<h2><img height="22" border="0" width="176" alt="Feature Story" src="http://www.siue.edu/news/img/featurestory.gif" /><br /><br /></h2> <h2><img height="145" border="0" width="532" alt="Two Eminent Speakers On Campus Jan. 16-17 As Part Of 50th Anniversary Activities" src="/id0904f67a8051910d" /></h2> <h2><br />Two Eminent Speakers On Campus Jan. 16-17 As Part Of 50th Anniversary Activities</h2> <p>(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) The SIUE Department of Psychology and some student groups are hosting An Evening with Dr. Robert J. Sternberg at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17, in Meridian Ballroom, on the first floor of SIUE’s Morris University Center. Sternberg’s appearance comes on the heels of another eminent speaker, educator Robert Zemsky, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16, also in Meridian.</p> <p>Sternberg, former president of the American Psychological Association, is one of the top 75 “eminent psychologists” of the 20th century according to the <em>Review of General Psychology</em>. The SIUE department, the Psychology Club and the Psi Chi Honor Society are sponsoring the event, which will begin with a student research poster showing at 6 p.m.</p> <p>Zemsky’s presentation, “Dancing with Change and Other Strategies for Transforming American Higher Education,” will discuss the findings of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings Commission Report, “A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of Higher Education,” and why he believes the report fell short of its mission. Zemsky, a professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania and founding director of Penn’s Institute for Research on Higher Education, also is chair of The Learning Alliance for Higher Education, an experiment in bringing strategic expertise to university and college presidents.</p> <p>Sternberg has received many academic awards throughout his career and holds eight honorary doctorates from universities around the world. He is the author of more than 1,100 journal articles, book chapters and books, and has received more than $20 million in government grants and contracts, among others, for his research.“Sternberg is among the most highly cited researchers in the fields of psychology and psychiatry" said Bryce Sullivan, chair of the Department of Psychology. Sullivan said, "The depth and breadth of his scholarship is really astounding. His main areas of research include intelligence, creativity, wisdom and leadership.</p> <p>“The faculty and students are excited about having a scholar of his reputation and acclaim giving the keynote at our department's 50th anniversary." Psychology courses were among the first offered at SIUE when it opened in 1957. Through this event, we hope to bring together community members, alumni, faculty, staff and students," Sullivan said. “The goal is to get more people excited about SIUE and psychology as a science.”</p> <p>With a bachelor’s from Whittier College and a doctorate in history from Yale, Zemsky’s areas of expertise include higher education and policy reform, missions and markets of higher education and college choice. He is a former Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a Post-Doctoral Social Science Research Council Fellow in Linguistics and later became chair of that Council’s Committee on Social Science Personnel. In 1998 he received a Doctor of Humane Letters (Hon.) at Towson University.</p> <p>“We need a ‘system-changing’ strategy, Zemsky said. “In the past, a few institutions would lead the way and the rest would follow, but it turns out no one follows anymore. Now, everyone wants to stay in the middle of the pack; make sure you're above average with your peer schools. It’s created a logjam and what we need are ‘dislodging’ events that will shake up the entire system.”</p> <p>Zemsky agreed that his Jan. 16 appearance at SIUE will appeal to more than higher education administrators. He encourages K-12 educators and administrators to attend as well as parents of potential college students.</p> <p>Sternberg earned a bachelor of arts, summa cum laude, from Yale in 1972 and a doctorate at Stanford University in 1975. He has held full-time faculty positions at Yale and Harvard and acted as a consultant to such corporations as Crayola Crayons and Kimberly-Clark, and such organizations as Harper Collins College Division, Harcourt Brace Educational Development Group, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, School Department, and the Psychological Corporation. He is currently dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University.</p> <p>Sternberg also served on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Communications Requirement Evaluation Committee in 2005, and has acted as a consultant to major state universities and as a reviewer of graduate programs and research for the psychology department at the University of Alberta, Canada, in 1998.</p> <p>His résumé also includes a list of honorary doctorates from Tilburg University in Holland, St. Petersburg State University in Russia, the University of Durham in England, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia, the University of Leuven in Belgium, the University of Cyrpus, the University of Paris in France and the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain.</p> <p>Attendance to the Jan. 17 event is free, but advance registration is requested. For more information, or to register, contact the SIUE Department of Psychology, (618) 650-2202, or by e-mail: <a href="mailto:psychology@siue.edu">psychology@siue.edu</a>. Zemsky’s lecture also is free and open to the public, but no advance registration is necessary.</p>