Northwestern University Alumni

Through Coursera, Northwestern presents free online courses, open to lifelong learners worldwide.

Culinary Crossroads: The Intersection of Food and Technology
Kelly Senyei ’08, Founder of Just a Taste, chef, on-camera host, and author of Food Blogging for Dummies
An epicurean explosion over the last decade has catapulted food from our plates into the mainstream media. Kelly Senyei ’08, a food journalist and author who earned a culinary arts diploma with highest honors from The Institute of Culinary Education, discusses the role that cooking shows, blogs, ebooks, podcasts, and mobile apps have played in the proliferation of food journalism.

The Changing Landscape of Broadcast and Cable TV
Jim Kowats ’93, Executive Producer, TLC television network
Some say television is a thing of the past. Others say this is television’s golden age. Either way, there’s no denying that viewership of traditional TV is steadily declining. In fact, many millennials have never signed up for cable or have already “cut the cord.”

A Neuroscientist and a Humanist Walk into a Bar
Indira Raman, Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Biological Sciences, and Susie Phillips, Associate Professor of English and Alumnae of Northwestern
Until a few centuries ago, scholars made no distinction between science and literature, or science and art. Poets such as Chaucer wrote scientific treatises, while figures we think of today as hardcore scientists, like Johannes Kepler, also practiced the creative arts. What would it be like to revive this older paradigm, to reintegrate these supposedly disparate ways of thinking about thinking?

The Model of Wealth Creation
Brian S. Wesbury ’89 MBA, Chief Economist, First Trust Advisors L.P.
The Middle East is unstable, China’s growth is slowing, the Fed is raising interest rates, government spending is rising, and a chaotic presidential election cycle is in full swing. However, American banks have rarely been in better shape, gas is cheap, consumers have reduced their debt, corporations have trillions in cash, and technology is constantly improving.

Aging: Inevitable or Preventable?
Douglas Vaughan, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Irving S. Cutter Professor of Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine
Is the aging process inevitable, or are some parts of it preventable? Douglas Vaughan, physician in chief at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, explores these questions while discussing his research on aging. Learn about the molecular and biochemical markers of aging, how the aging process unfolds in humans, and how researchers are using targeted approaches to preserve people’s quality of life—their “health span”—as they age.

The Urgency of NOW!
Orbert Davis, an Emmy Award-winning musician and successful entrepreneur
Orbert Davis, an Emmy Award-winning musician and successful entrepreneur, will share his advice for building on the foundation of your past to maximize your potential for the future, while still living a rewarding life in the present. He’ll do so by reflecting on his own “mission-driven” career, which began with him trying to make it in the music industry and led to him becoming a leader of Chicago’s arts and culture community.

The Panama Canal: How Did They Build It, and What Is Its Future?
Joseph Schofer ’65 MS, ’68 PhD, ’12 PhD, Assistant Professor of Law, School of Law
In this presentation, Joseph Schofer ’65 MS, ’68 PhD uses historic and modern photos to describe the engineering and managerial breakthroughs that made the canal’s construction possible. He explains the canal’s current expansion program, the workings of its innovative new locks, and the role it will continue to play in 21st-century global logistics.

Through the Lens of Ferguson: Current Issues at the Intersection of Race, Psychology, & Law
Destiny Peery ’09 MA, ’12 JD, ’12 PhD, Assistant Professor of Law, School of Law
Social psychologist and legal scholar Destiny Peery sheds light on implicit and explicit biases in the law and the ways in which such biases produce explicit disparities, even without an intent to discriminate.

Exploring the Universe with the Hubble Space Telescope
David Meyer, Director, Dearborn Observatory and Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Meyer explains why the Hubble Telescope is unique and outlines the science behind several of its most famous pictures, including the iconic image of the “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula.

25 Years of Calling the Cats
Dave Eanet ’77, Sports Director at WGN Radio and play-by-play announcer for Northwestern football and men’s basketball
Dave Eanet, the award-winning “voice of the Wildcats,” reflects on 40 years in Chicago radio, beginning when he was a student at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. He discusses the highs—and lows—of broadcasting Northwestern football and men’s basketball since the 1990s.

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