SAIS institute to host forum about North Korean nuclear program

The U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS will this week host a forum titled "Biography of a Bomb: Portrait of the North Korea Nuclear Program." The event will be moderated by Don Oberdorfer, chairman of the institute and author of The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History.

Four experts are scheduled to participate. Historian and scholar Kathryn Weathersby will discuss Kim Il Sung's nuclear decisions. David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, will present an illustrated talk titled "The Rise of the Nuclear Facilities at Yongbyeon." Marion Creekmore, who accompanied former President Jimmy Carter to meet Kim, will discuss the 1994 nuclear crisis; Creekmore is author of the recent book A Moment in Crisis. David Straub, former State Department Korea country director and SAIS adjunct professor, will discuss "The Six-Party Talks and Beyond."

The forum, preceded by a reception at 9:30 a.m., begins at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 24, in the Nitze Building's Kenney Auditorium. Non-SAIS affiliates should RSVP to the institute at ksurber@jhu.edu or 202-663-5830.

 

'House Guests' exhibition series returns to Evergreen

The works of Evergreen's 2005 and 2006 artists in residence, painter Amy Chan and installation artist Richard Torchia, are the subject of House Guests, an exhibition that opened with a reception on Sunday, Oct. 22, and continues through Jan. 14.

"Views of the Mid-Atlantic" comprises 30 works on paper by Chan, who uses humor and appropriated imagery to question the prevailing attitude toward nature and suburban sprawl and to convey the loneliness of the modern American landscape.

In "House Lights and Furniture Music: Treatments for a Suite of Shaded Rooms," Torchia creates installations that deal with principles of perception using recorded sounds and the optics of photography, inviting the viewer to experience Evergreen's historic interiors in new and provocative ways.

The exhibition is free with museum admission. For more information, go to www.jhu.edu/evrgreen or call 410-516-0341.

 

Economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin to give Social Policy Seminar

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and former chief economist for the president's Council of Economic Advisors, will give a Johns Hopkins Social Policy Seminar on Thursday, Oct. 26.

His talk is titled "Economic and National Security Threats: What Is the Policy Response?" and will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in room 526 of the Wyman Building, Homewood campus.

Holtz-Eakin is currently director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he holds the Paul A. Volcker Chair in International Economics. Before joining the federal government, he taught at Syracuse University's Maxwell School, where he chaired its Department of Economics and was associate director of the Center for Policy Research. His recent research has centered on the economics of fundamental tax reform; the productivity effects of public infrastructure; income mobility in the United States; and the role of families, capital markets, health insurance and tax policy in the start-up and survival of entrepreneurial ventures. A graduate of Denison University, Holtz-Eakin received his doctorate in economics from Princeton University.

The seminar is jointly hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies, the Krieger School's Department of Economics and the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management.

 

U.N. official to speak about peacekeeping mission in Lebanon

Jean-Marie Guehenno, French diplomat and United Nations undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, will speak at SAIS today, Oct. 23, about the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

Guehenno is currently tasked with organizing the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon's peacekeeping efforts to police the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which passed in August.

This forum, to be held at 4:15 p.m. in the first-floor auditorium of the Rome Building, is being co-hosted with the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C., and the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area. Non-SAIS affiliates should RSVP to the SAIS International Law and Organization Program at itlong@jhu.edu or 202-663-5745.

 

Sophomore takes top honor in Collegiate Inventors Competition

Fan Yang, a sophomore studying biomaterial and nanomaterial engineering in the Whiting School, took home the top undergraduate prize last week in the international Collegiate Inventors Competition, a program of the National Inventors Hall of Fame Foundation.

Her work involves preventing infection-causing bacteria from adhering to contact lenses by coating the lenses with safe chemicals. More than 70 million people wear contact lenses, and up to 20 percent of them could end up contracting an infection.

Yang, 18, presented her invention to a final panel of seven judges on Oct. 18. She receives a $10,000 prize and her adviser, Xiaobing Wang, receives $3,000.

The prestigious competition is designed to encourage college students to be active in science, engineering, mathematics, technology and creative invention, and rewards the students and their advisers for projects leading to inventions that can be patented. The sponsors of the 2006 competition are the Abbott Fund and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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