10/18/96
Contact: Dick Polen, Ohio University Visitor's Center, (614) 593-2015
Editors, news directors: David Suzuki will be available for interviews by media representatives from 2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 23). Please contact Kelli Whitlock at (614) 593-0383 if you plan to attend.
ATHENS, Ohio -- David Suzuki, host of the Canadian public television programs "The Nature of Things" and "A Planet for the Taking," will open the 1996-97 Frontiers in Science Lecture Series at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23 in the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium on the Athens campus with a lecture entitled "The Nature of Things: Reflections on Science...Potential and Limits."
Author of the most widely used genetics textbook in the United States, An Introduction to Genetic Analysis, Suzuki has been a professor with the University of Columbia at Vancouver since 1969. He is currently with the university's Sustainable Development Research Institute.
A geneticist and environmental biologist, Suzuki is noted for his work in support of Canada's native people. He has received numerous awards, including the Environmental Achievement Award from Environment Canada, the Spirit Leadership Award from the province of British Columbian and the Service Employees' Union, and the United Nations Environment Program Medal.
He has written 23 books, including eight for children; recorded original songs about science for children, and produced programs for The Discovery Channel and CBC. His weekly one-hour program, "The Nature of Things," began on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1979 and is viewed by people around the world.
He holds a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in Amherst, Mass., a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago, and has received 11 honorary degrees in Canada and the U.S. Suzuki lives in Vancouver with his wife, Tara Cullis, and their two children.
A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture. The talk is free and open to the public.
In addition to the Wednesday lecture, Suzuki will also deliver a seminar at 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 24 to students and faculty at Ohio University. More information about the seminar is available by calling Karen Eichstadt at 593-1739.
The Frontiers in Science Lecture Series brings internationally known scientists to the Athens campus who have made a career of introducing science to people of all ages. The series was established in 1991 by Jeanette Grasselli Brown, an Ohio University graduate and former university trustee, and her husband, Glenn R. Brown, through a contribution to the Ohio University Foundation.