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NEWS RELEASE
Communications and Marketing Office
600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114-3900
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For more information, contact:
Pam Small
Phone: 386-226-6157
Fax: 386-226-6158
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Apollo 13 Astronaut to Launch Embry-Riddle Speaker Series
Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 4, 2006 -- This fall, Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University brings an Apollo 13 astronaut, an entrepreneur
of the year, an oil policy expert, an epidemiologist, and a psychiatry
critic to the podium for its 2006-2007 Honors Program Distinguished
Speaker Series.
 On Monday, Oct. 16, Fred Haise will speak on “Failure Is Not
an Option.” Along with Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert, Haise was
a member of the Apollo 13 crew that struggled for more than three days
in 1970 to return to Earth after an oxygen tank explosion aboard the
spacecraft aborted the mission as they approached the moon. Now a member
of the Astronaut Hall of Fame, Haise will recount his experiences during
the ill-fated yet heroic Apollo 13 lunar mission and link these experiences
to general life lessons.
 On Monday, Nov. 13, Ping Fu will speak on “Technology for Aviation
in the 21st Century.” Fu is CEO of Geomagic Corp. and Inc.
magazine’s 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year. Her company’s technology,
called digital shape sampling and processing, enables designers and
engineers to scan an object, capture the data from the scan, and then
use it to create digital models. Virtual 3-D images can be inspected,
redesigned, tested, and used to make perfect replicas. NASA has used
Geomagic’s software to replicate damaged space shuttle tiles on Earth
while the shuttle is still in orbit. It’s also used to engineer precision
aerospace and automotive parts and prosthetic joints.
 On Tuesday, Jan. 16, Paul Roberts will speak on “Depletion
and Denial: Oil and the U.S. in the 21st Century.” Despite
growing evidence of the unsustainability of a petroleum-based economy,
America’s energy policy, industrial strategy, and political culture
remain committed to hydrocarbons. Roberts explores the complex interplay
of technology, politics, and economics in this area. Roberts is a writer
for Harper’s magazine, USA Today, and Wall Street
Journal, a guest on National Public Radio, and the author of The
End of Oil.
 On Wednesday, Feb. 7, Mark Borchardt will speak on “Through
the Water Glass: Looking at Our Nation’s Drinking Water.” Borchardt,
an epidemiology researcher at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation,
will talk about the nation’s water quality and the role that ground
water plays in spreading viruses and bacteria. Producing safe drinking
water in the United States requires constant vigilance against the threats
of emerging waterborne contaminants and impending water shortages. Technology
has thus far kept step with minimizing these threats. Adopting a holistic
view of the relations between the water cycle, ecosystem health, and
human health will further safeguard against impending perils threatening
safe drinking water for future generations.
 On Wednesday, March 28, Elliot Valenstein will speak on “The
Biochemical Theories of Mental Illness: What Should We Really Believe?”
Valenstein is a professor emeritus of psychology and neuroscience
at the University of Michigan and author of many books, including Brain
Control, Blaming the Brain, and War of the Soups and Sparks.
Valenstein has long jostled the status quo by questioning assumptions
of biochemical causes for mental illness, which have established and
protected the bond between psychiatry and the prescribing of drugs to
treat mental illness. Valenstein has examined the special interests
behind purely biopsychiatric hypotheses that appeal to pharmaceutical
companies.
The first lecture, by Fred Haise, will be at 7 p.m. in Embry-Riddle’s
ICI Center (the fieldhouse). All others are scheduled at 7 p.m. in the
Gale Lemerand Auditorium, Willie Miller Instructional Center, at Embry-Riddle,
located at 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach, Fla. The lectures
are free and open to the public.
For more information about any of the events, contact Geoffrey Kain,
Honors Program director, at (386) 226-6650 or geoffrey.kain@erau.edu.
Embry-Riddle, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing
in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its
colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering.
Embry-Riddle educates more than 32,000 students annually in undergraduate
and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and
Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 centers
in the United States and Europe, and through online learning.
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