Notable Scientists Participate in Bennington's 75th Anniversary Alumni Science Lecture Series

As part of Bennington College’s year-long celebration of its 75th anniversary, the College welcomed back nationally renowned scientists from Bennington's alumni community. This two-day lecture series explored the significant and diverse contributions alumni have made furthering scientific exploration. The series, which took place on Friday, November 2, and Saturday, November 3, 2007, in the College’s Deane Carriage Barn. All lectures were free and open to the public.

The lecture series began on Friday, November 2, 2007 at 6:00 pm, with a talk titled, “The saga of discovery: meprin metalloproteases,” given by keynote speaker, Dr. Judith Bond ’61, professor and chair of biochemistry and molecular biology at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. Dr. Bond has taught at several universities throughout her career, beginning as a faculty member of the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, then chair of biochemistry and nutrition at Virginia Tech, and now serves as chair of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State College of Medicine. At Penn State, Bond has served as director of the MD/PhD program, assistant dean for graduate education, and co-director of graduate education for the Life Sciences Consortium. She has served many scientific organizations including the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive & Kidney Diseases Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Association of Medical and Graduate Departments of Biochemistry, where she was president from 1996-97.

On Saturday, November 3, the first of two half-day sessions began at 9:30 am with a talk titled, “Feverish frogs and coughing kids: an infectious education,” by Dr. Alex McAdam ’87, medical director of the diagnostic microbiology lab at Children’s Hospital Boston. Drawing largely from his research on pediatric microbiology, Dr. McAdam will discuss respiratory virus infections and antibiotic resistance.

Following, Dr. Andrew Vershon ’79 explored “Life beyond bread and beer: using yeast to understand how we function.” Dr. Vershon is a professor in the Waksman Institute and undergraduate chair of the department of molecular biology and biochemistry at Rutgers University. He is also Co-Director of the Waksman Student Scholars Program, an outreach program aimed at getting high school teachers and their students involved in molecular genetics research.

Concluding the first session, which ended at 12:00 noon, Dr. Robert L. Davis ’79 explained “How a Bennington graduate went to work in public health research and became a reviled evildoer in a giant U.S. government vaccine safety cover-up.” Dr. Davis became professor of epidemiology and pediatrics at the University of Washington Schools of Public Health and Medicine in 2003. Before joining the faculty at the University of Washington, he worked for the CDC as an Epidemiology Intelligence Officer. Since 1994, Dr. Davis has participated in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) project.

Beginning at 2:00 pm, the second half of Saturday’s session started with a talk given by Dr. Peter S. White ’71, professor of biology at the University of North Carolina, and director of the North Carolina Botanical Garden. Dr. White has a long association with the National Park Service and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and has been instrumental in development of the Park’s landmark “All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory.” His bibliography lists over 100 publications on topics ranging from biogeography to disturbance ecology, to conservation and restoration practice, to environmental ethics. He serves as chief editor of the journals of the International Association for Vegetation Science. Dr. White’s talk is titled, “A meeting of northern, southern, eastern, and western trees: a Bennington-Hanover-St. Louis-Knoxville-Chapel Hill journey into life's diversity patterns.”

Following, Dr. Evan DeLucia ’79, professor and head of the department of plant biology at the University of Illinois presented, “Human domination of earth's ecosystems: a big problem with a Bennington solution.” Building on his training in plant physiology and ecology, Dr. DeLucia applies a "systems biology" approach to understand the ecological responses of native and agricultural ecosystems to global change.

Concluding the series, which ended at 4:30 pm, Dr. Jason D. Fridley ’97, assistant professor of biology at Syracuse University explored “Biodiversity and climate change in ancient grasslands: connecting genes to ecosystems.” Dr. Fridley’s dissertation at University of North Carolina pursued some of the same questions he first developed in his undergraduate thesis at Bennington. In addition to winning the 2003 John L. Harper Prize (the best paper by a young ecologist in the journals of the British Ecological Society), Dr. Fridley’s publications have been widely cited, resulting in more than a dozen peer-reviewed papers since 2000.

To read The Rutland Herald's coverage of this series, click here.