An address by Dr. Cora Marrett, acting deputy director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), will conclude the year-long commemoration of the centennial of the founding of the departments of chemistry and physics at Hope College.
Marrett will present perspective based on her role with the agency on Thursday, April 8, at 11 a.m. in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Marrett was appointed acting deputy director of the NSF effective Jan. 18, 2009. She had previously been the assistant director for the Education and Human Resources (EHR), a position she held from February 2007. She led NSF's mission to achieve excellence in U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education at all levels and in both formal and informal settings. Earlier, from 1992 to 1996, Marrett was NSF's assistant director for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE).
Prior to returning to NSF in 2007, Marrett served as the University of Wisconsin's senior vice president for academic affairs for six years. Before that, she served as senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst for four years.
Marrett holds a Bachelor of Arts from Virginia Union University, and Master of Arts and a doctorate from UW-Madison, all in sociology. She received an honorary doctorate from WakeForestUniversity in 1996, and was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1998 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1996.
The lecture has been scheduled by the Natural and Applied Sciences Division at Hope in conjunction with the academic-year commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of the formal creation of the departments of chemistry and physics at the college. Although Hope had developed its first classroom laboratory in 1867, the two departments became independent programs in 1909.
Graves Hall is located at 263 College Ave., between 10th and 12th streets.