DURHAM — Robert J. Lefkowitz, the Duke University researcher who won the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry this month, will give a public talk next week on research, scientific mentoring and other topics.

Lefkowitz will be joined by Duke President Richard Brodhead. The free event begins at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, in the Bryan Center’s Griffith Theater.

Lefkowitz and his former student, Brian K. Kobilka, now a researcher at Stanford University, were awarded the Nobel by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for discoveries about how the body’s cells respond to outside signals – a key to the workings of beta blockers, antihistamines and as many as half of all prescription medications.

Next week’s event will be the first opportunity since the announcement for students and others to hear from Lefkowitz about his 39-year career at the Duke University Medical Center and how his life has changed since winning the prize.

Five people from the Triangle have won a Nobel Prize, going back to 1988, all of them in the sciences.