UGA LAW \u26 HISTORY PROFESSOR NAMED TO DISTINGUISHED FULBRIGHT CHAIR

Thursday, January 25, 2001 WRITER: Kathy R. Pharr, (706) 542-5172, pharr@arches.uga.edu CONTACT: Ed Larson, (706) 542-2660 UGA LAW \u26 HISTORY PROFESSOR NAMED TO DISTINGUISHED FULBRIGHT CHAIR ATHENS, Ga. - Edward J. Larson, Russell Professor of History and Law at the University of Georgia, has been named by the Fulbright Program as the holder of the prestigious John Adams Chair in American Studies for 2001. Larson leaves on Monday, January 29, to begin a semester-long teaching commitment at the University of Leiden in Holland. The Fulbright Program is the premier foreign academic outreach of our country, Larson said. I am honored to be asked to serve in this way. Larson, who has received several teaching awards, currently holds a joint appointment in the UGA law school and history department. He is the author of four books and over forty published articles, and writes and teaches primarily about issues of science, medicine and law from an historical perspective. At the University of Leiden, he will teach two seminars in American law and American science policy. He will also research a topic of immense scholarly interest - euthanasia. The practice is legal and quite common in Holland, says Larson, and he hopes to do a comparative study of the laws and public sentiment surrounding the issue in Holland and the United States. Larson will be making a number of return trips to the USA during the semester as he leads discussions across the country on the fragile environment of the Galapagos Islands, now threatened by a massive oil spill. His latest book, forthcoming in March, Evolution\u27s Workshop: God and Science in the Galapagos Islands, focuses on the biologically rich archipelago where Charles Darwin conducted the research which revolutionized scientific thinking. The book advances the topic Larson first explored in his acclaimed account of the Scopes Trial, Summer for the Gods: America\u27s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, for which he was awarded the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History. Larson\u27s articles have appeared in such varied journals as Nature, Scientific American, The Nation, Wall Street Journal, Virginia Law Review, Journal of the History of Medicine and British Journal for the History of Science. He received the 2000 George Sarton Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, presented annually to honor a historian of science for a body of work. Larson earned a bachelor\u27s degree from Williams College, a law degree from Harvard, and a master\u27s and doctorate in the History of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ## A photograph of Ed Larson is available electronically via UGA Communications\u27 Photographic Services Web Site at http://photo.alumni.uga.edu/photohome.htm You will need to search for Professor Larson by name