Jan. 31, 2011 - The Kegley Institute of Ethics and CSU Bakersfield's School of Natural Science, Mathematics & Engineering are proud to present a special lecture: " The Role of the Human Element in Technology," featuring Ainissa Ramirez, Doctor of Material Sciences and Engineering, former professor at Yale, and a highly acclaimed TED lecturer. The lecture will be held Monday, February 11, 7:00 pm at the Doré Theatre. It is free and open to the public with free parking after 6:00 pm in Lots A, B, and C.

Dr. Ramirez is passionate about demonstrating that "science is fun" and she serves as a science advisor to NOVA, Dragonfly TV, and the Exploratorium. At Yale, she was the director of the award-winning science lecture series for area students, called Science Saturdays (www.sciencesaturdays.org). She strongly believes in the need for improving public understanding of the sciences.

"Dr. Ramirez is fantastic at energizing the audience, at getting them to think both about why science is vital to our lives, and also how it changes our lives-sometimes for good, sometimes in harmful ways," said Dr. Christopher Meyers, Director of the Kegley Institute of Ethics. "Her focus in this talk will be on how we often don't even notice those changes and how that can have important ethical implications. We are excited to welcome Dr. Ramirez to campus!"

Dr. Ramirez received her training in materials science and engineering from Brown University (Sc.B.) and Stanford University (Ph.D.). She has authored more than 30 technical papers and holds six patents. Her research has been awarded the Sloan Research Fellowship, the NSF CAREER award, the MIT MLK visiting professorship, and the MIT TR100 award for her invention of a solder that bonds to inorganic materials.

All of the Kegley Institute of Ethics programs receive ongoing support from Kern Schools Federal Credit Union and San Joaquin Community Hospital.

For more information about the Kegley Institute of Ethics please visit www.csub.edu/kie or call 661-654-2555. For further information about CSUB please visit www.csub.edu.