Childhood Obesity and Nutrition Town Hall, Negroponte Delivers Plenary

A free town hall-style event on understanding obesity and childhood nutrition at 1:15 p.m. will bring teachers, students, public health professional, and scientists to the Boston Marriott Copley Place. The event will cover key topics including childhood nutrition worldwide, nutrition instruction in the K-12 science curriculum, and finding time for exercise.

Invited participants include: Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Sally Squires, Washington Post health reporter; Mark Fenton, PBS host of “America’s Walking;” and Virginia Stallings, MD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

This special event—planned under the auspices of the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology—is free and open to the public as well as all AAAS Annual Meeting registrants.

At 6:30 p.m., Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of One Laptop per Child, will deliver a plenary address also in the Boston Marriot. Negroponte’s non-profit association was launched in 2005 to provide low-cost laptops and Internet access to poor children in developing countries. A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired Magazine.

17 February 2008 7:00 a.m. EST