Van Thyn Professorship lecture series presents guest speaker Anil Nanda

photo of Dr. Anil Nanda
Dr. Anil Nanda

SHREVEPORT, La (Centenary News Service) — Centenary College and the Van Thyn Professorship Lecture series present guest speaker Dr. Anil Nanda, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at LSUHSC-Shreveport, Monday, May 2 at 7 p.m. in the Whited Room of Bynum Commons.

"1947: When the God of Genocidal Carnage Hit the Indian Subcontinent" will be the subject of Dr. Nanda's presentation. The lecture is free and open to the community with a reception following the lecture.

Dr. Nanda was appointed Chief of Neurosurgery at LSUHSC in Shreveport in 1990, and the first Neurosurgery Department Chairman with its establishment in 1995. A native of New York, Dr. Nanda earned his medical degree with honors from Madras University in 1982. He then served an internship in surgical oncology at the Sloan-Kettering Research Center in New York, and residencies in general surgery at Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago and in neurosurgery at Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. He then completed fellowship training in microneurosurgery and cranial base surgery at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990.

The presentation is the third part of the Van Thyn professorship lecture series in honor of Rose and Louis Van Thyn, Holocaust survivors who dedicated themselves to retelling their stories so that people will not forget or repeat those horrors. For her extraordinary community service, Mrs. Van Thyn was awarded the honorary Doctor of Humane Letters at Centenary's 2002 commencement exercises. She passed away in 2010 at the age of 88, and literally talked to thousands of local schoolchildren during her life about the horrors of the Jewish genocide.

In order to preserve her and her husband's legacy, the Rose and Louis Van Thyn Holocaust Awareness Professorship Program was established at Centenary College in November 2009. The program will provide education opportunities to the students of the College and to the surrounding community, with a goal of teaching about the history of the Holocaust, and how to recognize signs of intolerance and provide a means for preventing prejudice and hatred.

For more information, contact call 318.869.5073.

About Centenary College of Louisiana

Centenary College is a private, four-year arts and sciences college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1825, it is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Centenary is one of 16 colleges and universities constituting the Associated Colleges of the South and has been recognized as "One of the Best 373 Colleges" by the Princeton Review and one of "America's Best Colleges" and one of "America's Best Private Colleges" by Forbes.com. In 2008 Centenary College celebrated 100 years in Shreveport and Bossier City.