ALICE DREGER, Ph.D., author of Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science, will give the Pauline Newman ’47 Distinguished Lecture on April 7, 2016 (5 p.m., Taylor Hall 102).
Alice Dreger is an historian of science and social justice advocate. She argues passionately the need to use historic and scientific evidence to create a more
just world. Much of her academic and advocacy work has focused on improving the lives of people born with norm-challenging bodies. More recently, she has been exploring the role of academics and journalists in sustaining American democracy, and the absolute need for use of scientific and historic evidence in sustaining both democracy and social justice. Her 2015 book calls “on American academics to step up, defend academic freedom,
and be responsible to truth and democracy, both.”
Pauline Newman graduated from Vassar in 1947 and then went on to earn an MS from Columbia, a Ph.D. in Applied Physical Chemistry from Yale and an LL.B. from NYU. Her early career involved research, patent law, and policy work. Since 1984 Judge Pauline Newman has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Her distinguished career as a jurist has included authoring many important opinions in the field of intellectual property and
patent law, and more broadly, she has been involved in many decisions that have bridged issues of importance for the practice and application of science
and technology, for government, business and academia.