Nov 23, 2011 - Claremont, Calif. -

The 2011 Nelson Speaker Series concludes Dec. 2 at Harvey Mudd College with a lecture by Judith Giordan, senior advisor to the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance and partner at ecosVC, a venture development and funder.

Judith Giordan

Giordan's research interests include mechanisms to support and foster diversity in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and facilitating STEM intensive entrepreneurship, business and economic development.

In her 30-year career, she has served in executive and leadership positions in R&D and operations at some of the world's top brands. Today, Giordan translates that experience into building the brands and technologies of tomorrow.

Her presentation, “21st Century Technology Commercialization—A New Contact Sport,” begins at 7:30 p.m. in Galileo Lecture Hall. Giordan will discuss the changes occurring in technology commercialization, including the growing role played by chemical enterprise developed from university research.

Bearing the theme, “Rising to the Challenge,” the 2011 Nelson Speaker series honors the International Year of Chemistry by celebrating chemistry’s contributions to humankind. Guest speakers share exciting, new developments and discuss the many opportunities for current and future scientists to preserve the environment, utilize energy, develop materials and promote health.

Madeleine Jacobs, Executive Director and CEO of the American Chemical Society, presented the first lecture in the series, “From Sputnik to Gene Splicing:  Attracting the Best and the Brightest into Science,” on Oct. 6.  Jacobs is an honored science journalist and an internationally acclaimed public speaker with an extensive understanding of the chemistry field. Her presentation can be viewed here.

Oxford University chemistry professor emeritus Peter Atkins presented the second lecture, “The Challenge of Education,” on Oct. 28.  In addition to a 40+ year teaching career at the University of Oxford, Atkins is a prolific author of both popular chemistry textbooks and science books for the general public. The best known of these is “Physical Chemistry,” now in its ninth edition. His presentation can be viewed here.

The Dr. Bruce J. Nelson '74 Distinguished Speaker Series was established in 2000 through the visionary philanthropy of the family of the late Bruce J. Nelson '74. Designed to bring social, economic and political considerations into global problems that pose difficult technical challenges, the series brings to campus diverse and prominent experts to speak on various topics of interest.

Fr

ee and open to the public, each lecture is followed by a Q&A session and dessert reception.

Media Contact: Judy Augsburger
judy_augsburger@hmc.edu
909.607.0713