As part of its 90th anniversary celebration, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation announced this week that it will host four free lectures on innovation in October and November at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery.

“Some of the university’s leading innovators have never met,” WARF Managing Director Carl Gulbrandsen said in a statement. “We’re going to bring many of them together over four sessions that celebrate the great partnership shared between the UW campus and WARF.”

A panel of UW researchers will discuss “The Rationale for Basic Research” from 4-5 p.m. Oct. 14. The following week, a panel of UW faculty will discuss “Invention: Serendipity, Necessity and Ah-Ha” from 4-5 p.m. Oct. 22.

Exact Sciences CEO Kevin Conroy will moderate a discussion on the interrelationship between academia and industry from 4-5 p.m. Nov. 2. The final lecture will feature a discussion on investing in research with Gulbrandsen and UW Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education Marsha Mailick from 4-5 p.m. Nov. 18.