Bonnie Bassler, Princeton's Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology, will present a lecture titled "So You Want to Be a Doctor: Diversity and Scientific Research" at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, in 101 McCormick Hall.
Bassler will look at who the role models are in scientific research and how they have changed in recent years. She will share ideas about mentoring and role models and how, in her role as director of graduate studies in the Department of Molecular Biology, she has focused on the challenge of racial disparity in biological science education at Princeton.
Bassler, whose research has revealed surprisingly sophisticated methods of communication among bacteria, was awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 2002. She was chosen in 2005 to be a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, one of the highest honors in biomedical research.
Her talk is the third annual James Baldwin Lecture sponsored by the Center for African American Studies in honor of the essayist and cultural critic. The series aims to celebrate the work of Princeton faculty and to reflect on issues of race and American democracy.
