Signature Lecture Series draws prominent speakers to campus

ATHENS — Internationally renowned scientists, pre-eminent philosophers and poets, and influential leaders in government, higher education and several other fields will visit the University of Georgia this semester as part of the Signature Lecture Series. Speakers include two Nobel Prize-winning scientists, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and an acclaimed poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist.

“The University of Georgia is honored to welcome these distinguished scholars, researchers and leaders to campus to share their insights with our students, staff and faculty,” S. Jack Hu, the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost, said. “The Signature Lecture Series enriches our campus community by highlighting a wide range of disciplines and perspectives.”

Signature Lectures feature campus talks by speakers with broad, multidisciplinary appeal and compelling bodies of work. Many of the lectures are supported by endowments, while others honor notable figures and milestones in the university’s history. All Signature Lectures are free and open to the public, and students are encouraged to attend. Capacity is limited for some lectures, with registration required.

For more information and the most recent updates regarding locations and formats for Signature Lectures, see https://provost.uga.edu/news-events/events/signature-lectures/.

The spring 2024 Signature Lectures are:

♦ Yvette Daniels, director of university relations, Georgia Department of Public Health, 24th Annual Mary Frances Early Lecture

Feb. 6, 2 p.m., University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel, Mahler Hall

Daniels serves as director of university relations for the Georgia Department of Public Health. In this role, she leads efforts to establish effective college and university relationships through the promotion of public health programs at the state and local level.

♦ Kai Chan, professor and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia, Eugene P. Odum Lecture Series in Ecology

Feb. 20, 4 p.m., Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Room 100

Chan is a sustainability scientist whose work straddles social and natural systems with a focus on values, rewilding and transformative change. A professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, Chan leads CHANS lab, where students study connected human and natural systems. He is also a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, a former coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Global Assessment, a lead editor for the new journal People and Nature, a member of Canada’s Clean16 for 2020, a TEDx speaker and co-founder of CoSphere, a Community of Small-Planet Heroes.

♦ Helene Gayle, president, Spelman College, Holmes-Hunter Lecture

Feb. 27, 2 p.m., University Chapel

Gayle began her tenure as president of Spelman College on July 1, 2022. Previously, she served for five years as president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust. For nearly a decade, Gayle was president and CEO of CARE, a leading international humanitarian organization. She spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS.

Gayle will engage in a fireside chat with Charlayne Hunter-Gault during the annual Holmes-Hunter Lecture, covering a variety of topics and conversation.

♦ Nicole King, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and professor of genetics, genomics, and development, University of California, Berkeley, Hope T.M. Ritter Lecture in Cellular Biology

March 12, 4 p.m., Biological Sciences Building, Room 404E

King is a celebrated biologist and National Academy of Sciences member who studies choanoflagellates to understand the genetic and developmental foundations behind the rise of multicellularity in animals. She received a B.S. degree in biology from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. In 2000, she began studying choanoflagellates as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

♦ A.E. Stallings, Oxford Professor of Poetry, University of Oxford, kick-off lecture, University of Georgia Humanities Festival

March 12, 6 p.m., University Chapel

Stallings is an American poet who studied classics at UGA and at the University of Oxford, where she now holds the prestigious title of Oxford Professor of Poetry. She has published four collections of poetry: “Archaic Smile,” “Hapax,” “Olives” and most recently, “Like,” a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

♦ Kate Manne, associate professor of philosophy, Cornell University, Women’s History Month Lecture

March 13, 4:30 p.m., Miller Learning Center, Room 248

Pre-eminent feminist philosopher and social critic Kate Manne will present a talk on “The Authority of Hunger,” drawing from her recently published book “Unshrinking: How to Face Down Fatphobia.” An associate professor of philosophy at Cornell University, speaker and author, Manne’s work is primarily in feminist, moral and social philosophy. Her first book, “Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny,” came out in 2017. Her second book, “Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women,” was released in August 2020. “Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia” is her third book.

♦ J. Michael Kosterlitz, Harrison E. Farnsworth Professor of Physics, Brown University, Chhabra-Landau Lecture

March 14, 3:55 p.m., Physics Building, Room 202

Born in Scotland and educated at the University of Cambridge, Kosterlitz is the Harrison E. Farnsworth Professor of Physics at Brown University, where his research focuses on theoretical condensed matter physics. In 2016 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in using topology to explain phase transitions (now known as Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions) in two-dimensional materials.

♦ Christopher A. Wray, director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Getzen Lecture on Government Accountability

March 19, 1:30 p.m., University Chapel

Wray became the eighth director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Aug. 2, 2017. Prior to his appointment, Wray held several roles in the Department of Justice, including serving as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, as principal associate deputy attorney general, and as assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Criminal Division, which included counterterrorism investigations at the time. He also spent many years in private practice focusing on government investigations and white-collar crime.

♦ Eric Betzig, professor of molecular and cell biology and Eugene D. Commins Presidential Chair in Experimental Physics, University of California, Berkeley

March 26, time and location to be determined

Betzig and his colleague Harald Hess built the first super-resolution single molecule localization microscope. For this work, he was a co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A professor of molecular and cell biology, Betzig is also the Eugene D. Commins Presidential Chair in Experimental Physics, a Senior Fellow at the Janelia Research Campus, and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of California, Berkeley.

♦ Amanda Murdie and Diana Downs, Regents’ Professors, University of Georgia, Charter Lecture

March 27, 11 a.m., University Chapel

Murdie is a 2024 Regents’ Professor, Georgia Athletic Association Professor of International Affairs and head of the department of international affairs. Murdie studies international relations, specializing in the behavior of international nongovernmental organizations and their interactions with states, local populations and intergovernmental organizations. Most of her work is in the areas of human security, human rights, conflict processes and development.

Downs is a 2024 Regents’ Professor and Distinguished Research Professor in the department of microbiology. Downs has made transformative contributions to her field by using genetic analysis to help solve important biochemical mysteries of bacterial life. A key theme of her research is that pulling one thread of metabolism reveals interconnected threads in unexpected ways.

♦ Fereidoon Shahidi, University Research Professor, Memorial University of Newfoundland, J.G. Woodroof Lecture

April 9, 12:30 p.m., University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel, Mahler Hall

Shahidi is an internationally renowned scholar and a pioneer in nutraceuticals and functional foods. His impressive research portfolio includes discoveries involving lipids, proteins, polyphenols, natural antioxidants and oxidation control in health and disease. Shahidi is the author of more than 1,000 peer-reviewed research papers and book chapters and is the editor or author of 78 books. He is the founder of the International Society for Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods and the Nutraceuticals & Functional Foods Division of the Institute of Food Technologists.

Special Photo: Dorothy Kozlowski/UGA