Stanford University biologist, author and science popularizer Robert Sapolsky will speak on "Stress and Neurodegeneration: Interventions at the Molecular Level; Interventions at the Societal Level" when he delivers the first annual Division of Biological Sciences Lecture on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 3:30 p.m. at Cornell University.

The lecture in Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall is free of charge and open to the public. "Dr. Sapolsky is a distinguished biologist who has worked extensively on stress in wild baboon populations, as well as an accomplished popularizer of science," said Charles Walcott, director of the Cornell Division of Biological Sciences. Noting that Sapolsky writes regular columns for Discover magazine and participates in numerous radio programs, Walcott said, "We can expect a fascinating, informative and entertaining lecture."

The lecturer is the author of The Trouble with Testosterone and Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament (1997), Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: A Guide to Stress, Stress-related Disease and Coping (1994) and Stress, the Aging Brain and the Mechanisms of Neuron Death (1992), as well as more than 200 scientific papers and articles in the popular press.

Sapolsky earned an A.B. (1978) in biological anthropology at Harvard University and a Ph.D. (1984) in neuroendochrinology at Rockefeller University. At Stanford, he is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, the Program in Neuroscience and the Program in Molecular and Genetic Medicine.