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
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.
Tweets by @apoorva_nycPrevious 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