Lecture Previews

David Rees

Monday at 5:30 p.m.

McConomy Auditorium

Humorist David Rees will speak as part of the Activities Board lecture series. Rees is the author of the comic series, [ITAL]Get Your War On[ITAL], which uses stock art to critique political topics. He is also the author of the recent book, [ITAL]How to Sharpen Pencils[ITAL], a satirical but accurate instructional manual on the art of manually sharpening pencils. Rees runs an artisanal pencil-sharpening business.

Will Bruder

Monday at 6 p.m.

Carnegie Museum of Art Theater

Architect Will Bruder will speak as part of the School of Architecture’s fall lecture series. Bruder is the head of Will Bruder Architects, a firm based in Phoenix, Ariz. The firm works on a variety of projects, including residential buildings, repurposing, civic buildings, master-planning, and interiors. Bruder’s recent projects have included the Burton Barr Phoenix Central Library, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the Nevada Museum of Art, and the Agave Library in Phoenix.

Jean-François Lalonde

Tuesday at 4 p.m.

Rashid Auditorium (Gates Hillman Complex 4401)

Post-doctoral associate Jean-François Lalonde will deliver his School of Computer Science Dissertation Award lecture, “Understanding Illumination in Natural Images.” Lalonde will discuss the algorithms he developed under the guidance of robotics professors Alexei Efros and Srinivasa Narasimhan. Lalonde uses the algorithms in order to estimate the position of light sources in natural images and to imitate natural light in computer-generated images.

Lalonde received his Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon last year. He is currently a post-doctoral associate at Disney Research.

Morris Fiorina

Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Margaret Morrison A14

Stanford University political science professor Morris Fiorina will deliver a talk titled “The Road to (and from) the 2012 Election” as part of the Center for International Relations and Politics’ policy forum.

Fiorina is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. His recent research focuses on the degree to which elected officials actually represent the preferences of the public. He is the author of numerous books and articles about national politics, and has served on the editorial board of over a dozen political science and policy journals. He has also served as chairman of the board of overseers of the American National Election Studies.