The Voyage and Discovery lecture series returns to the Homewood campus tomorrow night, Feb. 12, as psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison, an authority on manic-depressive illness and recent recipient of a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, arrives in Mudd Hall to describe the "story behind the story" of her professional journey. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Jamison, author of the best-selling memoir An Unquiet Mind, kicks off the fourth annual student-run Voyage and Discovery lecture series, which began in spring of 1999.

That first year, Benjamin Carson, the world-renowned brain surgeon, opened the series to a standing-room-only crowd, and Kathy Williams and Brian Rosenberg, freshmen at the time, were both there.

Brian Rosenberg and Kathy Williams are co-directors of the student-run 'Voyage and Discovery' series designed to inspire undergraduates considering careers in medicine and science.

"I read all of his books," said Williams, now a senior biology major. "It was just awesome to have him come to our campus."

Both Williams and Rosenberg worked as volunteers on Voyage and Discovery that first year, and in subsequent years, and now they are its co-directors.

From the beginning, both believed strongly in the idea behind the series: To have some of Hopkins' great scientists, physicians and researchers speak to undergraduates in the schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering about how they ended up where they are, as opposed to just presenting research findings.

And from the beginning, students have responded to the series, and those invited to speak have been generous with their time.

Joining Jamison for this year's Voyage and Discovery are James Hildreth, associate dean for graduate student affairs and associate professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences at the School of Medicine; Michael Ain, assistant professor of pediatric orthopedic surgery at the School of Medicine, who overcame the problems associated with his achondroplasia and was featured in the ABC-TV series Hopkins 24/7; and John Gearhart, the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine in the School of Medicine and a genetics expert who has been at the forefront of the high-profile debate over cloning and the use of stem cells in research.

To carry on the tradition of Voyage and Discovery, Williams and Rosenberg said they made sure to stress to the speakers that their audience--composed largely of students who one day will become doctors and researchers--are more interested in their personal stories than their latest research findings.

"We're interested in how they got where they are," Rosenberg said.