Waisman Center to mark 30 years

The Waisman Center will mark its 30th anniversary with a symposium featuring a series of internationally renowned researchers in areas of human development and developmental disability.

The symposium will be held from 1-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 8, in the Waisman Center Auditorium, 1500 Highland Ave. It is free and open to the public.

Speakers include:

Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, who will give a talk entitled “Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Research: Past, Present, Future.”

Jeanne Brooks, the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Child Development and Education at Columbia University, who will speak on “Growing Up Poor in the United States: Research, Policy, Practice.”

Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, who will speak on “Autism – A Disorder of the Social Brain.”

Randi J. Hagerman, who holds the Tsakopoulos-Vismara Chair in Pediatrics, University of California, Davis; and Paul Hagerman, professor of biological chemistry at the University of California, Davis, who will deliver a lecture on “Neurodevelopment to Neurodegeneration: Two Faces of the Fragile X Gene.”