Deborah Blum—Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and president of the National Association of Science Writers—will conclude this year's "Conversations with Some of America's Premier Journalists & Writers," CWRU's Susie Gharib Distinguished Lectureship in Journalism.

Her program, "What Are You Willing to Pay for Knowledge? Is Animal Research Necessary?" begins at noon April 10 in 206 Clark Hall.

Regina Brett, a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, also will give a Gharib lecture at noon today in 206 Clark Hall.

Brett is filling in for Jan Hopkins, anchor of CNN News. Newsrooms around the country have gone to war in Iraq alongside the soldiers. The war forced the cancellation of Hopkins' CWRU visit.

Brett's career as a journalist began as a reporter for the Lorain Journal in 1986 on the city hall beat. She moved on to work for the Akron Beacon Journal to cover business news, breaking news and more than 30 stories for the Beacon's Sunday magazine. In 1994, she began writing columns about everyday life. Her articles have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Detroit Free Press, Dallas Morning News, Miami Herald, Charlotte Observer and Atlanta Constitution.

Blum is a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Publisher's Weekly and Discover magazine cited her book, "Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection," as the best book of the year in 2002.

Prior to joining academia, Blum worked at numerous newspapers and magazines and in 1992 won the Pulitzer Prize while at the Sacramento Bee.

In addition to serving as president of the National Association of Science Writers, she is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science committee on public understanding of science and technology.

For information, call 368-2133 or 368-4836.