Messenger Lecturer

Professor Ludovic Orlando, HDR, PhD, Agrégé, Normalien, Director, Centre for Anthropobiology & Genomics of Toulouse, CAGT, Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, France, is one of the world’s leading scientists who study ancient DNA. His published work over the past decade has provided paradigm-changing insights into the evolution and domestication of the horse and the contributions of the horse to human civilization.

Lecture 1
“The Ancient DNA revolution in human evolution”
Room 121, Atkinson Hall
Monday 20, April 2026, 4:00 pm
Reception immediately following

Lecture 2
“The horse before and after our shared history”
Lecture Hall 1, Atrium Ground Level,
College of Veterinary Medicine
Thursday 23, April 2026, 3:30 pm
Reception immediately following

Lecture 3
“Environmental DNA: time capsules of past”
and present life
Room 121, Atkinson Hall
Friday 24, April 2026, 3:30 pm
Reception immediately following

University Lecturer

Dr. Britt Wray, director of Stanford University’s “CIRCLE at Stanford Psychiatry”

Lecture Title: TBD
Date:  March 2027
Time: TBD
Place: TBD

From the nomination: “Dr. Wray is director of Stanford University’s “CIRCLE at Stanford Psychiatry,” a
research and action initiative focused on Community-minded Interventions
for Resilience, Climate Leadership and Emotional wellbeing. She is the author of Generation
Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety (2022), a carefully-researched general audience
book on how to support young people as they face eco-anxiety related to climate and
environment-related fears. Dr. Wray received in 2023 the top prize in the “Research Scientist:
Early Career” category of the SciComm Excellence awards given by the National Academies of
Science, Engineering, & Medicine in partnership with Schmidt Futures. Dr. Wray’s work
crosses, among other disciplines, psychology, environmental studies, ethics, and communication.”

University Lecturer

Dr. Cynthia Miller Idriss ’94, Professor, School of Public Affairs and School of Education Justice, Law & Criminology

Lecture Title: TBD
Date:  September 30, 2026
Time: TBD
Place: TBD

Dr. Miller Idriss recently publish a book, Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism (Princeton University Press, 2025). From the nomination: “Dr. Miller-Idriss’s work represents a bold and incisive analysis of the link between misogyny and far-right extremism throughout the Western Hemisphere…Dr. Miller-Idriss is a sociologist and scholar of extremism and radicalization who graduated from Cornell in 1994 with a BA in Sociology and German Area Studies. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 2003. She now holds an appointment as Professor in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Education at American University. She is the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) research lab, which combines quantitative, cultural, policy, and media analysis to understand how hate and violence emerge in society.”