The William T. Patten Foundation, with the support of the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs, has selected speakers for the 2025-26 Patten Lecture Series: Serhii Plokhii and Bonnie Bassler.

Serhii Plokhii.Plokhii, the Mykhailo S. Hrushevs’kyi Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University, will lecture during the week of Nov. 3 to 6. A towering figure in the fields of Russian and Ukrainian history, Plokhii has published widely in English, Ukrainian and Russian on the intellectual, cultural and international history of the region.

His internationally recognized work covers a vast time period, from medieval history in “The Origins of the Slavic Nation” to recent history with “The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History” and “Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone.” His books have won over 20 awards, including the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Shevchenko National Prize.

Bassler, the Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology at Princeton University, will lecture during the week of March 30 to April 2. Her discoveries of how bacterial cells communicate have placed her as one of the world’s most eminent scientists in the field of microbiology.

Bonnie Bassler.Her pioneering work began with her genetic study of microbes and the chemical signals they use to sense and respond to the cells around them, a process called “quorum sensing.” This type of cell-to-cell communication is now known to be a vital part of microbial behavior in diverse bacteria that cause disease and impact our environment in countless ways.

With over 200 publications, Bassler gained early recognition through a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, followed by election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences, and numerous other awards.

The William T. Patten Foundation, endowed by a student of the Indiana University class of 1893, provides generous funds to bring people of extraordinary national and international distinction in the sciences, the humanities and the arts to the Bloomington campus for a week.

Past lecturers have included Oscar Arias, Jorge Luis Borges, Noam Chomsky, Natalie Zemon Davis, Umberto Eco, Julian S. Huxley, Evelyn Fox Keller, Toni Morrison, Martha Nussbaum, Amos Oz, Helmuth Rilling, Edward Said, Amartya Sen, Wole Soyinka, Rene Thom, Thomas Schelling, Strobe Talbott, Werner Herzog and Lester Thurow.

Inquiries about the Patten Foundation, the Patten Lecture Series and future nominations may be directed to vpfaa@iu.edu.