Hundreds of guests grace Baruch’s podiums each year, offering students, faculty, and members of the public access to insights from recognized names in every industry and endeavor. In 2011–12 Baruch welcomed these three A-listers:

Nobel Prize laureate, Cornell University professor, and poet and playwright Roald Hoffmann brought a special chemistry to the Marie Curie Nobel Centennial Symposium: An Intersection of Science, Art, and Thought, held at Baruch in November. His keynote speech, “Chemistry’s Essential Tensions: Three Views of a Science,” underscored chemistry’s psychological dimension and its ties to the arts. “Chemistry is fundamentally about change,” said Hoffmann. “It is science with a philosophy, science with a purpose.” The symposium also included a theatrical production of Hoffmann’s and Carl Djerassi’s play, Oxygen.

Known for his roles as CEO of Time Warner, Inc., and, until recently, chairman of the board at Citigroup, Richard D. Parsons fielded questions at the seventh annual Burton Kossoff Business Leadership Lecture in late March. Parsons spoke frankly about his role at Citi following the 2008 financial crisis and on navigating the company back from instability. Asked about his unintentional reputation as a corporate firefighter, Parsons said, “If you can remain calm in the face of special circumstances, people will gravitate to you.” The lecture series was created by Mrs. Phyllis L. Kossoff in memory of her husband, Burton Kossoff (’46).

Consistent with the idea that poetry is the art of the unexpected, Laurie Sheck, Spring 2012 Harman Writer-in-Residence, treated her Baruch audience to an extraordinary “literary happening,” well beyond the usual poetry reading. On Mar. 20, the Pulitzer Prize finalist presented a 40-minute video introduction to her latest hybrid work, A Monster’s Notes, which is a re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Sheck is the author of five books of poems and the 28th artist to participate in the Harman Writer-in-Residence Program, which was created and endowed by Sidney Harman (’39, LHD [Hon.] ’09).

—Diane Harrigan and Adrienne Preuss (’07)

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