By:
Chuck Woods (352) 392-1773 x 281Source(s):
Drew Kershen dkershen@ou.edu, (405) 325-4784
Michael Olexa olexa@ufl.edu, (352) 392-1881 ext. 327
GAINESVILLE, Fla.—Drew Kershen, a professor in the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) College of Law, will be the 2005 Wershow Distinguished Lecturer April 7 at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law.
His presentation — “The Risks of Non- GMOs” (genetically modified organisms) — will be at 4 p.m. in the Ceremonial Classroom (room 180A); the lecture is free and open to the public.
Established in 1985 by James and Dorothy Wershow, the lecture series is sponsored by the Agricultural Law Center in UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) in collaboration with the Wershow family.
Michael Olexa, a professor in the UF/IFAS food and resource economics department and director of the Agricultural Law Center, said Kershen was selected to speak at UF because of his extensive research on GMOs and international reputation on the subject.
Kershen’s teaching and research programs at OU focus on agricultural commercial law, agricultural environmental law and agricultural biotechnology. His work, which includes water law, is part of the natural resources curriculum at the OU College of Law.
During last 10 years, Kershen has authored many publications on legal liability, intellectual property and regulatory issues in agricultural biotechnology. In addition to speaking engagements in the United States, he has been an invited speaker in Canada, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy and Spain.
Kershen, who joined the OU faculty in 1971, is the Earl Sneed Centennial Professor of Law. He is a member of the Oklahoma Bar and the Bar of the U.S. Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. He also is a member of the American Agricultural Law Association, the American Bar Association and a life member of the Council on Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). In 1973, he was named a fellow in law and humanities at Harvard University.
From 1990 to 1996, Kershen was a director of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. He has held visiting professorships at the law schools of the University of Arkansas- Fayetteville, Drake University, University of Illinois, University of Kansas, Oklahoma City University, Texas Tech University and the University of Texas. He also was a Fulbright Teaching Fellow to Universidad Jose Cecilio del Valle in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in the summer of 1999.
Kershen received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1966, a juris doctorate from the University of Texas in 1968 and a master of laws degree from Harvard in 1975.
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