(Posted November 20, 2006)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- A nutrition class at Juniata College is sponsoring a symposium on "Meeting Nutritional Needs Throughout the World," featuring a keynote address by Lakshman Yapa, a Penn State geography professor who will speak on "Micro-enterprise and Micro-credit in Sri Lanka" at 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 30 in Neff Auditorium in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.
Yapa's talk and the entire symposium is free and open to the public.
This is the second annual symposium based on nutrition organized by Juniata students. The course sponsoring the symposium is taught by Debra Kirchhof-Glazier, professor of biology, and Ruth Reed, professor of chemistry.
The symposium features student poster presentations in the lobby of the von Liebig building starting at 7:30 p.m. and ending at 9:30.
The student posters will cover an array of nutrition-related topics, including "Food Distribution in Crisis," "Hunger and Brain Development: Free Radicals," "Golden Rice," "The Rockefeller Foundation's Work in Africa," "Modifying World Hunger: Are Genetically Modified Foods Curing or Contributing to the Problem?" "Water Quality in Third-World Countries," "Environmental Factors and Their Impact on the Nutritional Well-Being of the People: Case of Niger," and "America's Second Harvest: Attacking Malnutrition in the U.S."
Yapa, professor of geography at Penn State, is a specialist in poverty and economic development. He serves as a consultant to the United Nations Development Fund, the World Bank and U.S. AID.
His talk will focus on how poverty can be alleviated by going beyond the traditional approach of creating jobs and increasing incomes to focus on small enterprises funded by small bank loans.
Yapa received the Penn State University President's Award for Excellence in Academic Integration in 2006. He also received the University Outreach Award in 2000.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.