Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars

The Delta of Minnesota regularly sponsors visits to the St. Olaf campus by Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars.

On February 23, 2012, St. Olaf will host Dr. Charles Falco, who holds joint appointments in optical sciences and physics at the University of Arizona. Dr. Falco will give a seminar at 11:30 in Regents 210 on "The Art and Materials Science of the Motorcycle." He will also give a public lecture at 7 pm in Holland 501 on "The Science of Optics; The History of Art." Both talks are suitable for a general audience.


List of Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars who have lectured at St. Olaf College:

Apr. 20-21, 1959: Ernest J. Simmons, Professor of Russian Literature, Columbia University

Mar. 27-30, 1960: Theodore M. Greene, Professor of Humanities (Philosophy), Scripps College

Dec. 7-8, 1961: John Turkevich, Professor of Chemistry, Princeton University

Oct. 15-16, 1962: H.D.F. Kitto, Professor of Classics, University of Bristol

Nov. 11-12, 1963: Lamar Dodd, Professor of Art History, University of Georgia

Apr. 20-22, 1966: Kirtley F. Mather, Professor of Geology, Harvard University

Mar. 12-15, 1967: Robert Wauchope, Professor of Anthropology, Tulane University

Feb. 26-27, 1968: Frederick Hard, Professor of English Literature, University of California-Santa Cruz

Mar. 6-7, 1969: Otto Luening, Co-director, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center,
Columbia University

Oct. 8-9, 1970: Garrett Hardin, Professor of Human Ecology (Biology), University of California-Santa Barbara

Apr. 9-10, 1973: Jeremy Paul Kagan, American Film Institute, Los Angeles

Nov. 12-13, 1973: James L. Gibbs, Professor of Anthropology, Stanford University

Oct. 21-22, 1974: Hazel E. Barnes, Professor of Integrated Studies (Classics/Philosophy), University of Colorado

Apr. 27-29, 1977: Oscar Handlin, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor (American History), Harvard University

Apr. 27-28, 1978: Wayne C. Booth, Distinguished Service George M. Pullman Professor of English, University of Chicago

Mar. 19-20, 1979: Herbert F. York, Professor of Physics, University of California, San Diego--CANCELLED (because of appointment as chief U.S. negotiator for Test Ban Talks)

Nov. 14-16, 1979: Anna J. Harrison, William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Chemistry, Mount Holyoke College

Mar. 12-13, 1981: Howard Hibbard, Professor of Art History, Columbia University--CANCELLED (for health reasons)

Apr. 26-27, 1982: Herbert Solomon, Professor of Statistics, Stanford University

Nov. 15-16, 1982: Robert B. Heilman, Professor of English, Emeritus, University of Washington

Apr. 2-3, 1984: Stephen G. Nichols, Jr., Professor of Romance Languages and Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College

Apr. 9-10, 1986: Roland Mushat Frye, Schelling Professor of English Literature, Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania

Apr. 10-11, 1989: Jerome Kagan, Professor of Human Development, Harvard University--CANCELLED

Mar. 11-12, 1991: Anne Firor Scott, W. K. Boyd Professor of History, Duke University

Apr. 12-14, 1992: Hyman Bass, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University

Sept. 17-18, 1992: Sidney W. Mintz, William L. Straus, Jr., Professor of Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University

Nov. 29-30, 1994: Porter M. Kier, Research Associate, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Mar. 13-15, 1995: Linda Seidel, Professor of Art History, University of Chicago

May 5-6, 1997: Douglass C. North, Luce Professor of Law and Liberty (Economics), Washington University (combined with visit to Carleton)

Nov. 15-16, 1999: Cornell Hugh Fleischer, Kanuni Süleyman Professor of Ottoman & Modern Turkish Studies, University of Chicago

Nov. 9-10, 2000: Eliana Rivero, Professor of Spanish & Adjunct Professor of Women's Studies & Latin American Studies, University of Arizona

Nov. 12-13, 2001: Katherine A. Geffcken, Professor Emerita of Latin and Greek, Wellesley College

November 7-8, 2002, Yi-Fu Tuan, J. K. Wright & Vilas Prof. Emeritus of Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

April 18, 2005 Wendy Doniger, The Divinity School of the University of Chicago

March 15, 2006 Raymond J. DeMallie, Chancellor's Professor of Anthropology and Director of the American Indian Studies Research Institute at Indiana University

September 25, 2008 Betty Smocovitis, Professor of Zoology and History at the University of Florida

March 18-19, 2010 Andrew Odlyzko, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Minnesota

February 23, 2012 Charles M. Falco, Professor of Optical Science and Physics at the University of Arizona