The Ellen Swallow Richards (ESR) Lecture, held annually in Lawrence, Massachusetts, promotes women’s full access to science and engineering disciplines as well as ongoing efforts to solve environmental problems with insights from those disciplines. Both concerns were quite important to Richards, the first female student admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (earning a B.S. in 1873), the first woman to teach there (starting in 1876), and a founding member of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (later the American Association of University Women). She was an accomplished chemist and renowned mineralogist as well as a pioneer in biology, bacteriology and sanitary engineering. In 1887, the Massachusetts legislature funded a survey of water and sewage throughout the state and Richards personally analyzed 40,000 samples. During the 1890s, Richards also worked at the Lawrence Experiment Station with MIT colleagues and several of her own students. As a result of experiments there, in 1907 the city of Lawrence began filtering all 3 million gallons of its daily water supply, the first in the country to do this for disease prevention. In the years following, Richards continued to teach, lecture, and write, authoring more than a dozen books before her death in 1911. This year's ESR Lecturer is Dr. Mariana Arcaya, who will be presenting "Neighborhood Effects on Health: Can Healthy, Equitable Development Improve Residents' Well-being?"
Mariana Arcaya is an assistant professor of urban planning and public health in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She is a social epidemiologist and urban planner whose work explores dynamic relationships between geographic contexts, particularly neighborhoods, and health. Arcaya conducts scholarly and policy-relevant research in two main areas: 1) bi-directional relationships between place and health, including how health considerations shape socioeconomic outcomes for individuals and communities, and, 2) applied and translational research on the social determinants of health, particularly health risk factors shaped by urban policy and planning decisions. Prior to joining MIT's faculty, Arcaya was a post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. She holds a Doctorate of Science from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Location:
Youth Development Organization, Everett Mill, 15 Union Street, #563, Lawrence
(ydolawrence.org)
Date:
Thursday, Oct. 12th
Program:
Food and Drinks Starting at 5pm
Dr. Arcaya with YDO Participants for Pre-Lecture Conversation also at 5pm
Introductions and Lecture at 6pm
Also, if you would like to contribute to the lecture series please send checks (payable to Groundwork Lawrence) to Susan Wojtas at Groundwork Lawrence, 50 Island St #101, Lawrence, MA 01840.