Synergist Buckminster Fuller to speak here Tuesday

Richard Buckminster Fuller, described by some as a visionary and others as a crackpot, and by himself as a "fairly low average man," will be the last speaker in the 1973-74 President's L e c t u r e Series. The renowned engineer, architect, and philosopher will discuss "Humans in the Universe" at 8pm Tuesday, March 19, in the Rice Memorial Center Grand Hall. He will be introduced by David A. Crane, Dean of the School of Architecture. The lecture is open to the public without charge. Fuller deals fundamentally with one broad issue—the quality and future of human life. He says: "The possibility of the good life for any man depends on the possibility of realizing it for all man. This is the function of the society's ability to turn the energies of the universe to human advantage." Much of Fuller's philosophy is based on "synergy," which he defines as "the behavior of all systems, unpredicted by the behavior of parts or subsystems.' Fuller is best known architecturally for the invention of the geodesic dome, a spherical structure like that Fuller used in the United States Pavilion at M o n t ^ ^ ' s Expo '67 — or like the one constructed here last year by two Rice archis. "Fuller has spent the last 45 years in the 21st century and he's been sending bulletins back ever since," says one of his biographers. A university president called Fuller "one of the creative giants of the century who has shown us that the technologist, the humanist, and the policy analyst can live and work together; indeed they can be personified in one man." Fuller, born in 1895, attended Harvard from 1913 to 1915 without graduating. He was dismissed twice for "lack of sustained interest in the processes within the University." Since then he has received 26 honorary doctorates for his work in the arts, sciences, and humanities. Fuller has also been the recipient of over 20 professional awards from architectural and designers' institutes and one from the Queen of England. He is currently Distinguished University Professor at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. He is also a "World Fellow in Residence" a t the Uni vers i ty Science C e n t e r in Phi ladelphia . Dur ing his s tay in Hous ton , Fu l l e r will also be the g u e s t speake r a t the sp r ing d inner mee t ing of the Rice Univer si ty Associa tes on . Monday , March 18, and will pa r t i c ipa t e in an informal seminar -d iscussion with in te res ted f a c u l t y and s tuden t s on Tuesday , March 19. The discussion will ho ar ranged by Ful le r ' s Univers i ty h o s t s , Associate P r o f e s s o r s Adele and Antonio de Souza San tos of the School of Archit ec tu re .