Stanford Bioterrorism Expert to Present Free Public Lectures

COLLEGE STATION -- One of the nation's most influential biophysicists and a leading expert on biological terrorism will visit the Texas A&M University campus next week to present two free public lectures as part of the 2010 Emily and Robert Walker '45 Endowed Lectureship in Biology.

Dr. Steven M. Block, the S.W. Ascherman Chair of Sciences in the Department of Applied Physics and Biology at Stanford University, will present "Facing the Growing Threat of Bioterrorism" on Thursday, Sept. 16, at 7 p.m. in the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center on the grounds of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Tickets are not required, but RSVPs are encouraged due to seating limitations for the lecture, which will detail for a general audience the remarkable pace of modern biotechnological advancements and the resulting increase of biological weapons, their inevitable future and the most effective strategies to combat them.

On Friday, Sept. 17, Block will present a second, more technical talk, "The Biophysics of Gene Regulation, Studied One Molecule at a Time," tailored to life sciences specialists and addressing his current research on single-molecule systems, including transcription by RNA polymerase and structural transitions in nucleic acids. The event will be held at 4 p.m. in the auditorium of Texas A&M's Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building (ILSB).

Block, a senior fellow of the Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford, earned his bachelor's of arts (1974) and master's of arts (1978) degrees from Oxford University as well as a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology (1983). After completing postdoctoral work at Stanford (1983-87), he served as staff scientist at the Rowland Institute for Science and a lecturer at Harvard University (1987-93) and a professor of microbiology at Princeton University (1994-99) prior to joining the faculty at Stanford in 1999. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Biophysical Society.

Block's research lies at the interface of physics and biology. His laboratory pioneered the use of laser-based optical traps, also known as "optical tweezers," to study the nanoscale motions of individual biomolecules. It was the first to measure the length of individual steps taken by a single motor protein, kinesin, walking along microtubes and by single RNA polymerase enzymes as these move from base to base along DNA.

In the public policy arena, Block has written and spoken extensively about the threat of bioterrorism. He serves as a member of JASON, a group comprised mainly of academicians that consults for the United States government on a variety of technical matters related to national security.

The Emily and Robert Walker '45 Endowed Lectureship in Biology was established in 1995 to bring outstanding research in the biological sciences to the attention of the Texas A&M University community.

Block's lectures are co-sponsored by the Department of Biology and the College of Science in conjunction with The Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum and the Division of Research and Graduate Studies.

To RSVP for the Sept. 16 bioterrorism lecture, please visit http://block.questionpro.com by Tuesday, Sept. 14.

For more information on either event or Block and his research, please contact the Texas A&M College of Science at (979) 845-7361.

-aTm-

Contact: Shana K. Hutchins, (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@science.tamu.edu

Hutchins Shana

2010-09-07 00:00:00