Joan Wood Lecture set for Wednesday

Entering college often means a great deal of change, and in the case of Dr. Jamie L. Stalker, her change was for the better.\n“A lot of people enter college already knowing what they want to do for a living,” said Stalker, an IU alumna and medical director of Argonne National Laboratory. “For me that wasn’t the case. There were a number of things I went through that made me rethink my career.”\nStalker will speak as part of the 26th Annual Joan Wood Lecture Series, which will take place at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Myers Hall Room 130. She will speak about her career path in a lecture titled “Flexibility and the Fickle Finger of Fate: A Peculiar Path from Musician to Medical Director.” \n“Dr. Stalker was recommended by a past Joan Wood Series speaker,” said Kathy Wyss, the biology department’s development operator. “We tried to get people to come in from all areas of the sciences, and we thought it would be great having someone from a national lab.”\nStalker earned a Bachelor of Science degree from IU in 1983 and became Argonne’s medical director in 2004. Argonne is located southwest of Chicago and is one of the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest research centers.\n“I started in the IU School of Music,” Stalker said, “but arts programs were getting cut all of the time and I wanted to make sure if I went to school for four or five years that I would be able to get a job. I questioned if I really loved what I was doing.”\nStalker said she made the right choice and plans to urge students to remain calm, to take advantage of opportunities that might come their way and, most importantly, to make sure they love what they do.\n“We created the Joan Wood Lecture Series in memory of one of our alumni,” Wyss said. “Joan had been an alumnus of our department, and (she had) actually spoken at our undergraduate career programs promoting educational opportunities for women in biology.”\nDr. Joan Wood worked in the biology department for 12 years, receiving two degrees in plant science and a doctorate in genetics. Wood attended medical school at IU and came back to Bloomington, starting her own private practice. Wood supported women in science and sustained a relationship with the biology department until her death in 1990.\nThe lecture series honors Wood by providing an opportunity for students to contact women who have had successful careers in science. \nThe series also showcases many career opportunities in the field of biology. \nStalker’s lecture marks the first in a series of speakers for the school year. Wyss expects a capacity crowd on Wednesday.