Newsday medical writer Laurie Garrett, winner of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism, will give a lecture at Hamilton College on Monday, March 3, at 7:30 p.m. in the Science Building auditorium. Admission is free and open to the general public.

_In her newest book, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance, Garrett exposes numerous infectious diseases threatening humankind. Her discussion covers familiar viruses like malaria and AIDS, and newly emerging infections like the deadly Marburg and Ebola viruses. Exploring fifty-years of the world's battles with microbes, she examines the worldwide conditions that have culminated in outbreaks of newly discovered diseases, and in old diseases that are no longer curable.

_Writing for The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani called The Coming Plague "A frightening vision of the future and a deeply unsettling one...a sober, scary book that not only limns the dangers posed by emerging diseases but also raises serious questions about two centuries worth of enlightenment beliefs in science and technology and progress."

_Garrett had advanced to doctoral candidacy in immunology at the University of California at Berkeley before taking leave to work in communications. She worked as a science correspondent for National Public Radio for eight years before joining Newsday in 1986. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for courageous reporting from Zaire on the Ebola virus outbreak there. She has authored and co-authored several books, is a frequent contributor to several newspapers and magazines and has appeared on "Dateline" (NBC), "The McNeill/Lehrer Newshour" (PBS) and many other programs.