Henrietta Lacks, aka HeLa

Author Rebecca Skloot is due on campus April 23 to give a talk titled “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (aka HeLa): The History and Ethics of Research on Human Biological Materials.” Skloot is the author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, about a woman who died of cancer in 1951 — and from whom a tissue sample was taken without her consent.

The so-called HeLa cells from the thriving sample gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio, according to Amazon.com. Meanwhile, Lacks’ family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution — and her cells’ strange survival — left them full of pride, anger and suspicion.

Skloot’s talk, free and open to the public, is scheduled for 4 p.m. in the Activities and Recreation Center Ballroom. Sponsors: Genome Center, Science and Technology Studies Program, University Writing Program, Humanities Institute and the Storer Endowment.

‘Landscape of the Mind’

The Landscape Architecture Program announced that the second annual Robert L. Thayer Distinguished Lecture will be delivered by Peter Jay Zweig, internationally renowned architect, educator, exhibition designer and author. His talk, “The Landscape of the Mind,” is set for 7 p.m. today (April 16) in 100 Hunt Hall.

The lecture is named after the professor emeritus who founded the UC Davis Landscape Architecture Program.

Organizers said Zweig’s lecture will be followed by a brief talk and book signing by landscape architecture professor Heath Massey Schenker, who recently published Melodramatic Landscapes: Urban Parks in the Nineteenth Century.

Center for Health Aging

The Center for Healthy Aging’s Visiting Scholar Series is scheduled to continue April 22 with Rosanne Leipzig, vice chair for education of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Leipzig is due to present two lectures:

• “Don’t Kill Granny: Medical Student and Internal Medicine Resident Competencies in Geriatric Care,” drawing from Leipzig’s New York Times op-ed piece from July 2009, “The Patients Doctors Don’t Know.” 8 a.m., auditorium (Room G300), Patient Support Services Building, 4150 V St., Sacramento.

• “Preparing Primary Care Physicians to Meet the Geriatric Imperative.” Presented in partnership with the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research. Noon, auditorium, Cancer Center, 4501 X St., Sacramento. Lunch provided; RSVPs to cicameron@ucdavis.edu.

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