What has happened, and what is coming up

This week was the third lecture in our Distinguished Lecture Series. The featured speaker, David Angaran from the College of Pharmacy, provided an in depth look at Medicare Part D. The next lecture to take place at Emerson Alumni Hall will be on June 17 and will be based on the upcoming general election, and what role Florida will play.

There are two event in the beginning of June that will occur outside of Florida. The first will be on June 3 in Chicago, as Dr. David Figlio visits to present on Economics and Education Policies. The title of the presentation is "How Incentives Help Education Policies to Succeed and to Fail" and will be at the University Club of Chicago.

The following week, Dr. Stephen Craig from the UF Political Science department will be in Washington DC (on vacation) and has graciously agreed to make a presentation to the DC Gator Club.

Lecture Tonight

Tonight will be the second lecture in the Phil Griffin Distinguished Lecture Series. The featured speaker will be Dr. Christopher Janelle from the Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology.

The title of the lecture will be "Affect in Action: How Emotions Impact Human Motor Function". The lecture will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the classroom at Emerson Alumni Hall and will be followed by a short reception. If you are unable to make it, the video will be posted at the end of April.

Invitations where mailed this week for the Gator Guayabera Guateque Academic Outreach Symposium. This event will be at the Doral Resort on Saturday, May 10. The featured speakers will be Dr. Bruce Kone (Medicine), Dr. David Denslow (Business) and Juan Perea (Law). This marks the first time the Academic Outreach Symposium will be included in the already successful Gator Guayabera Guateque.

UF leads global discussion

I have had the opportunity to work with the Digital Worlds Institute on several occasions. After reading this article I am intrigued to enter discussions with them about working together to promote UF faculty with new technology.

To mark the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, DWI will host a global webcast in conjunction with Morehouse College and institutions in China, India, Kenya and South Africa. This presentation will be the first of four that will be based on King's "World House" speech in which he stated

"modern man has brought this whole world to an awe-inspiring threshold of the future. He has reached new and astonishing peaks of scientific success. He has produced machines that think. Yet,in spite of these spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. There is a sort of poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance."

By utilizing this technology, the Outreach department would be able to offer presentations by UF faculty that will be viewable in real time to alumni and friends across the country.

Events from last week

The two events that occurred last week were very well attended and I have been told where excellent. There were about 60 people that attended the Dr. Lutz lecture in Palm Beach County, of which about a dozen were his former students. Although the final number is yet to be determined, there were about 60 people at the Steinway Hall for the performance and private reception with UF Performing Arts professor Boaz Sharon.

This week will be the first Outreach event featuring the department of the UF Political Science program. Professors Stephen Craig and Dan Smith will be in Tampa on Wednesday evening to present to the Tampa Gator Club. They are still taking RSVPs, http://www.tampagatorclub.com/.

2 events in 1 day

Today there will be two UF Outreach events occurring over 1,200 miles apart from each other. The first event was already mentioned in this blog and will be in West Palm Beach. There have been over 105 RSVPs for this event, and everything is set for a wonderful evening with the UFAA Distinguished Alumni Professor.

The second event will be occurring in New York City and will feature international recording artist, and UF School of Music Professor Boaz Sharon. Boaz was already scheduled to be in New York for a recital at the Steinway Hall, and now will have a post-performance VIP reception for local Gators. This event has had over 70 RSVPs from the Gotham Gators.

April is a busy time for the Gator Nation

As the calendar turns over to a new month, April will show that the Gator Nation is everywhere. In the next 30 days there will be Outreach events in Palm Beach, Tampa Gainesville, New York City and Washington, DC. There will also be Legacy admission Seminars in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and West Palm Beach.

The second lecture in the Phil Griffin Lecture Series will take place on April 16 at Emerson Alumni Hall. This month will feature Dr. Christopher Janelle from the UF Performance Psychology Laboratory. Dr. Janelle's presentation will focus on the research that is being done on how emotions impact human motor function.

The audio from last months lecture, "The Past, Present and Future of European Union - U.S. Relations" by Dr. Amie Kreppel is now available on the OUTREACH site in a .mp3 file. She does an excellent job of explaining how the past world events have caused this relationship to evolve to its current status.

If you have not attended a UFAA sponsored OUTREACH event in the past, this is your opportunity to continue learning from the top faculty members on campus and strengthening your relationship with UF.

Manatee Expert Coming to Crystal River, FL

I was just able to confirm that UF College of Veterinary Medicine professor Dr. Roger Reep will be speaking at an upcoming Citrus County Gator Club event in May. Dr. Reep's research interests include brain-behavior relationships in manatees (with a focus on tactile acuity), manatee bone mechanics, and neural circuitry involved in directed attention in rats.

This is exciting news for the Citrus County Gator Club, as they will be hosting their first Outreach event and it will be on a topic that is of great interest to this coastal community. Details are still to be determined, but stay tuned.....

Distinguished Alumni Professor

This week there will be an Outreach event in Palm Beach County. On Thursday, April 3, the UFAA Distinguished Alumni Professor, Dr. Richard Lutz will be giving a lecture titled "Passing the Torch: Intergenerational Influence on Brand Preference". This is an interesting topic and helped explain the reason my wife and I sometimes differ on products in the supermarket.

The event will be hosted by the Palm Beach Gator Club and will be held at the Marriott City Place on Okeechobee Blvd. There will be a reception beginning at 6:30 and the lecture will be at 7.

http://www.pbcgatorclub.com/GenericPage/DisplayPage.aspx?guid=30512549-C6E3-446D-A16F-C18AF8ED29DA

Faculty Member wins Highest Mathmatics award

The Abel prize, awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, is the equivalent of the Nobel prize for mathematics. Yesterday it was announced that UF Graduate Research Professor John Griggs Thompson and a European Mathematician had won the 2008 Abel Prize for Mathematics. Thompson has been a faculty member on campus since 1993 and is one of the worlds leading authority on Group Theory. Thompson has already won numerous national awards and medals.

Did you know?

So far, during the month of March, there have been 3 different UF faculty members quoted in the USA Today?

Most recently, Stan Smith, director of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research, was quoted in a March 20 USA Today story about how the housing crisis had reduced migration to Florida.