The Faculty of Science hosts public lectures during the academic year that address a scientific issue of the day as well as bring to campus well-known scientists from around the world. Established in 2002, the Discovery Lecture is designed to showcase and promote excellence in science journalism.

Sponsored jointly by the Faculty of Science and the School of Journalism, the lecture is held annually in the winter semester and is free and open to the public.

2023 Discovery Lecture

Unprecedented: Reporting on a New Era of Pandemics

A presentation by Apoorva Mandavilli, Science & Global Health Reporter, The New York Times

Thursday, March 2, 2023 | Zoom Webinar
Lecture begins at 7 p.m. followed by Q&A at 8 p.m. ET

Find us on social media and join the conversation using #2023DiscoveryLecture

Register Here

2023 Guest Lecturer

Apoorva Mandavilli

Apoorva Mandavilli is a reporter for The New York Times, focusing on science and global health. She currently covers the coronavirus pandemic, the monkeypox outbreak, vaccinations, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

She was a part of the team that won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the pandemic, and was also a member of the team that was a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. She is the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting, and has won numerous other awards for her writing.

She is the founding editor in chief of Spectrum, an award-winning news site on autism science that grew an audience of millions. She led the team there for 13 years. She joined The Times in May 2020, after two years as a regular contributor.

Her work has been published in The Atlantic, Slate and The New Yorker online, and in the anthology “Best American Science and Nature Writing.”

She co-founded Culture Dish, an organization dedicated to enhancing diversity in science journalism, and was the founding chair of the Diversity Committee for the National Association of Science Writers. Ms. Mandavilli has a Master of Arts degree in journalism from New York University and a Master of Science degree in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is fluent in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

Previous lectures, 2002-present

Dangerous Genes: From CRISPR Babies to the COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory
Antonio Regalado, Biomedicine Editor, MIT Technology Review

Spiders to Wrangle & Mountains to Climb (2021)
Dr. Maydianne CB Andrade

Analyzing Picasso: Close Encounters in Art and Science (2020)
Francesca Casadio

The Past, Present and Future of Medicine (2019)
Natasha Loder

What Dinosaur Teeth Reveal About How they Lived (2018)
Robert Reisz

A Quirky Past, An Uncertain Future (2017)
André Picard

The New Communication Climate (2016)
Andrew Revkin

How to Build a Robot Brain: From Artificial Intelligence to Emotional Intelligence (2015)
Dr. Angelica Lin

Truth, An Inconvenience (2012)
Jay Ingram

Darwinian Evolution: From Conception to Misconception (2009)
Dr. Andrew M. Simons

Evolution and Its Causes (2009)
Dr. Charles Goodnight

The Darwin Beat: Dispatches From the Frontiers of Evolution (2008)
Carl Zimmer

Can Animals Think? (2007)
Jay Ingram
Host, Discovery Channel, Daily Planet

And Now For the Weather (2006)
David Phillips
Senior Climatologist, Environment Canada

Cold As Ice: Canadian Know A Lot About Cold …. Or Do We? (2005)
Dr. Gordon Geisbrecht
Professor of Thermophysiology, University of Manitoba

Future Fantasy: Turning Dreams Into Reality (2004)
Bob MacDonald
Host, CBC Quirks and Quarks

Science, Non-Science and Nonsense from Aliens to Creationism (2003)
Dr. Lawrence Krauss
Ambrose Swassey Professor of Physics, Case Western University

Hey! There Are Cockroaches In My Chocolate Ice Cream (2002)
Dr. Joe Schwarcz
McGill Office for Chemistry and Society