LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Peter Agre, known for his science advocacy and scientific diplomacy efforts with other countries, will speak May 8-9 at the University of Louisville.
Agre’s free, public, general-interest talk about “Bridging Science and Society: Advocating for Human Rights and Diplomacy While Fighting Disease Worldwide” will begin at 12:30 p.m. May 9 in Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium on the Belknap Campus.
UofL’s Chemistry Graduate Student Association in the College of Arts and Sciences sponsors the annual distinguished lecturer series with Clariant, a Switzerland-based chemical company with operations in Louisville.
Agre is a professor of biological chemistry and medicine at Johns Hopkins University and director of its Malaria Research Institute. He won the famous chemistry prize in 2003 with Roderick MacKinnon. Agre was recognized for his discovery of aquaporins, described as the plumbing system of cells. Aquaporins channel water molecules rapidly through cell membranes in animals and plants.
Agre, former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, led visits of U.S. scientists to Iran, Myanmar, Cuba and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) to foster collaborations on peaceful science projects and disease eradication in attempts to reduce tensions between countries. He also is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Society for Microbiology and American Philosophical Society.
His more technical talk, “Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Malaria,” will begin at 1:30 p.m. May 8, also in Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium.
For more information, contact Kelsey Kaht at 859-630-3781 or klspar01@louisville.edu.
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