New Technologies Against Infectious Diseases: Free public lecture on February 4 in the 2017 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science
A free public lecture titled "New Technologies Against Infectious Diseases" will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, February 4, in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. The event is the third of six consecutive Saturday lectures in the 2017 Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science, a free public minicourse that does not require registration or exams. The overall theme of the 2017 lecture series is "The Quest for One Healthy Planet." The six speakers are scientists whose research is at the frontiers of knowledge about how the health of the Earth is affecting the health of people and other forms of life on our planet.
The lecture on February 4 will be given by Nita Bharti, Assistant Professor of Biology at Penn State, a member of Penn State's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, and a Branco Weiss - Society in Science Fellow. She will describe how human movement influences human health -- specifically how changes in population sizes, both rapid and gradual, can create high-risk conditions for the spread of infectious diseases, reduced access to disease prevention, and insufficient healthcare capacity.
The research team she leads is devising ways to use new technologies, developed at Penn State, to help prevent disease outbreaks by measuring rapid changes in population density in order to provide early warning of high-risk population shifts with actionable solutions. Bharti will describe how her team is working with Ministries of Health, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and community leaders in areas where she conducts research, including Detroit, Michigan; Kaokoveld, Namibia; and Niamey, Niger.
Future lectures in the 2017 series are:
- "One World . . . One Health" on February 11 by Peter Hudson, Willaman Professor of Biology and Director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State;
- "The Race to Grow Enough Food for Everyone" on February 18 by Jonathan Lynch, Professor of Plant Nutrition at Penn State; and
- "Marine Mammals as Health Sentinels for Oceans and Us" on February 25 by Gregory D. Bossart, Senior Vice President for Animal Health, Research, and Conservation at the Georgia Aquarium.
The Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science is an annual free public minicourse organized and supported by the Penn State Eberly College of Science as an enjoyable and enlightening learning opportunity for eager learners in the Central Pennsylvania area and beyond. After presentation, the lectures are closed captioned and then archived online for viewing worldwide. More information about the Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science and links to archived videos of previous lectures are online at science.psu.edu/frontiers.
For more information or access assistance, contact the Eberly College of Science Office of Communications by phone at 814-863-4682 or by e-mail at sci-comm@psu.edu.