News Release

Five top Johns Hopkins University researchers, doctors and scientists have agreed to take part in a unique, five-week lecture series called "Voyage and Discovery," which aims to get at the compelling human stories behind the published articles and latest breakthroughs.

Begun last year after a Hopkins undergraduate pre-med student was inspired by a doctor's story of how he tracked a disease--it was more like a detective story than science out of a book--the lecture series attracted some big names and standing-room-only crowds.

The series kicks off again this year on Tuesday, Feb. 29, when Levi Watkins Jr., associate dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a top cardiac surgeon, talks about his life and career in a talk titled, "From Integrating Vanderbilt Medical School to Implanting a Defibrillator: One Physician's Journey to Fulfill His Dreams."

Other speakers include William R. Brody, president of The Johns Hopkins University and a physician and engineer; Alfred Sommer, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a world authority on using Vitamin A to prevent child mortality in developing countries; Dr. Argye Hillis, an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; and Dr. Richard A. Cone, a professor of biophysics in the Johns Hopkins School of Arts and Sciences.

All of the lectures are free and open to the public and take place at 7 p.m. in the Mudd Hall Auditorium on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, 3400 N. Charles Street. For additional information, please contact Glenn Small at the number above or Chandu Vemuri at 410-516-5001.