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NEWS RELEASE
Communications and Marketing Office
600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114-3900
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For more information, contact:
Pam Small
Phone: 386-226-6157
Fax: 386-226-6158
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Contact: Bob Ross
Phone: 386-226-6198
Speakers’ Topics at Embry-Riddle: Spies, Katrina, Pluto, Iraq, and Iran
Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 13, 2008 -- This fall, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University invites a best-selling author, a planetary astronomer, a Hurricane Katrina rescue chief, a foreign policy expert, and a peace activist to the lectern for its 2008-2009 Honors Program Distinguished Speaker Series, which runs from November through March.
All events in the speaker series are scheduled at 7 p.m. in the Gale Lemerand Auditorium, Willie Miller Instructional Center, at Embry-Riddle, located at 600 S. Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach. The lectures are free and open to the public.
On Monday, Nov. 10, Pete Earley will take us “Inside the Mind of a Traitor,” for a look at how espionage threatens the United States today. A former Washington Post reporter and New York Times best-selling author, historian, and activist, Earley has spent hundreds of hours interviewing notorious U.S. spies. His books, Family of Spies: Inside the John Walker Spy Ring and Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, are the definitive studies of both spies. He also will discuss the defection of Sergei Tretyakov, who earlier this year emerged from hiding after switching sides in 2000. The highest ranking officer of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service to defect, Tretyakov had been in charge of all Russian spying against the United States in New York City and worked for the Yeltsin and Putin administrations. Earley’s interviews with him are featured in his recent book Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War.
On Monday, Dec. 1, Mike Brown will explain “How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.” The talk by Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at California Institute of Technology and one of the world’s leading astronomers, will detail his solar-system shattering discovery of Eris (the largest object found in the solar system in 150 years), and how it led to the subsequent demotion of Pluto as a planet.
On Monday, Feb. 2, Gen. Russel Honoré will present “See First, Understand First, Act First: Leadership and Preparedness in the 21st Century.” In his talk, Honoré, chief commander of Joint Task Force Katrina and affectionately dubbed “the Ragin’ Cajun,” will share his insights on what went right and what went wrong along the Gulf Coast in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He will also provide reflections on general national preparedness for disaster.
On Monday, Feb. 23, Raymond Tanter will speak on “U.S. Presidential Elections and Security Policy,” focusing on U.S. policy toward Iran. Tanter, professor of political science at Georgetown University, director of the Iran Policy Group, and former member of the National Security Council staff, will also suggest various measures that may prove effective in the tense environment surrounding the series of events, threats, and counter-threats involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.
On Monday, March 30, Padraig O’Malley will discuss “Efforts at Peace and Reconciliation in Iraq.” Editor of the New England Journal of Public Policy and the John Moakley Chair of Peace and Reconciliation at the McCormack Graduate School of Public Policy at University of Massachusetts-Boston, he will focus on his ongoing efforts behind the scenes to bring to the table representatives from the warring factions in Iraq. O’Malley was a guest on NPR’s “Fresh Air” program where he described his work, as well as his involvement with and recent book about South African apartheid resistance fighter Mac Maharaj.
For more information, go to www.erau.edu/db/events/distinguished_spkrs.html or contact Geoff Kain, director of the Honors Program, at kaing@erau.edu or 386-226-6650.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs, with accreditation pending for Embry-Riddle’s first doctoral programs, in Aviation and in Engineering Physics. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 campus centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.
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