Women's rights activist Gloria Steinem will speak at 8 tonight in Eisenhower Auditorium as part of Penn State's Distinguished Speakers Series.

She founded Ms. magazine, the first national women's magazine headed by women and has led several prominent feminist organizations including the Ms. Foundation for Women and Voters for Choice.

The speech is free and open to the public, but tickets are required.

Tickets for Steinem's speech are available at the Eisenhower box office as well as for the final speaker in the series, scientist J. Craig Venter who will speak at 8 p.m. Monday in Schwab Auditorium.

Venter recently stepped down as president of Celera Genomics, a company that announced last year that it had deciphered the entire human genetic code, or genome.

He also founded and is chairman of the board of The Institute for Genomic Research.

The Eisenhower box office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.