ATTENTION: City Desks

28 March 2001
Contact: José L. Rodríguez
(510) 643-7123

WHAT:
The University of California, Berkeley's prestigious Faculty Research Lectures for 2001. Both will be held in April.

The first is by Richard Taruskin, a UC Berkeley music professor considered the "doyen of Russian music studies in the West" by The Times Literary Supplement, which is published in England. The second is by UC Berkeley astronomer Frank Shu, who has researched spiral galaxies, interacting binary stars, planetary rings, the formation of stars and planets, and meteorites.

WHEN:
Taruskin's lecture, "Stravinsky and Us," about the pivotal 20th century Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, will be held Wednesday, April 4, at 5 p.m.

Shu's lecture, "The Formation of Sun-like Stars and Planetary Systems," will be held Wednesday, April 18, at 5 p.m.

WHERE:
Wheeler Auditorium, UC Berkeley

WHO:
Richard Taruskin taught for 25 years at Columbia University before joining the music faculty at UC Berkeley in 1987. He is the author of several books and a monograph on Stravinsky that won five major prizes in1986, including the gold medal from Great Britain's Royal Philharmonic Society.

Taruskin is UC Berkeley's Class of 1955 Professor of Music.

Frank Shu was born in 1943 in Kumming, China. He received his PhD in theoretical astrophysics from Harvard University in 1968. He taught at SUNY Stony Brook from 1968 to 1973, when he joined the faculty of UC Berkeley. He was chair of UC Berkeley's astronomy department from 1984 to 1988.

Shu has served as councilor, vice president, and president of the American Astronomical Society and received its Warner and Brouwer awards. The American Institute of Physics recognized his work with the Heineman Prize for Astrophysics.

Shu was awarded the coveted title of University Professor in 1998.

BACKGROUND:
Since 1912, the UC Berkeley Academic Senate annually has selected a Faculty Research Lecturer for his or her distinguished scholarly research. Two lecturers have been chosen each year since 1973.

For more information, visit the Faculty Research Lectures Web site.