The Johns Hopkins Gazette: April 19, 1999
Apr. 19, 1999
VOL. 28, NO. 31

  

In Brief

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

Poet laureate Pinsky to give Joshua Ringel Memorial Lecture

The Maryland parole officer who came forth to read Langston Hughes' "Hold Fast to Dreams"--a poem he recited frequently to his clients--is one of the more poignant stories resulting from the Favorite Poem Project, an ongoing video- and audiotaping of poems loved by average Americans and spearheaded by current U.S. poet laureate Robert Pinsky.

Pinsky will talk about the state of contemporary poetry in Mudd Hall on the Homewood campus at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 28, when he gives the second Joshua Ringel Memorial Lecture. The author of numerous highly acclaimed books of poetry and criticism, Pinsky appears frequently on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

The Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth is co-organizing this event along with the Teachers & Writers Collaborative of New York. The talk is funded by Mel, Barbara and Susannah Ringel and their friends in memory of Joshua Ringel, an institute alumnus.

The event is free and open to the public.


Treasury secretary Robert Rubin to give lecture at SAIS

U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin will give the annual Rostov Lecture on International Affairs at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies on Wednesday, April 21, at 11 a.m.

Rubin's lecture topic will be "International Financial Architecture."

Prior to becoming secretary of the Treasury in 1995, Rubin served in the White House as assistant to the president for economic policy, directing the activities of the National Economic Council. Before joining the Clinton administration in 1993, he spent 26 years at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he ultimately served as co-senior partner and co-chairman.

Rubin received his bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard College in 1960 and his law degree from Yale University in 1964. He also attended the London School of Economics.

Established in 1990, the Rostov Lecture on International Affairs honors the memory of Johns Hopkins alumnus and businessman Charles Rostov.

Admittance to the lecture is by invitation only. Anyone from Hopkins who is interested in attending should contact Felisa Neuringer at 202-663-5626 or fneuringer@jhu.edu.


Mathematician Yuri Manin to speak on quantum computing

Will the spin direction of an electron or the polarization state of a photon eventually drive computers into a "quantum" revolution that makes silicon seem as quaint and slow as a clacking mainframe?

An originator of the concept of quantum computing, Yuri Manin, will come to the Homewood campus Tuesday, April 20, to talk about the future of computers and about algorithms that could make quantum physics the foundation for the next great advance.

Manin, director of the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, will speak on "Quantum Computing and Complexity" at 4 p.m. in 205 Krieger.

A member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Manin is a recipient of the Lenin Prize and the Brouwer Gold Medal and is considered one of the most influential mathematicians in the world. His lecture is being sponsored by the Department of Mathematics and the American Journal of Mathematics.


Pat Schroeder, James Neal host forum on copyright, fair use

Pat Schroeder, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, and James Neal, dean of university libraries, participated in an open forum on copyright and fair use to kick off the Association of College & Research Libraries' ninth national conference. "Racing Toward Tomorrow" was held April 8-11 in Detroit.

The forum provided an opportunity for academic and research librarians to hear the perspectives of both a publisher and a librarian as they discussed issues such as copyright, fair use and electronic publishing.

Prior to her role at the AAP, Schroeder represented Colorado in the U.S. House of Representatives for 24 years. As a ranking member of the House judiciary subcommittee on courts and intellectual property, she was one of the most knowledgeable members of Congress on copyright issues and was a champion of the protection of intellectual property rights.

Neal is an American Library Association executive board member and represented American libraries as an adviser to the U.S. delegation at the World Intellectual Property Organization diplomatic conference on copyright in Geneva. He is also a member of the International Federation of Library Association's committee on copyright and other legal matters.

More than 200 conference programs addressed the changes necessary in order for academic and research libraries to provide leadership for the future direction of academic librarians. Leaders in libraries and higher education discussed the economics of information, distance learning, scholarly communication and information technology. Program sessions explored developing alternate resources, partnering for effective service, alternative institutions and providers, acquiring new knowledge skills, emerging roles for librarians and 21st-century learners.


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