Participants
Bill Blakemore became a reporter for ABC News 46 years ago, covering a wide variety of stories. He spearheaded ABC’s coverage of global warming, traveling from the tropics to polar regions to report on its impacts, dangers, and possible remedies.
Read MoreMarc Hauser’s award-winning research, at the interface between evolutionary biology and cognitive neuroscience, is aimed at understanding how the minds of human and nonhuman animals evolved.
Read MoreBrian Hare is an expert in chimpanzee and bonobo behavior in African sanctuaries, and founded the Hominoid Psychology Research Group, which compares the psychology of hominoids (human and non-human ape).
Read MoreWinston “Wole” Soboyejo’s research focuses on experimental studies of biomaterials, the mechanical behavior of materials and the development of alternative science and technology-driven methods for addressing global development needs in the areas of health, energy and water purification.
Read MoreMark Moffett began doing research in biology in college and went on to complete a PhD at Harvard. Moffett is known for documenting new animal species and behaviors during his exploration of remote places in more than a hundred countries.
Read MoreLeonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and taught at the California Institute of Technology. He is a popular international speaker and the author of numerous academic papers in physics and eight popular science books, including four best sellers.
Read MoreBevil Conway, originally from Zimbabwe, is an artist and neuroscientist who researches the neural basis for visual behavior, with a focus on color vision, and investigates the relationship between visual processing and visual art.
Read MoreJeremy Niven’s research focuses on the interface between neuroscience, behavior and evolutionary biology in the insect nervous system.
Read MoreRosalind W. Picard is an international leader in envisioning and inventing innovative technology. Her award-winning book Affective Computing was instrumental in starting the new field by that name.
Read MoreIain Couzin is assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. He studies the actions and interactions that give rise to collective behavior—from marching ants and swarming locusts to flocking birds and crowds of people—and what we might learn from successful swarming.
Read MoreDominic Johnson received a D.Phil. in evolutionary biology from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in political science from Geneva University.
Read MoreKlaus Zuberbühler’s award-winning work on the communication and cognition of non-human primates in their natural habitats in Africa, South America and Asia has had a considerable impact on our understanding of primate cognition and, more generally, what it means to be human.
Read MoreE.O. Wilson is a life-long explorer of the natural world whose pioneering studies of ants have led to revolutionary insights across a wide range of fields, from evolution to animal and human behavior.
Read MoreNicola Clayton is professor Comparative Cognition in the Department of Experimental Psychology at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Clare College. Clayton’s work in integrating biology and psychology led to a re-evaluation of the cognitive capacities of animals, particularly birds, resulting in a theory that intelligence evolved independently in at least two disparate groups, apes and corvids.
Read MoreAt Duke University, neurobiologist Erich Jarvis leads a team that studies the abilities of songbirds, parrots and hummingbirds to learn new sounds and pass along a vocal repertoire in to the next generation.
Read MoreOfer Tchernichovski is an Associate Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Animal Behavior at City University of New York’s City College. His work involves mapping the mechanisms of song learning by studying the behavior and dynamics of the sound production of song birds.
Read MoreDan Ariely studies people’s irrational behavior in the marketplace. He is the founder of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, author of the book Predictably Irrational, and the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
Read MoreXavier LePichon is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geophysics at the College de France in Aix en Provence. In addition to his groundbreaking work in geophysics and plate tectonics, Prof. LePichon has done extensive research on human compassionate behavior and how society is structured counter-intuitively to the laws of natural selection.
Read MoreRecognized for his contributions to sleep research, Carlos H. Schenck has helped identify a wide range of extreme sleep behaviors known as parasomnias and therapies to treat them, as well as their potential forensic consequences.
Read MoreLeslie Vosshall is a molecular neurobiologist who studies how behaviors emerge from the integration of sensory input with internal physiological states. She is the Robin Chemers Neustein Professor, Head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, and Director of the Kavli Neural Systems Institute at The Rockefeller University.
Read MoreMatthew Wilson is Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience and Picower Scholar at MIT. His lab is interested in teasing apart the mechanisms of sleep and arousal, and applications of neuroscience in engineering and the study of intelligence.
Read MoreEric Kandel is Kavli Professor and University Professor at Columbia University and a senior investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Read MoreIf reproduction is the engine that drives evolution, why engage in non-conceptive sex? In his attempt to tackle this question, Paul Vasey employs concurrent cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives.
Read MoreJim Pfaus has sex on the brain. An internationally known expert in the neurobiology of sexual behavior, Pfaus has authored over 150 publications and chapters that examine how the brain’s neurochemical and neuroanatomical systems are organized for sexual arousal, desire, pleasure, and inhibition.
Read MoreMatt Ridley is an English science communicator. Educated at Oxford University, where he received a doctorate in zoology, he embarked upon a career as a science writer, serving as science editor for The Economist from 1984 to 1987.
Read MoreAfter having obtained a BA and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Harvard, Corina Tarnita applies her knowledge of mathematics to study evolution and evolutionary dynamics.
Read MoreInternationally renowned neurobiologist James Fallon has made major scientific breakthroughs in the basic and clinical brain sciences. He was the first to describe a characterized growth factor in the central nervous system and the first to show how to stimulate the mass production and mobilization of adult stem cells in the adult brain.
Read MoreMaurizio Porfiri is a professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering.
Read MoreElaine Fuchs pioneered the field of reverse genetics—studying proteins and learning what they do, and how they do it, in order to identify the genetic disease they cause when they malfunction.
Read MoreFrancis Halzen has spent over 20 years working on telescopes that detect not light, but neutrinos—tiny, high-energy particles released by violent astronomical events like exploding stars, gamma-ray bursts and crashing black holes.
Read MoreAlison Brooks is Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at the George Washington University and a founding member of the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology.
Read MoreJames Casey is a Brooklyn-based conservation biologist. Currently, Casey is an Adjunct Laboratory Instructor in the Department of Biology at Barnard College of Columbia University and the Screenings Director for Wicked Delicate Films LLC—a documentary film and advocacy company.
Read MoreOrrin Devinsky is professor of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry at NYU Langone School of Medicine. He directs the NYU Epilepsy Center and St. Barnabas Institute of Neurology.
Read MoreKristin Laidre is a marine mammal ecologist at the University of Washington, Seattle working at the Polar Science Center and the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. She is a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Cetacean Specialist Group and Polar Bear Specialist Group.
Read MoreMarlene Zuk is a biologist and writer who is interested in sex, evolution, and behavior. She is especially interested in the ways that parasites and disease influence those issues. Her current research focuses on rapid evolution and mating behavior in field crickets that live in Hawaii.
Read MorePeter Staley has been a long-term AIDS and gay rights activist, first as a member of ACT UP New York, then as the founding director of TAG, the Treatment Action Group. He served on the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) for 13 years.
Read MoreRonald Hoy is the David and Dorothy Merksamer Professor in biology at Cornell University. Besides teaching at Cornell, he has taught neuroscience and behavior at Cold Spring Harbor Labs and at the marine biological laboratory in Woods Hole, where he was a director of the neural systems and behavior course and, later, director of the Grass Foundation summer fellows program.
Read MoreBorn in the American Midwest, Christof Koch grew up in Holland, Germany, Canada, and Morocco. He studied Physics and Philosophy and was awarded his Ph.D. in Biophysics. In 1987, Koch joined the California Institute of Technology as a Professor in Biology and Engineering.
Read MoreEdward Vessel is an internationally recognized expert on neuroaesthetics. His research combines brain imaging with behavioral and computational approaches to study how individuals are moved by, and get pleasure from, visual experiences.
Read MoreFrances A. Champagne is an associate professor in the department of psychology at Columbia University. Champagne received a master’s degree in psychiatry in 1999 and a doctoral degree in neuroscience in 2004 from McGill University.
Read MoreAlexandra Horowitz is a professor of psychology at Barnard College, Columbia University and author of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know and On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes. The Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard conducts research on a wide range of topics.
Read MoreAnthony Wagner is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Stanford University, where he directs the Stanford Memory Laboratory and co-directs the Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging.
Read MoreJay N. Giedd is a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist, chief of brain imaging at the child psychiatry branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, and an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the department of population, family and reproductive health.
Read MoreAndrew W. Lo is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the director of MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering, a principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, and an affiliated faculty member of the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Read MoreJulie Hecht is a canine researcher and science writer. She manages Alexandra Horowitz’s Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College and has investigated dog olfaction, interspecies play, and theory of mind.
Read MoreJames Fowler is a social scientist studying networks, behavior, evolution, and genetics. He is a professor of political science and medical genetics at the University of California, San Diego, and a 2010 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
Read MoreLila Davachi is Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Director of the Center for Learning, Memory and Emotion at New York University. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and conducted post-doctoral work at MIT.
Read MoreBijan Pesaran is an associate professor with the Center for Neural Science at New York University. Work in his lab seeks to understand and engineer the brain. He has pioneered the study of how populations of neurons communicate to guide behavior.
Read MoreFields Medalist
Edward Witten is Charles Simonyi Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. His work has helped to bridge the gap between mathematics and physics, …
Read MoreAzim Shariff is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and the director of the Culture and Morality Lab. He graduated with his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 2010, before joining the UO faculty.
Read MoreTamar Kushnir is an associate professor at Cornell University and the director of the Early Childhood Cognition Laboratory. Her research examines the origins of causal and social knowledge in early childhood, and how children acquire this knowledge through play, observation, and social interaction.
Read MorePaul Glimcher began his professional career as a neurobiologist interested in how the brain makes decisions. Over the years he has explored many other scientific disciplines that are also concerned with how we make decisions.
Read MoreTanya Lowe has worked with Hawk Creek Wildlife Center, Inc., since 2004. As the director of wildlife education, she has presented Hawk Creek’s free-flying bird shows at the Bronx Zoo, Central Park, and the New York State Fair.
Read MoreJustin M. Rao is a researcher at Microsoft Research in New York City. He did his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his Ph.D. in economics at the University of California in San Diego.
Read MoreKelley Remole, Ph.D., is director of neuroscience outreach at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. She is a trained neuroscientist with a passion for communicating the wonders of the brain. As a doctoral student in neuroscience at Columbia University, she was not content to contain her enthusiasm for science to the lab.
Read MoreLaura Kloepper is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. She researches echolocation in toothed whales, dolphins, and bats.
Read MoreDaphna Shohamy, PhD is a neuroscientist and a professor in the department of Psychology and the Zuckerman Mind, Brain, Behavior Institute at Columbia University. Dr. Shohamy’s research aims to understand the neurobiological and cognitive mechanisms underlying learning, memory, and decision making.
Read MoreSeung-Schik Yoo is a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School, working as an associate professor of Radiology. He also serves as a faculty member of Mind Brain Behavior at Harvard University.
Read MorePamela Abshire is an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her areas of specialty are in the fields of integrated circuit design and bioengineering.
Read MoreBen Matthews is a postdoctoral research associate in the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at The Rockefeller University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He joined the laboratory, run by Leslie Vosshall, in 2010 to study the mosquito Aedes aegypti, a vector of mosquito-borne diseases including Zika virus, Dengue Fever, and Chikungunya.
Read MoreAnthony Zador is a neuroscientist interested in how brain circuits give rise to behavior, and how disruption of brain circuits can lead to neuropsychiatric disorders like autism, depression, and schizophrenia.
Read MoreDeanna Barch is currently Chair of the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences and the Gregory Couch Chair of Psychiatry. She received her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
Read MoreDr. Eleanor Sterling is Chief Conservation Scientist at the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. She has over thirty years of international field research and community outreach experience in terrestrial and marine systems.
Read MoreNim Tottenham, PhD is an associate professor of Psychology at Columbia University and director of the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. Her research examines brain development underlying emotional behavior in humans.
Read MoreDr. Elizabeth Hillman is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at Columbia University, and a member of the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and Kavli Institute for Brain Science.
Read MoreDr. Diana Reiss is a cognitive psychologist, marine mammal scientist, and professor in the Department of Psychology at Hunter College and the Animal Behavior and Comparative Psychology Doctoral program at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Read MoreDr. Jennifer Rosati is a forensic entomologist and assistant professor in the Department of Sciences at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. As a forensic entomologist, she uses insect development and behavior to help with post-mortem interval estimations or time since death.
Read MoreBarbara J. King is an anthropologist and author. For 28 years she taught biological anthropology, primate behavior, and human evolution at the College of William and Mary. She is the author of six books and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Read MoreMatt Lanier has worked at the Staten Island Zoo for almost 17 years. During his time in Staten Island, he helped in the development and construction of a new Reptile Wing. His everyday animal duties at the zoo have mainly focused on the care and maintenance of the large venomous collection which includes cobras, Asian pit vipers, and of course rattlesnakes, which the Staten Island Zoo is known for around the world.
Read MorePsyche Loui is an Assistant Professor in Psychology and in Neuroscience and Behavior at Wesleyan University. She graduated from University of California, Berkeley with her PhD in Psychology, and attended Duke University as an undergraduate with degrees in Psychology and Music.
Read MoreMeagan Curtis is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Purchase College SUNY. Her research explores the evolutionary origins of music, its links with language, and the multitude of ways in which music can be utilized as a tool.
Read MoreMichael Salling is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. His research focuses on identifying the acute and long-term effects of alcohol on the brain throughout the lifespan.
Read MoreBrian Avers’ Broadway credits include American Son, The Father (opposite Frank Langella), Rock N’ Roll by Tom Stoppard, Travesties (Stoppard), and The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh.
Read MoreRick Potts, PhD, heads the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program at the National Museum of Natural History. Since joining the Smithsonian, Potts’s research has focused on piecing together the record of Earth’s environmental change and human adaptation.
Read MoreBeau Lotto is a world-renowned neuroscientist who specializes in the biology and psychology of perception. His interest in education, business, and the arts has led him into entrepreneurship and engaging the public with science.
Read MoreRonald Arkin is Regents’ Professor and Director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory at Georgia Tech. He served as visiting professor at KTH Stockholm, Sabbatical Chair at Sony in Tokyo, member Robotics/AI Group at LAAS/CNRS in Toulouse, and in Queensland University of Technology and CSIRO/Brisbane.
Read MoreCatherine Hartley is an assistant professor of Psychology. She holds a PhD in Psychology from New York University and a BS in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. Her research examines how learning and decision-making change as the brain develops from childhood to adulthood.
Read MoreNaomi Leonard is the Edwin S. Wilsey Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and associated faculty member of the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton University.
Read MoreFrank Grasso directs the Biomimetic and Cognitive Robotics lab which researches the control, organization, and coordination of behavior using robots and living animals.
Read MoreGül Dölen is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her laboratory’s work focuses on how plasticity and neuromodulation govern social behavior and how …
Read MoreGail Robinson is Director of the Clinical Neuropsychology Doctoral Programme at the University of Queensland. She is a clinical neuropsychologist and her research is focused on both theoretical questions regarding …
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