Global health expert and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Laurie Garrett will launch the University of New Hampshire’s seventh annual Undergraduate Research Conference with a keynote address on pandemic security Friday, April 21, from 7-9 p.m. in the Johnson Theatre.

Garrett is an authority on newly emerging and re-emerging diseases; public health and their effects on foreign policy and national security. A Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, she is the author of the best-selling books The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance and Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. As a medical and science writer for Newsday Garrett became the only writer ever to have been awarded all three of the Big "Ps" of journalism: The Peabody, The Polk (twice), and The Pulitzer.

There is no charge to attend this event but seating is limited and tickets are required for admission. Register for free tickets at http://www.unh.edu/urc/keynotespeaker.cfm. Parking is available in B-lot; no parking passes are needed after 6 p.m.

The Garrett lecture will kickoff the weeklong Undergraduate Research Conference that features hundreds of UNH students from all academic disciplines presenting the results of their research, scholarly, and creative works in an array of professional and artistic venues campus-wide. The undergraduate research conference is open to the public and details are available online at http://www.unh.edu/urc.
While in graduate school in the Department of Bacteriology and Immunology at UC Berkeley, Garrett started reporting on science news for a local radio station. She worked briefly in the California Department of Food and Agriculture assessing the human health impacts of pesticide use then went overseas, living and working in southern Europe and subsaharan Africa as a freelance reporter. After working at NPR, Garrett joined the science writing staff of Newsday, where she remains today. Her Newsday articles can be accessed at Newsday.com.