WHAT
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will kick off its 6th annual Great Problems Seminars, part of the university’s innovative First Year Experience, with a lecture by science journalist Matthew Herper to first year students in a presentation titled, “How Technologists Can Save Lives and Change the World – And What’s Stopping Them.” Herper’s lecture is free and open to the public.
WHO
Matthew Herper has covered science and medicine for Forbes since June 2000, and has written about the scandals that rocked the drug business in mid-2000s, including Vioxx, the painkiller that also increased people’s risk of heart attacks, and Avandia, the diabetes drug that did the same.
WHY
The university launched the “Great Problems Seminars” in 2007 as a new approach to WPI’s first-year experience. The seminars focus on problems in the areas of food, energy, health and engineering for sustainability, and provide students with important early exposure to WPI's project-based curriculum, helping them develop the skills necessary for success in their future project work.
WHERE
WPI Campus Center Odeum.
WHEN
August 29 at 5 p.m.
