2008 World Science Summit

Keynote Address

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's keynote address encouraged the Summit's distinguished participants to work together in addressing “the tragic lag between what we know and what we do.” His words set a fitting tone for the start of the Festival program as he discussed the importance of facilitating a connection between science and society.

The Kavli Prizes

An exclusive simulcast from Oslo, Norway named the laureates of the inaugural multimillion dollar Kavli Prizes, awards which honor the world's most prominent researchers in astrophysics, nanoscience, and neuroscience.
The winners of these prestigious awards were:

Astrophysics Prize
Maarten Schmidt, California Institute of Technology, United States
Donald Lynden-Bell, Cambridge University, United Kingdom

Nanoscience Prize
Louis E. Brus, Columbia University, United States
Sumio Iijima, Meijo University, Japan

Neuroscience Prize
Pasko Rakic, Yale University School of Medicine, United States
Thomas Jessell, Columbia University, United States
Sten Grillner, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

The Big, the Small and the Complex

Participants:

• Alan Alda, Six-time Emmy Award-winning Actor, Writer & Director
• David Gross, Director, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California at Santa Barbara; Nobel Laureate, Physics
• Michael Turner, Astrophysicist, University of Chicago
• Horst Stormer, Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Columbia University; Nobel Laureate, Physics
• Joseph LeDoux, Neuroscientist, New York University

Radical Science for a Warming Planet

Participants:

• Walter Isaacson, President and CEO, The Aspen Institute
• Steven Chu, Director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Nobel Laureate, Physics
• Dickson Despommier, Professor, Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences, Columbia University
• Peter Head, Director and Head of Global Planning, Arup

Science — The New Foreign Policy

Participants:

• Robert Bazell, Emmy Award-winning Journalist
• Harold Varmus, President and CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Former Director, National Institutes of Health; Nobel Laureate, Medicine
• David Baltimore, Chairman, American Association for the Advancement of Science; Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology; Former President, California Institute of Technology; Nobel Laureate, Chemistry
• F. Sherwood Rowland, Professor of Chemistry, University of California Irvine; Nobel Laureate, Chemistry
• Nina Fedoroff, Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State and the Administration of USAID

Building a Better Brain

Participants:

• Elizabeth Vargas, ABC News Anchor and Correspondent
• John Donoghue, Neuroscientist, Brown University
• Andrew Schwartz, Professor of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh
• Nicholas Schiff, Neurologist, Weill Cornell Medical College
• Joseph Jack Fins, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Cornell Medical College

Brian Greene, co-founder of the World Science Festival, was joined by Paul Calello, CEO of Investment Banking for Credit Suisse, Principal Sponsor of the Summit and Festival, James Simons, on behalf of the Simons Foundation and Doron Weber of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, both Founding Benefactors of the Festival, in welcoming guests to the Summit's Roundtable Luncheon. Throughout the luncheon, table leaders guided informal discussions of the following topics:

The Role of the Scientist in Society

• Walter Isaacson, President and CEO, The Aspen Institute
• David Gross, Director, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California at Santa Barbara; Nobel Laureate, Physics

Science Education

• Carl Wieman, Director, Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative, University of British Columbia; Director, Colorado Science Education Initiative; Nobel Laureate, Physics
• Leon Lederman, Pritzker Professor of Science, Illinois Institute of Technology; Director Emeritus, Fermilab; Resident Scholar, Illinois Mathematical and Science Academy; Nobel Laureate, Physics

The Unconscious in Control

• Daniel Dennett, Co-Director, Center for Cognitive Studies, Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University
• David Eagleman, Neuroscientist, Baylor College of Medicine

Science Without Borders

• Zafra Lerman, Distinguished Professor of Science and Public Policy, Head of the Institute for Science Education and Science Communication, Columbia College, Chicago
• Alan Lightman, Adjunct Professor of Humanities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Jim Gates, Toll Physics Professor and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory, University of Maryland in College Park

Eco-innovation

• Ben Schwegler, Chief Scientist, Walt Disney Imagineering R&D
• Mitchell Joachim, Architect and Urban Designer, Partner, Terraform