Calendar of Events

Brown-bag lunch panels to feature women in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology

As part of Women's History Month, Penn State Altoona will present two brown-bag lunches featuring a panel of speakers representing women in the fields of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. The panels will be held on March 12 and 19 from 12:15 - 1:00 p.m. in room 134 of the Hawthorn Building.

The first panel on Tuesday, March 12 will feature panelists Corien Bakermans, assistant professor of microbiology, Carolyn G. Mahan, professor of biology, and Esther Siegfried, assistant professor of biology.

The second panel will on Tuesday, March 19 will feature panelists Barbara A. Wiens-Tuers, associate professor of economics, Frances A. Mateycik, assistant professor of physics, Lisa A. Emili, assistant professor of geoscience, and Laura K. Palmer, associate professor of biology.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their lunch. Dessert will be provided. The events are sponsored by Penn State Altoona's Women's Studies program. For more information, contact Molly Slep at mys6@psu.edu.

For a complete listing of Women's History Months events, visit http://www.altoona.psu.edu/now/news.php?value=4092 online.

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Penn State Altoona to host Mustafa Akyol

ALTOONA – Mustafa Akyol, newspaper columnist, political commentator, and author will present at Penn State Altoona March 12 and March 13. The presentations are free and open to the public.

Akyol will present "Islam at a Crossroads" Tuesday, March 12, 7:30 p.m. and "Turkey at a Crossroads" Wednesday, March 13, 7:30 p.m., in rooms 101-103 Misciagna Family Center for Performing Arts.

Akyol is a columnist for two Turkish newspapers, Hürriyet Daily News and Star. His articles have also appeared in Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and many other publications. He studied political science and history at the Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, where he still lives. His book, Islam without Extremes: A Muslim Case for Liberty, an argument for "Muslim liberalism," was published by W.W. Norton in July 2011. The book was defined by Financial Times as “A forthright and elegant Muslim defense of freedom.”

The presentations are sponsored by The Elizabeth and George Gardner Fellowship in Political Science and the Political Science Program at Penn State Altoona.

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PostSecret's Frank Warren to visit campus March 12

Frank Warren, creator of the PostSecret Project, will speak at the Devorris Downtown Center, March 12, at 8 p.m.

Tickets are free and available to students, faculty, staff, and the community in the Office Student Life, Slep Student Center.

Warren is the sole founder and curator of the PostSecret Project, a collection of over 500,000 highly personal and artfully decorated postcards mailed anonymously from around the world, displaying the soulful secrets never voiced.

Warren's first book, PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives is a New York Times best-seller. He followed it up with My Secret: A PostSecret Book, The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book, and his most recent, A Lifetime of Secrets. In 2009, he released a PostSecret book focusing on religion and spirituality, PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God, which reached number one on the New York Times best-seller list.

Warren continues to receive between 100 and 200 postcards everyday. He updates his Web site on Sundays and is working to produce four more PostSecret books.

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