Purdue University Libraries Distinguished Lecture Series
The Purdue Libraries Distinguished Lecture series began in 2005 with a goal to emphasize the link between Libraries and the creative and intellectual achievements from notable people both outside of and inside the academy. We consider this lecture series to be in keeping with Purdue Libraries role as a catalyst to enhance the cultural, intellectual, and scholarly environment at Purdue for students, faculty, friends, and the entire community.
Through these lectures, the authors and speakers we invite enable us to more effectively understand the human condition, whether through science, the arts, engineering, technology, business, medical sciences, or consumer and family issues.
Previous speakers
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Dr. Moira Gunn, Purdue
alumna and host of TechNation and BioTechNation "The Future of Information" September 14, 2009 Lecture announcement | Lecture poster (PDF) Video |
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Dr. Robert Laughlin, Professor of Physics, Stanford University |
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Michael R. Beschloss October 1, 2008 “Presidential Courage & the Upcoming 2008 Elections” Author of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 Lecture announcement | Lecture poster (PDF) |
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Ishmael Beah September 12, 2007 Author of A Long Way Gone:Memoirs of a Boy Solider The first-person account of a 25-year-old who fought in the war in Sierra Leone as a 12-year-old boy. Lecture announcement | Lecture poster (PDF) |
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Amy Tan October 19, 2006 An evening with Amy Tan Author of The Joy Luck Club, Saving Fish from Drowning, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and two books for children. Lecture announcement | Lecture poster (PDF) |
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Patricia Albjerg Graham,
Charles Warren Research Professor
of the History of American Education,
Harvard University February 2, 2006 Author of Schooling America: How the Public Schools Meet the Nation’s Changing Needs Click here to read the announcement of the lecture |
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Dr. James R. Hansen, Former NASA Historian,
Auburn University Professor of History October 26, 2005 Author of First Man: The Life of Neil Armstrong, Armstrong’s authorized biography Click here to read the announcement of the lecture |
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Made possible by major funding to Purdue Libraries from the
Estate of Anna M. Akeley
Anna Akeley retired with tenure from Purdue’s physics department in 1971 after teaching 29 years — the only
member of the department to do so without a physics degree. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1904, Anna earned
the equivalent of a master’s degree in X-rays from the Roentgen Institute.
As tensions rose that led to World War II, she met a man who aided in her escape from Europe, Purdue physics professor Edward Akeley, her future husband. Unable to migrate west, Anna finally arrived in Indiana in 1942 after traveling through Asia and across the Pacific to California. On her third day in Lafayette, Anna was asked to teach physics due to the shortage of professors during the war. For her professional accomplishments at Purdue, she was honored with the School of Science Instructor of the Year award in 1966, the first Helen B. Schleman Gold Medal Award for contributions to women students in 1969, and the Order of the Griffin in 2004.
Anna Mandler Akeley died on June 26, 2004, at the age of 100. Along with the lives she touched as an educator and friend, she left behind her legacy through a generous gift from her estate to the Purdue University Libraries, a testament to her lifelong love of learning now embodied, in part, by the Libraries Distinguished Lecture Series.
