Paul Campbell Erwin, professor and head of the Department of Public Health, considers John Snow’s cholera investigations one of the foundations of modern epidemiology.
He will discuss Snow’s work at this Friday’s Science Forum.
The Science Forum is a weekly brown-bag lunch series during which professors and area scientists discuss their research with the general public in a conversational presentation.
The weekly presentations begin at noon on Fridays in Room C-D of Thompson-Boling Arena. Attendees can bring lunch or purchase it at the arena. Each presentation is forty minutes long and is followed by a question-and-answer session. Science Forum presentations are free and open to the public.
Snow investigated a series of cholera outbreaks in London in the 1850s.
“This is something that I always incorporate into the courses I teach because it’s so fundamental to the discipline,” Erwin said.
Epidemiology is the study of the causes and distribution of diseases and is one of the core disciplines of the public health academic degree.
Erwin hopes his presentation will “show the relevance of the work that was done 160 years ago to a modern epidemiologist’s work.”
Future Science Forums will feature:
- March 15: Kevin Hoyt, director of UT Forest Resources AgResearch and Education Center, presenting “The Proposed UT AgResearch Gas and Oil Well Research Project.”
- April 5: William T. Bogart, president of Maryville College and professor of economics there, discussing “Cargo Cult Economic Policy: Urban Development and Green Energy.”
- April 12: Stephanie K. Drumheller-Horton, instructor of earth and planetary sciences, presenting “Crocodylian Bite Marks in the Fossil Record.”
- April 19: Devon M. Burr, assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences, discussing “The Moon That Would Be a Planet: Saturn’s Giant Titan.”
- April 26: Joan Markel, curator of Civil War exhibits at the McClung Museum, presenting “Digging into Our Civil War Past.”
The Science Forum is sponsored by the UT Office of Research. For more information about the Science Forum, visit the Office of Research website.
—
C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)
Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)