Dinosaur hunter to headline MCC's new science speaker series

Dinosaur hunter Paul Sereno will headline McHenry County College's new Liebman Science Center speaker series debuting Friday.

Sereno, professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago and a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, will share his experiences crossing the Sahara Desert and being challenged by bandits on the Tibetan plateau in the heart of the Gobi Desert.

His talk, titled "Living Indiana Jones," kicks off the new Liebman Speaker Series: "Connecting Science and Everything" at 10 a.m. in the Carey Lecture Hall on the first floor of the science center on MCC's main campus, 8900 Route 14 in Crystal Lake.

Sereno's obsession with fossils and taste for adventure have taken him to remote corners of the world to discover dozens of new species under the harshest conditions. He has discovered scores of new crocodiles and dinosaur species on several continents, including at sites in Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco and Niger, while leading dozens of expeditions into the Sahara and Gobi deserts and other sites in Asia, India, and the Americas.

MCC's $17 million science center, which opened for classes in August, includes more than 22,000 square feet of classroom and laboratory space for the physical and life sciences. The two-story, 40,867-square-foot building houses science labs, a new cadaver lab, a student resource lab, two lecture halls, prep rooms, student collaboration spaces, a weather center and a larger planetarium.

Its new speaker series aims to highlight the intersection of science and everything and will continue in October, November, February, March and April.

Attendance is free, but preregistration is required. Seating is limited to 80 attendees.

To register, visit liebmanspeakerseries.brownpapertickets.com. For more information, call (815) 455-8764.