biomechanics room, a morphology lab and a radiology room.

Waterston was the first geneticist to make the sequencing of animal genomes a reality and has been a major force behind the mapping of both the mouse and human genomes.

His pioneering work in genetics has won him many awards, including the Alfred P. Sloan Award from the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the Dan David Prize, the Genetics Society of America's Beadle Award, the Peter H. Raven Lifetime Award and the Gairdner International Award. Waterston's visit is sponsored by Ohio University's Office of Research.