WHAT: University of Nebraska at Kearney Science Café
HOSTED BY: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
TITLE: “Diseases are Coming for You: Perspectives on a Century of Sickness”
TOPIC: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have worked together to fight the virus, implement public health protocols and develop a series of vaccines. Others have resisted mask mandates and refused social-distancing rules. The ability for diseases to persist, to hurt and to radically change daily life is not new but has a long history in the United States and the world. This presentation will focus on some key diseases in the 20th century through the interconnected lenses of history and science to continue providing context for the COVID-19 pandemic.
PRESENTERS: David Vail is an associate professor of history at UNK. He specializes in environmental and agricultural history, science and medicine, the Great Plains and public history. His research has appeared in numerous academic journals, including Kansas History, Endeavour, Great Plains Quarterly and Great Plains Research, and he’s the author of two books, “Chemical Lands: Pesticides, Aerial Spraying, and Health in North America’s Grasslands since 1945” and “Interpreting Environment at Museums and Historic Sites” with co-author Debra Reid. His current monograph project, “Vulnerable Harvests: Risk and Resiliency in the Cold War Great Plains,” is under advance contract with University of Nebraska Press.
Darby Carlson is a senior lecturer who has worked in the UNK Department of Biology for 18 years. Previously, he was a research technician and medical technologist in the area of infectious diseases. One of his main teaching responsibilities is microbiology, in addition to several other laboratories. His past research interests involve the characterization of Nora virus, which infects fruit flies, and the screening of ticks to decipher the bacteria that infect them.
TIME: 5:30 p.m.
DATE: Monday, March 22
ZOOM LINK: https://unk.zoom.us/j/91412812932. Email steelej@unk.edu for password.
CONTACT: Allen Thomas, UNK associate professor of chemistry, 308.865.8452, thomasaa@unk.edu
