Prince Lecture Series

List of 52 items.

• 2025 - Peter Marlette, Jr. '06

  Peter Marlette, Jr. ‘06, will speak on the formation of Buffalo Pro Soccer – the group that plans to bring USL Championship professional soccer and a new 10,000-capacity stadium and venue to Buffalo through an exclusive partnership with United Soccer League (USL).

  As President of Buffalo Pro Soccer, Marlette, Jr. will speak about working alongside club ownership, elected officials, community leaders, business partners, strategic advisors, and the USL to bring the highest levels of USL professional soccer to Western New York. Over the past year, Marlette, Jr. has been actively meeting and engaging with local officials and sports leaders to gain insights that will shape the professional soccer club in Buffalo.
  
  

  About Peter Marlette, Jr. ‘06:

  Peter Marlette, Jr. was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. Marlette, Jr. played four years of varsity soccer at Nichols, where he won two state championships; earned All-Western New York and All-State honors; and medaled in three consecutive Empire State Games.

  In college, Marlette was a 2009 All-American at Trinity College (Conn.). After completing his collegiate career, he spent a season with Woden Valley FC in Canberra, Australia, competing in the National Premier Leagues. During his time there, he was named to the league’s all-star team and set a record for goals scored in a single season.

  Following his playing career, Marlette transitioned to the business side of sports. He worked for ADPRO Sports before earning a prestigious master’s degree in sports management from the A.I.S.T.S. program in Lausanne, Switzerland. Upon graduating in 2019, he returned to the U.S. to manage major corporate partnerships for FC Dallas of Major League Soccer.

  In 2021, Marlette, Jr. became the youngest General Manager in American professional soccer when he was appointed to lead Union Omaha in USL League One. For three seasons, he oversaw the business and sporting operation of the start-up club in Nebraska. The four rosters he built in Omaha won three regular season championships and two playoff titles and became the only USL League One team to ever beat two MLS teams in one US Open Cup run in 2022, cementing their reputation as one of the most successful clubs in American professional soccer during that period.

  Marlette achieved several milestones during his tenure, including twice breaking his league’s player transfer fee record and leading the league in attendance, ticket sales, and ticket revenue. He also helped create the first-ever USL Special Olympics Unified Soccer series, inspiring similar partnerships across the USL League One and the Championship league.

  Following Union Omaha’s regular season championship in 2023, Marlette stepped down as General Manager to return home to Buffalo. He is focused on bringing professional soccer to his hometown through the establishment of Buffalo Pro Soccer.

  Marlette, Jr. and his wife Sarah (also a Buffalo native) now live in the Elmwood Village with their young daughter, Margot and dog, Sydney—and are thrilled to be back in WNY.

• 2024 - Dr. Jeffrey Linsky '59

  This year we welcome Dr. Jeffrey L. Linsky ‘59, as he speaks on the path of totality, and details on the total solar eclipse that will take place at the Moon’s ascending node on Monday, April 8, 2024. What causes a solar eclipse? It’s an incredible cosmic coincidence! The sun is about 400 times larger in diameter than the moon, but the moon is about 400 times closer to Earth than the Sun. Because of this, the sun and the moon appear to be about the same size in our sky, which allows for a total solar eclipse.
  
  

  This solar eclipse is special because it will be visible across North America to approximately thirty-one million people who live in its path, including right here in Buffalo, NY. The last time people had the opportunity to view this rare event in New York was 1925. The next total solar eclipse visible in New York is not until October 26, 2144 (120 years from 2024!)
  
  

  About Dr. Jeffrey L. Linsky ‘59:

  A graduate of Nichols School in 1959, Jeffrey L. Linsky is a Research Professor Emeritus at JILA, a joint research institute of the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. He received his BS in Physics from MIT and his PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University.

  His research areas include astrophysics, stellar radiation and winds, the abundance of deuterium in the universe, and the gas between stars. His studies in astrophysics are interdisciplinary in nature dealing with such issues as the effects of stellar radiation and winds on the ability of planets to retain their atmospheres and water, which are essential for life.
  
  

  He is a co-investigator on the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope and on instruments on other NASA spacecraft.
  
  

  In his lifetime, Linsky and his wife have traveled to see 13 solar eclipses.

• 2023 - Harry Cohen '73

  What if being nice, or specifically being the positive best version of yourself, made you a more effective leader? Ethical leadership is effective leadership. That’s what Dr. Cohen, noted psychologist, transformational speaker, executive coach, and author of Be The Sun, Not The Salt, has been teaching organizations to do for years.
  
  Dr. Cohen’s work is based on scientific studies of human behavior broken down into simple, easily digestible pillars structured around the Heliotropic Effect. 

• 2022 - Sophia Veffer

  On May 10, 1940, Germany invaded Holland. During the summer of 1942, Sophia’s family was moved to Hollandse Schouwbrug, a German holding center for “arrested” Amsterdam Jews and first stop on their way the Extermination camps of Sobibor or Auschwitz in Poland. Her father “bought” their freedom and over the next few years, Sophia was hidden by countless families, never being allowed to stay too long. Because of betrayal, she was brought to the Gestapo headquarter in Amsterdam. From there she was sent to Westerbork, a transit camp near the German border in 1944. In January 1945, Sophia was 14 years old and was transported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. There she met a Dutch woman who became her “mother” and gave her the will to live. The camp was liberated by Britain in April 1945. She eventually returned to her hometown where she was reunited with her parents. Sophia came to the United States in 1954. She is dedicated to teaching lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides to Western New York.

• 2021 - No Speaker due to Covid

• 2020- John Sommers

  HARVAC / Bailey Green East Buffalo revitalization Cancelled due to COVID

• 2019 - Harry Dent '75

  Cabin Fever: A Dream, a Journey and a Sharpened Saw

• 2018 - Alex Alyward

  Re-created the 1st Prince Lecture in honor of the 45th anniversary

• 2017 - Vanessa Woods

  Australian bonobo expert, science writer, author and journalist, and is the main Australian/New Zealand feature writer for the Discovery Channel.

• 2016 - Lauren Belfor Sem '71

  First year with Sem at Saturn Club NY Times best-selling novelist.

• 2015 - Jared Hardner '88

  Bio conservationist: an exploration of the nuances and complexity of conserving the many species of life on planet Earth.

• 2014 - James Prosek

  Artist, Writer, Naturalist. At age 19 James was hailed as the next John James Audubon.

• 2013 - Gail Mooney

  Documentary filmmaker and still photographer. Producer of “Opening Our Eyes; Global Stories About the Power of One.” 

• 2012 - Matthew Lee '84

  Chief State Department Correspondent for The Associated Press.

• 2011 - Juan Enriquez

  Co-founder, Synthetic Genomics, Inc., Chairman & CEO, Biotechonomy LLC, Founding Director of Harvard Business School Life Sciences Project.

• 2010 - Dr. Michael Sheridan

  University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor of Geology

• 2009 - Tony Horwitz

  Author and Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Pulitzer Prize Winner

• 2008 - Bill McKibben

  Environmentalist, Author, Scholar in residency at Middlebury College

• 2007 - Sean R. Roberts

  Associate Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Director, International Development Studies Program.

• 2006 - Dr. Matthew L. Davidson

  Research director at the Center for 4th & 5th Rs in the School of Education at SUNY Cortland

• 2005 - Francis Bok

  Author & speaker- Dinka tribesman, former Sudanese slave turned abolitionist. Now employed with American Anti-Slavery group.

• 2004 - JoAnne Deak

  Author & Speaker- an educator and school psychologist

• 2003 - Russell Merrit, Ph.D

  Visiting Professor in Film Studies from Univ. California Berkeley

• 2002 - Austin Hoyt '55

  Public TV producer

• 2001 - Fabienne Chamox Clauss

  Pres. Benoit Chamoux Foundation/author - Cancelled

• 2000 - Dr. Michael F. Roizen '63

  Prof. Of Internal Medicine, Univ. Chicago/author

• 1999 - Mark Guyer

  Assistant Director of Scientific Coordination of National Human Genome Research Institute

• 1998 - Bryan Weis

  "Lily" a one woman production about the Holocaust

• 1997 - The Special Consensus

  A professional touring Blue Grass Band

• 1996 - Wild Wings

  Bird Conservation Sanctuary

• 1995 - Ellen Laipson

  Director of Near East & South Asian Affairs on the National Security Council

• 1994 - William H. Donaldson '49

  Chairman of NY Stock Exchange

• 1993 - John Kennedy Marshall

  Anthropologist/Film maker

• 1992 - Vartan Gregorian

  President of Brown University

• 1991 - Verlyn Klinkenborg

  Author/Buffalo in the 40s

• 1990 - Garrison Keillor

  Humorist

• 1989 - C.Victor Raiser '58

  Chairman Democratic National Committee

• 1988 - Robert Buck

  Former Director of Albright Knox Art Gallery

• 1987 - Jamaica Kinkaid

  Author

• 1986 - Irven DeVore

  Anthropologist

• 1985 - Moorhead Kennedy

  US Foreign Service/Highest ranking Iran hostage

• 1984 - Nils Vigeland

  Chair of Composition Department Manhattan School of Music

• 1983 - David Milch '62

  Television writer

• 1982 - Christopher Lasch

  Author/Urban architecture vs city people

• 1981 - William R. Ferris

  Folklorist/Prof. Of Anthropology

• 1980 - Dr. John E. Hobbie '53

  Research Scientist

• 1979 - Jean Kilbourne

  Writer/feminine issues

• 1978 - Robert Donovan

  Washington correspondent/author

• 1977 - Robert Bly

  Poet/Author

• 1976 - Sidney Wertimer '38

  Prof. Econ/Provost Hamilton College

• 1975 - David G. McCormich '60

  NBC News

• 1974 - John M. Blum

  American History Professor at Yale