Ira Flatow, a veteran science correspondent for National Public Radio, will broadcast his weekly “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday” show from the new Biomedical and Physical Science Building this week.
This week’s show will deal with the food industry and alternative fuel technologies in the automotive industry.
“Whenever we go on the road, we try to pick up local issues,” Flatow said.
Flatow is visiting MSU this week as part of the McPherson Professorship.
“I’ve never had a warmer welcome anywhere else,” he said. “The scientists I met, the professors, students, have all been delightful.”
This is Flatow’s second visit to MSU as a McPherson endowed professor. He last visited the university in December 2000.
Ron Fisher, director of the Honors College, serves as the chairman of the faculty coordinating committee for the McPherson Professorship program.
He said Flatow embodies the concepts the program promotes.
“The whole idea was to bring renowned scientists and renowned science journalists to campus,” Fisher said. “Here’s one of the preeminent science journalists who, every week, is called upon to make science both interesting and understandable to people across the nation.”
The professorship was created last year after an anonymous donor gave $2 million to the university. The donor requested McPherson and first lady Joanne McPherson guide the program.
University spokesman Terry Denbow said visiting professors have been impressed with the program.
“They have all said this is the kind of professorship that is required in a 21st century society,” he said. “The role of science in society is essential to our lives, to our public policy decisions, and to how we view ourselves.”
During the program’s first year, five speakers each spent one day on campus last year. This year, only Flatow and Columbia University physics Professor Brian Greene were invited, but for one week each.
Computer science freshman Bill Vassas read Greene’s book “The Elegant Universe,” prior to seeing him speak in January.
“To see the person who actually came up with the ideas and be able to talk to them is to humanize it a little more,” Vassas said. “It’s interesting to see how they put it all together and how they can relate it to the general public.
Vassas said he’s never listened to Flatow’s show and doesn’t know if he can attend Friday’s broadcast.
Flatow joined National Public Radio in 1971. He hosted and wrote for the Emmy-winning “Newton’s Apple” on PBS from 1982 until 1987 and was a science reporter for “CBS This Morning” and PM Magazine.
Flatow, who also worked for cable networks CNBC, Nickelodeon, The Learning Channel, The Discovery Channel and The History Channel, received numerous honors, including the Carl Sagan Award in 1999.
Only a limited number of students will be able to attend the March 15 broadcast because space is limited.
Flatow’s radio show can be heard locally on radio station WKAR (870-AM) 2-4 p.m. every Friday.
