Four Landon Lectures to feature experts in global security, education, animal behavior, journalism
Monday, Aug. 8, 2016
MANHATTAN —Kansas State University's 2016-2017 Landon Lecture schedule includes a variety of public figures who are affecting American intellect.
"This academic year will be an exciting and thought-provoking year in regard to Landon Lecture speakers," said Jackie Hartman, the university's chief of staff, director of community relations and chair of the Landon Lecture Series. "We've invited a CEO of a major technology and global security company, high-profile educational leaders with K-State roots, a fascinating and inspiring animal behavior scientist, and an enthusing and talented journalist."
All four lectures are free and open to the public. The speakers and dates of their presentations:
• Wes Bush, CEO of Northrop Grumman, will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, in McCain Auditorium. Northrop Grumman specializes in innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, strike, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers. Bush was named chief executive officer and president in January 2010. He serves on the board of directors for Norfolk Southern Corporation, Aerospace Industries Association, Business-Higher Education Forum, Conservation International and the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation.
• A higher education panel of Kansas State University alumni, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr., superintendent of U.S. Military Academy at West Point; Dr. David Hall, president of the University of the Virgin Islands; and Dr. Bud Peterson, president of Georgia Institute of Technology, will speak at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 26, in Forum Hall in the K-State Student Union. Caslen has been the 59th superintendent of West Point since July 17, 2013. Before taking his current post, Caslen was chief of the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq. He has served as the commander of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, the commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) and commanding general of the Multi-National Division-North during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Hall became the fifth president of the University of the Virgin Islands on Aug. 1, 2009. Hall has worked to raise the image and position of the university and led efforts to restructure academic units from divisions to colleges and schools, the addition of new academic programs and the launch of new centers and institutions. Peterson is the 11th president of Georgia Institute of Technology, a position he has held since April 1, 2009. Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2008 and reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2014, Peterson serves on the National Science Board, which oversees the National Science Foundation and advises the president and Congress on national policy related to science and engineering research and education.
• Dr. Temple Grandin, author, world-renowned autism spokesperson, consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior and professor of animal science at Colorado State University, will speak at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, in McCain Auditorium. Grandin, who showed signs of autism at an early age and self describes her unique thought process as thinking in pictures, is an accomplished livestock equipment designer and a successful animal welfare advocate. She has published several books — including New York Times best-seller "Animals in Translation" — and given many talks about animal welfare and the autistic brain.
• Martin Baron, executive editor for the Washington Post, will speak at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 6, 2017, in Forum Hall in the K-State Student Union. Since Baron started at the Washington Post in January 2013, the paper has earned four Pulitzer Prizes, the most recent one for coverage of police shootings. From 2001-2012, he was an editor of the Boston Globe, where he participated in the paper's investigation of the Catholic priest scandal that inspired the 2015 movie "Spotlight."
