University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Emerita Jane Bock will give the second in a series of four lectures for this spring聮s Chancellor聮s Community Lecture Series in February.
The series, titled "Women in the Field," features four distinguished women faculty from CU-Boulder, each speaking on their areas of expertise.
Bock聮s lecture, "A Lady聮s Life in the Causcasus Mountains," is on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel of The Academy, 970 Aurora Ave., in Boulder.
Bock is a professor emerita in CU-Boulder聮s environmental, population and organismic biology department and will talk about her research on the alpine flora near Mt. Kazbeghi. Kazbeghi is the third highest mountain in Europe, located in the Caucasus Mountains of the Georgian Republic. The area is best known for the fact that its residents tend to live long lives.
"According to the locals, this is where is the longest living people on Earth live," Bock said of her stay in the Caucasus Mountains near the village of Kazbeghi.
During her research in the far off region, Bock compared the alpine flora found in Colorado with that in the Caucasus Mountains.
"I was first drawn to this area because its flora was similar to the flora of the Colorado alpine. The species in common are very interesting," Bock said. "I found a few distinctions that may perhaps be attributed to the fact that the Georgian area has been settled by herders for at least the last two millennia."
The audience also will see slides of the Georgian people and the alpine flora of the area at the talk.
Professor Bock received the Hazel Barnes Prize in 1997 for excellence in teaching and research and the 1999 Boulder Faculty Assembly Service Award. She has received special commendation from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, City of Boulder Open Space and Colorado Coroner聮s Association. Bock also is serving as CU-Boulder聮s Faculty Ombudsperson, associate curator at the University of Colorado Herbarium and is on the board of directors for the Center of the American West and the board of trustees of the Colorado Nature Conservancy.
Other lectures in the series include:
* Electrical and computer engineering Professor Susan Avery, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), presenting "Catch a Falling Star, And Put it to Work" on Feb. 22.
* Political science Professor Anne Costain presenting "Media Portrayal of Feminist Protest," a look at the media聮s influence on the women聮s movement, on Feb. 29.
All the lectures are co-sponsored by The Academy and the CU-Boulder Office of Community Relations and are free and open to the public. Parking is available around The Academy on Lincoln Place, Cascade Avenue, Aurora Avenue and 10th Street.
For more information, contact the CU-Boulder Office of Community Relations at (303) 492-8384.