Contact: Nicholas Mercuro, (515) 432-6978; Ron Fisher, (517) 355-2326, coordinators; or Gisgie D�vila Gendreau, University Relations, (517) 432-0924, gendrea3@msu.edu
11/14/2003
EAST LANSING, Mich. � Jeff Corwin � host of Animal Planet�s �The Jeff Corwin Experience� � will bring his humor and sense of adventure to the Michigan State University campus on Tuesday, Nov. 18, as part of the M. Peter and Joanne M. McPherson Endowed Professorship for the Understanding of Science.
Corwin�s lecture, �Tales from the Field,� will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the MSU Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. No tickets are necessary to attend.
�Jeff Corwin blends humor and entertainment to bring awareness to the conservation of endangered species and ecosystems around the world,� MSU President Peter McPherson said. �We are pleased to host such an outstanding spokesman for these important causes.�
Corwin will sign copies of his new book, �Living on the Edge,� after his talk, and will visit with journalism and biology classes on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Journalism Professor Steve Lacy said Corwin�s experiences in both television and book writing will be of particular interest to students in his introduction to mass media class.
�My expectation is he�ll talk about the difficulties of reporting on complex topics,� Lacy said. �To do that in a way that�s entertaining and understandable is not easy.�
From 1997 to 1999, Corwin co-created, produced and hosted the Disney Channel's series, �Going Wild With Jeff Corwin,� which strove to communicate the importance of wildlife to a family audience in a manner that was both fun and educational.
While pursuing his degrees, Corwin became an activist working to protect the threatened rain forests of Central and South America. His efforts led to the establishment of the Emerald Canopy Rainforest Foundation, a grass-roots organization dedicated to protecting rain forests through educational outreach and habitat conservation. While working with Emerald Canopy, Corwin served as a member of a youth action committee for the United Nations Environmental Program.
Corwin earned bachelor�s degrees in both biology and anthropology from Bridgewater State College; is a graduate of the Department of Natural Resource Conservation at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and was honored by Bridgewater State College with an honorary doctorate for his lifelong work in communicating to the public the need for a sustainable approach to using natural resources.
Support for the McPherson Professorship program comes from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. The donor asked McPherson to choose the direction of the professorship, and McPherson drew upon his extensive career in international relations and finance, and acted on a belief that knowledge of science is crucial to work in most disciplines and professions.
The program was inaugurated in fall 2000 with a seminar for undergraduate students hosted by five eminent visiting scholars.
Upcoming speakers are:
- Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health�s National Human Genome Research Institute, Jan. 27, 2004.
- Pamela Davis Kivelson is an artist living in Los Angeles and is presently Artist in Residence at the Stanford Humanities Lab and at the American Institute of Mathematics in Palo Alto, Calf., April 1, 2004.
- Paul Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies and president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, April 13-15, 2004.