AMHERST, Mass. - "Smart Rooms, Smart Clothes" will be the topic of the fourth lecture in the 1997-98 Distinguished Lecture Series sponsored by the computer science department at the University of Massachusetts. Professor Alex Pentland, academic head of the Media Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will speak on Wed., Dec. 3, in Morrill North, room 329 at 4 p.m. The lecture will be preceded by refreshments at 3:15 p.m. in the atrium outside of the computer science department’s main office in Lederle Graduate Research Center, room A243. The event is free and open to the public.

AMHERST, Mass. - University of Massachusetts economics professor Carmen Diana Deere will present a lecture, "The Yankees are Coming! The Rise and Decline of U.S. Colonies in Cuba, 1898-1930," on Tues., Nov. 25, at 4 p.m. in Memorial Hall. The event is the second in this year''s series of four Distinguished Faculty Lectures, and is free and open to the public. Following the lecture, Deere will be presented with the Chancellor''s Medal in recognition of her contributions to the University. The Chancellor''s Medal is the highest honor bestowed on individuals who have rendered exemplary and extraordinary service to the University. The lecture and presentation will be followed by a reception.

AMHERST, Mass. - Two University of Massachusetts professors are helping to evaluate a long-term plan to keep the largest water system in the world pure. Rutherford Platt, a geographer in the geosciences department, and Paul Barten, a hydrologist in the forestry and wildlife management department, are serving on a panel responsible for determining the best way to keep New York City’s water clean, as it travels from upstate New York to metropolitan kitchen sinks. The committee, called the Committee to Review the New York City Watershed Management Strategy, was named by the National Research Council (NRC).

AMHERST, Mass. - Charles C. Manz, author, researcher, and Nirenberg Professor of Business Leadership at the University of Massachusetts, says management methods that focus on leaders at the expense of followers are obsolete. In today’s fast-moving world economy, business leadership has to come from all parts of a successful organization, Manz says, because, "Ultimately, the best and probably the only real leadership comes from within each person."