On Friday, Oct. 26, the Department of Chemistry will present a reading of “Insufficiency,” a work of award-winning chemist, playwright, poet, and Wisconsin Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award recipient Carl Djerassi.
Djerassi is the author of five novels (Cantor’s Dilemma, The Bourbaki Gambit, Marx, Deceased, Menachem’s Seed, and NO), two collections of poetry (The Clock Runs Backwards and A Diary of Pique, as well as several memoirs and a trilogy of “science-in-theatre” plays. He is the only U.S. chemist to have been awarded both the National Medal of Science (for the first synthesis of a steroid oral contraceptive — “the pill”) and the National Medal of Technology (for promoting new approaches to insect control). His works of creative writing often explore the intersection of the arts and sciences.
This event is presented in cooperation with the Department of Theatre and Drama, the Arts Institute, and the Wisconsin Alumni Association. A reception will follow the event, and Professor Clark Landis will host.
Djerassi will also give a reading from A Diary of Pique on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in Room 6191 Helen C. White Hall.
Learn more about the colloquium.