The keynote speaker for this year’s Chancellor’s Convocation will be Oliver Sacks, best-selling author of “Awakenings” and “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.”
Sacks was born in London in 1933. Both of his parents were physicians, and he later received his medical degree at Oxford University in Neurology.
He was a neurologist first, but his work goes well beyond just standard medicine. He studies the link between body and mind, melding philosophy with more traditional medicine.
In 1966, Sacks encountered survivors of the great epidemic of sleeping sickness, which killed millions in the 1920s. Administering the new drug L-DOPA, he saw these patients, frozen for decades, awaken. This was the basis for “Awakenings,” which was later turned into a movie starring Robert DeNiro and Robin Williams.
Sacks has a new book coming out this fall titled “Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood.” The book explores his lifelong passion for science.
The convocation is aimed at incoming freshman, but is open to the public. It will be held in the Kohl Center on Sept. 5, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
