'Emerging Leader in Congress' Mark Kirk '81 will speak Nov. 8

Mark Kirk

By Simeon Moss

Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk, an alumnus of Cornell who was named by Congressional Quarterly as one of the "28 Emerging Leaders in Congress," will lecture on campus Nov. 8 on "The Rise of China." The expert on national defense and foreign policy issues has a special interest in China and its relations with the United States.

Kirk's lecture is free and open to the public and will be in the Alice Statler Auditorium of Statler Hall, on campus, beginning at 2 p.m. The lecture is sponsored by the Walter LaFeber and Joel Silbey Fund in American History at Cornell. Kirk's visit to campus over two days also is sponsored by the fund and will include meetings with students and faculty.

A 1981 graduate of Cornell (B.A. degree in history with honors), Kirk was first elected to represent Illinois' 10th congressional district in 2000. He is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and serves on three of its subcommittees -- Foreign Operations, Commerce/Justice/State and Legislative Branch.

Kirk, a Republican, began his congressional career on the staff of his predecessor, Congressman John Porter. He later worked at the World Bank, the State Department, the law firm of Baker & McKenzie and on the U.S. House International Relations Committee.

Kirk is a U.S. Naval Reserve intelligence officer who served during conflicts with Iraq, Haiti and Bosnia and had four tours at sea and three in Panama. In 1999, the U.S. Navy named him "Intelligence Officer of the Year" for his combat service in Kosovo, and he continues to serve one weekend a month in the Pentagon. He is the only member of Congress to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom and was an air crew member over Iraq during Operation Northern Watch.

He holds a master's degree from the London School of Economics and a law degree from the Georgetown Law Center.

The LaFeber-Silbey fund was established at Cornell in 1995 by alumnus David F. Maisel '68 and Martha Maisel in honor of LaFeber, the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch University Professor in history, and Silbey, the President White Professor in History emeritus. Its goal is to give Cornell students the opportunity to meet and talk with distinguished visitors to campus.