Teller Lecture Series

The Teller Lecture Series in Interdisciplinary Science is scheduled to continue next week with Cal Tech’s Harry Gray speaking on “Powering the Planet with Solar Fuel.”

The series, free and open to the public, is presented by the Department of Applied Science.

Gray’s talk is set for 3 p.m. March 8 in 1002 Giedt Hall. Organizers said refreshments will be served at 2:45 p.m.

The remaining lectures are also set for 3 p.m. (with refreshments at 2:45), but in a different venue, 1065 Kemper Hall. The other speakers and their topics:

• April 12 — George Smoot, UC Berkeley Nobel Prize recipient, “Cosmic Background Radiation: Window to the Creation and History of the Universe.”

• April 19 — Phil Pincus, “A Toy Model for Hydrogen Bonding Networks.”

• April 26 — Carolyn Larabell, “Put-ting Molecules in Context with Correlated Fluorescence and X-Ray Tomography.”

• May 3 — David Moncton, “Future Ultrafast X-Ray Sources — From National Labs to Tabletops.”

• May 17 — Daniel Nocera, “Per-sonalized Energy for 1 (x 6 Billion).”

Literacy and inequality

A visiting professor is scheduled to give a talk next week on “Academic Literacy and Inequality: Quechua-Speaking Students in Higher Education in Peru.”

The presenter is liguistics professor Virginia Zavala Cisneros of the Catholic University of Peru, who is due to spend a week at UC Davis, March 8 to 14, as part of her university’s faculty exchange program with UC Davis’ Hemispheric Institute on the Americas.

Her talk is scheduled for noon March 10 in the sociology board room, 1291 Social Sciences and Humanities Building. During her time here, she also is due to be available to meet with students and faculty. People wishing to meet with her are asked to contact Christina Siracusa, (530) 752-3046 or casiracusa@ucdavis.edu.

Medical poster day

This year’s Medical Student Research and Poster Forum is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. March 11 in the Education Building on the Sacramento campus. During this event, commonly referred to as “Poster Day,” students put their work on display for peers and faculty members.

Poster Day organizers said the student researchers and their mentors will be on hand to present and discuss their research, and answer questions.

Participating students come from four programs: Medical Student Research Fellowship, Physician-Scientist Training Program, Fourth-Year Scholarly Project and the National Institutes of Health-sponsored T32 Program.

Rape as a tool of war

Hague prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, an expert on rape as a tool of war, is scheduled to give an address, “Gender Violence and International Criminal law,” at 5 p.m. March 8 at the School of Law.

Bensouda’s talk coincides with International Women’s Day and is sponsored by the law school’s California International Law Center. The talk, in the Wilkins Moot Courtroom, is free and open to the public.

As the second-ranking prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Bensouda investigates genocide and other war crimes, from sex violence to forced recruitment of child soldiers in places such as Darfur, Congo, Central African Republic, Guinea, Kenya and Uganda. She discussed her work in an interview for “The Reckoning,” a 2009 documentary that aired on the PBS program Frontline.

Before joining the court in 2004, Bensouda served as attorney general, the top law enforcement officer, in Gambia, the West African country where she was born.