Lecture Series Begins Fifth Year
Posters from lectures past, the creative product of Fermilab artist, Angela Gonzales.
The Fermilab Science and Human Values Lecture Series is observing its fifth anniversary.
The anniversary also coincides with the announcement that the Illinois Humanities Council has renewed the lecture series project grant for the fourth year in a row, making the series one of the few programs in the state that has received funding four consecutive times. Such an accomplishment is rare, said Frank Cole, Fermilab physicist, member of the Fermilab Auditorium Committee and chairman of that committee's Lecture Series Committee.
Cole is enthusiastic about the series' accomplishments and the quality of its lectures. "Our lecture series attracts a wide spectrum of people from Fermilab and from the many communities around our Laboratory," he said. "We are very proud we have become a real part of the intellectual life of this area. We are accomplishing something we have wanted to do."
Others share his enthusiasm. "...The series continues to make a major contribution to understanding in areas of mutual concern to humanists and scientists," said Dr. Don F. Moyer with the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Science and Technology at Northwestern University. He also described the series as an "excellent tangible example of cooperation between humanists and scientists" that could serve as "a model for similar programs elsewhere."
Dr. Warren J. Roth said, "Once again, I feel the Fermilab lecture series has filled its goal of making available to the public a valuable source of intellectual stimulation." He is professor of Anthropology at Chicago State University. Both scholars are members of the Advisory Panel that meets with Cole about twice a year to review past programs and help him select future topics and speakers.
Cole gave much of the credit for the series' successful tradition to Jeff Appel, first chairman of the Lecture Committee.
It was he and Janice Roberts, chairman of the Auditorium Committee, who together persuaded the Illinois Humanities Council to award the first grant.
Roberts said that under Appel's leadership, the series rooted firmly and thrived.
The lecture series has two primary objectives, said Cole:
--The first is to focus public awareness on the human values that enter public policy issues related to science and technology.
--The second and broader objective is to help the public more fully understand the relation of science and technology to human values not only in the framework of public policy issues, but also in the larger context of the impact of the advances of science on these human values.