Lecture

Internationally renowned social psychologist and Dean for the School of Education at Stanford Claude Steele discussed his research on stereotype threat and the challenges faced by underrepresented minorities in higher education on Tuesday evening. 

Mars Science Lab Project Manager and professor of geology at California Institute of Technology John Grotzinger presented new evidence of ancient habitability on Mars, based on the findings from the Curiosity rover, in a lecture on Thursday evening. On Tuesday, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. announced that Curiosity’s current location in Gale Crater very likely could have hosted microbial life.    

In my experience, admitting to others the terrible deed of not concealing that I multitask from the professor usually ends in accusations of something akin to social treason — for which a barefoot walk to the Canossa of the lectern tainted by my misdemeanor might be the least I could do to redeem myself.

Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive of Renault-Nissan Alliance, spoke on the continued sustainability of the car manufacturing industry in the Friend Center on Monday. The event was hosted by the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment and sponsored by the G. S. Beckwith Gilbert ’63 Lecture Fund. 

African American studies professor Cornel West GS ’80 and Radhanath Swami, a yoga practitioner and director of the Radha Gopinath Ashram, discussed their perspectives on religion and life at a talk titled “East Meets West: Hindu and Christian Perspectives on God, Love and Spiritual Activism” on Tuesday evening in Richardson Auditorium.