Campus News

ROCKFORD, Ill. — As the director of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute (NAI), Dr. Penelope “Penny” Boston has devoted her career to finding new life both within and beyond our planet. She will speak about her work at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 6, at Severson Auditorium, Scarborough Hall. 

The free event is part of Rockford University’s Spring 2017 Forum Series, which also will include farcical play A Flea in Her Ear from April 27-30. With the exception of plays, the public series is free of charge. 

Prior to joining NASA, Boston founded and directed the Cave and Karst Studies Program at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, where she also served as a professor and led their earth and environmental sciences department as chair. Additionally, she served from 2002 to 2016 as associate director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute, a congressionally mandated institute in New Mexico.

Forum Series Lectures and performances take place on the Rockford University campus, 5050 E. State St., Rockford. Tickets are required for all events and can be obtained by contacting the Box Office at 815-226-4100 or boxoffice@rockford.edu.