Jeffrey Kluger, senior editor of science, technology, and health for Time magazine, will deliver the twenty-first annual Alfred and Julia Hill Lecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on Tuesday, April 2.
Kluger will lecture on “Science as Civilizer” at 8:00 p.m. in the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture auditorium. It is free and open to the public.
“I’m keenly interested in the way scientific knowledge doesn’t just edify but can also cleanse, producing a culture that doesn’t just get smarter but behaves better,” he said.
Kluger has worked at Time since 1996 and has written or co-written more than forty cover stories. Recent topics include NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover, parental favoritism, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the discovery of the Higgs boson.
He also has written eight books, including Lost Moon: the Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, which he co-authored with astronaut Jim Lovell. The book was the basis for the 1995 movie Apollo 13. Kluger was a technical advisor for the film and played a small role in it.
His other books include Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio and Freedom Stone, a children’s novel.
Kluger previously was a staff writer for Discover magazine, where he wrote the “Light Elements” humor column. He also was an editor for Family Circle and Science Digest.
He also is an attorney and has taught science journalism at New York University.
“I can’t wait to hear what he has to say about the idea that science makes people and society not only smarter but ethically better. I don’t know that anyone has proposed that idea before,” said Mark Littmann, professor of journalism and organizer of the lecture series.
The Hill Lecture brings science journalists to UT to share their thoughts on science, society and the mass media. Tom Hill and Mary Frances Hill Holton created an endowment for the lectures in honor of their parents, Alfred and Julia Hill, who founded the Oak Ridger newspaper.
The endowment was a gift to the School of Journalism and Electronic Media in the College of Communication and Information.
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C O N T A C T :
Mark Littmann (865-974-8156, littmann@utk.edu)