Prominent Writer Presents Whitmore Lecture
"There are consequences from changing nature," says speaker.

Joel L. Swerdlow, Ph.D., Senior Writer for the National Geographic Society, discussed how ecology is affecting global disease, when he presented the seventh John E. Whitmore Memorial Lecture.

"There are disease consequences with changes in ecology," Swerdlow said. "Animals are telling us something, and we need to listen -- the butterflies in California are moving north, the American honey bee is dying, the sperm whales in the Pacific have stopped singing, and frogs all over the world are dying or being born in mutated states."

used by local peoplehave not been tested by modern methods and are disappearing as a loss of cultures occurs.
Next year, National Geographic magazine will publish an article by Swerdlow about his drive through Madagascar, an island off Southeast Africa. With a local pharmacologist as a guide, Swerdlow talked to people across the island about the use of plants in medicine. The noted writer has reached millions of Americans through his stories and words during 20 years as an author, editor, journalist, and researcher with an expertise in health and medicine.

The Whitmore Lecture was funded by family and friends as a tribute to John E. Whitmore, a noted international banker who served on the Baylor Board of Trustees for 18 years. He provided leadership in establishing fiscal policies and financial management of the College after the medical school separated from Baylor University."

For more information about John and Clara Whitmore, click here.

Previous Features
The Huffingtons
Isla Carroll Turner
Clyde J. Verheyden
Clara Whitmore Part1
Clara Whitmore Part2