An NIU professor received national recognition last week as the guest on a cable talk show.

Professor Andrea Bonnickson, who teaches graduate and undergraduate Biomedical Policy, appeared as a guest on CNN’s “Sonya Live” Oct. 1.

“It was an unusual experience,” Bonnickson said. “It was frustrating only to have a few minutes to answer very complex questions.”

The topic of discussion on the talk show was: “Is it fair to pass along a genetically disfigured diseases via children?”

Bonnickson expressed support for general public discussion of newly-posed issues due to the advances in medical science and technology, such as genetic testing.

Bonnickson was linked from Chicago via satellite with radio talk show host Jane Norris, who publicly raised the issue, and Nancy Lord, Libertarian party vice presidential candidate for the 1992 November presidential elections, and the host Sonya Freidman.

There was a range of views expressed, and the hostess was very smooth with switching speakers and fielding questions from the callers, Bonnickson said.

“It was unusual to do a live talk show, since you are being seen and heard by people at the very moment you speak,” she said.

Bonnickson, whose specialty is biomedical policy, joined NIU this fall, coming here from Eastern Illinois University.

She is also the co-editor of “Emerging Issues in Biomedical Policy: Annual Volume,” which will be published in December.