FIC MAY PROGRAMS
May 1, Monday Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Tom Tropp is our Quarterback.
May 4, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Robert Jordan, virologist and nephew of Innmate Joe Jordan. His topic – A Virologist’s View of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a traumatic event that impacted our lives in many unexpected ways. From scientists and physicians, it demanded grueling learn-as-you-go effort. Fortunately, they made unprecedented advances in vaccines and therapeutics to help manage infection with the novel virus, SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately, another outcome of the pandemic was the spread of misinformation and disinformation that led to millions of deaths. In part, this represented a failure of the scientific community to adequately communicate information driving public health policy. Robert will give us his virologist’s view of the pandemic and discuss evidence from scientific studies that helped guide policy decisions.
Robert Jordan is a senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously he was vice president of research and development at Meissa Vaccines, and a director of biology at Gilead Sciences, developing respiratory antiviral agents that included remdesivir, which was licensed for emergency use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before joining Gilead, Robert had also worked at Siga Technologies, where he co-discovered and developed Tecovirimat (ST-246), an antiviral treatment for smallpox and monkeypox. Robert received his PhD in biochemistry from Johns Hopkins Blumberg School of Public Health and completed postdoctoral training in virology at Harvard. Before joining industry, he was an assistant professor at Penn and Jefferson. He has also held adjunct faculty positions at Drexel and Oregon State. His work has been widely published in peer-reviewed journals, and he serves on the editorial board of the journal Antiviral Research.
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May 8, Monday Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Franklyn Rodgers is our Quarterback.
May 11, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Ann E. Moyer, professor of history at Penn. Her topic – What Would Cicero Say?
What might Cicero say to today’s politicians? Marcus Tullius Cicero, who lived from 106 to 43 BCE, excelled as scholar, philosopher, lawyer, author, orator, and politician. His letters, speeches, and other writings have educated students for centuries and have inspired generations of political leaders, including those of America’s founding generation. He valued his political career as his greatest achievement, and a central theme in his political thought is that a good ruler must be a good person. What have been some of the consequences of this principle – and other Ciceronian ideas – in political thought and action? How might we see these principles in action now?
Ann Moyer specializes in European intellectual and cultural history, especially that of the 16th-century Italian Renaissance. Her work is published extensively, and her most recent book is The Intellectual World of Sixteenth-Century Florence: Humanists and Culture in the Age of Cosimo I (Cambridge University Press, 2020). She is an executive editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas, published by Penn Press, and she served as executive director of the Renaissance Society of America from 2010 to 2015. She earned her BA at Michigan State and her AM and PhD from the University of Michigan.
Video:To see a recording of this presentation, click on Play Event. Click on the play button at the bottom left of the screen that comes up to see the presentation. To see Closed Captions, move your cursor to the lower right corner of the video to see available options, click on the “cc” icon, and then click on the “English (auto-generated) cc” option in the pop-up menu.May 8,
May 15, Monday Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Russell Cooke is our Quarterback.
May 19, Friday Club Dinner, starting with cocktails at 5:30 p.m.
Predinner program TBA
May 22, Monday Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Alina Macneal is our Quarterback.
May 25, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Richard Pasquier, attorney and specialist on chemical regulation. His topic – Better Living With Chemistry: How Can We Improve Chemical Safety?
The 24/7 news coverage of a disaster like the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, raises justified concerns about the hazards of toxic chemicals but provides few clues about how we can improve chemical safety. What protections do we have against risks from the tens of thousands of chemicals used in industry and contained in products that we use every day? Richard will give us an introduction to that regulatory framework, how it functions, and the challenges we face creating a political consensus on how to mitigate chemical risks locally, nationally, and globally.
Richard Pasquier spent nearly 20 years as an in-house lawyer in the chemical industry, helping businesses to navigate challenges in an era of unprecedented change. He took a break from industry to study chemicals policy from an academic perspective and completed a PhD in political science at Temple in 2022, writing his dissertation on the European Union’s strategy for chemical regulation, titled “Europe’s REACH for Leadership in Global Governance: Political Strategy in Action.” He is now a partner in the law firm Practus LLP.
Video:To see a recording of this presentation, click on Play Event. Click on the play button at the bottom left of the screen that comes up to see the presentation. To see Closed Captions, move your cursor to the lower right corner of the video to see available options, click on the “cc” icon, and then click on the “English (auto-generated) cc” option in the pop-up menu.May 8,
May 30, [Tuesday] Quarterback Luncheon – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Palmer Hartl is our Quarterback.