University of Vermont

David Hemenway, economist and professor of Health Policy at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center, is visiting the University of Vermont this week, March 27-31, for his first visit as the premier James Marsh Professor-at-Large. This new program at UVM will bring outstanding individuals of international distinction in the arts and humanities, sciences, social sciences and applied fields to campus to invigorate the intellectual and cultural life of the university.

Hemenway, a former Pew Fellow on Injury Control and an expert on public health topics such as motor vehicle crashes, falls, fractures, fires, suicides, and child abuse, will give a public lecture titled "While you were Sleeping: Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention" on March 30 at 3:30 p.m. in North Lounge, Billings.

In addition to the speaking event, Hemenway’s visit, like the visits of future program participants, will include a full slate of activities providing the opportunity to engage with students and colleagues from a wide range of colleges and departments on both a structured and informal basis. Hemenway’s current visit includes meetings with President Fogel and various faculty members; visits to economics, anthropology and sociology classes; and discussions with students from the Honors College and the College of Medicine.

Named for UVM’s fifth president, the program will bring non-residential professors to campus for several one- to two-week visits over a six-year term-of-office. Four professors may be appointed each year, with no more than 20 scholars participating at one time.

Sowah Mensah, an ethnomusicologist, composer and a "master drummer" from Ghana, West Africa and professor of music at Macalester College and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and David Orr, chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College and world-renowned environmentalist, have also been chosen as the pioneering visiting scholars of the program and will visit UVM later this year.