Karen Kashmanian Oates, professor of biochemistry and the dean of arts and sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, is set to visit Iowa State on Thursday for a lecture on the creativity of science and learning.

Oates will present “How People Learn and the Creativity Of Science” on at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union as a part of the Sigma Xi Lecture Series.

Oates served as associate dean for the new College of Integrated and Interdisciplinary Studies at George Mason University, and was later the inaugural provost for the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

While at Harrisburg, she established the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement and helped secure NSF funds for Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibilities, which works to improve undergraduate STEM education by connecting learning to critical civic questions.

In 2012, Oates was inducted as a fellow into the prestigious American Association for the Advancement as a Science Education fellow. She was a Visiting Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Oncology and Hematology division before moving to George Mason.

The lecture Thursday is sponsored by Sigma Xi and the Committee on Lectures.