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March 13, 1998 JOURNALISTS: Here's a story idea and Purdue events during the next two weeks. Students and their teachers to study the Holocaust Nearly 700 fifth- through 12th-graders and their teachers from Lafayette-area schools will learn about the Holocaust and human rights during a March 20 education conference conducted by the Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship at Purdue. The event, timed to coincide with the Holocaust Remembrance Conference, includes sessions on "The Holocaust in Children's Literature," "American Indian Literature and History," "Teaching the Holocaust: Content and Methodology," and "Using the Internet and Children's Literature to Study the Holocaust." Concurrent sessions for students and teachers will run from 9 a.m. to noon in Stewart Center.CONTACT: Lynn Nelson, director of the Ackerman Center, (765) 494-4755. Events Wednesday, March 18. Speech by Vinton Cerf, senior vice president of Internet architecture and engineering for MCI Communications Corp. and co-inventor of the computer networking protocol, TCP/IP, which has become the language for Internet communications. His topic is "The Internet in the 21st Century." 7:30 p.m. Class of '50 Lecture Hall. Sponsored by the Purdue Connectivity Club. CONTACTS: Kenyatte Simuel, Purdue Connectivity Club, (765) 746-5851; e-mail ksimuel@purdue.edu; Jill Hudes, public relations manager, MCI, (212) 519-4279; e-mail, Jill.Hudes@mci.com Thursday-Saturday, March 19-21. Fifth Women's Studies Symposium during Women's History Month. Workshops, exhibits, lectures and panel discussions will examine the theme of "Women's INterVENTIONS in Science, Art and Technology." Reception and information table available each day in Room 107, Stewart Center. Symposium opens at noon Thursday with a welcoming address and concludes with a roundtable discussion at 4:45 p.m. Saturday. A full schedule is available on the Web at http://www.sla.purdue.edu/academic/idis/womens-studies/symp98.html. Most events will be held on the third floor of Stewart Center. CONTACTS: Kirsten Lindquist, (765) 494-7782; e-mail, lindquis@omni.cc.purdue.edu, and Rachel Groner, (765) 494-7782; e-mail, rgroner@expert.cc.purdue.edu Friday, March 20. Participants in the Holocaust Remembrance Conference, including Mel Mermelstein, Charlotte Opfermann and Richard Weisberg, will be available for media questions at 3 p.m. at the Hillel Foundation, 912 W. State St., West Lafayette. CONTACT: Rabbi Gedalyah Engel, conference coordinator, (765) 743-1716. Saturday-Sunday, March 21-22. Holocaust Remembrance Conference at various on- and off-campus locations. All sessions are free and open to the public. Participants include: Mel Mermelstein, a California businessman and survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps who sued the Institute for Historical Review (which denied the truth of the Holocaust) and won; Richard H. Weisberg, professor of constitutional law at the Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University in New York and author of "Vichy Law and the Holocaust in France"; and Charlotte Guthmann Opfermann, survivor of the Theresienstadt ghetto, playwright and teacher. CONTACTS: Rabbi Gedalyah Engel, conference coordinator, (765) 743-1716, and Gordon Mork, professor of history, (765) 494-4123; e-mail, gmork@purdue.edu Tuesday-Wednesday, March 24-25. 1998 Purdue Road School. Annual highway conference for local, county and state highway officials. Some highlights: -- Tuesday. 9:30 a.m. Loeb Theater, Stewart Center. U.S. Rep. Ed Pease, a member of the House Transportation Committee, talks about the reauthorization of the highway bill. -- Tuesday. 10 a.m. Loeb Theater,Stewart Center. Anthony Kane, executive director, Federal Highway Administration, discusses current and future federal highway programs. -- Wednesday. 8 a.m. Loeb Theater, Stewart Center. Discussion of Indiana's national achievement award for best highway project in the United States, a stretch of Interstate 65 through downtown Indianapolis, completed 60 days ahead of schedule. -- Wednesday. Noon. North Ballroom, Purdue Memorial Union. Purdue President Steven C. Beering will speak at a lunch for participants. -- Wednesday. 1:30 p.m. Room 210, Stewart Center. Indiana's "brownfields" program, an update on the state's efforts and use of technology to clean lands that have been lightly polluted or contaminated. CONTACT: Kumares Sinha, professor of transportation and infrastructure systems engineering, (765) 494-2211; e-mail, sinha@ecn.purdue.edu Wednesday, March 25. Astronauts or Astrobots? What is the Future of Space Exploration? 7 p.m. Loeb Playhouse. A public forum on the topic of extended human exploration of space vs. extended robotic exploration of space. Presenting the case for astronauts will be Robert Zubrin, author of the book "The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must." Arguing for astrobots will be Louis Friedman, director of the Planetary Society, the largest space interest organization in the world. A panel of professors, as well as audience members, will participate in a question and answer period. CONTACT: Michael Burke, president, Purdue chapter of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, (765) 494-5143. Friday, March 27. Board of Trustees meeting. 1:30 p.m. Room 304 (Anniversary Drawing Room), Purdue Memorial Union. President Steven C. Beering and members of the Purdue Board of Trustees will be available in Purdue Memorial Union Room 256 immediately following the meeting to answer questions from journalists. CONTACTS: Jeanne V. Norberg, director, Purdue News Service, (765) 494-2084; e-mail, jeanne_norberg@uns.purdue.edu, or Joseph L. Bennett, vice president for University Relations, (765) 494-2082; e-mail, joe_bennett@uns.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@uns.purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page