U.S. CENTCOM Commander and Army General David H. Petraeus will speak on campus January 19 at 2:30pm in Georgia Tech's Ferst Center. A Colonel Leslie Callahan Memorial Endowment Lecture, Petraeus' speech was arranged by the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP) within the Ivan Allen College's Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.

Seats are no longer available, but the event can be watched via live webcast at the link provided at the bottom of this article.

As Commanding General of the Multi-National Force "" Iraq, Petraeus was the architect and leader of the June 2007 "surge" in Iraq where a change in tactics backed by an influx of about 30,000 additional troops seized the initiative from the insurgents. He assumed command of the United States Central Command in October 2008 and oversees a "whole government approach" to operations in the Middle East and Central Asia. CENTCOM has been the main American presence in many military operations, including the Gulf War and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

During his time on campus, Petraeus will focus on interactions with Georgia Tech students. He will meet with senior ROTC Air Force, Army, and Navy cadets and midshipmen and their unit leadership. Petraeus will deliver a speech "Update from CENTCOM" followed by a moderated Q&A with students from across campus. Petraeus will also meet with Georgia Tech President G.P. "Bud" Peterson, Ivan Allen College Interim Dean Ken Knoespel, Acting Chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs Brian Woodall, CISTP co-Director Adam Stulberg, Georgia Tech Research Institute Director Steve Cross, College of Engineering Dean Don Giddens, Associate Vice President for Communications & Marketing James Fetig, and CISTP Program Coordinator Angela Levin.

Petraeus was commissioned in the Infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1974. He holds MPA and PhD degrees in international relations from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Colonel Leslie Callahan, for whom the memorial endowment is named, joined the Georgia Tech Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) faculty in 1969 after a twenty-five year military career. He established the Callahan Endowment in 1993.