Meet Fred Gould (sans mosquitoes) over pizza

Another thing I will also have to miss – the Inaugural Event of the 2007-2008 Pizza Lunch Season of the Science Communicators of North Carolina (SCONC), on October 24th at Sigma Xi Center (the same place where we’ll have the Science Blogging Conference). Organized by The American Scientist and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the first Pizza Lunch Session will feature Dr.Fred Gould, professor of Entomology and Genetics at NCSU (whose Insect Ecology class blows one’s mind – one of the best courses I have ever taken in my life). Fred recently received The George Bugliarello Prize for an interdisciplinary article Genetic Strategies for Controlling Mosquito-Borne Diseases. You can read an article about him in Raleigh News and Observer or, even better, listen to him on this podcast on State Of Things a few weeks ago. Notice with what disdain he utters the term “junk DNA” – only once in the entire hour – in order to explain it (away).