Best-selling author and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker will present the Cornell University Graduate School's 2011 Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin lecture at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 4 in the Alice Statler Auditorium in Statler Hall.

Pinker, a leading researcher in language and cognition, has been named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. With his light touch, wit and deep thinking, Pinker will explore how language is a window into human nature using examples from everyday speech and pop culture. He will examine how the skillful use of metaphor helps win elections; why swearing is both common and upsetting; and why we veil our threats and sexual come-ons in innuendo and euphemism. His lecture is based on his latest book, "The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature."

"Pinker's cross-disciplinary and integrative research represents an interesting blending of science and humanities in the best tradition of the liberal arts," says Barbara A. Knuth, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School. Named as one of Newsweek's "100 Americans for the Next Century," Pinker's interdisciplinary research has focused on visual cognition and the psychology of language.

Tickets for the lecture are free and available to the public at 350 Caldwell Hall, the Willard Straight Hall ticket office, Ticket Center Ithaca and Buffalo Street Books. For ticket information or to request special accommodations, call 607-255-5810.

Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor at Harvard, has published five other books as well, all written for a general audience, including "The Language Instinct," "How the Mind Works," "Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language" and "The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature." "The Blank Slate" and "How the Mind Works" were both finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

A recipient of numerous prizes and awards for his teaching and critically acclaimed books, Pinker also frequently writes for The New York Times, Time magazine and Nature on subjects such as language and politics, the neural basis of consciousness and the genetic enhancement of human beings. Most recently, he was the author of The New York Times Magazine cover story on genetic identity.

"The Stuff of Thought" will be available for purchase at the Cornell Store and at the lecture. Pinker will sign copies of the book during a reception immediately following his lecture in the Statler's Beck Center Atrium.

The Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation was created at Cornell in 1987 to foster the intellectual exchange of ideas and help drive discussion of critical issues in the sciences and the humanities. The lecture is part of an ongoing series.

Elizabeth Ellis is communications director of the Graduate School.