Doug Biggs

AMES, Iowa — In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, an Ames native and Iowa State University alumnus is “coming home” to discuss epidemics at his alma mater more than a century ago.

Doug Biggs, professor of history at University of Nebraska Kearney, will present “Early Epidemics at Iowa State, 1877-1918” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, online. The WebEx link to watch his lecture can be found at www.lectures.iastate.edu/lectures/early-epidemics-iowa-state-1877-1918.

Biggs was born in Ames, where his father taught geology and earth science at Iowa State. Biggs eventually received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Iowa State, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

In 2009, Biggs became interested in the history of his hometown and his alma mater. This curiosity led to several publications, a book, “Images of America: Ames,” and public lectures on Ames, its historical subjects and Iowa State. 

In this lecture, Biggs will discuss epidemics at Iowa State from 1877 to 1918, including the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 and a typhoid fever outbreak in 1906.

Biggs has written extensively about the political culture of late medieval England, specifically the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. He regularly presents his research at international conferences and he is the managing series editor for “Late Medieval Europe,” a monograph series in the Netherlands. In 2017, Biggs received the prestigious Pratt-Heins Foundation Faculty Award for Outstanding Service to the UNK Community in the area of research/scholarship.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by Student Government.

Find more information about ISU lectures online.