Falkow to Speak on the Impact of Infectious Disease on Human History
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571 or joe.carr@umit.maine.edu
ORONO — Renowned microbiologist Stanley Falkow, Stanford University School of Medicine’s Robert W. and Vivian K. Cahill Professor of Cancer Research, will visit the University of Maine for a series of activities the week of April 18, 2011. The highlight will be a Thursday April 21 public lecture, “The Impact of Infectious Disease on Human History.” That talk is scheduled for 4 p.m. in Minsky Recital Hall.
A University of Maine graduate, Falkow is a groundbreaking scholar whose expertise has advanced understanding of human biology in significant ways. His honors include the 2008 Lasker-Koshland Award for Special Achievement in Science. Those awards are sometimes called “America’s Nobels.”
“I consider him the father of research into the mechanisms that germs use to cause disease,” Peter Hotez, president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute at George Washington University, told USA Today for a 2009 profile story about Falkow.
During his week at UMaine, Falkow will also interact with students and faculty members, conducting a department seminar on Tuesday. His wife, Lucy Tompkins, a Stanford professor of infectious diseases and of microbiology and immunology, will also present a department seminar on the subject of influenza.