PHARMACEUTICAL CHEMISTRY FORUM: The annual R. Bryan Miller Memorial Symposium on pharmaceutical chemistry is scheduled for next week, with Caltech's Peter B. Dervan as the plenary speaker. Dervan, a National Medal of Science recipient in 2006, researches fundamental problems at the interface of biology and organic chemistry.

Miller was a UC Davis chemistry professor who died in 1998. The symposium is sponsored by the Department of Chemistry and donations from individuals and industry.

The symposium begins with a reception and student poster session at 6:30 p.m. March 6 in the ARC Ballroom. The symposium in the same location is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. March 7, with the plenary session at 4 p.m. Dervan's talk is free and open to the public; people wishing to attend the full program must register in advance.

Registration and more information: www.chem.ucdavis.edu/miller. A reduced registration fee is offered for students.

CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES FOR JEWS: How do younger American Jews, many of whom feel more at home at Starbucks than at synagogue, experience "Jewishness" today? The question will be among those explored at a daylong conference intended to spark debate about Jewish life at the beginning of the 21st century.

The conference, sponsored by the Jewish Studies Pro-gram, is scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 3 at the University Club, and is free and open to the public. The speakers list includes Hebrew Union College sociologist Steven M. Cohen; and Daniel Sokatch, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Progressive Jewish Alliance.

More information: jewishstudies.ucdavis.edu/events.shtml (click on the first link in the Events Calendar).

'GLOBALIZATION AND TOTALITY': Literary scholar and political theorist Frederic Jameson plans a public lecture, "Globalization and Totality," at 5 p.m. March 3 at the University Club, under sponsorship of the Department of English and the Davis Humanities Institute. Jameson is the William A. Lane Professor of Comparative Literature and Romance Studies at Duke University.

NEW DEAL'S 75TH ANNIVERSARY: President Franklin Roosevelt launched the New Deal 75 years ago this year, and UC Davis' Eric Rauchway, a history professor, and director of the Center for History, Society and Culture, is presenting a lecture in connection with the anniversary. "The New Deal at 75" is scheduled for March 5 as a Policy Watch Seminar sponsored by the Institute of Governmental Relations. The program is set for 12:10 p.m. in the IGA Reading Room, 360 Shields Library.

ALUMNA TO ADDRESS ARCTIC METHANE: Katey Walter, a 2000 master's degree alumna of the Graduate Group in Ecology, is due back on campus on March 6 to talk about an emerging concern in climate-change studies: methane emissions from Arctic lakes.

Walter, now assistant professor of limnology, water and environmental research at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, is one of the first people to calculate the methane bubbling out of melting lakes. "The carbon that the bacteria are eating has been locked up in the permafrost, in the freezer, for tens of thousands of years. And today, with climate change, as more of this permafrost is thawing, you're defrosting that meal for the bacteria," she told National Public Radio listeners last year.

Walter's talk, free and open to the public, is set for 4:10 p.m. in 1100 Social Sciences and Humanities Building.

'DID SOMEBODAY SAY CENSORSHIP?': The Davis Humanities Institute's Public Intellectuals Forum announced a March 6 program by Richard Taruskin speaking on the topic: "Did Somebody Say Censorship?" Taruskin is a UC Berkeley musicologist and a member of the American Philosophical Society. His program, free and open to the public, and co-sponsored by the history and music departments, is set for 5:30 p.m. at Davis' historic City Hall, now Bistro 33, at 226 F St.

FROM SCHOOLHOUSE TO COURTHOUSE: From wearing black arm bands in protest of the Vietnam War to displaying a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner, generations of U.S. students have tested the scope of First Amendment free-speech protections.

The UC Davis Law Review takes up the topic for the review's annual symposium. The March 7 event, titled "First Amendment Rights in America's Public Schools: From the Schoolhouse Gate to the Courthouse Steps," is free and open to the public. The speakers list includes Vikram Amar and Alan Brownstein, UC Davis law professors; Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of UC Irvine's new Donald Bren School of Law; and Kenneth Starr, dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law.

The symposium is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. March 7 in King Hall. More information: lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/symposia/2008/home.php.

All seminars and colloquia: calendar.ucdavis.edu