Dixie Forum: A Window to the World
Learn about the tiniest of organisms living among us when Dr. Alan R. Harker presents about his research on the microbes that inhabit the Great Salt Lake during Dixie State University's weekly lecture series "Dixie Forum: A Window on the World."
Harker will present "Small and Simple Things That Rule the World.
During Tuesday's presentation, Harker will discuss how the strictly microbial nature of the Great Salt Lake's unique biosphere allows the exploration of basic fundamental ecological questions, such as speciation, competition, dormancy and symbiosis. Harker posits that the metabolic potential available in the lake should yield both academic and applied discoveries that will rival any other environment thus far explored.
The associate academic vice president for research and graduate studies at Brigham Young University, Harker has served 21 years on the faculty of the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Biology. He also has served as the department chair and associate dean of the College of Life Sciences.
Harker earned a doctorate in biology at the University of Utah after receiving bachelor's degrees in chemistry and biology from the same institution. He completed his education as a postdoctoral fellow in the Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory at Oregon State University and a research associate with the Environmental Protection Agency in Corvallis, Ore., where he worked on plasmid mediated horizontal gene transfer.
Before moving to BYU, Harker was an assistant and associate professor at Oklahoma State University in the Department of Microbiology. There, he worked on the degradation of environmental pollutants, placing a particular emphasis on the genetic modification of organisms to facilitate the degradation of chlorinated solvents.
Dixie Forum is a weekly lecture series designed to introduce the St. George community and DSU students, faculty and staff to diverse ideas and personalities while widening their worldviews via a 50-minute presentation. Dixie Forum will continue at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 10, in the Dunford Auditorium with a presentation from Bradford Lee Eden. He will present about J.R.R. Tolkien, his life and his work.
The remainder of the spring Dixie Forum schedule is below. All forums will be at noon on Tuesdays in the Dunford Auditorium of the Browning Resource Center on the DSU campus.
Tuesday, November 10 from 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Speaker(s): Bradford Lee Eden Topic: Tolkien
Tuesday, November 17 from 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Speaker(s): No Forum Topic: No Forum
Tuesday, November 24 from 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Speaker(s): No Forum (Thanksgiving) Topic: No Forum (Thanksgiving)
Tuesday, December 1 from 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Speaker(s): Eric Thacker Topic: TBA
Tuesday, December 8 from 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Speaker(s): Frederick Crook Topic: The China Dream: An Interpretation of Contemporary Wall Posters
Tuesday, December 15 from 12:00 p.m. - 12:50 p.m. Speaker(s): No Forum (Finals week) Topic: No Forum (Finals week)
Date and Time
Tuesday Nov 3, 2015
12:00 AM - 1:00 AM MST
Location
Dixie State University
Dunford Auditorium
Fees/Admission
Free
Contact Information
For more information on Dixie State University's Dixie Forum series, please contact DSU Forum coordinator John Burns at 435-879-4712.
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