1729 Plymouth Rd
Ann Arbor
MI 48105
Reception at 6:30pm
Program to follow
We are excited to welcome Janet Gilsdorf to celebrate the launch of her book, Continual Raving: A History of Meningitis and the People Who Conquered It (Oxford University Press). Dr. Gilsdorf is a research scientist, pediatrician, educator and author. She is the Robert P. Kelch Research Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan, where she cares for children with complex infectious diseases, and formerly directed the Haemophilus influenzae research laboratory.
Continual Raving tells the combined stories of how scientists across the 19th and 20th centuries defeated meningitis — not through flawless scientific research, but often through a series of serendipitous events, misplaced assumptions, and flawed conclusions. The result is a story of not just a vanquished disease, but how scientific accomplishment sometimes occurs where it’s least expected.
Reception with light refreshments at 6:30pm, program and book signing to follow.
“In Continual Raving, Dr. Janet Gilsdorf, a true expert, brings alive for all readers a profoundly important history that is a paradigm for disease, failure, progress, and redemption. Recounting the origins and the activities of the protagonists make this is a real story of science, warts and all” — Martin Blaser, Author of Missing Microbes
