News Release| CSULA; Cal State L.A.; Los Angeles; CSU; Lloyd Ferguson Distinguished Lecture

January 26, 2009

MEDIA ADVISORY: Friday, Jan. 30

A pioneer in protein design to present Cal State L.A.’s Ferguson Lecture

 Caltech’s Mayo to address

‘Science, Diversity, Entrepreneurialism’

Los Angeles, CA – A pioneer in protein design will present “Science, Diversity and Entrepreneurialism: A Personal Journey” at 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30, at Cal State L.A.’s Golden Eagle Ballroom.

Presented by Steve Mayo, Vice Provost and

Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry at California Institute of Technology, the talk continues Cal State L.A.’s Lloyd N. Ferguson Distinguished Lecture Series.

Professor Mayo, elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004, focuses on understanding physical/chemical determinants of protein structure, stability, and function. His research involves interface theory and computation.

He investigates structural biology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University, where he developed an interactive macromolecular modeling program. He earned a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Caltech, where he studied electron transfer.

Mayo also explored molecular mechanics as a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and studied hydrogen/deutrium exchange reactions in proteins as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Mayo cofounded Molecular Simulations, Inc. (currently Accelrys), and in 1997, Xencor.

For more about Mayo, go to provost.caltech.edu/vp_mayo.html. For details about Mayo’s Lab, go to www.mayo.caltech.edu

This lecture is sponsored by the College of Natural and Social Sciences and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Cal State L.A.  Unless otherwise directed, guests should park in areas with permit dispensers (Parking Structure C, Lot 5 and Lot 7).  For reservations or more details on the Lloyd N. Ferguson Distinguished Lecture, call (323) 343-2300.

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Established in 1995 in honor of a Cal State L.A. emeritus professor of chemistry, the Lloyd N. Ferguson Distinguished Lecture brings experts in the field of science to the Cal State L.A. campus. Dr. Ferguson, who retired from an illustrious 21-year career at Cal State L.A. in 1986, has authored more than 50 journal articles and seven textbooks. His research has spanned the areas of cancer chemotherapy, the relationship between structure and biological activity, and the functioning of our sense of taste.  He was chairman of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Chemical Education, served as director of Cal State L.A.’s Minority Biomedical Research Support program from its inception in 1973 through 1984, and was program director for many National Science Foundation teaching and research participation programs. He has served as a role model for many hundreds of underserved students who have entered careers in science and technology.

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 205,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu