Speakers

Physicist-turned-philosopher David Albert is world renowned for his insights into the thorny philosophical questions raised by quantum mechanics. He is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. read more

Alan Alda is a six-time Emmy Award–winning actor, writer, and director. He has interviewed hundreds of scientists from around the world as host of PBS's long-running program Scientific American Frontiers, and received the National Science Board’s Public Service Award for his efforts in broadening the public’s understanding of science. read more

Neuroscientist Nancy Andreasen is well known for her pioneering work using MRI imaging to explore mental illness and the neural bases for artistic creativity and innovation. She is the author of several books including The Creating Brain: The Neuroscience of Genius and is both the Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa and Director of the Iowa Mental Health Clinical Research Center. read more

Misha Angrist is a 43-year-old male who is near-sighted and has a family history of heat disease. He has 23 pairs of chromosomes, a wife and two children. read more

Apsell heads the flagship PBS science series, NOVA, now in its 35th year.  Under Apsell’s leadership, NOVA has won every major broadcast award and is the most popular science series on television. read more

Karole Armitage is a dancer and choreographer widely known for combining disparate styles and themes with the discipline and techniques of classical ballet. She is the artistic director of Armitage Gone! Dance, a company based in New York City. read more

As the son of a Vermont farmer, Eben Bayer has an acute sense of the stakes in the race for environmentally sustainable technologies. Bayer is a cofounder of Ecovative Design, the Oxford International Business Plan Competition-winning green startup, where he is developing sustainable building materials and packaging products. read more

Arthur Benjamin is a mathematician and magician whose performances of numerical wizardry have entertained and amazed audiences worldwide. The author of several books including Secrets of Mental Math, Benjamin was named "America's Best Math Whiz" by Reader's Digest. He is a Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California. read more

Steven Benner is one of the pioneers of synthetic biology, which seeks to create artificial living systems. He is a Distinguished Fellow at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Florida and a founder of the Westheimer Institute for Science. read more

Cynthia Breazeal is an associate professor of media arts and sciences and the director of the personal robots group at the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. She is an expert on the interaction between people and sociable robots. read more

Blaine Brownell is an architect with expertise in how revolutionary eco-materials have the potential to facilitate sustainable building and design. He is a Visiting Professor in Sustainability at the University of Michigan as well as founder and director of the design/materials research firm, Transstudio. read more

Robert Butler is a pioneer in gerontology — the study of aging and its biological, psychological, and social implications. His book, Why Survive? Being Old in America, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976. Butler is director and CEO of the U.S. branch of the International Longevity Center in New York City. read more

Majora Carter is a leading environmentalist whose rallying cry is “Green the Ghetto.” A 2005 MacArthur fellow, she is the founder of Sustainable South Bronx, a community-based organization that is spearheading efforts to revitalize disadvantaged neighborhoods in New York City and beyond. read more

Neuroethicist Patricia Churchland explores the complex philosophical and ethical impact that the rapidly expanding field of neuroscience has on society. She is the President's Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, and an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla. read more

Francis Collins led the Human Genome Project, which was first to sequence all of the information encoded in human DNA. His research focuses on the relationship between genetic variation and diseases. He is the Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. read more

Brian Cox is a physicist and BBC television and radio presenter who appears in programs such as In Einstein’s Shadow, Bitesize and Horizon. read more

Tom Crawford, former Director of Coaching for the United States Olympic Committee and former Senior Director of the National Institute for Fitness and Sport, is an expert on human performance in sports. Throughout his career, he has helped top athletes perform at the highest possible level. read more

Antonio Damasio is a leading neuroscientist who studies the neural basis of emotions, memory, language and consciousness. He is a professor of psychology and neurology, the David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience, and Director of the Brain and Creativity Institute all at the University of Southern California. read more

Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, and author of numerous books about science for a general audience. His research ranges from the origin of the universe to the origin of life. Davies is the director of the BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University. read more

Eric DeCamps has been a serious student of the art of magic for over 30 years. He is the recipient of the Gold Medal of Excellence for Close-up Magic from The Society of American Magicians; only the second magician in the 106 year history of the organization to receive this prestigious award. read more

Daniel Dennett is a philosopher who studies mind and consciousness through the lens of evolutionary biology and cognitive science. Author of several bestselling books including Darwin’s Dangerous Idea and Consciousness Explained, he is the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. read more

Dickson Despommier is a pioneering researcher in the development of urban vertical farm skyscrapers for food production. He is a professor of public health in environmental health sciences at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. read more

Environmental entrepreneur Josh Dorfman contends that individuals can make a positive impact on the environment through their consumer choices. He is the author of The Lazy Environmentalist and was host of the Sirius Satellite Radio show of the same name. Dorfman is the founder and CEO of Vivavi, named by Inc. Magazine as one of the top 50 companies driving today’s green revolution. read more

David Eagleman studies the human perception of time as well as synesthesia, a condition in which stimulation to one sense triggers an involuntary response in others. A psychologist and biomedical engineer, he is Director of the Laboratory for Perception and Action and an assistant professor of neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. read more

Sylvia Earle is an oceanographer, marine botanist, ecologist, and writer. The National Geographic Society's explorer-in-residence since 1998, she tirelessly works for the preservation and exploration of the world's marine ecosystems. She has led more than 50 expeditions and spent more than 6,500 hours of her life underwater. read more

Nathan Englander's story collection, For the Relief of Unbearable Urges became an international bestseller, earning him both the PEN/Faulkner Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2000. His first novel, The Ministry of Special Cases, was published in Spring 2007. read more

Physician and geneticist James Evans uses family history and genetic testing to evaluate and counsel patients about their risk for cancer. His research explores how genetics influences an individual’s response to medication. He is a professor of medicine and the director of Clinical Cancer Genetics and The Bryson Program in Human Genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. read more

Mark Oliver Everett is the lead singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and the creative force behind the independent rock band, Eels. He is the son of Hugh Everett III, the physicist who proposed the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. read more

Ira Flatow is an award-winning radio and television journalist, who has been interviewing top scientists and researchers for over thirty-five years. He is the host of National Public Radio’s Science Friday and is the author of several acclaimed science books. read more

Alan Friedman is a consultant in the areas of museum development and science communication. He has consulted for over sixty institutions around the world. From 1984 to 2006, Friedman was the Director and CEO of the New York Hall of Science. He is co-author of the book, Einstein as Myth and Muse. read more

Peter Galison is a leading science historian whose research explores the interaction of experimentation, instrumentation and theory in physics. An author, film producer and MacArthur Award-winner, he is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. read more

Jim Gates is known for his pioneering work in particle physics seeking a unified description of all physics. A committed researcher and educator, he is the Toll Physics Professor and director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland. read more

A plant biologist and virologist by training, Robert Goodman is a world authority on soil microorganisms and plant disease. His recent research explores the diversity of microorganisms in soil, and their resistance to cultivation. read more

Brian Greene, whose books The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of the Cosmos each spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list, has been described by the Washington Post as “the single best explainer of abstruse ideas in the world today.” He is professor of physics and of mathematics at Columbia University, and was host of the Peabody- and Emmy award-winning NOVA adaptation of The Elegant Universe. read more

Saul Griffith is the President and Chief Scientist at Makani Power, a company that is seeking to harness clean energy from high-altitude wind. He is a 2007 MacArthur Award-winning inventor, entrepreneur and writer. read more

Heidi Hammel is a planetary scientist at the Space Science Institute in Boulder and is a devoted educator with a particular interest in bringing science to children and young people. She is a recipient of the Sagan Medal awarded by the American Astronomical Society for outstanding communication to the general public. read more

Award-winning artist Jonathan Harris combines elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling to explore and explain the human world. His work has been exhibited at Le Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art. read more

A managing partner at the consulting firm, Haseltine Partners, Eric Haseltine is a neuroscientist who has applied new discoveries about the human brain in fields as diverse as aerospace technology, virtual reality, special effects, journalism, entertainment and, most recently, national security and intelligence. read more

Marc Hauser is an evolutionary biologist and psychologist, and the author of Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. He is the director of the Cognitive Evolution Laboratory and the co-director of the Mind, Brain, and Behavior Program, both at Harvard University. read more

Lucy Hawking is a journalist and the author of several novels. With her father, the physicist Stephen Hawking, she has written George's Secret Key to the Universe, a children's adventure featuring the mysteries of physics, science and the Universe. read more

Peter Head is an expert on the sustainable development of cities and the project leader for China’s first eco-city, Dongtan. An award-winning structural engineer, he is the director of Global Planning at Arup, the worldwide engineering, design, and consulting firm. Head was recently named one of "50 global green heroes who could save the planet" by The Guardian newspaper. read more

Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of Time Magazine. He is the author of Einstein: His Life and Universe, as well as biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger. read more

Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson has devoted over a decade to science public policy, serving from 1995 to 1999, at the behest of President Clinton, as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She was recently selected to receive the 2007 Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Board for her lifetime of contributions in science, education and public policy. Jackson is president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. read more

As lead innovator of "One Laptop Per Child", Mary Lou Jepsen created the world's most inexpensive, low-power laptop, enabling its distribution to children in developing countries. Her company, Pixel Qi aims to revolutionize the electronics industry with a new generation of screens. In May 2008 Time Magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. read more

Mitchell Joachim is an architect and urban designer as well as a partner in Terreform, a New York–based organization for philanthropic architecture and ecological design. His design of a compact, stackable “city car,” developed with the MIT Smart Cities Group, won the 2007 Time Magazine Best Invention of the Year. read more

Dr. Tim Johnson is a physician and, since 1975, the chief medical correspondent for ABC News. He is also an ordained minister. read more

Bill T. Jones, a Tony Award-winning choreographer and dancer, has changed the face of American dance. He has infused issues of identity, form and social commentary into hundreds of award winning shows worldwide. Jones is the artistic director and co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in New York City. read more

Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and host of the nationally syndicated radio shows, Science Fantastic and Explorations in Science. He is the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics, at the City University of New York. read more

Sandra Kaufmann choreographs for concert dance, video, musical and theatrical productions. She has taught throughout the US and abroad and has served on the faculty of Barnard College, NYU, University of Chicago and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Currently Sandra is the Director of Dance at Loyola University Chicago. read more

A leading thinker on geoengineering and a prize-winning physicist, David Keith works at the interface between climate science, energy technology and public policy. He is particularly interested in finding viable ways to capture and store CO₂ including the direct capture of CO₂ from the atmosphere. read more

Plant physiologist and inventor M. Glen Kertz has been a global leader in the fields of molecular genetics, plant tissue and cell culture for over 35 years. He is president and director of research and development for Valcent Products Inc., a company aiming to bring to market algae-to-biofuel technology. read more

Helge Kragh is a leading science historian whose research focuses on the history of cosmology. He is the author of several books including, Cosmology and Controversy and Conceptions of the Cosmos. Kragh is a professor in the History of Science Department at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. read more

Bernie Krause is a bioacoustician — an expert on the sounds of nature — who has traveled the world recording and archiving the sounds of endangered creatures and environments. He is President and CEO of Wild Sanctuary, Inc., one of the world’s largest archives of natural sounds. read more

Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist and best-selling author whose research focuses on the origin and evolution of the universe. He has written several general level science books, including The Physics of Star Trek, and is a frequent editorialist in magazines and newspapers. Krauss is the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics at Case Western Reserve University. read more

Robert Krulwich is an award-winning radio and television journalist who has been called ‘the most inventive network reporter in television’ by TV Guide. He is an ABC News correspondent and co-host of NPR’s science documentary program Radio Lab. read more

Paleontologist Richard Leakey’s discoveries have helped shape our understanding of human origins. He is a committed conservationist and staunch advocate for the protection of Kenyan wildlife. A former director of Kenya’s Wildlife Service, he is the author of several books including The Sixth Extinction. read more

Leon Lederman is the Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, Pritzker Professor of Science at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and a recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is also the author of several popular books, including The God Particle and Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe. read more

Emergency physician and avid outdoorsman, Jay Lemery is an authority on the effects of wilderness exposure on the human body. He is known for research on treatments for conditions resulting from high altitude climbing, natural and environmental disasters, and the exposure to other extreme environments. He is an assistant professor and the director of wilderness and environmental medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College as well as an assistant professor at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. read more

Lukas Ligeti is a composer whose works combine downtown New York experimentalism with contemporary classical music, jazz, electronica, and world music. read more

Alan Lightman's novel Einstein's Dreams was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. Both a distinguished physicist and an accomplished novelist, Lightman was the first professor at MIT to receive a joint appointment in the sciences and the humanities. read more

Doug Liman is an American film director and producer, whose credits include The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). read more

Marilyn Maye is an award-winning, renowned jazz singer who has been named an Official Jazz Legend by the American Jazz Museum. She has been onstage with many of the greatest jazz performers, including Count Basie, Charlie "Bird" Parker, and Big Joe Turner. read more

A cofounder of Ecovative Design, Gavin McIntyre is an avid backpacker with an intense interest in preserving the natural world. Under McIntyre's direction, Ecovative garnered a grant from the New York State Energy and Development Authority to fund the testing of its flagship product, Greensulate™ organic insulation. read more

Christopher McKay is a planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center and a co-investigator for NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission, scheduled to land on Mars in May 2008. In addition to studying the atmospheres and environments of far-away planets , he uses Earth's extreme environments such as the Antarctic, Siberia and the Canadian Arctic in order to learn about possibilities for human habitation of other planets and to plan for future manned missions to Mars and the Moon. read more

Chemist Dan Nocera is developing ways to derive clean renewable solar energy by replicating basic chemical reactions similar to those used by plants in the process of photosynthesis. A vocal advocate of solar power, he is the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy and a professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. read more

Nobel Prize-winner Paul Nurse is President of Rockefeller University. The recipient of many awards, he was knighted in Great Britain for his contributions to cancer research and cell biology. He has interviewed numerous scientists as the co-host of The Charlie Rose Science Series on PBS. read more

Physicist Lyman Page measures and observes cosmic radiation left over from the Big Bang to better understand the very early universe and how it has since evolved. He is the Henry DeWolf Smyth Professor of Physics at Princeton University. read more

MTV News correspondent SuChin Pak, began her television career as host of the PBS Science program Newton's Apple. She has hosted the MTV Video Music Awards, the Movie Awards, and the documentary series My Life Translated. She will host The G-Word on Discovery’s forthcoming eco-lifestyle network, Planet Green. read more

Nobel Prize-winning physicist William Phillips is a professor at the University of Maryland and leads the Laser Cooling and Trapping Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His research on manipulating atoms with laser light has led to more accurate atomic clocks and a more fundamental understanding of light-matter interactions. read more

Peter Pringle is author of The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov and co-author of nine previous books. His book, Food Inc., traced the history of biotech agriculture. The former Moscow bureau chief for The Independent, he has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic and The Nation. read more

V.S. Ramachandran investigates the nature of self and human consciousness. His work spans the causes and effects of synesthesia and phantom limb pain to questions about visual perception and the brain. He is Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego. read more

A prize-winning journalist and author, Andrew Revkin has been a reporter for the New York Times since 1995, mainly covering environmental issues in their social and political context. His blog, Dot Earth, engages the public in a discussion of strategies for balancing human activity with the planet's limited resources. He has written books on the Amazon, Arctic, and global warming. read more

Sociologist Nikolas Rose is interested in how genomics affects personal identity and the social and legal ramifications of studying the human genome. He is the James Martin White Professor of Sociology and the Director of the BIOS Centre for the Study of Bioscience, Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Society at the London School of Economics. read more

Sherwood Rowland studies the Earth's atmosphere in remote locations from Alaska to New Zealand, in highly polluted cities, and in areas with special conditions such as burning forests. He is best known for the discovery that chlorofluorocarbons contribute to ozone depletion, which earned him the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is the Bren Research Professor in Chemistry and Earth System Science at the University of California, Irvine. read more

Neurologist Oliver Sacks has spent a lifetime exploring a vast array of human experience – from Tourette's syndrome and autism to phantom limb syndrome and schizophrenia. His many best-selling books include Uncle Tungsten, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Awakenings, which became an acclaimed film. Sacks is a professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. His writings appear regularly in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. read more

James Schamus is an award-winning screenwriter and producer. He is the CEO of Focus Features, whose films have included Brokeback Mountain, Lost in Translation, and Atonement. Schamus is an associate professor of film at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. read more

Walt Disney Imagineer Ben Schwegler invents and builds new technologies that make theme parks and resorts the stuff of dreams and adventure. The creator of the Simulation-based Design Group, he is particularly interested in the development of sustainable engineering techniques. He was instrumental in the creation of the most energy efficient theme park ever built as well as a new generation of environmentally-friendly fireworks. read more

David Sinclair’s research focuses upon the search for genes and small molecules capable of slowing the pace of aging in cells and on preventing diseases associated with old age. He is an associate professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and an associate member of the Harvard-MIT Broad Institute for Bioinformatics. read more

Experimental particle physicist Maria Spiropulu is searching for physical evidence of exotic elementary particles and hidden extra dimensions that are predicted by theoretical physics. A research physicist at CERN, she works on the Large Hadron Collider. read more

Paul Steinhardt is a theoretical physicist and one of the architects of the "inflationary model" which says the universe began a rapid, accelerated expansion shortly after the Big Bang. He is the Albert Einstein Professor of Science and professor of theoretical physics at Princeton University. read more

Theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind is one of the discoverers of string theory, a candidate for a theory that unifies all laws of physics. An award-winning author, he is a proponent of the idea that our universe is one of an infinite number. Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stanford University. read more

Computer scientist Latanya Sweeney is interested in the intersection between technology and policy. She has had a major impact on the health care industry and on the creation of systems and legislation that insure patients, privacy rights. She is Director of the Data Privacy Lab and an assistant professor of computer science, technology, and policy at Carnegie Mellon University. read more

Ian Tattersall is a prominent anthropologist whose work focuses on the evolution of humans and other primates. He is a curator for the division of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the City University of New York. read more

Betsy Taylor is the president of the board of directors of the non-profit organization 1Sky, founded in 2007 to mobilize a grass-roots campaign demanding federal action to reverse climate change. She has spent more than 20 years leading efforts to organize, fund and advise groups devoted to promoting energy conservation and community building. read more

Max Tegmark is a leading cosmologist and an ardent proponent of the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. He is a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. read more

David Thoreson is an adventurer, photographer and sailor who has bicycled 10,000 miles around North America; sailed 36,000 miles around the planet; and crossed the Atlantic three times by sail. In the summer of 2007, he completed the Northwest Passage, where he filmed a documentary about the effects of climate change. read more

Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Giulio Tononi is a world authority on the neurology of sleep and has spent much of his scientific career exploring the biological basis for consciousness. A professor of psychiatry and the Distinguished Chair in Consciousness Science at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, Tononi explores connections between consciousness and personality through the lens of art and philosophy. read more

Margaret Turnbull leads the science team of the NASA New Worlds Observer mission looking for Earth-like planets and signs of alien life. She is an astrobiologist at the Global Science Institute in Wisconsin. read more

Michael Turner is a theoretical cosmologist who coined the term dark energy. His research focuses on the earliest moments of creation and he has made seminal contributions to the understanding of inflationary cosmology, particle dark matter, and the theory of the big-bang. read more