AMES, Iowa -- Newt Gingrich -- speaker of the U.S. House from 1995 to 1999 and TIME magazine's 1995 "Man of the Year" -- will address an Iowa State University globalization class for the second time in 18 months.
Gingrich's lecture, "The Coming Revolution in Science," will be 12:10-1 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, in the Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium in Iowa State's Howe Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Gingrich will address Iowa State's Technology, Globalization and Culture class taught by Jim Bernard, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and Mark Rectanus, a professor of German Studies in the Department of World Languages and Cultures.
The course for 100 on-campus and 30 off-campus students uses guest speakers to examine the present and future impacts of globalization while preparing students for leadership roles in diverse settings. This fall's speakers include James Waters, Jr., vice president for Caterpillar, Inc.; Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa; Ambassador David Gross, the U.S. coordinator for international communications and information policy; and Christine Romans, an Iowa State graduate and host of CNN's "Your $$$$$."
Gingrich also addressed the globalization class in April of 2006, telling students that the United States needed to change a lot of things -- including schools, tax policy and the legal system -- if it expected to compete in a global economy.
"We are delighted that Speaker Gingrich is returning to again address our globalization class," Bernard said. "His topic is very important and of great interest to our students and to the campus community."
Gingrich will also tour Iowa State's Virtual Reality Applications Center. The tour will include a demonstration of the nearly $5 million in equipment upgrades to C6, a virtual reality room that surrounds users with 100 million pixels of computer-generated images. That's more than twice the resolution produced by any other virtual reality room in the world.
Gingrich led 1994's "Contract with America" policy agenda that helped the Republicans win control of the U.S. House for the first time since 1952. Since leaving Congress in 1999, Gingrich has been an author, public speaker, political analyst for the FOX News Channel and chairman of the Gingrich Group, a communications and consulting firm with offices in Atlanta and Washington, D.C.
