Neilly Series hosts NY Times science writer

Wilford

ohn Noble Wilford, senior science writer at The New York Times and winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, will open the 2003-04 Neilly Series at 5 p.m. Thursday, September 25. His talk "If It's Old, It's News" will be held in the Welles-Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library.

Wilford's coverage of the earliest missions of the U.S. space program spread his reputation worldwide, and many credit his creation of the weekly science section in the Times for bringing science journalism center stage. Wilford has flown through the eye of a hurricane, dived to the depths of the oceans in submarines, and endured wilderness survival school in search of material. He is the author of The Riddle of the Dinosaur, The Mapmakers, and The Mysterious History of Columbus as well as the editor or coauthor of other books.

Wilford is one of seven writers who will visit campus as part of the series. Upcoming talks will feature Oscar Hijuelos, acclaimed 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the international bestseller The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, on October 10; novelist Ann-Marie MacDonald, whose latest work The Way the Crow Flies deals with a Canadian military family threatened by the father's secret mission, on November 4; and David Ropeik, the director of risk communication at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, on November 13.

On January 29, Robert Bakos, associate professor of neurosurgery, will discuss medical histories of some of the world's best-known composers and how that affected their creativity and contributed to their deaths.

Linda Sue Park, a Rochester author who won the 2002 Newbery Medal, will discuss her reading, writing, and publication journey on February 26.

The final Neilly speaker of this third season will blend a story of politics and art. Marc Pachter, director of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., will speak March 24 about how he got help to save the famous Gilbert Stuart full-length portrait of George Washington from the auction block in 2001.

The yearlong series is supported by a major gift from Andrew Neilly '47 and his wife, Janet Dayton Neilly and is produced by the River Campus Libraries. To read more about guest speakers, visit www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?PAGE=691.

Maintained by University Public Relations
Please send your comments and suggestions to:
Public Relations.