AMES, Iowa — Award-winning science journalist Carl Zimmer, who reports from the frontiers of biology where scientists are expanding our understanding of life, will speak at Iowa State University.
Zimmer will present "Science in an Age of Doubters and Deniers" at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. His talk is part of the university's National Affairs Series, "When American Values are in Conflict." It is free and open to the public.
Zimmer is an expert on topics ranging from biology and evolution to parasites and viruses. In addition to his weekly column for The New York Times, he also writes "The Loom," a blog hosted by National Geographic. He is the author of 12 books about science, including "Soul Made Flesh," a history of neuroscience named one of the top 100 books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, and dubbed a "tour-de-force" by The Sunday Telegraph. Scientific American called Zimmer's "Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea" "as fine a book as one will find on the subject." The second edition of his book, "A Planet of Viruses," will be published in October with updated sections on Ebola, MERS and other viruses that have recently been in the news.
Zimmer also has written hundreds of articles for publications ranging from Science to Popular Science. His work has been anthologized in both "The Best American Science Writing" series and "The Best American Science and Nature Writing" series. He teaches a course on writing about science and the environment at Yale University.
To his knowledge, Zimmer is the only writer after whom a species of tapeworm has been named.
Zimmer has won the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Journalism Award three times. His other honors include the Pan-American Health Organization Award for Excellence in International Health Reporting, the American Institute of Biological Sciences Media Award and the Everett Clark Award for science writing. In 2007, he received the National Academies Science Communication Award for "his diverse and consistently interesting coverage of evolution and unexpected biology." In 2015, the National Association of Biology Teachers honored Zimmer with their Distinguished Service Award.
Zimmer's presentation is co-sponsored by the colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Engineering, Human Sciences, and Liberal Arts and Sciences; the departments of Animal Science, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Food Science and Human Nutrition, Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, Horticulture, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Plant Pathology and Microbiology; the interdepartmental graduate programs in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Immunobiology, Genetics and Genomics, Neuroscience, and Toxicology; the Bioethics Program; the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication; National Affairs; and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by Student Government.
More information on ISU lectures is online or call 515-294-9935.
