NOBEL CONFERENCE 2014

In a typical year, more than 5,000 people descend on the campus of Gustavus Adolphus College, in southeast Minnesota, for the annual Nobel Conference.  This year, 100 students and community members from the Fox Cities made the trek in 2 buses and heard inspiring speakers for 2 days.  Mark Jenike, an anthropology professor from Lawrence, and his son Brian will share their experience at this year’s conference.  Note that a father and son duo will present.  For the Jenikes, the conference was a family experience.  Mark has Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degrees from Harvard and UCLA, all in Anthropology.  As an assistant professor at Lawrence, he organized an evaluation of the Education for Healthy Kids pilot project at Johnston Elementary School.  That led to a study of food and nutrition at Appleton East and West High Schools. The findings from these projects were published in Human Organization, the journal of the Society for Applied Anthropology.  Mark served for three years on the board of the Appleton Education Foundation, and currently serves on the Nobel steering committee.  Mark’s son Brian is a junior at Appleton West, a member of the National Honor Society, and an AP scholar.  He was a member of the 2014 Science Bowl team from Appleton West that traveled to Washington DC to compete in the national tournament.  Brian is also a member of the West math team and has won several silver and gold medals in Fox Valley Math League tournaments.  He plays piano and clarinet, and is a member of the Lawrence Community Gamelan, and the First Congregational UCC youth bell choir.  Both Mark and Brian spoke about the different speakers they had the privilege to listen to and learn from.  Mark touched on a speaker by the name of Jennifer West, PhD.  He was intrigued to hear that her lab is developing techniques to use a patient’s own cells to grow replacement blood vessels by synthesizing so-called “scaffold materials,” which mimic extracellular matrices and provide structure for the growth of replacement blood vessels.  This could be a big breakthrough for cancer radiation treatments.  Both speakers gave great information regarding the conference and even referenced next year’s conference in 2015.    The conference will be about “Addiction”.  For more information regarding the Nobel Conference you can check out the website at https://gustavus.edu/events/nobelconference/2014/.  You can also check out the Nobel Conference on You Tube by typing in Nobel prize 50.