Bob Pepperman Taylor, Professor of Political Science Bob Pepperman Taylor, Professor of Political Science
CAS Dean's Lecture
Thursday, October 6, 2016 at 4:00-5:30pm
Waterman Memorial Lounge
Title: Reading Thoreau in the 21st Century
Synopsis: Since its publication in 1849, Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience has influenced protestors, activists, and political thinkers all over the world, including Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor Taylor will address the question, “What does Henry David Thoreau’s essay, “Civil Disobedience,” still have to teach us more than a century and a half after it was first published?"
Bob Pepperman Taylor joined the University of Vermont Department of Political Science in 1986. He teaches courses in political theory and the history of political thought. His publications include seven books, most recently The Rutledge Guidebook to Thoreau’s "Civil Disobedience," and the new Broadview edition of Civil Disobedience(forthcoming). His awards include the University of Vermont Kroepsch-Maurice Teaching Award, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, the University Scholar award, and the 2016 UVM George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award.
Rory Waterman, Professor of Chemistry
Full Professor Lecture
Thursday, October 6 at 4:00-5:30 pm
Waterman Memorial Lounge
Title: Chasing Pixie Dust
Synopsis: Making molecules can be pretty difficult largely because atoms get persnickety about with whom they are connected, why they should be connected, and how it happens. Regardless, the products of these efforts save lives, feed people, provide energy, and give comfort. One way to wrangle atoms and do so more efficiently is through catalysis. Indeed, a catalyst is that bit of chemical pixie dust that helps make molecules. This presentation seeks to explore the challenges and joys of chemical synthesis and catalysis through selected examples of work at UVM.
Professor Rory Waterman earned a B. S. in chemistry from the University of Rochester and a Ph. D. from The University of Chicago. Following postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, he started at UVM in 2006. UVM's support and confidence seems well founded: Rory has won several awards for his science including an N.S.F. CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, and a Cottrell Scholar Award from Research Corporation, and in 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He walks quickly but stops to smell lilacs and pet cats.
A recording of the lectures will be made available at the online media blog http://blog.uvm.edu/compute-cas-media/ and eventually at the College of Arts and Sciences website.
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Please note: All lecture speakers, topics, start times, and locations are subject to change.