The lecture, titled The Current State of Stem Cell Research: A Catholic Scientist’s Perspective, will also include remarks by Dr. Matthew Kenney, executive assistant to the President and Bioethics instructor at Sacred Heart University.

Dr. Landry, a professor of medicine, is director of the Division of Experimental Therapeutics and the interim chair of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University in New York. His research, which seeks a means to pursue stem cell research in a way that meets the ethical demands of this faith, has piqued the interest of both scientists and politicians.

Dr. Landry, also referred to as the “devout doctor” in a Wall Street Journal profile last year, has presented his research to President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics and at the 2005 Stem Cell Bioethics conference at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome.

Dr. Kenney, who will respond to Dr. Landry’s remarks during the lecture, holds a Clinical Ethics Certificate from Duquesne University’s Center for Health Care Ethics, and currently serves on the Institutional Ethics Committee of St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, and on the Community Advisory Board at the Yale University School of Nursing in New Haven.

The mission of the Bishop Walter Curtis Lecture is to promote the development and dissemination of the Catholic intellectual tradition through scholarly lectures that are accessible to a broad audience. The lecture is scheduled near Founder’s Day each spring, in order to honor the history of Sacred Heart University.

Admission is free and open to the public.