William Colglazier, executive officer of the National Academy of Science and chief operating officer of the National Research Council, will speak Thursday at Kansas University.

His free public lecture, “Science and Technology in Addressing Critical Issues Facing the Nation,” will be at 4:30 p.m. in Room 2 of Spahr Classroom at Eaton Hall.

A reception will follow.

The lecture is part of the KU Transportation Research Institute’s Emerging Challenges in Transportation Lecture Series.

Colglazier will discuss transportation-related problems such as global warming and dependency on foreign oil and which new technologies can be used to help solve these problems.

Colglazier has worked at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.