All University Lecture Series events take place on Monday evenings at 7:30 pm in Hall Auditorium on Miami University's Oxford campus unless otherwise noted. Tickets will be available at the door at 6:30 pm. Any seats not filled by 7:20 pm will be given to other attendees. A question and answer session will follow each lecture, as well as a reception. All lectures are free and open to the public if space is available. View tickets for more information.

2019-2020 Lectures

Admiral Michelle J. Howard

Essential to Innovation: Diversity, the Not-So-Secret Weapon

Monday, November 11, 2019

Admiral Michelle J. Howard (retired) was a ground-breaking leader during her 35-year career in the U.S. Navy. The first woman to achieve the rank of four-star admiral and the first woman to be appointed to the position of vice chief of naval operations (the second highest rank in the Navy), she was also the first African-American woman to reach the rank of three and four stars in any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. A veteran of operations that included NATO peacekeeping, Indonesia tsunami relief, Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, she was thrust into the international spotlight in 2009 as leader of the counter-piracy task force that rescued civilian Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates.

Admiral Howard is currently a visiting professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, focusing on the cyber domain and associated issues in strategy and policy. This appointment is the capstone of a distinguished career in national defense within the areas of operations, readiness, and strategic planning.

Dr. Michio Kaku

The Future of the Mind

Monday, March 9, 2020

Dr. Michio Kaku is one of the most widely recognized figures in science in the world today. He is an internationally known authority in two areas: (1) Einstein’s unified field theory, which Dr. Kaku is attempting to complete and (2) predicting trends affecting business, medicine, finance, and our way of life. He has written four NY Times Best Sellers; his latest is The Future of Humanity, which projects the future of the space program centuries from now. Previously, The Future of the Mind was the #1 hardcover, non-fiction book in the country. 

Dr. Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York where he has taught for almost 30 years (teaching at Harvard and Princeton as well). Graduating from Harvard in 1968, he received his Ph.D. in Physics from UC Berkeley in 1972. His goal is to complete Einstein’s dream of a “theory of everything,” to derive an equation summarizing all the physical laws of the universe. He is the co-founder of string theory, the leading candidate today for the theory of everything.

Sean Astin

I Can Carry You: Destigmatizing Mental Health

Monday, April 6, 2020

Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke), an American actor, voice actor, screenwriter, director, producer, family man, author, marathon runner, political activist and philanthropist, is well known for his film debut portraying Mikey in Steven Spielberg’s The Goonies in 1985. Known also for playing the title role in Rudy, Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Bob Newby in Netflix’s hit series, Stranger Things 2, he’s a familiar figure to many. However, his mission to raise awareness of mental health goes beyond his career. 

“Like most people now, mental illness has touched our family. With me, it happened to be with someone very famous who took the opportunity of being diagnosed combined with her fame, and made it the cause of her life.” His mother, Academy Award winning actress Patty Duke, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was a child. She became a vocal advocate for mental health awareness and Astin works to continue her legacy. “What I witnessed as a young kid was a woman who went from out of control behavior and suicidal depression to someone with a mission to help other people. I want to do this as well.”