Join distinguished guest speakers, UMBC faculty and alumni and scientists from the Baltimore-Washington region to take "A Look Ahead" at how today's laboratory research may shape tomorrow's health care and quality of life. This free life sciences symposium was established as an annual event in 1997.

The symposium will be held on Wednesday, November 13 from 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom. The deadline to register is October 30. For more information contact Karen Sweeney-Jett in the Office of Institutional Advancement at x52621 or Sweeney@umbc.edu. You can register online at www.umbc.edu/lookahead.

This year's speakers are:

David Baltimore, Ph.D.
President, California Institute of Technology
"Living Interdisciplinary Science"

On October 15, 1997, David Baltimore, one of the nation's most distinguished biologists and winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize for his work in virology, became the seventh president of the California Institute of Technology.

Baltimore helped pioneer the molecular study of animal viruses. His research in this field had profound implications for understanding cancer and, later, AIDS. In the mid 1970's, along with several other eminent biologists, he played a pivotal role in creating a consensus on national science policy regarding recombinant DNA research and also established standards that are followed by the genetics community to this day.

In 1999, Baltimore was awarded the National Medal of Science in recognition of his research achievements, his excellence in building scientific institutions and his ability to foster communication between scientists and the general public. His is a co-recipient of the 2000 Warren Alpert Foundation Prize.

Polly Matzinger
Section Head, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
"On Immunity: Thoughts from the Past Century and Ideas for the Next One"

Polly Matzinger is currently the chief of the Ghost Lab, and the section on T Cell Tolerance and Memory at the National Institutes of Health. She has worried for years that the dominant model of immunity does not explain a wealth of accumulated data and has recently suggested an alternative, the Danger Model, which suggests that the immune system is far less concerned with things that are foreign than with those that do damage. This model has very few assumptions and yet explains most of what the immune systems seems to do right, as well as most of what it appears to do wrong. The model has been the subject of a BBC "horizon" film and has been featured in two other films about immunity and countless articles in both the scientific and the lay press.

Barry Buckland
Vice President, BioProcess R&D, Merck
"The Future of Biochemical Engineering: The Pharmaceutical Industry Perspective"

Barry Buckland joined the Merck Research Laboratories in 1980, and built a world-class BioProcess R&D group. Currently, Buckland is vice president of BioProcess R&D and his responsibilities include the process development of all biologically made product candidates within the MRL pipeline and manufacture of clinical supplies. Products developed within this timeline include Mevacor®, Zocor®, Ivomec®, Cancidas®, Recombivax HB®, Vaqta®, Varivax® and Comvax®.

Buckland chaired two international conferences on cell culture (Cell Culture Engineering IV and Cell Culture Engineering V) and co-chaired the first three international conferences on metabolic engineering. He is author or co-author of over 70 papers.