About Our Speakers

This Jurassic rock unit produced such well-known dinosaurs as Allosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Stegosaurus. It became the center of the “Bone Wars” between rival paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope of Philadelphia and Othniel Charles Marsh of Yale, who from 1877 to 1892 tried to find and name more dinosaurs than the other. It ruined both men financially, but prior to their feud only 9 species of dinosaurs were known from all North America. In less than 20 years they added 130 more.

I am Curator of OSU's Orton Geological Museum where I take care of the exhibit hall and over 95,000 rocks, minerals and fossils and identify rocks, minerals, fossils, bones & teeth. I speak to nearly 5,000 people a year including elementary through high school classes, Scouts and other youth groups, at parks, libraries, nature centers, retirement communities and clubs.

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See more information about Ranthony Clark's Hidden Figures Revealed.

Techniques and Aims of Isaac Newton’s Alchemy

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In the current political environment, the importance of vaccines has recently come under attack with changes in leadership at HHS. This lack of unequivocally clear messaging about the importance of vaccination will only serve to increase skepticism surrounding vaccines. This skepticism is not new. Taking lessons from the early history of vaccination (and its precursors) this talk will examine how strong (pro-vaccine) leadership can be critical to toppling vaccine hesitancy.

Jim Harris is an historian of modern Europe and the history of science, medicine and the environment. He is the author of Children’s Health and Urban Ecology in England, 1885–1919, which examines the localized history of urban public health campaigns in three of the largest English cities, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. At Ohio State, Harris regularly offers courses on the history of public health including an interdisciplinary courses on “Vaccines: A Global History."

Creating De Cerebro: An Exhibition on the Human Brain

What is the nature of the human brain? While the modern study of anatomy has been in practice for well over five hundred years, the brain remains today one of the least understood parts of the human body. This past year the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library mounted an exhibition exploring this topic, titled De Cerebro: An Exhibition on the Human Brain. Drawing from the Fisher Library’s collections in medicine, philosophy and natural history, the exhibition questioned how early scientists and thinkers first tried to define and describe the human brain. From the first anatomists to dissect complex brain lobes and nerves, to philosophers who grappled with concepts of the soul and mind, to outside thinkers who explored the outer reaches of human consciousness, De Cerebro explored the history of the brain in print from multiple perspectives. While the exhibition was well supported by the library’s existing collections, several acquisitions were made to complete the project. These recent acquisitions highlighted how the library’s ongoing exhibition program helps to grow and shape the library’s collections. This presentation will demonstrate how rare books and special collections can be used to conduct a nuanced study of the history of the human brain while addressing some of the challenges and opportunities of curating exhibitions in a special collections setting.

Alexandra K. Carter is the Science & Medicine Librarian at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto. She oversees the library's extensive collections in the history of medicine, natural history, astronomy and more.