A new English translation of a biography of former Duke physicist Hertha Sponer will be unveiled before the annual Hertha Sponer Presidential Lecture on Thursday, April 5, in Love Auditorium in the Levine Science Research Center.
Carolyn R. Bertozzi, The T.Z. and Irmgard Chu Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, will speak on "Sugar-coated Cells: The Good News and the Bad News."
The lecture honors Sponer, the first woman full professor in the natural sciences at Duke. Originally from Germany, she fled Nazi rule and came to the U.S. before the start of World War II. She was a physics professor at Duke from 1936 until 1965.
A biography of Sponer came out in German in 1998. Duke Professor Horst Meyer worked with physics chair Dan Gauthier to allocate funds to pay for an English translation of the biography to be published electronically. The translation will be unveiled at a ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Following a reception at the Love Auditorium, Bertozzi will deliver the Sponer lecture at 4:30 p.m.
Bertozzi will also deliver the Douglas G. Hill Memorial Lecture in Chemistry on Friday, April 6.
For more information about Sponer, click here.