This year's John Tanner Lectureship at Brigham Young University will feature David J. Schmidly, president of Oklahoma State University and CEO of the OSU System, who will address "Natural History and the Naturalist: What is the Future?" at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 31, in the Tanner Auditorium at the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum.
A public reception will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the main floor gallery of the museum. The public is welcome to attend both events.
Schmidly began his service as the 17th president of Oklahoma State University Nov. 25, 2002. As system CEO, he is responsible for the OSU Center for Health Sciences and the campuses in Stillwater, Tulsa, Oklahoma City and Okmulgee.
His proactive style has led the university to its record of student enrollment that surpassed 32,400.
Schmidly is internationally respected for his research and has been inducted into the Texas Hall of Fame for Science, Mathematics and Technology.
One of Schmidly's initiatives as president of OSU was to encourage healthy lifestyles among students, faculty and staff. As a result, the state of Oklahoma awarded the university the first "Certified Healthy Business Certificate of Merit" for its physical fitness and wellness educational program.
Schimdley earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Texas Tech and later completed his doctorate in zoology from the University of Illinois.
The John Tanner Lectureship was established by a grant from the John Tanner Family Organization with the understanding that each year an honored lecturer would be selected on the basis of effort and expertise relating to natural history and human issues.
Wilmer Tanner, who served as the first director of the Monte L. Bean Museum and a BYU professor, retired at age 93 after serving as the driving force in establishing the museum and the lectureship.
For information or questions, please contact Doug Cox, (801) 422-6355, Doug@museum.byu.edu.
