Participants
Alan Alda, a seven-time Emmy® Award winner, played Hawkeye Pierce and wrote many of the episodes on the classic TV series M*A*S*H. He has starred in, written, and directed many films, and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in The Aviator.
Read MoreChuck Close is a visual artist noted for his highly inventive techniques used to paint the human face, and is best known for his large-scale, photo-based portrait paintings. He has also participated in nearly 800 group exhibitions. In 1988, Close was paralyzed following a rare spinal artery collapse; he continues to paint using a brush-holding device strapped to his wrist and forearm.
Read MoreThree-time Peabody Award winner, four-time Emmy Award winner, and Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry has broad experience as a journalist and commentator for more than two decades. Hockenberry is the anchor of the public radio show The Takeaway on WNYC and PRI.
Read MoreCharlie Kaufman wrote the screenplays for Being John Malkovich, Human Nature, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaptation, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for which he won an Academy Award for best screenplay.
Read MoreLawrence Krauss is an internationally known theoretical physicist and best-selling author. His research focuses on the intersection of cosmology and elementary particle physics. Krauss’s work addresses questions about the origin of matter in the universe.
Read MoreGiulio Tononi is an award-winning psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose main focus has been the scientific understanding of consciousness. His integrated information theory is a comprehensive theory of what consciousness is, how it can be measured, and how it is realized in the brain.
Read MoreBrian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, and is recognized for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in his field of superstring theory. His books, The Elegant Universe, The Fabric of the Cosmos, and The Hidden Reality, have collectively spent 65 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
Read MoreTracy Day is the co-founder of the World Science Festival. She serves as CEO, overseeing the creative and programmatic offerings of the Festival and producing original theatrical, musical and multimedia works at the intersection of science and art.
Read MoreDavid Charbonneau has been called a “celestial detective” for his systematic search for planets orbiting nearby sun-like stars. Uncovering the secrets of these exoplanets, as they’re called, could conceivably lead to the first direct evidence of life beyond Earth.
Read MoreSteven W. Squyres is a veteran of several of NASA’s planetary exploration missions, including the Voyager mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the Magellan mission to Venus, and the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission.
Read MoreMichael Russell’s research into the emergence of life and early evolution will help determine whether earth alone supports life in our universe. Russell was awarded the William Smith Medal from the Geological Society of London.
Read MoreKip Thorne is the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, at Caltech. He was the co-founder (with Rai Weiss and Ron Drever) of the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) Project and he chaired the steering committee that led LIGO in its earliest years.
Read MoreCalled the “Renaissance Man of Evolutionary Biology” by The New York Times, Francisco J. Ayala has made significant and wide-ranging experimental and theoretical contributions to evolution theory.
Read MoreA professional magician, Arthur Benjamin can multiply large numbers faster than a calculator, figure out the weekday of any date in history, and has memorized the decimal numbers of Pi out to 100 digits.
Read MoreBill 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 MorePatrick Cavanagh helped change vision research by creating the Vision Sciences Lab at Harvard and the Centre of Attention & Vision in Paris. He is currently researching the problems of attention as a frequent component of mental illnesses, learning difficulties at school, and workplace accidents.
Read MoreRichard Besser is ABC News’ chief health and medical editor. In this role, he provides medical analysis and commentary for all ABC News broadcasts and platforms, including World News with David Muir, Good Morning America, and Nightline.
Read MoreGregory Chaitin is a mathematician and computer scientist who began making lasting contributions to his field while still a student at the Bronx High School of Science. His approach to mathematics views the field as much as an art form as science and inextricably linked with philosophical questions.
Read MoreRaphael Bousso is recognized for discovering the general relation between the curved geometry of space-time and its information content, known as the “covariant entropy bound.” This allowed for a precise and general formulation of the holographic principle, which is believed to underlie the unification of quantum theory and Einstein’s theory of gravity.
Read MoreJill Tarter has devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient beings elsewhere through a systematic search for radio signals from Earth’s galactic neighbors. She has received wide recognition in the scientific community, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace, two Public Service Medals from NASA and a 2009 TEDPrize.
Read MoreLuciano Floridi is one of Italy’s most influential thinkers in the area of philosophy science, technology, and ethics, and is best known as the founder of two major areas of research, Information Ethics and the Philosophy of Information. Dr. Floridi is the first philosopher elected Gauss Professor by the Göttingen Academy of Sciences.
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 MorePatrick R. Hof is an expert in the pathology of neuropsychiatric disorders whose laboratory is internationally known for its quantitative approaches to neuroanatomy and studies of brain evolution. Among his major contributions, Dr. Hof demonstrated that specific neurons are selectively vulnerable in dementing disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Read MoreDennis Hong, a TED alumnus, is an associate professor and the founding director of RoMeLa (Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory) of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech.
Read MoreDavid Gallo was one of the first oceanographers to use a combination of submarines and robots to map the undersea world. The Director of Special Projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he has taken part in an exploration of RMS Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck using the Russian MIR submarines, as well as a recent expedition to find the lost WWII submarine USS Grunion.
Read MoreRebecca Newberger Goldstein’s Orthodox Jewish background and advanced studies in philosophy came together in an original writing style for which she has been widely recognized.
Read MoreAward-winning physicist Shamit Kachru is an expert in string theory and quantum field theory, and their applications in cosmology, condensed matter physics, and elementary particle theory.
Read MoreDanish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard explores sound in art with a scientific approach. He focuses on the scientific and aesthetic aspects of resonance, time, sound and hearing. His installations, compositions, and performances deal with acoustic spaces and phenomena that usually remain imperceptible.
Read MoreLinda Dalrymple Henderson is the acknowledged expert on the history of modern artists’ engagement with a possible fourth dimension of space, a widespread cultural preoccupation in the early 20th century before the popularization of the temporal fourth dimension of Einstein’s Relativity Theory.
Read MoreThupten Jinpa has been the principal English translator to the Dalai Lama for more than 25 years and has translated and edited many of his books, including Ethics for the New Millennium; Transforming the Mind; The Universe in a Single Atom: Convergence of Science and Spirituality.
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 MoreMichio Kaku is one of the founders of string field theory, a field of research within string theory. He’s also the host of Sci Fi Science, the top-rated new series on the Science Channel, which is based on his New York Times best-selling book Physics of the Impossible.
Read MoreAndrea Lommen has been a pioneer in detecting gravitational waves with pulsars. Dr. Lommen’s research, and that of the team she leads, has taken theoretical concepts and transformed them into experimental practice.
Read MoreBrad Lubman, conductor/composer, is founding co-Artistic Director and Music Director of Ensemble Signal, hailed by The New York Times as “one of the most vital groups of its kind.” He has gained widespread recognition during the past two decades for his versatility, commanding technique, and insightful interpretations.
Read MoreSandra H. “Sandy” Magnus is the executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the world’s largest aerospace professional society. Magnus attended the Missouri University of Science and Technology, graduating with a degree in physics and a master’s degree in electrical engineering.
Read MoreNobel Laureate
Nobel Laureate John Mather’s research in cosmology as part of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) team has been recognized as some of the most important work of the 20th century.
Read MoreA former wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, Leland Melvin is an engineer and NASA astronaut. He served on the space shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist and was named the NASA Associate Administrator for Education in October 2010.
Read MoreMargaret S. Livingstone is best known for her work on visual processing, which has led to a deeper understanding of how we see color, motion, and depth, and how these processes are involved in generating percepts of objects as distinct from their background.
Read MoreDr. Mario Livio is an astrophysicist, a best-selling author, and a popular speaker. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published more than 400 scientific papers on topics ranging from Dark Energy and cosmology to black holes and extrasolar planets.
Read MoreRobert Krulwich is co-host of Radiolab, WNYC Radio’s Peabody Award-winning program about ‘big ideas’, now one of public radio’s most popular shows. It is carried on more than 500 radio stations and its podcasts are downloaded over 5 million times each month.
Read MoreOliver Sacks, a physician and author, has been called “the poet laureate of medicine” by The New York Times. His books and essays, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, are used in schools and universities around the world.
Read MoreGeorge Church is professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and director of PersonalGenomes.org, providing the world’s only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental, and Trait data (GET). His 1984 Harvard Ph.D. included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing, and barcoding.
Read MoreFabien Cousteau is an ocean explorer, the third generation to carry on the tradition of adventure pioneered by his grandfather Jacques Cousteau. His Natural Entertainment company works to raise environmental awareness through television and other media.
Read MoreAntonio Damasio is one of the world’s leading neurologists and neuroscientists and has made seminal contributions to the understanding of how the brain processes emotion, decision, and consciousness.
Read MoreSince joining NASA in 1998, Tracy Caldwell Dyson has logged more than 300 hours in space. During her first trip aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 2007 she served as the intra-vehicular (spacewalk coordinator and primary shuttle robotic arm operator).
Read MoreCartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and children’s book author & illustrator, Jules Feiffer has had a remarkable creative career turning contemporary urban anxiety into witty and revealing commentary for over fifty years.
Read MoreAndré Fenton is a recognized neuroscientist, biomedical engineer, and entrepreneur. Dr. Fenton is a Professor at the Center for Neural Science at New York University.
Read MoreFrancis Collins is known for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and leadership of the Human Genome Project, an international project that culminated in 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book.
Read MoreLouise O. Fresco is an expert in the intersection of international development, agriculture and food, advising the Dutch government on socio-economic policy and climate change.
Read MoreLaura Danly is a spectroscopist specializing in ultraviolet observations from space satellites. Her research focuses on the large-scale distribution and dynamics of the interstellar medium and its relationship to galaxy evolution.
Read MoreRobbert Dijkgraaf is director and Leon Levy Professor of the Institute for Advanced Study, one of the world’s leading centers for curiosity-driven research in the sciences and humanities.
Read MorePamela Ronald is Professor at the University of California, Davis, where she studies the role that genes play in a plant’s response to its environment. Her laboratory has genetically engineered rice for resistance to diseases and flooding, which are serious problems of rice crops in Asia and Africa.
Read MoreChristopher Shera has done extensive research in solving fundamental problems in the mechanics and physiology of the peripheral auditory system. His work focuses on how the ear amplifies, analyzes, and emits sound.
Read MoreRai Weiss is known for his pioneering measurements of the spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation and his seminal leadership in the conception, design and operation of the laser interferometer gravitational wave detector; remarkable scientific achievements recognized by his roles as a co-founder and an intellectual leader of both the COBE Project and LIGO.
Read MoreMark Whittle uses large optical and radio telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, to study processes occurring within 1,000 light years of the central supermassive black hole in Active Galaxies.
Read MoreJohn Schaefer is the host and producer of WNYC’s long-running new music show New Sounds, which Billboard magazine has called “the #1 radio show for the Global Village,” founded in 1982, and its innovative Soundcheck podcast, which features live performances and interviews with a variety of guests.
Read MorePamela Schaller is the primary biologist for a charismatic colony of African penguins and designed and implemented the first-ever penguin wetsuit, which helped a balding bird re-grow his feathers and stay warm.
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 MoreVanessa Woods is an award-winning journalist and author who studies the cognitive development of chimpanzees and bonobos at sanctuaries in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Read MoreGary Small is the co-inventor of the first brain-scanning technology to detect the physical evidence of Alzheimer’s disease in living people. He also led the team of neuroscientists that was the first to reveal that Internet searching may result in rapid and significant alterations in brain neural circuitry.
Read MoreRobert C. Green is a medical geneticist who directs the G2P Research Program (genomes2people.org) in translational genomics and health outcomes at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He has been continuously funded by NIH for over 26 years and has published over 300 scientific articles.
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 MoreDava Newman specializes in investigating human performance across the spectrum of gravity. She is an expert in the areas of extravehicular activity, human movement, physics-based modeling, biomechanics, energetics and human-robotic cooperation.
Read MoreElaine Pagels changed the historical landscape of the Christian religion by exploding the myth of the early Church as a unified movement. Her findings were published in the bestselling book, The Gnostic Gospels, an analysis of 52 early Christian manuscripts that were unearthed in Egypt.
Read MoreKarole Armitage is a dancer and choreographer widely known for combining disparate styles and themes with the discipline and techniques of classical ballet. Armitage danced with the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, before forming her own New York-based company in the 1980s.
Read MoreTom Ashbrook is an award-winning journalist brought to public radio by the attacks of September 11, 2001, when he was enlisted by NPR and WBUR-Boston for special coverage, after a distinguished career in newspaper reporting and editing. He is the host of On Point. Ashbrook’s journalism career spans twenty years as a foreign correspondent, newspaper editor, and author.
Read MoreJamshed Bharucha conducts research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, focusing on the cognitive and neural basis of the perception of music. He is a past editor of the interdisciplinary journal Music Perception. Dr. Bharucha is the twelfth president of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
Read MoreMarcela Carena is an internationally renowned expert on revolutionary ideas in particle physics, ideas about to be tested at the Large Hadron Collider. She has worked closely with experimental physicists at the Fermilab and CERN laboratories developing strategies for discovery at the world’s highest-energy particle colliders.
Read MorePaul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, and best-selling author. He is Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University, where he is Director of Beyond: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science.
Read MoreGrammy-nominated Eldar Djangirov is one of the top jazz pianists on the scene today. He has played with many of the masters, including Dave Brubeck, Michael Brecker, Wynton Marsalis and Dr. Billy Taylor. His latest recording Virtue, made it to the Top 20 on Billboard’s Jazz album chart and Jazzweek’s radio chart by the third week.
Read MoreProfessor John Donoghue was the founding chairman of the Department of Neuroscience at Brown, a position he held for thirteen years. He is currently the director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science, which unites more than one hundred Brown faculty members to support interdisciplinary research on the nervous system.
Read MoreMonica Dunford is an experimental high-energy particle physicist who helped bring the ATLAS detector at CERN into operation for the first Large Hadron Collider beam and collisions.
Read MoreNational Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Sylvia A. Earle is an oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer who has been called a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress and “Hero for the Planet” by TIME magazine.
Read MoreArturo Delmoni, violinist and violist, has earned critical acclaim in the United States and abroad for his stylish, elegant interpretations of classical masterpieces. His distinctive playing embodies the romantic warmth that was the special province of the great virtuosi of the golden age of violin playing.
Read MoreIn 2008, Richard Garriott, a leading expert on private and commercial space travel, realized a lifelong dream to travel to space when he launched aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft to the International Space Station and became the sixth private citizen to fly in Earth’s orbit.
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 MoreDr. Kristin Baldwin is an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Baldwin’s research harnesses cutting-edge stem cell technology and cloning.
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 MoreHugo Van Vuuren helped launch The Laboratory at Harvard, a new platform for idea experimentation in the arts and sciences. Born and raised in South Africa, his endeavors and research focus on Design with Africa and the intersection between technology, design and innovation.
Read MoreJad Abumrad is the host and creator of WNYC/NPR’s award-winning radio series Radio Lab, which reaches nearly 4 million people per month and describes itself as believing “your ears are a portal to another world. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.”
Read MoreElizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher, who composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Among her many awards was the first Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for work that “contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954.”
Read MoreThe Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its individual sound and unique cohesiveness. The quartet takes its name from Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher; the members were inspired by Escher’s method of interplay between individual components working together to form a whole.
Read MoreMostafa A. El-Sayed is an internationally renowned nanoscience researcher whose work in the synthesis and study of the properties of nanomaterials of different shape may have applications in the treatment of cancer.
Read MoreDebra Fischer is a planet hunter who has discovered hundreds of worlds orbiting other stars, most of them gas giants, like Jupiter or Saturn. She is currently working to detect lower mass, Earth-like planets.
Read MoreBorn in Baltimore, Maryland, Philip Glass is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, Glass spent two years of intensive study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and while there, earned money by transcribing Ravi Shankar’s Indian music into Western notation.
Read MoreJohn M. Grunsfeld was named Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. in 2012. He previously served as the Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Read MoreDavid E. Guggenheim, also known as the “Ocean Doctor,” is a marine scientist, conservation policy specialist, submarine pilot and ocean explorer.
Read MoreHeidi Hammel is a noted planetary scientist. Currently, she is senior research scientist and codirector of research at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
Read MoreEric Horvitz serves as Microsoft’s Chief Scientific Officer. He is known for his contributions to AI theory and practice, with a focus on principles and applications of AI amidst the …
Read MoreDavid Henry Hwang is a playwright, librettist and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of M. Butterfly, which won the 1988 Tony, Drama Desk, John Gassner, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, and was also a finalist for the 1989 Pulitzer Prize.
Read MoreJohn Lithgow’s many Broadway appearances include The Changing Room, My Fat Friend, Trelawney of the Wells, Comedians, Anna Christie, Once in a Lifetime, Spokesong, Bedroom Farce, Beyond Therapy, Requiem for a Heavyweight, The Front Page, M. Butterfly, and Sweet Smell of Success.
Read MoreThe many-faceted career of cellist Yo-Yo Ma is testament to his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences, and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. In 1998 Mr. Ma established the Silk Road Project to promote the study of the cultural, artistic and intellectual traditions along the ancient Silk Road trade route that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.
Read MoreOliver Goodenough’s research and writing at the intersection of law, economics, finance, media, technology, neuroscience and behavioral biology make him an authority in several emerging areas of law and its application in society.
Read MoreMarvin Minsky is one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence and had made numerous contributions to the fields of AI, cognitive science, mathematics and robotics. His current work focuses on trying to imbue machines with a capacity for common sense.
Read MoreAmy Chase Gulden is a visual artist interested in art-making processes that are collaborative, not fully under her control, and bring her into direct contact with the living world. She has been collaborating with molecular biologist Kristin Baldwin, using the microorganism, E. coli bacteria, to generate living, growing paintings that can be replicated indefinitely or immortalized by printing onto paper.
Read MoreDavid Hallberg has danced the title role in Apollo, Solor in La Bayadère, Albrecht in Giselle, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, among many others, for the American Ballet Theatre.
Read MoreAndrew Hamilton is an astrophysicist known for his scientifically accurate general relativistic visualizations of black holes, which have appeared on a number of TV documentary programs, including Nova and National Geographic, in a show at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and on the web, including on YouTube.
Read MoreA native of Bolivar, New York, soprano Joélle Harvey is quickly becoming recognized as one of the most promising young talents of her generation. She is the recent recipient of a 2009 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation.
Read MoreStephen W. Hawking is one of the world’s foremost theoretical physicists. His dramatic breakthroughs into the origin of the universe and the properties of black holes are among the most revolutionary insights into the nature of the cosmos since the work of Albert Einstein.
Read MoreBuzz Hays is one of the pioneers in the field of 3D production, who in recent years was responsible for overseeing the adaptation of standard-release feature films into three-dimensional stereoscopic versions for the IMAX 3D and Real D platforms.
Read MoreWalter Isaacson is president and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been chairman and CEO of CNN and editor of TIME magazine. Isaacson’s most recent book is The Innovators; he authored Steve Jobs and several other best-selling biographies.
Read MoreMonty Jones is co-winner of the prestigious 2004 World Food Prize, awarded for his discovery of the genetic process to create the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) which gives higher yields, shorter growth cycles and more protein content than its Asian and African parents.
Read MoreJanna Levin is a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University and the author of Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space.
Read MoreRebecca Luker is frequently seen in leading roles on Broadway, and is equally known for her interpretations of music, old and new, at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress and the White House.
Read MoreTod Machover, called “America’s Most Wired Composer” by the Los Angeles Times, is celebrated for creating music that breaks traditional artistic and cultural boundaries.
Read MoreSteve Mirsky has written the humorous Anti Gravity column for Scientific American since 1995 and is a member of the magazine’s board of editors. Since 2006 his primary responsibilities have been overseeing the magazine’s weekly podcast Science Talk and the daily podcast, 60-Second Science.
Read MoreStephen Morse is a renowned expert in criminal and mental health law, whose work emphasizes individual responsibility in criminal and civil law.
Read MoreJeremy Niven’s research focuses on the interface between neuroscience, behavior and evolutionary biology in the insect nervous system.
Read MorePaul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist who has worked on how the eukaryotic cell cycle is controlled and how cell shape and cell dimensions are determined. His major work has been on the cyclin dependent protein kinases and how they regulate cell reproduction.
Read MoreNobel 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.
Read MoreFaith Salie is a three-time Emmy-winning contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and a regular on NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! She’s hosted five seasons of PBS’s Science Goes to the Movies and is a storyteller for The Moth. She hosts the new podcast “One Plus One,” from Wondery.
Read MoreLiev Schreiber is considered one of the finest actors of his generation with a repertoire of resonant, humanistic and often-times gritty portrayals that have garnered him with praise in film, theater, and television. He most recently appeared in the contemporary action thriller Salt with Angelina Jolie from director Phillip Noyce.
Read MoreThe Silk Road Ensemble is a collective of internationally renowned performers and composers from more than 20 countries. Many of the musicians first came together under the artistic direction of Yo-Yo Ma at a workshop at Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts in 2000.
Read MoreEmmy Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Vargas has traveled the world covering breaking news stories, reporting in-depth investigations, and conducting newsmaker interviews. She is the host of A&E Investigates.
Read MoreHarold Varmus, M.D., co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for studies of the genetic basis of cancer, joined the Meyer Cancer Center of Weill Cornell Medicine as the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine on April 1, 2015.
Read MoreProfessor Frank Wilczek is considered one of the world’s eminent theoretical physicists. He received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction—key to several major problems in particle physics and beyond.
Read MoreDamian Woetzel is a former Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet who has moved into directing and producing. He also works with Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Connect Program in the New York City Public Schools.
Read MoreMiles O’Brien is a veteran award-winning journalist who focuses on science technology and aerospace. He is the science correspondent for the PBS NewsHour, a producer and director for the PBS science documentary series NOVA, and a correspondent for the PBS documentary series Frontline and the National Science Foundation Science Nation series.
Read MoreKelli O’Hara recently starred in the Tony Award-winning revival of South Pacific at Lincoln Center, enrapturing audiences and critics alike with her interpretation of Nellie Forbush, garnering a third Tony-nomination in the process.
Read MoreTiler Peck has danced leading roles in ballets by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, in addition to a wide variety of choreographers, including Peter Martins, Susan Stroman and Christopher Wheeldon. She has also had numerous works created for her, most recently by Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor for the 2010 New York City Ballet Spring season.
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 MorePolygraph Lounge is the virtuosic duo of Mark Stewart and Rob Schwimmer, a multi-instrumentalist song and comedy team who specialize in musical mayhem. The New York Times has said “mad genius should always be this much fun.”
Read MoreEmalie Savoy made her Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Paulus with The Oratorio Society of New York. A lover of concert and recital, she has also been seen in performance at Alice Tully Hall and the New York Society for Ethical Culture.
Read MoreSeth Shostak is an astronomer, lecturer and the author and editor of several books, including the 2009 Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (National Geographic). For much of his career, he conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies.
Read MoreChristopher Tyler has spent his research career exploring how the eyes and brain work together to produce meaningful vision.
Read MoreNeil deGrasse Tyson is the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. He is the author of several books and hosts the NOVA ScienceNow program on PBS. Tyson is best known as an ardent popularizer of astronomy and astrophysics.
Read MoreBill Weir is an award-winning broadcast journalist, anchor and special correspondent for CNN. With a focus on our connected planet, he created and hosted The Wonder List with Bill Weir.
Read MoreLawrence Weschler was for over 20 years a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies. He is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award, for Cultural Reporting in 1988 and Magazine Reporting in 1992, and was also a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award.
Read MoreBenjamin West brings improved cook stoves to less developed countries, working under the philosophy that appropriate technology and entrepreneurship can bring large-scale social, environmental and economic development to the world.
Read MoreJosh Zepps is a correspondent for Bloomberg TV’s Energy Now, reporting on the future of energy and the environment. His show on Discovery Science Channel, Brink, took an irreverent look at the latest breakthroughs on the brink of changing our lives.
Read MoreCarl Zimmer is an award-winning columnist for the New York Times and the author of 13 books about science. His reporting has earned awards from the National Academies of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and the Online Journalism Association.
Read MoreWhat Bobby McFerrin does is not an act; it’s spontaneous invention. He peers over the edge of the cliff, acknowledges the void below, and dives head first, buoyed by the element of surprise. McFerrin uses dense rhythms, extraordinary scales, and complicated intervals that accomplished musicians and educators have studied and dissected.
Read MoreLawrence Parsons is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. His early research on action, spatial reasoning and object recognition was followed by his current work in reasoning, language, emotion and the improvisation of music and dancing.
Read MoreRob Boyd is Professor of Anthropology at UCLA. He studies the evolution of cooperation in large groups, and is the co-author of numerous books on cultural evolution, including Not By Genes Alone.
Read MoreAnna Nagurney is the John F. Smith Memorial Professor in the Department of Finance and Operations Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Read MoreSarah Hrdy is Professor Emerita at the University of California, Davis. An award-winning author, Dr. Hrdy’s latest book is Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding.
Read MoreDaniel J. Levitin is the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Neurosciences at McGill University, where he holds associate appointments in the Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery, the Faculty of Education, School of Computer Science, and in the Schulich School of Music.
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 MoreMitchell Joachim is on the faculty at Columbia University and Parsons School of Design. He is a partner in Terrefuge, a New York-based organization for philanthropic architecture and ecological design.
Read MoreDominic Johnson received a D.Phil. in evolutionary biology from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in political science from Geneva University.
Read MoreDickson Despommier is a trailblazer, devising solutions to problems in agriculture and public health that likely will be magnified by climate change. A microbiologist, he is a Professor of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School, where he developed the idea of growing food in urban farm skyscrapers.
Read MoreTyrone Hayes is Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. He transformed his childhood love of tadpoles, frogs and toads into a serious study of the connections between pesticides, amphibians, and the impact of molecular changes on the public health environment.
Read MoreMaurizio Seracini is a pioneer in the use of multispectral imaging to examine works of art. Using diagnostic and analytical technologies, he has studied over 2,500 works of art and historic buildings, including major works by Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, Caravaggio.
Read MoreMajora Carter is a green economic consultant who combines social, economic development, and region wide infrastructure needs into positive feedback systems. She has been a driving force behind some of NYC’s most progressive environmental legislation, as well as cultural acceptance of sustainable practices.
Read MoreA YouTube sensation with his video hit, “A Biologist’s Mother’s Day Song,” Adam Cole is a soon-to-be-unemployed college student born and raised in Oregon. He has studied everything from snake pheromones to intertidal biomechanics to genes involved with adenocarcinomas.
Read MoreSince 2001 AL Holmes and AL Taylor have created an award winning body of films commissioned by Animate, Arts Council England, BFI, Channel 4 television, Cornerhouse Cinema, FACT gallery, Film London, MuHKA, Southbank Centre and the World Science Festival, exhibiting internationally in galleries, site specific installations, film festivals, television and concert halls.
Read MoreClaire Evans is a freelance science writer, science fiction critic, polymath, and musician. Her work explores the synchronies between culture, technology, and science. She has been writing the art/science blog Universe for over five years and still doesn’t know how to describe it.
Read MoreNick Bostrom is a co-founder of the World Transhumanist Association and Director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. His research areas of interest include artificial intelligence, bio-enhancement, and mind uploading.
Read MorePaul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid is a composer, multimedia artist and writer. His written work has appeared in The Village Voice, The Source, Artforum, and Rapgun among other publications.
Read MoreAndrei Linde is a professor of physics at Stanford University, one of the authors of the inflationary theory and the theory of inflationary multiverse. He invented the theory of chaotic inflation, which is the most general version of inflationary cosmology. Linde also helped to develop the theory of eternal chaotic inflation, and the mechanism of vacuum stabilization in string theory.
Read MoreAlan Guth is a professor of physics at MIT, and world-renowned for his discovery of inflationary cosmology, the dominant cosmological paradigm for over two decades. His current research focuses on developing mathematical tools for quantitatively analyzing inflation’s suggestion that there are an infinite number of universes.
Read MoreAlexandra Lynch paints portraits and still lifes in acrylic, watercolor, and collage. She also writes a motherhood diary at AlexandraLynch.com and lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts. Lynch is a former writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
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 MoreThe Inspirational Voices of Abyssinian Baptist Church is the resident choir of one of the most prominent African-American institutions in America. Under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III, the Abyssinian Baptist Church has followed the African-American church tradition of actively building communities.
Read MoreDavid Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and a physicist who explores quantum mechanics. He is world-renowned for his insights into philosophical questions about the nature of time, space, and other problems of modern physics.
Read MoreMarin Alsop made history with her appointment in 2007 as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the first woman to head a major American orchestra. This mirrored her ongoing success in the United Kingdom where she was Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony from 2002- 2008 and is now Conductor Emeritus.
Read MoreMonsignor Lorenzo Albacete is a Roman Catholic priest, theologian, physicist and author. A frequent contributor to The New York Times, he is one of the leaders in the United States for the international Catholic movement Communion and Liberation and is on the Board of Advisors of the Crossroads Cultural Center.
Read MoreShreya Amin, a senior at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, has a knack for discovering and learning more about the world through science.
Read MoreRobert Anderson has a message that resonates with audiences as he talks of building the smallest team to ascend Everest’s largest face, without oxygen.
Read MoreAn activist who is known as “the Ralph Nadar of Canada,” Maude Barlow is the best-selling author of 16 books, including the recently released Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water.
Read MoreJohn Barrow is a research professor of mathematical sciences in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge in England. He is also the author of nearly twenty books for a general audience, including The Book of Nothing.
Read MoreHazel A. Barton has explored caves on five continents, studying microorganisms to research cures for antibiotic-resistant diseases. She coordinates an active undergraduate research laboratory, including a National Institutes of Health funded study examining microbial responses to starvation and a National Science Foundation funded project examining the energetic interactions of bacteria in cave environments.
Read MoreDavid Battisti is The Tamaki Chair of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. His research is focused on understanding the natural variability in climate that stems from the interaction between the ocean, atmosphere, land and sea ice. He is also studying the impacts of natural climate variability and climate change on global food security.
Read MoreGeorge Ellis is Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at the University of Capetown and investigates cosmology, the nature of time, and the emergence of complexity. He is the co-author with Stephen Hawking of The Large Scale Structure of Space Time.
Read MoreHarold Evans is an editor and author of two critically acclaimed best-selling histories of America: The American Century and, most recently, They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators.
Read MoreJesse Flores, a senior at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, first developed a love for science when he picked up The Anatomy of the Human Body. He’s since worked with lasers and with the bacteria staphylococcus, and is currently researching weather tracking systems. He can often be found playing handball or embarking on culinary and scenic adventures around town.
Read MoreOver the course of his career, Harrison Ford has become one of the most popularly acclaimed actors of our time. His body of work includes 41 feature films, eleven of which have exceeded $100 million each at the box office.
Read MoreSylvester James (Jim) Gates, Jr. is currently the John S. Toll Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland-College Park. In spring of 2009 he was appointed to serve on President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Maryland State Board of Education.
Read MoreEvalyn Gates is the Assistant Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago and a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Her research focuses on theoretical cosmology and particle astrophysics.
Read MoreDaniel Gilbert is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He is the author of the best-selling book, Stumbling on Happiness, which has been translated into 30 languages. His research focuses on prospection — the ability to imagine oneself in the future — and the mistakes people make when they attempt to predict their hedonic reactions to future events.
Read MoreAneela Gillani, a junior at Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, is passionate about biology and is working towards a career in medicine. Her extracurricular activities include Model United Nations and the National Honors Society, and she’s also enrolled in the Advanced Science Research program.
Read MoreBrooke Gladstone is the Host and Managing Editor of NPR’s On the Media from WNYC. She’s also an accomplished print journalist with works appearing in the London Observer, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post and many other leading publications.
Read MorePlaywright, storyteller, musician, poet, and actor, David Gonzalez was nominated for a 2006 Drama Desk Award for his original production The Frog Bride at Broadway’s New Victory Theater.
Read MoreNobel Laureate
David Gross is the Chancellor’s Chair professor of theoretical physics and the former director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received …
Read MoreWith a career spanning more than 30 years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and conductor, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of his era. An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Bell has recorded more than 40 CDs garnering Grammy, Mercury, Gramophone and Echo Klassik awards and is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize.
Read MoreLeonardo Bonanni is a PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab. He has a background in architecture and sculpture from Columbia University, and has been working as an industrial designer and an inventor for the past six years.
Read MoreAndy Borowitz is a comedian, actor and writer whose work appears regularly in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and at Newsweek.com. He is the first winner of the National Press Club’s humor award and has won seven Dot-Comedy Awards for his website, borowitzreport.com.
Read MoreDerek E.G. Briggs is Frederick William Beinecke Professor of Geology and Geophysics and Director of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. A distinguished paleontologist whose primary research interest is the preservation and evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossils, Briggs joined the faculty of Yale University in 2003.
Read MoreDanny Burstein is a native New Yorker who got his Equity card at 19 and has been working ever since in summer stock, regional theatre, movies, television and on and off Broadway.
Read MoreBestselling Author
Sean Carroll is the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Johns Hopkins University, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Prior to that he was a research …
Read MoreYoon Chang joined Argonne National Laboratory in 1974 and has been responsible for leadership of advanced reactor design and fuel cycle technology development activities in positions of increasing responsibility.
Read MoreDiana Cheung is a senior in the Gateway to Medicine/Biochemistry Major at Brooklyn Technical High School. She is currently conducting research on novel treatments for pancreatic cancer at SUNY Downstate under the guidance of Dr. Josef Michl, and is also interested in immunology, health policy, and medical ethics.
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 MoreEmmy, Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning actress Glenn Close is best known for her riveting performances of complex women. The star of Damages for FX, Close’s portrayal of the high-stakes litigator Patty Hewes won her both an Emmy Award as “Best Actress in a Drama Series” and a Golden Globe for “Best Actress in a TV Drama.”
Read MoreBrother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, earned undergraduate and masters’ degrees from MIT, and a Ph. D. in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona. He was a researcher at Harvard and MIT, served in the US Peace Corps (Kenya), and taught university physics at Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, before entering the Jesuits in 1989.
Read MoreDr. Robert W. Corell, Vice President of Programs & Policy for The H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment is also a Council Member for the Global Energy Assessment and a Senior Policy Fellow at the Policy Program of the American Meteorological Society.
Read MorePatrick Haggard is a researcher at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London. He has studied the relationships between brain activity and subjective experience. He has published extensively on voluntary action, particularly on how and when we become conscious of our intentions and our actions.
Read MoreDr. James Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. An active researcher in planetary atmospheres and climate science for nearly 40 years, Hansen is best known for his Congressional testimonies on climate change that widely elevated the awareness of global warming.
Read MoreLucy 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 MoreJohn-Dylan Haynes is a leading expert investigating neural correlates of consciousness and volitional processing, and has developed groundbreaking methods for decoding or “reading out” a person’s mental states from their brain activity.
Read MoreGradjola Hazizaj came to the U.S. from Albania in 2005, and is now a junior at the Brooklyn International High School. She has long dreamed of working in medicine, and believes that through science she can help people and make their lives easier.
Read MoreMichael Heller is a Professor of Philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow, Poland. His research interest is the intersection of physics, philosophy and theology in describing the nature of time.
Read MoreHugh Herr is Associate Professor at MIT and Director of the Biomechatronics group at the MIT Media Lab. His research seeks to advance technologies merging body and machine, and encompasses a diverse set of disciplines.
Read MorePaul Hoffman is the author of a memoir called King’s Gambit and two biographies, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers and Wings of Madness. Formerly the publisher of Encyclopaedia Britannica and the long-time editor in chief of Discover magazine, Paul has performed mathematical paper-folding tricks on David Letterman and strapped Oprah into a virtual hang-glider while she accused him of ogling her butt.
Read MoreMichael Hogan played Colonel Saul Tigh in Battlestar Galactica. With more than thirty years experience working on stage and screen, he is also a recurring character in The L Word and has guested on such series as Millennium, The Outer Limits, Cold Squad, X Files and Monk.
Read MoreRadley Horton conducts regional climate change scenario assessments for stakeholders around the globe, projecting impacts on agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, and infrastructure.
Read MoreElizabeth Hutchinson is Assistant Professor of Art History at Barnard College and Columbia University. She is the author of The Indian Craze: Primitivism, Modernism, and Transculturation in American Art, 1890-1915.
Read MoreFor over 30 years, National Dance Institute (NDI), a not-for-profit organization founded by New York City Ballet star Jacques d’Amboise, has transformed the lives of close to 2 million public school children through award-winning arts and learning programs.
Read MoreDescribed by Time Magazine as “perhaps the ultimate role model for women in science,” the Honorable Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D., has served as the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute since 1999.
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 MoreDean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur and tireless advocate for science and technology. He holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents, many for innovative medical devices that have expanded the frontiers of healthcare worldwide.
Read MoreOne of the great nature photographers of our time, Frans Lanting’s images of nature and wildlife have been published in National Geographic, Audubon and Time as well as exhibitions around the world. His most recent work, LIFE: A Journey Through Time, is a multimedia event that combines the music of Philip Glass with incredible photographs that document the history of the big bang to life on present day Earth.
Read MoreLeon Lederman is the Director Emeritus of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, and Pritzker Professor of Science at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago; for his contributions to neutrino physics, he shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Read MoreHod Lipson is a roboticist who works in the areas of artificial intelligence and digital manufacturing. An award-winning researcher, teacher, and communicator, Lipson enjoys sharing the beauty of robotics though his books, essays, public lectures, and radio and television appearances.
Read MoreThomas Lovejoy holds the Biodiversity Chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment based in Washington, DC, and is a recipient of the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award.
Read MoreJonathan Rosen has written about the ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird long thought to be extinct. His most recent books are The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature and The Talmud and the Internet. His writings have also appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker magazine, the American Scholar and numerous anthologies.
Read MoreMusician and philosopher, David Rothenberg, is the author of Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, and Evolution, Bug Music, and a CD of the same name featuring music made out of encounters with the entomological world.
Read MoreBy examining historical maps and archeological records in combination with geographic computer modeling and scientific sleuthing, Eric Sanderson has reimagined the old growth forests, wetlands and meadows that Henry Hudson saw when he first arrived on the shores of Manhattan in 1609.
Read MoreIrena Schulz is the founder and president of Bird Lovers Only Rescue Service, Inc., but is perhaps best known for her cockatoo, Snowball, the famous dancing bird on You Tube. Irena worked as a molecular biologist studying Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease, but has dedicated her entire life to owning, studying, and caring for parrots.
Read MoreBen Schwegler is Walt Disney Imagineering R&D’s chief scientist, and 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 MoreInterested in the links between art, science, and technology through the ages, New York artist Devorah Sperber’s work addresses the way the brain processes visual information versus the way we think we see.
Read MoreJulienne Stroeve studies the decline of the Arctic Sea ice cover with the goal of understanding how a seasonally ice-free Arctic will impact climate in the Northern Hemisphere. She is a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado and specializes in reading data gathered by satellite and other remote measuring tools.
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 MoreFrom 2001-2008 Stephen Tindale was executive director of Greenpeace UK and and chair of the environmental organization’s European unit. He has worked to mitigate climate change for the last two decades.
Read MoreFrank Tong is a cognitive neuroscientist and an associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University. He uses functional brain imaging and neural decoding methods to predict what people are seeing or thinking from their patterns of brain activity.
Read MoreNibh, a junior at Brooklyn International High School, arrived in New York from Bangladesh in 2007. He’s a member of the National Honor Society, he writes for the school newspaper, does extensive community service and recently completed an internship at the medical clinic of New York Methodist Hospital. Nibh loves the sense of discovery that comes with doing experiments, and is certain he will pursue a career in science.
Read MoreJohn Waldman is professor of biology at Queens College, City University of New York. Prior to this appointment in 2004, he was employed for 20 years by the Hudson River Foundation for Science and Environmental Research.
Read MoreKevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading in England. Warwick works in robotics and artificial intelligence and recently designed an intelligent deep brain stimulator to treat Parkinson’s Disease. Best known for his pioneering research with implants, including experimentation on himself which led to him being called the ‘World’s First Cyborg.’
Read MoreDaniel M. Wegner is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He studies how human minds accomplish self-control and guide us through social life. He conducted pioneering research on how people identify their actions and what gives us the sense that we are consciously causing them.
Read MoreRichard Weindruch has devoted decades to exploring extreme low-calorie diets and their promise in delaying aging. He is a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin and the director and co-founder of LifeGen Technologies.
Read MorePaul Root Wolpe, Ph.D. is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Bioethics, Raymond Schinazi Distinguished Research Professor of Jewish Bioethics, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Sociology, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University.
Read MoreJane Lubchenco, University Distinguished Professor at Oregon State University, is a marine ecologist with expertise in the ocean, climate change, and interactions between the environment and human well-being.
Read MoreA founding member and faculty at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, a research institute devoted to foundational issues in theoretical physics, Fotini Markopoulou-Kalamara is a leading researcher in the problem of quantum gravity.
Read MoreAlex Matthiessen is the President of Riverkeeper. By forging partnerships with leading academic and research institutions, he has strengthened and expanded Riverkeeper’s environmental enforcement efforts and advanced scientific understanding of the Hudson River.
Read MoreAlan McDonald is Head, Programme Coordination Group, Department of Nuclear Energy, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Department of Nuclear Energy supports interested Member States in improving the performance of nuclear power plants and the nuclear fuel cycle.
Read MoreMary McDonnell is an academy award nominated actress. She plays President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica and more recently Dr. Virginia Dixon in Grey’s Anatomy. Her other screen credits include Grand Canyon, Sneakers, Independence Day and Donnie Darko. McDonnell’s stage credits include Broadway productions of Execution of Justice, The Heidi Chronicles, and Summer and Smoke.
Read MoreColin McGinn is a professor and Cooper Fellow at University of Miami. In 2006, he joined the UM philosophy department, having taught previously at University of London, University of Oxford, and Rutgers University.
Read MoreBill McKibben is the author of a dozen books about the environment, including The End of Nature. A scholar in residence at Middlebury College, he is also the founder of the first global scale grassroots campaign to fight climate change, 350.org.
Read MoreWarren Meck is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. An internationally recognized expert on time perception, Meck’s research explores the neural basis of the “internal clocks” humans and other animals use to time events in seconds, minutes, and hours.
Read MoreAlfred Mele is the William H. and Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is the author of 10 books, including Free Will and Luck, Effective Intentions, A Dialogue on Free Will and Science, and Free: Why Science Hasn’t Disproved Free Will.
Read MoreKen Miller is professor of Biology at Brown University. He serves as life science advisor to the NewsHour on PBS and is coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of Biology textbooks used by millions of students. In 2005, he served as lead witness in the trial on evolution and intelligent design in Dover, Pennsylvania.
Read MoreKen Nakayama received his B.A. in Psychology from the Haverford College in 1962 and his PhD from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1967. For almost twenty years, he was at the Smith Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco.
Read MoreFemi Oke is an international broadcaster and a special correspondent for the syndicated national news radio show The Takeaway broadcast from WNYC Radio in New York. Oke became known around the world for her reporting on Africa after joining CNN International in 1999. She also hosted CNN’s award-winning African affairs program “Inside Africa.”
Read MoreSir Roger Penrose has made seminal contributions to our understanding of space and time. In describing the initial conditions of the universe, he provided the foundation for studying the origins of the arrow of time.
Read MoreIrene Pepperberg is Adjunct Associate Professor at Brandeis University and Research Associate and Lecturer at Harvard. She has studied the cognitive and communicative ability of Grey parrots for over two decades.
Read MoreAndrew Revkin is one of America’s most honored and experienced journalists and authors focused on environmental and human sustainability. He recently joined the staff of the National Geographic Society as strategic adviser for environmental and science journalism.
Read MoreEmmy award winning journalist Charlie Rose has been praised as “one of America’s premiere interviewers.” He is the host of Charlie Rose, the nightly PBS program that engages America’s preeminent thinkers, writers, politicians, athletes, entertainers, business leaders, scientists and other newsmakers.
Read MoreTheoretical physicist Stephon Alexander explores unresolved questions about the early universe. Also an accomplished jazz musician, Alexander has collaborated with Grammy Award-winning musician Will Calhoun.
Read MoreMisha Angrist is a 43-year-old male who is near-sighted and has a family history of heart disease. He has 23 pairs of chromosomes, a wife, and two children.
Read MoreGeorge Annas is the author or editor of seventeen books on health law and bioethics and is cofounder of Global Lawyers and Physicians, an organization that promotes human rights and health. He is the Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights of Boston University School of Public Health.
Read MorePaula S. 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. In 2005, Apsell introduced NOVA scienceNOW, a critically acclaimed science newsmagazine dedicated to covering the latest developments in science and technology.
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 MoreNina Azari specializes in cognitive neuroscience and the psychology of religion. She uses traditional psychological methods as well as cutting-edge medical imaging technology to explore religious experiences, consciousness, belief and perception in her subjects. Azari is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Read MoreAfter serving as President of Caltech for nine years, David Baltimore was appointed President Emeritus and the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology (2006). Baltimore was awarded the Nobel Prize at the age of 37 for research in virology.
Read MoreMia Barron is a theater, film and television actress. Her stage credits include Springtime for Henry and Heartbreak House, She Stoops to Comedy and Hedda Gabler. She appeared in 27 Dresses with Katherine Heigl and also has a recurring role as the voice of Molotov in the cartoon network’s The Venture Brothers.
Read MoreEben Bayer uses biology to solve important environmental challenges by growing safe and healthy new materials as well as envisioning creative ways to use natural technology at industrial scales and in consumer applications.
Read MoreSteven 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 MorePaul Bloom’s research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. A professor of psychology at Yale University, Bloom has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, but also for publications with more general circulation, such as The New York Times, the Guardian, and the Atlantic.
Read MoreCynthia 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 MoreBlaine Brownell is an architect, sustainable building advisor, and a researcher of innovative materials for design and construction. From self-cleaning paint to transparent ceramics and biological plastics, he has described these and hundreds of other revolutionary products in his two-volume book Transmaterial: A Catalogue of Materials that Redefine our Physical Environment.
Read MoreKate Burton is a Tony and Emmy Award-nominated actress. Currently on Broadway in the hit musical Spring Awakening, her other stage and screen credits include Hedda Gabler, The Elephant Man, The First Wives Club and The Ice Storm. Her television work includes recurring roles on The West Wing and Grey’s Anatomy.
Read MoreRobert 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.
Read MoreThe Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III, is Pastor of the nationally renowned Abyssinian Baptist Church and President of SUNY College at Old Westbury. Under his leadership, the Church leads crucial community development and social justice initiatives in Harlem.
Read MoreNeuroethicist 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 MoreBrian Cox is a physicist and BBC television and radio presenter who appears in programs such as In Einstein’s Shadow, Bitesize and Horizon.
Read MoreTom Crawford has been helping athletes, executives and teams across the U.S. perform at their highest levels for over 20 years — from youth programs to Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball association.
Read MoreGordon Davidson is a Tony Award-winning theater director. He was artistic director of the renowned Center Theater Group in Los Angeles for more than thirty years. His credits include Broadway productions of Children of a Lesser God and The Shadow Box.
Read MoreEric DeCamps is the personification of a magician. Every one of his performances is filled with compelling stories and visual artistry, and at every turn, he performs the seemingly impossible. DeCamps has been a serious student of the art of magic for over 30 years.
Read MoreDaniel C. Dennett is a University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, as well as Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University.
Read MorePeter Diaczuk is a leading authority in forensics and an expert witness on firearms, trace evidence, and crime scene reconstruction. He has performed research on topics as diverse as underwater fingerprints, blood spatter patterns from gunshot wounds, and bullets ricochetting from different surfaces.
Read MoreJosh Dorfman is an environmental entrepreneur, green-living advisor, media personality and author. He wrote The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living. Dorfman is the founder and CEO of Vivavi, a retailer of modern, green furniture and home furnishings.
Read MoreDavid Eagleman is a neuroscientist, best-selling author, and Guggenheim Fellow who holds joint appointments in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.
Read MoreNathan 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 2007.
Read MoreMark Oliver Everett is the lead singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and 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 MoreIra Flatow is the host of Science Friday on PRI, Public Radio International. He anchors the show each Friday, bringing radio and Internet listeners worldwide a lively, informative discussion on science, technology, health, space and the environment. Flatow is president of ScienceFriday, Inc. and founder and president of Science Friday Initiative.
Read MoreGarrick Utley served as founding president of the Levin Institute of the State University of New York from 2003 to 2011. He was a senior fellow and the director of New York in the World, an initiative of the Institute.
Read MoreEmily Levine has recently upgraded herself to Emily 3.0. Emily 1.0 was a stand-up comedian, appearing in comedy clubs and on Dave Letterman’s Late Night TV show, among others. Emily 2.0 was a television writer/producer, working on shows such as Designing Women, Love and War, and Dangerous Minds. She has created and produced pilots for ABC, NBC, CBS, and HBO.
Read MoreCombining elements of computer science, anthropology, visual art and storytelling, Jonathan Harris designs systems to explore and explain the human world. He has made projects about human emotion, human desire, modern mythology, science, news, anonymity, and language.
Read MoreAs director of the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, William Solecki’s research focuses on urban environmental change, urban land use, and suburbanization.
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 MoreKurt Andersen is the author of two novels, the critically acclaimed bestsellers Heyday and Turn of the Century. His forthcoming book is called Reset: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America. He is also host and co-creator of the Peabody Award-winning public radio program Studio 360.
Read MoreChris Eckstrom is a writer, videographer, and producer. Her stories have appeared in National Geographic Magazine, Audubon, International Wildlife, National Geographic Traveler, and other publications. Her Traveler story, “The Last Real Africa,” won a 2007 Lowell Thomas Award for Best Magazine Article on Foreign Travel from the Society of American Travel Writers.
Read MoreMichael Novacek has served since 1982 as a curator at the American Museum of Natural History where he is currently Senior Vice President and Provost of Science and Curator of Paleontology.
Read MoreA 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 MorePeter Head is a civil and structural engineer who has become a major proponent and practitioner of sustainable urban design. He applies “biomimetics” — an engineering approach that looks to systems in nature to design efficient structures and systems in the manmade world that produce little if any waste.
Read MorePhysicist Pierre C. Hohenberg is interested in questions about the structure of matter under extreme conditions. A recipient of the Max Planck Medal of the German Physical Society and the Lars Onsager Prize of the American Physical Society, Hohenberg is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences and is Senior Vice Provost for Research at NYU.
Read MoreSandra 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.
Read MoreA 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 MoreAlan 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 MoreA plant biologist and virologist by training, Robert Goodman is a world authority on soil microorganisms and plant disease.
Read MoreMacArthur Fellow
Peter Galison is the Pellegrino University Professor of the History of Science and of Physics at Harvard University. He is a leading historian of science whose research explores the interaction …
Read MoreSaul 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 MorePresident of the Future of Life Institute, Max Tegmark advocates for positive use of technology. He is also a professor doing physics and AI research at MIT.
Read MoreEugene Thacker is the author of several books and articles that combine philosophy, science, and technology, including Biomedia, The Global Genome, and The Exploit: A Theory of Networks which he co-authored with Alexander Galloway. He has collaborated with art collectives Biotech Hobbyist and the Radical Software Group.
Read MoreDavid 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.
Read MorePlant 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 MoreHelge 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 MoreSteven Kurtz is a co-founder of the multi award-winning art and theater collective, Critical Art Ensemble, an organization that performs and exhibits art about information, communications, and biotechnologies. He is also a Professor of Visual Studies at SUNY at Buffalo.
Read MoreRay Kurzweil is an inventor, entrepreneur, and futurist. In several books for a general audience, he has laid out his vision of a merger of man and machine that he contends will shape the future of humankind.
Read MoreAnthony LaPaglia is the Tony, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor currently starring as FBI Missing Persons investigator Jack Malone in CBS’s popular television crime drama, Without a Trace. LaPaglia has appeared in a number of films, including Summer of Sam, Sweet and Lowdown, The House of Mirth, and Lantana.
Read MoreJonah Lehrer is contributing editor at Wired and the author of the bestselling books How We Decide and Proust Was a Neuroscientist. His articles regularly appear in The New Yorker, Nature, The New York Times Magazine, Seed, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. He is also a contributing editor at Scientific American Mind and NPR’s Radio Lab.
Read MoreEmergency 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.
Read MoreLukas Ligeti is a composer whose works combine downtown New York experimentalism with contemporary classical music, jazz, electronica, and world music.
Read MoreAlan Lightman is a writer, astrophysicist, and educator. He is professor of the practice of the humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As a theoretical physicist, he has contributed to the understanding of the unusual radiation processes, black holes, and stellar dynamics.
Read MoreDoug 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 MoreMarilyn 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 MoreA co-founder 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 MoreChemist 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 MorePhysicist Lyman Page measures the cosmic microwave background 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 MoreMTV 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 MoreReijo Pera is a professor and the Director of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research and Education Center at Stanford University. Her research is aimed at understanding the developmental genetics of human germ cell formation and differentiation.
Read MoreEllen Prager is a marine biologist, author and chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aquarius Undersea Laboratory in Key Largo, Florida. She is the Chairman of the Ocean Research and Resources Advisory Panel for the federal government and an author of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy’s 2004 report to Congress and the President.
Read MorePeter Pringle is the 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 MoreVilayanur 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 MoreMatthew Ritchie is a painter, sculptor, and digital artist. His work combines science, architecture, history, and the dynamics of culture to explore the idea of information, and is featured in …
Read MoreSociologist 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 MoreThe late F. Sherwood Rowland studied 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 was best known for the discovery that chlorofluorocarbons contribute to ozone depletion.
Read MoreVera C. Rubin is an observational astronomer who has studied the motions of gas and stars in galaxies and motions of galaxies in the universe for 75 percent of her life. Her work was influential in discovering that most of the matter in the universe is dark — it does not emit or absorb any light, and it does not interact with ordinary matter (which is made of atoms) except via gravity.
Read MoreLaurie Santos is a cognitive psychologist who studies monkeys’ capacity for learning and the evolution of the human mind. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology and director of the Comparative Cognition Laboratory at Yale University and was named one of Popular Science magazine’s “Brilliant 10” for 2007.
Read MoreJames Schamus is CEO of Focus Features, and an associate professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts in New York City, where he teaches film history and theory.
Read MoreSam Shepard is an Oscar-nominated actor, screenwriter, director, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. His best-known works include Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, and True West. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1986.
Read MoreDavid Sinclair’s research focuses on 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 MoreDirac Medalist
Paul J. Steinhardt is the Albert Einstein Professor in Science and Director of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science at Princeton University, where he is also on the faculty of …
Read MoreHorst Stormer is the Isidor Isaac Rabi Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Columbia University in New York City and an expert in condensed-matter physics.
Read MoreDaniel Sullivan is one of New York’s most prolific directors. He most recently directed the Broadway revival of The Homecoming. He has been nominated for six Tony Awards for Direction of a Play and won for David Auburn’s Proof in 2001.
Read MoreLeonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stanford University, and 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.
Read MoreJulia Sweeney is an actress and comedian who has been part of the cast of Saturday Night Live and has appeared in feature films such as Pulp Fiction and Clockstoppers. Most recently, she has come to wider attention with her autobiographical monologue, Letting go of God.
Read MoreIan Tattersall is a prominent anthropologist whose work focuses on the evolution of humans and other primates. He is a curator emeritus 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 MoreBetsy 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 MoreBill Ritter is a television news anchor and journalist. He began his journalism career as a newspaper reporter, for the Los Angeles Times and others, before moving into television. His work in local and national television has taken him to political conventions for almost 20 years.
Read MoreChris McKay is a research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center. His current research focuses on the evolution of the solar system and the origin of life. He is also actively involved in planning for future Mars missions including human exploration.
Read MoreBernie 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 MorePaleontologist 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. He is the author of several books including The Sixth Extinction.
Read MoreJon Meacham is the managing editor of Newsweek magazine, a bestselling author, and a commentator on politics, history, and faith in America. His books include Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship and American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.
Read MoreBill 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 MoreNeuroscientist Nancy C. 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.
Read MoreTheoretical astrophysicist Michael S. Turner is a recognized figure in pioneering the interdisciplinary field of particle astrophysics and cosmology, for which he shared the 2010 Dannie Heineman Prize. In collaboration with Edward Kolb, he initiated the Fermilab astrophysics program.
Read MoreA leading authority on landscape management and plant conservation, Edward Toth is Director of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center, which collects and raises specimens of New York’s indigenous flora and maintains a seed bank for the preservation of local species.
Read MoreMargaret 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 MoreAfter graduation from Oxford in 1964, Michael York joined the National Theatre company, making his film debut in The Taming of the Shrew. His more than 60 other screen credits include Romeo and Juliet, Cabaret, Jesus of Nazareth, The Three Musketeers, Logan’s Run, Murder on the Orient Express, Conduct Unbecoming, The Omega Code and all three Austin Powers movies.
Read MorePhysician 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.
Read MoreComputer 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.
Read MoreBeth Shapiro is an evolutionary biologist who specializes in the genetics of ice age animals and plants. A pioneer in the young field called “ancient DNA,” Beth travels extensively in the Arctic regions of Alaska, Siberia and Canada collecting bones and other remains of long-dead creatures.
Read MoreCanadian rap artist, writer, and former tree-planter, Baba Brinkman has personally planted more than one million trees in the Rocky Mountains. After graduating with an M.A. in comparative literature in 2003, he began his career as a rap troubadour.
Read MoreBiomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey’s research interests encompass the characterization of the accumulating and eventually pathogenic molecular and cellular side-effects of metabolism that constitute mammalian aging. His work also involves the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage.
Read MoreAnna Ziegler is a playwright, whose plays have been developed at The Sundance Theatre Lab, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, and Soho Rep, among others, and are published by Dramatists Play Service. An upcoming collection will be published by Oberon Books. She is a graduate of Yale and holds an M.F.A. in dramatic writing from Tisch.
Read MoreRecognized mathematician and science writer Amir D. Aczel is the author of numerous books that have appeared on various bestseller lists in the United States and abroad, with translations into 22 languages. Present at the Creation: The Story of CERN and the Large Hadron Collider is his most recent literary contribution.
Read MoreRecognized mathematician and computer scientist Brian Snow’s early work spans from teaching mathematics and laying the groundwork for a computer science department at Ohio University in the 1960’s, to working as a cryptologic designer and architect at the National Security Agency (NSA) in the 1970s.
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 MoreConsuelo De Moraes is an internationally known biologist and ecologist who studies the complex role of chemistry in interactions among plants and other organisms.
Read MoreDaniel L. Schacter is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Many of Schacter’s studies and ideas are summarized in his 1996 book, Searching for Memory, and his 2001 contribution, The Seven Sins of Memory.
Read MoreDavid Ferrucci is the lead researcher and principal investigator for the Watson/Jeopardy! project. He has been a Research Staff Member at IBM’s T.J. Watson’s Research Center since 1995 where he heads up the Semantic Analysis and Integration department.
Read MoreRenowned for his groundbreaking contributions to the study of genius, Dean Keith Simonton has provided his expertise to over 400 publications on the topic, including a dozen books entitled Genius, Creativity, and Leadership; Scientific Genius; Greatness; Genius and Creativity; Origins of Genius; and more.
Read MoreDeborah Blum is a Pulitzer-prize winning science writer and the author of five books, most recently the best-selling tale of murder and forensic detection in 1920s New York, The Poisoner’s Handbook. She writes Poison Pen, a monthly blog on environmental chemistry, for The New York Times, and is a staff science blogger for Wired.
Read MoreR. Douglas Fields is a developmental neurobiologist and author of The Other Brain, a popular book about the discovery of brain cells (called glia) that communicate without using electricity. He is an authority on neuron-glia interactions, brain development, and the cellular mechanisms of memory.
Read MoreEric Lander was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project, which from 1990-2003 mapped the human genetic code. He has pioneered the application of genomics to the understanding human disease. Lander serves as President and Founding Director of the Broad Institute.
Read MoreGerardus ’t Hooft is a Dutch theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate. He shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics with Martinus Veltman. Born and raised in the Netherlands, ’t Hooft studied theoretical physics and mathematics at Utrecht University, where in 1977 he became Professor of theoretical physics.
Read MoreGerd Gigerenzer is director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. He has trained U.S. Federal Judges, physicians, and top managers in decision-making and understanding risks and uncertainties.
Read MoreGlennys Farrar is a collegiate professor of physics at New York University. She has made seminal contributions to theoretical particle physics, including demonstrating that quarks are not just mathematical constructs but are actually physically present in matter and pioneering the search for supersymmetry.
Read MoreHeather Knight is an electrical engineer and social roboticist who runs Marilyn Monrobot in New York, where she and her cohort create “charismatic machine performances,” as well as founding the world’s first Robot Film Festival. Knight is currently conducting her doctoral research at the intersection of robotics and entertainment at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute.
Read MoreRenowned for his influential contributions to string theory and its application in mathematics, particle physics, cosmology, and black hole physics, Herman Verlinde’s research has been widely recognized through many awards and fellowships.
Read MoreIn 1953, while at Cambridge University, James D. Watson and Francis Crick successfully proposed the double helical structure for DNA.
Read MoreRecognized mathematician and noted expert on the number Pi, Jonathan Borwein is the author of several hundred research papers and over a dozen books spanning the topics of optimization, analysis, computation, and experimental mathematics.
Read MoreA neurologist, scientist, and author in the UK, Jonathan Cole’s writing explores the experience of impairment of the body from the first person perspective. Pride and a Daily Marathon detailed living without movement sense or touch. It became a BBC TV documentary and was one vignette in Peter Brook’s play, The Man Who.
Read MoreJonathan Weiner’s books have won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and many other honors. While working on His Brother’s Keeper, he was writer-in-residence at Rockefeller University. Now he teaches science writing at Columbia University’s graduate school of journalism, where he is a professor.
Read MoreJosh Tenenbaum is a professor of Computational Cognitive Science in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). He studies learning, reasoning, and perception in humans and machines.
Read MoreA pioneer in researching the control of cellular senescence and its role in tumor suppression and aging, Judith Campisi has helped make several groundbreaking discoveries that continue to challenge and alter existing paradigms.
Read MoreJürgen Schmidhuber has published over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His lab’s research on artificial neural nets won several handwriting recognition contests and number one rankings in several computer vision competitions and benchmarks.
Read MoreKatherine Freese is the Director of the Weinberg Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Jeff & Gail Kodosky Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. She is …
Read MoreKathryn Calley Galitz is a scholar of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century French art. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Galitz has organized international exhibitions on artists including Chassériau, Girodet, and Turner.
Read MoreKnown as the “Math Guy” on National Public Radio and author of 30 books and over 80 published research articles, Keith Devlin is a recognized mathematician. In 2003, he was lauded by the California State Assembly for his “innovative work and longtime service in the field of mathematics and its relation to logic and linguistics.”
Read MoreCommitted to advancing discoveries in the science of aging and longevity, Leonard Guarente is recognized for his impactful contribution in identifying sirtuins, a group of related proteins that slow aging in model organisms and mitigate aging and diseases in mammals.
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 MoreElizabeth A. Phelps is the director of the Phelps Lab at the New York University Center for Neuroeconomics. Her laboratory has earned widespread acclaim for its groundbreaking research on how the human brain processes emotion, particularly as it relates to learning, memory, and decision-making.
Read MoreFocused on the functions of the hippocampus in memory and spatial cognition, Lynn Nadel’s work has led to significant contributions in the study of stress and memory, sleep and memory, memory reconsolidation, and mental retardation observed in Down syndrome.
Read MoreMathematician, researcher, writer and radio presenter Marcus du Sautoy has contributed to the Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent and the Guardian. For several years, he wrote a regular column in the Times called Sexy Science. He is also a frequent commentator on BBC radio and television.
Read MoreMichael Rose began his work on the evolution of aging at the University of Sussex in 1976, where he created fruit fly stocks with postponed aging. His 1991 book Evolutionary Biology of Aging offered a view of aging that was a complete departure from the views that had dominated the aging field since 1960.
Read MoreNatalie Angier is a Pulitzer-prize winning science columnist for The New York Times and the author of Woman: An Intimate Geography—a finalist for the National Book Award—and The Canon: A Whirligig Tour through the Beautiful Basics of Science, among other books. She has also written for Smithsonian, The Atlantic, National Geographic, The American Scholar, Wired, Geo, Slate, and many other publications.
Read MoreInventor, entrepreneur, athlete, musician, and TV host Nate Ball draws on his many different pursuits to inspire budding engineers on PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel. Ball’s fascination with engineering started early.
Read MoreAn active member of the research community in the fields of cryptanalysis (breaking ciphers), computer security, and privacy, Orr Dunkelman has published numerous papers analyzing the security of ciphers and cryptosystems. He is widely recognized for his work on the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
Read MoreRex Jung is a leading scientist in the emerging field of positive neuroscience, the study of what the brain does well. His groundbreaking research led to the first model describing a network of brain regions critically linked in the service of intellectual pursuits, known as the Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (or “P-FIT”).
Read MoreRoald Hoffmann is a professor of chemistry and the Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He is a graduate of both Columbia and Harvard Universities.
Read MoreRecently retired from his position as Panasonic Professor of Robotics at MIT, Rodney Brooks’ latest startup, Heartland Robotics, aims to revitalize American manufacturing by providing workers with new robotic tools. During his employment at MIT, Brooks served as director of the institution’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and its Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory—MIT’s largest lab.
Read MoreSaul Perlmutter is a professor in Berkeley’s Department of Physics and a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is the leader of the Supernova Cosmology Project, an international collaboration of research teams from seven countries measuring the expansion history of the universe.
Read MoreSeth Lloyd was the first person to develop a realizable model for quantum computation and is working with a variety of groups to construct and operate quantum computers and quantum …
Read MoreSeth Mnookin’s most recent book, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, uses a combination of investigative reporting, intellectual and scientific history, and sociological analysis to explore the controversies over vaccines and their rumored connection to developmental disorders. The New York Times said it was “just what the public needs…a tour-de-force.”
Read MoreSiddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff physician at Columbia University Medical Center. A former Rhodes Scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School.
Read MoreSimon Singh’s documentary about Fermat’s Last Theorem was the winner of a BAFTA in the UK and was nominated for an EMMY. His publication on the same subject, Fermat’s Enigma, is the first book about mathematics to become a number one bestseller in the UK and has since been translated into 30 languages.
Read MoreSteven Pinker is an experimental psychologist who conducts research in visual cognition, psycholinguistics, and social relations. Currently Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has won numerous prizes for his research, teaching, and books.
Read MoreSissel Tolaas’s work focuses on smell, language, and communication while spanning science, art, and industry. She has identified the smell molecules in worn coats and covered the walls of an MIT gallery with chemically reproduced molecules from the sweat of men who suffer fear attacks.
Read MoreManager and research staff member of the Cryptography Research Group at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center, Tal Rabin’s research focuses on the general area of cryptography and, more specifically, on multiparty computations, threshold and proactive security.
Read MoreA 1978 Harvard graduate, Todd Sacktor completed his M.D. at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his neurology residency at Columbia University, where he began studying the role of the enzyme protein kinase C (PKC) in the short-term memory of Aplysia (marine snails).
Read MoreJoseph LeDoux is a professor of neural science at NYU and director of the Emotional Brain Institute involving NYU and the Nathan Kline Institute. LeDoux’s research is focused on the brain mechanisms of emotion and memory. He is the author of The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life.
Read MoreSince a young age, Mike Cahill would experiment with filmmaking on Fisher Price and VHS camcorders. He began working for National Geographic, first as an intern, but within a few months, he became the youngest field producer, editor, and cinematographer on the NG staff.
Read MoreNiels Rattenborg aims to gain insight into the function of sleep through studying birds, the only taxonomic group to independently evolve sleep patterns like those in mammals, including humans.
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 MoreSmell scientist, entrepreneur, and author Avery N. Gilbert is a fragrance industry innovator and pioneer in the areas of olfactory mental imagery, multisensory correlates of odor perception, and the psychological factors that bias odor judgments.
Read MoreBrit Marling is a rising actress, writer, and producer, whose emerging talent made a mark at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival as the first female multi-hyphenate to have two films premiere side by side.
Read MoreDonald Caspar is a structural biologist, emeritus professor of biological science at the Florida State University Institute of Molecular Biophysics, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Read MoreAndrew Dawson is a theatre director, performer, Feldenkrais practitioner, and hand model. He studied dance with Merce Cunningham in New York and theatre in Paris with Phillipe Gaulier, Monika Pagneux, and Jacques Lecoq.
Read MoreRaymond Gosling pioneered x-ray diffraction research at King’s College London and collaborated closely with Maurice Wilkins in analyzing samples of DNA. Together they produced the first crystalline diffraction photographs at King’s showing an x-pattern of black dots.
Read MoreElena Aprile is a professor of physics at Columbia University and is internationally recognized for her experimental work with noble liquid detectors for research in gamma-ray astrophysics and particle astrophysics. She is the founder and spokesperson of the XENON Dark Matter experiment.
Read MoreEdward Fredkin’s computer career started in 1956 when the Air Force assigned him to work at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories. In 1968 he started at MIT as a full professor. From 1971 to 1974 he was the Director of CSAIL and he spent a year at Caltech as a Fairchild Distinguished Scholar, working with Richard Feynman.
Read MoreCristina Alberini is a professor of neural science at New York University whose research focuses on the identification and characterization of the biological mechanisms that accompany long-term memory formation, storage …
Read MoreMary-Claire King, PhD, is American Cancer Society Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. She was the first to show that breast cancer is inherited in some families, as the result of mutations in the gene that she named BRCA1.
Read MoreLee Bollinger is the nineteenth President of Columbia University. A lawyer and expert on free speech and first amendment issues, he is also on the faculty of Columbia Law School. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon and Columbia Law School.
Read MoreJudith Cox brings to the Foundation over 15 years of non-profit management experience. As General Counsel, and then as a Deputy Director for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, she was involved in major development projects, including the restoration and expansion of the Guggenheim Museum on Fifth Avenue.
Read MoreGünter Blobel is the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Professor at Rockefeller University in New York City and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Read MoreJohn Seely Brown is a senior fellow at the Annenberg Center for Communication at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Read MoreDavid Bodanis is known to a wide audience as an author of popular science books such as the highly acclaimed E=mc²: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation and Electric Universe, which won the 2006 Royal Society Aventis Prize for Science Books.
Read MoreBill Bryson is a best-selling writer of 17 books (and counting) on travel, science, and the English language, and the current chancellor of Durham University in northern England.
Read MoreRalph J. Cicerone work on atmospheric chemistry, climate change, and energy has involved him in shaping science and environmental policy at the highest levels.
Read MoreRichard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist and author, who is known for his popularization of Darwinian ideas as well as for original thinking on evolutionary theory. The Selfish Gene is both the title of his groundbreaking first best seller and his most popular thesis.
Read MoreFreeman Dyson, born and raised in England, excelled in all subjects from a very young age, going on to specialize in mathematics and theoretical physics in his studies at the University of Cambridge.
Read MoreTimothy Ferris is the author of a dozen books (most recently The Science of Liberty), plus 200 articles and essays, and three documentary films—The Creation of the Universe, Life Beyond Earth, and Seeing in the Dark—seen by over 20 million viewers
Read MorePaul Greengard is the director of the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at Rockefeller University in New York City.
Read MoreDudley Herschbach is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a professor of physics at Texas A&M University in College Station. For his work on the dynamics of chemical reactions, he was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Read MoreMae Jemison is a scientist, physician, astronaut, and educator. In 1992, she became the first woman astronaut of color when she flew aboard the space shuttle Endeavour as a science mission specialist.
Read MoreEric Kandel is Kavli Professor and University Professor at Columbia University and a senior investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Read MoreRob Morrow is an actor, writer, and restaurant owner who is best known for his portrayal of Joel Fleishman in the hit TV series Northern Exposure. In the course of his career, he has been nominated multiple times for Golden Globe and Emmy Awards; he was most recently seen in the Rob Reiner film The Bucket List.
Read MoreLisa Randall studies theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University, where she is Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science. Randall is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Read MoreMartin Rees is the UK’s Astronomer Royal and a Fellow (and former Master) of Trinity College, Cambridge. After studying at Cambridge, he held post-doctoral positions in the UK and the USA, before becoming a professor at Sussex University.
Read MoreJakob Trollbäck is the designer and creative director of Trollbäck + Company. A self-taught designer from Sweden, Trollbäck began his artistic career as a DJ in his native Stockholm. Having found a commonality in music and design, he creates pieces that transport his audience to planes of sensorial experience.
Read MoreOlufunmilayo Olopade is a Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor and Associate Dean for Global Health at The University of Chicago Medical Center. Olopade graduated with distinction from the University of Ibadan College of Medicine in Nigeria.
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 MoreCharles Limb is an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, where he specializes in neurotology and skull base surgery.
Read MoreAaron Berkowitz is the author of The Improvising Mind: Cognition and Creativity in the Musical Moment, which explores improvisation from the perspectives of cognitive neuroscience, musicology/ethnomusicology, and music pedagogy.
Read MoreMarc Breedlove has written over 100 scientific articles investigating the role of hormones in shaping the developing and adult nervous system, publishing in journals including Science, Nature, and Nature Neuroscience, as well as two textbooks, Biological Psychology and Behavioral Endocrinology.
Read MoreDiana Rhoten is currently the Senior Vice President of Strategy in the News Corp Education Division. She has published in numerous journals and has co-edited a volume on the future of higher education called Knowledge Matters.
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 MoreJeffrey Sachs is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, a professor of Health Policy and Management, and director of the Earth Institute.
Read MoreRobert Shaye is a businessman, film producer, and director. He is also the founder of New Line Cinema that, following an early success with the classic horror movie A Nightmare on Elm Street, went on to back numerous highly successful films.
Read MoreAnna Deavere Smith has been hailed by Newsweek as “the most exciting individual in American theater.” She began interviewing people across the country 20 years ago. Without props, sets, or costumes, she translates those encounters into profound performances, each drawing verbatim from the original recorded interview.
Read MoreLee Smolin is a theoretical physicist who has made important contributions to the search for quantum gravity. Smolin is a founding faculty member at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His five books explore philosophical issues raised by contemporary physics and cosmology.
Read MoreSteven Weinberg was a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin. His honors included the Nobel Prize in Physics and National Medal of Science, election to numerous academies, and 16 honorary doctoral degrees.
Read MoreCarl Wieman was a Distinguished Professor of Physics and Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1984 to 2006 and still retains a part-time appointment at that institution as Director of the Colorado Science Education Initiative.
Read MoreTorsten Wiesel is the Vincent and Brooke Astor Professor Emeritus and President Emeritus at Rockefeller University in New York City.
Read MoreSusan Greenfield is the Fullerian Professor of Physiology at Oxford University in England, the director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London, and a member of the Upper House of the British parliament.
Read MoreMeredith Chivers is an assistant professor and Director of the Sexuality & Gender Laboratory in the Psychology Department at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Northwestern University and completed post-doctoral research training at the University of Toronto’s Centre.
Read MoreLouie Psihoyos (rhymes with Sequoias) has been widely regarded as one of the top photographers in the world. He was hired directly out of college to shoot for National Geographic and created images for the yellow-bordered magazine for 18 years.
Read MoreAs the director of astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History, Carter Emmart directs the museum’s groundbreaking space shows and heads up development of an interactive 3D atlas called The Digital Universe.
Read MoreJoy Hirsch, a neuroscientist at Yale, studies interpersonal interactions between people in natural environments using novel brain imaging technology (near infrared spectroscopy) that acquires brain signals using head mounted detectors (instead of a scanner) and enables simultaneous functional imaging of two or more communicating partners.
Read MoreBob Balaban recently received an Emmy nomination for directing Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in Georgia O’Keeffe (Lifetime). He received three 2008 Emmy Award nominations, two for directing and producing the HBO film Bernard and Doris, and the third for his performance in Recount.
Read MoreBora Zivkovic is the blog editor at Scientific American magazine. Born in Belgrade, Serbia (then Yugoslavia) he majored in biochemistry and molecular biology in high school, trained horses, and studied veterinary medicine at University of Belgrade. Upon arrival in the United States, Zivkovic did research on circadian rhythms in Japanese quail at North Carolina State University.
Read MoreAmerican-born stage and screen actor Bill Camp is best known for his extensive theatre work both on and off Broadway. The recipient of several awards and honors, including Obie, Eliot Norton, and Boston Critics Association awards, he has performed in Tony Kushner’s play Homebody/Kabul, The Misanthrope, Olly’s Prison, Coram Boy, Heartbreak House, The Seagull, St.Joan and Jackie: An American Life to name a few.
Read MoreGary Marcus, scientist, bestselling author, and entrepreneur, is Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU and CEO and Co-Founder of the recently-formed Geometric Intelligence, Inc.
Read MorePat Metheny was born in Kansas City into a musical family. Starting on trumpet at the age of 8, Metheny switched to guitar at age 12. By the age of 15, he was working regularly with the best jazz musicians in Kansas City, receiving valuable on-the-bandstand experience at an unusually young age.
Read MoreKodi Azari, MD, FACS is an internationally known plastic surgeon and hand surgeon. His clinical areas of interest include hand, microvascular, peripheral nerve surgery, and hand transplantation.
Read MoreKnown internationally for presenting work of exceptional inventiveness and physical beauty, MOMIX is a company of dancer-illusionists under the direction of Moses Pendleton. In addition to stage performances world-wide, MOMIX has worked in film and television, recently appearing in a national commercial for Hanes underwear and a Target ad that premiered during the airing of the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards.
Read MoreAllison Janney was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards for her role in Todd Solondz’s film Life During Wartime. In addition, she has completed production on the independent feature The Oranges alongside Catherine Keener and Hugh Laurie.
Read MoreDavid Morse has long been recognized as an actor of great talent and versatility in film, television, and theater. His most recent film credits include Drive Angry opposite Nicholas Cage, Passengers with Anne Hathaway and the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
Read MoreJean Berko Gleason is one of the world’s leading experts on children’s language and one of the founding mothers of the field of psycholinguistics. She created the famous Wug Test, which reveals how children learn the rules of language, such as how to make singular words plural.
Read MoreMark Kurlansky is a former commercial fisherman and New York Times bestselling author of Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World, Salt: A World History, The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell, and 16 other books.
Read MoreW. Dean Pesnell is the project scientist of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. He has published 80 papers in several research areas, including variable stars, the Sun-Earth connection, quantum mechanics, and meteors in planetary atmospheres.
Read MoreRobert Naczi is a plant systematist, who specializes in documenting the changing plant life of the Northeast. He is a leading authority on the flora of the eastern United States, the sedge genus Carex (Cyperaceae), and the Western Hemisphere Pitcher Plants (Sarraceniaceae).
Read MoreAdam Kolber is a professor at Brooklyn Law School where he writes and teaches in the areas of criminal law, health law, bioethics, and neuroethics. He created the Neuroethics & Law Blog in 2005 and taught the first law school course devoted to law and neuroscience in 2006.
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 MoreJohn Leventhal is a Grammy-winning musician, producer, songwriter, and recording engineer who has produced albums for Michelle Branch, Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin, Rodney Crowell, Jim Lauderdale, Joan Osborne, Loudon Wainwright, The Wreckers, and many others.
Read MorePriyamvada Natarajan is the Joseph S. and Sophia S. Fruton Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Yale. She is an astrophysicist with research interests in cosmology, gravitational lensing, and black …
Read MoreCreated by Sean McDonald and Alex Hornbake, The Theremin Inspectors is a mixed-reality visualization experience that enables people to actually see the electromagnetic fields that they interact with every day.
Read MoreCreated by Kaffe Matthews, Sonic Bed is an instrument you play by lying and moving around in it. It is the central pin in “music for bodies” research and was awarded a Distinction in Digital Musics at Prix Ars Electronica. It is a sonic and social experiment exploring our perception of sound. Subtle, dynamic, at times beyond hearing, Sonic Bed plays music to feel rather than just listen to.
Read MoreOptofonica Capsule is a shell-like shape that encapsulates you within an immersive audiovisual structure. While resonating in surround and tactile sound and delivering specially composed visuals to your eyes, low frequencies are fed through the floor converting sound into vibrations through your body.
Read MoreCharles Sawyers shared the 2009 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for his role in the development of molecularly-targeted treatments for chronic myeloid leukemia, converting a fatal cancer into a manageable chronic condition.
Read MoreEmmy Award-winning Juju Chang is a co-anchor for ABC News. During her career at ABC News, she has been news anchor for Good Morning America, contributed to 20/20, reported for World News Tonight, and anchored the early morning newscasts of World News Now and World News This Morning.
Read MoreGeorge Musser is a contributing editor at Scientific American and Nautilus magazines, a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT for 2014–2015, and the author of Spooky Action at a Distance (2015) and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory (2008).
Read MoreMusic isn’t always about hearing and listening; Klangkapsel, created by Satoshi Morita, is an experience that enables you to feel sound. Transducers pressed against your body deliver an 8-channel soundtrack throughout the capsule. The highly immersive nature of the piece takes you inside the artist’s body.
Read MoreAny gallery needs a chair, but beware of this one. This original 1920s chair has been reconstructed full of sonic charges.
Read MoreMusic, Emotion, Empathy is a sound experiment created by Music and Sonic Arts Ph.D., Niall Coghlan. At Music, Emotion, Empathy you are invited to measure your emotional reaction to music as a part of an on-going experiment.
Read More“Punk science” meets Japanese innovation in this unique musical instrument, created by Yoshi Akai, that uses your own heart beat as the basis for a tune. Using your body as an electric circuit, the instrument takes your pulse and sonifies it. You can then add sound samples and play along to your own heart.
Read MoreTraffic is a sound installation created by Rachel O’Dwyer and Roberto Pugliese. On entering the space, you have already participated in and contributed to an ever-changing soundscape.
Read MoreThis triptych is a work by the artist Chaja Hertog made in collaboration with Nir Nadler. The InstruMen perform a haunting musical experience created by their physical integration with the instruments they are playing.
Read MoreHear, Hear—a collaboration between an artist and a scientist—has created this playful exploration of the world of human hearing. Hear, Hear was created by Papermen.
Read MoreBody Snatcher is an audiovisual installation by artists Alex Dowling and Sinéad Meaney that captures and manipulates sounds that visitors create using their bodies.
Read MoreCreated by Javier Jaimovich, Chains of Emotion is a highly participatory experience, urging visitors to form human chains to create a unique and ever-changing musical performance.
Read MoreThe Stone Forest Ensemble is an avant-garde hip-hop ensemble whose core consists of strings, beatbox, and hand drumming, with the occasional inclusion of traditional Asian instruments.
Read MoreAs Executive Producer of the PBS science series, NOVA, now in its 38th season, Howard Swartz manages all phases of production, from development through the creative execution of NOVA programs.
Read MoreThis is a collaborative, multi-user audio-visual experience. Sensors in a table and objects combine to create a sonic experience that is different every time a piece is moved.
Read MoreBy making contact with the sculpture and others, visitors build up a soundscape that turns them into a musical instrument. This immersive sound tool, made by the sound artists Gregory Lasserre and Anais met den Ancxt, known as “Scenocosme,” creates electrical circuits generated by the interaction of people.
Read MoreBrent Sexton was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to settling in Los Angeles to pursue a career in Film and Television, he spent four and half years touring theatrically throughout Europe and the United States. Sexton played Harry Manning on HBO’s critically acclaimed series, Deadwood and he is also known for playing Officer Bobby Stark on the NBC series, Life.
Read MoreChesney Snow is a Drama Desk award-winning actor and performer from New York City, and has emerged a highly respected beatbox artist over the last decade.
Read MoreDave Katz (Sluggo) and Sam Hollander, are the writing/producing team S*A*M & Sluggo, known for their slick production and songwriting skills. The duo played an important role in emo’s history, transforming the genre from an underground phenomenon to a polished, mainstream brand in the early 2000’s.
Read MoreMike Daisey has been called “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by The New York Times for his groundbreaking monologs, gonzo journalism, and unscripted performance to tell hilarious and heartbreaking stories that cut to the bone.
Read MoreEmily Bell is the director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and a professor of professional practice at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She was director of digital content for Britain’s Guardian News and Media from 2006 to 2010. Previous to that post, Bell was editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited from 2001 to 2006.
Read MoreLarry Greenemeier is the associate editor of technology coverage for Scientific American Online. He previously covered information technology security for the trade magazine InformationWeek.
Read MoreMaggie Gyllenhaal was most recently seen on stage in Austin Pendleton’s production of Three Sisters at the Classic Stage Company in New York City. Her other stage credits include Uncle Vanya, also at CSC, Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul at BAM and the Mark Taper Forum, and Patrick Marber’s award-winning Closer at the Mark Taper Forum and Berkeley Rep.
Read MoreMIT physicist Enectali Figueroa-Feliciano works at the intersection of cosmology, particle physics, astronomy, and engineering.
Read MoreLeslie Bernstein delayed her scientific career to raise a family and received her Ph.D. in biostatistics at age 42. She then pursued a career as a cancer epidemiologist and was the first to demonstrate that exercise lowers women’s breast cancer risk.
Read MorePamela Bjorkman is the Max Delbrück Professor of Biology and an HHMI investigator at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California. She received a BA degree in Chemistry from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from Harvard University.
Read MoreGary Stix commissions, writes and edits features, news articles and Web blogs for Scientific American. His area of coverage is neuroscience. He also has frequently been the issue or section editor for special issues or reports on topics ranging from nanotechnology to obesity.
Read MoreJocelyn Monroe is an assistant professor of physics in MIT’s Laboratory for Nuclear Science who works on experimental searches for new particles. Her current research focus is on directly detecting dark matter particle interactions with the MiniCLEAN and DMTPC experiments.
Read MoreKatherine Harmon covers health, medicine, and life sciences for Scientific American’s website. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in English from Vassar College. Her award-winning work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and journals.
Read MoreTony-nominated Mireille Enos is currently starring in the critically acclaimed AMC drama series, The Killing. Enos will star opposite Brad Pitt in the Marc Forster-directed zombie extravaganza World War Z, which is based on the novel by Max Brooks and goes into production this summer. For the past three seasons, Enos starred in the HBO drama Big Love.
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 MoreJoan Brugge joined the faculty of the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School in July 1997 and became the chair of this department in 2004. A graduate of Northwestern University, she received her PhD from the Baylor College of Medicine.
Read MoreEsther Conwell is widely known for her theoretical studies of the properties of materials. Her early research, with V. F. Weisskopf, on the effect of impurities on the motion of electrons, was an important step for the understanding of conduction in semiconductors, the materials of which transistors are made.
Read MoreAward-winning broadcaster and author Lynn Sherr spent more than thirty years with ABC News, covering a wide range of stories—from women’s issues and social change to investigative reports, politics and the space program—at 20/20 and World News.
Read MoreCharles Liu is a professor of astrophysics at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island and an associate with the Hayden Planetarium and Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His research focuses on colliding galaxies, quasars, and the star formation history of the Universe.
Read MoreStuart Firestein is the chair of Columbia University’s department of biological sciences where, along with his colleagues, he studies the vertebrate olfactory system, possibly the best chemical detector on the face of the planet.
Read MoreEd Yong is an award-winning British science writer. He writes the blog Not Exactly Rocket Science and his work has also appeared in New Scientist, the Times, WIRED, the Guardian, Nature, the Daily Telegraph, the Economist and more.
Read MoreEmily Senay is a physician, medical and public health educator, broadcast journalist, and author. She is an assistant professor of Medicine in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a clinician in the World Trade Center Health Program in New York City.
Read MoreDan Harris was named co-anchor of ABC News’ weekend edition of Good Morning America in October 2010. Additionally, Harris is a New York-based correspondent for ABC News’ broadcasts and platforms.
Read MoreJoe Levy is the chief content officer for Maxim. A longtime music journalist, Levy was executive editor of Rolling Stone, where he wrote about Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and the Beastie Boys, as well as other artists whose names do not begin with “b.” Frequently seen as a commentator on VH1, MTV, The Today Show, and Biography, Levy is also an adjunct professor at NYU’s Clive Davis School of Record Music.
Read MoreJulie Burstein is a Peabody Award-winning radio producer, best-selling author, and public speaker who has spent her working life in conversation with highly creative people. She is the co-author of Spark: How Creativity Works.
Read MoreAndrew Solomon’s most recent book, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, won the 2001 National Book Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; it has received 14 additional national awards and is published in 24 languages.
Read MoreMaggie Koerth-Baker is a freelance science journalist and the science editor at BoingBoing.net. Her work has appeared in magazines like Discover and Popular Science, and online at sites like New Scientist and National Geographic News.
Read MorePhilip Yam is the managing editor of ScientificAmerican.com, responsible for the overall content that appears online. Previously, he was the physics editor and later the news editor at Scientific American. He is the author of The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Prion Diseases.
Read MoreRobin Lloyd is responsible for editing and assigning stories for ScientificAmerican.com. She also manages Scientific American’s Twitter feed. Previously, she was a senior editor at LiveScience.com and SPACE.com. She has additional experience in print journalism (Pasadena Star–News); wire journalism (City News Service of Los Angeles); and network online journalism (CNN.com).
Read MoreAnna Kuchment edits the Advances news section of Scientific American magazine. Before coming to SciAm, Kuchment was a writer and editor at Newsweek International and Newsweek magazines.
Read MorePatrick Billard (aka DJ Duckcomb) is one-half of the Brooklyn synth-heads Trap.Avoid. Sound artists unstuck in time, Trap.Avoid create lustrous landscapes that scan electronic music history.
Read MoreCristine Russell is an award-winning journalist who has written about science, health, and the environment for more than three decades. She is a senior fellow in the Environment and Natural Resources Program at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Read MoreDavid Kestenbaum is a correspondent for NPR, covering science, energy issues and, most recently, the global economy for NPR’s multimedia project Planet Money. David has been a science correspondent for NPR since 1999. He came to journalism the usual way—by getting a Ph.D. in physics first.
Read MoreRichard E. Cytowic is a neurologist and coauthor of Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, which won the 2011 Montaigne Medal from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards. Cytowic’s work and writing focus on the intersection of creativity and neurological disorders.
Read MoreIn 1998, Julie Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony® Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and also won a Tony® for Best Costumes, for her landmark production of The Lion King. The musical has won three Molière Awards including Best Musical and Best Costumes, garnered Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Drama League awards for Taymor’s direction.
Read MoreHannah Waters writes about science for Nature Medicine and her blog Culturing Science. Before that, she studied the epigenetics of aging in Philadelphia, marine food webs off the coast of Oregon, and coastal conservation in Maine.
Read MoreMaurizio Porfiri is a professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering.
Read MoreMatt Schickele is a composer, songwriter, and co-host of the podcast Scopes Monkey Choir: Music in a Rational Universe.
Read MoreMike Francis portrays Galileo and the Stargazer’s Apprentice using over thirty years of professional acting experience on stage, film, and television.
Read MoreBefore joining the Department of Journalism, Charles Seife was a writer for Science magazine and had been a U.S. correspondent for New Scientist. He holds an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University, an M.S. in mathematics from Yale University, and an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University.
Read MoreKevin Temmer is an independent artist, animator, composer, singer, and songwriter. Along with expressing himself through drawing, he began teaching himself animation, and also enjoys composing and performing his own original songs.
Read MoreBreakthrough Prize
Cumrun Vafa is the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University. He received his BS in Math and Physics from MIT in 1981 and his PhD in …
Read MoreRaja Burrows graduated from Northwestern University. He most recently appeared in the city as Neel in Making Books Sing’s Tea With Chachaji. He’s also participated in several readings with the New York University Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.
Read MorePatrick Halley is a Poughkeepsie native, and graduate of Bucknell University. He is a proud member of the AEA. Off-Broadway credits include The Misanthrope (Pearl Theatre Company – Lortel Nomination, Best Revival).
Read MoreJessica Frey is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Atlantic Acting School. Her recent credits include: Clown Bar (NY Times Critics’ Pick), BYUIOO, and Giant Killer Slugs with Pipeline Theatre Co; King Lear and All’s Well That Ends Well with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.
Read MoreJoshua Foer was born in Washington, DC and lives in New Haven, CT with his wife Dinah. His writing has appeared in National Geographic, Esquire, Slate, Outside, The New York Times, and other publications. He is the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura, an online guide to the world’s wonders and curiosities. He is also the co-founder of the design competition, Sukkah City. Moonwalking with Einstein is his first book.
Read MoreRobert Stickgold is an associate professor of psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He received his B.A. from Harvard University and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, both in biochemistry. He has published over 100 scientific publications.
Read MoreGillian Small was appointed vice chancellor for research of The City University of New York in 2008 after serving with distinction as dean for research since 2003.
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 MoreLisa P. Jackson is administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She is the first African-American to serve the post. Originally from New Orleans, Jackson graduated summa cum laude from Tulane University, and earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University.
Read MoreCynthia Bir studies what happens to the human body after sports injuries, ballistic impacts, and explosive blasts. She is known worldwide for her research into the effects of blunt ballistic impacts from rubber bullets and other less-lethal ammunition.
Read MorePeter Lovatt was a professional dancer who performed on the international circuit before switching gears and embarking on an academic career, earning degrees in psychology, computational neuroscience and cognitive psychology.
Read MoreMichael Osterholm is one of the nation’s foremost experts in public health, infectious disease and biosecurity. He is the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Read MoreOne of the strongest, most expressive voices to have come out of Ireland belongs to Dublin native Susan McKeown. Her 2010 album Singing in the Dark explores creativity and madness with lyrics from poets such as Anne Sexton and Theodore Roethke, who were writing through the lens of depression, mania, and addiction.
Read MoreVinton Cerf, a vice president and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, is widely known as one of the founding fathers of the Internet. In the 1970s, Cerf co-designed the network’s architecture and the protocols it uses to communicate, and he has been instrumental in shaping its direction in the decades since.
Read MoreChris Stringer is a distinguished paleoanthropologist and a founder of the “Out of Africa” theory, the most widely accepted model for how modern humans evolved and spread across the globe.
Read MoreElyn Saks’ work focuses on the legal and ethical issues surrounding mental illness—something she has decades of personal experience with. When Saks was diagnosed with schizophrenia more than thirty years ago, her doctors didn’t expect she would be able to live independently, let alone work.
Read MoreJonathan Gottschall writes books about the intersection of science and art. He is one of the leading figures in a new movement that is trying to bridge the humanities-sciences divide.
Read MoreMatthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, author, translator, and photographer. He has lived, studied, and worked in the Himalayan region for over forty years.
Read MoreDaniela O’Neill has spent more than 20 years researching child psychology, with a focus on how children learn to communicate and understand their own and other people’s minds.
Read MoreAmber Miller aims to understand the origin and evolution of the universe by studying the cosmic microwave background, the faint glow of light left over from the Big Bang.
Read MoreKay Redfield Jamison has been called a “hero of medicine” for turning her own struggle with manic-depression into a lifelong career researching the illness and its treatment.
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 MoreFran Norris studies disaster and human resilience as a community-social psychologist and a research professor in Dartmouth Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry.
Read MoreDavid Ng is a faculty researcher at the University of British Columbia’s Michael Smith Laboratories, where he heads a science education lab aimed at training researchers, engaging students in the life sciences, and informing the public on the societal, political, economic and ethical nuances of the sciences.
Read MoreKeith Oatley has spent the last twenty years researching the psychology of reading and writing fiction, as both a scientist and the author of three novels.
Read MoreDavid Spergel studies the big questions in cosmology and astrophysics: How large is the universe and what is its shape? Is it finite? What are the dark matter and dark energy that comprise most of the universe’s mass?
Read MoreAdam Wilson was the first person to communicate over the Internet using only his mind. The biomedical engineer studies neural prosthetic devices that can allow people with severe motor disabilities, such as Lou Gehrig’s disease or “locked-in” syndrome, to communicate with the outside world.
Read MoreEd Green has helped pioneer the use of advanced genetic sequencing technology to read ancient DNA extracted from fossilized bones. In 2010, he and large collaboration of other scientists announced that they had used 40,000-year-old bone fragments excavated in a cave in Croatia to map out the genetic code of Neanderthals, humans’ long-dead ancestral cousins.
Read MoreDennis Charney is one of the world’s leading experts in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders.
Read MoreLynette Wallworth is an Australian artist whose immersive video installations reflect on the connections between people and the natural world.
Read MoreJohn Holdren is the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and President Barack Obama’s senior science and technology advisor.
Read MoreGeorge Bonanno is a pioneering researcher in the science of bereavement and loss. He is a professor of clinical psychology at the Teacher’s College of Columbia University, and under his direction, the Loss, Trauma and Emotion Lab is investigating how human beings cope with extreme adversity.
Read MoreNeil Gershenfeld leads a unique laboratory, the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT, that is breaking down boundaries between digital and physical worlds.
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 MoreAlex Wright is the Director of User Experience at The New York Times and the author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. He is also a member of the graduate faculty at the School of Visual Arts’ MFA program in Interaction Design.
Read MoreWalter Liedtke is a curator of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For 32 years, he has been the museum’s specialist in Dutch and Flemish paintings, and he has written extensively on the painters Rembrandt and Vermeer.
Read MoreFrancesca Casadio directs the Art Institute of Chicago’s state-of-the-art conservation science laboratory. A chemist by training, she is in charge of planning and carrying out research to help preserve and study the museum’s paintings, drawings, textiles and other works of art.
Read MoreMark Wigley is a leading architectural theorist and critic and the dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The accomplished scholar and design teacher has written extensively on the theory and practice of architecture.
Read MoreJoseph Formaggio explores the properties of neutrinos, one of nature’s most elusive particles, and their deep connections to particle physics and cosmology.
Read MoreThomas Jessell has made fundamental contributions to neuroscience by revealing the basic principles of how our nervous system communicates.
Read MoreJoris Dik studied art history and classical archaeology at the University of Amsterdam, receiving his M.A. in 1997. He spent a year as a Getty Graduate Intern at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. After returning to the Netherlands he graduated with a PhD in chemistry, focusing on historical pigment technology.
Read MoreAnya Salih studies the glow-in-the-dark fluorescent proteins that light up coral reefs in a kaleidoscope of colors. She has investigated the diverse biological roles these proteins play, including regulating how much light the corals take in and helping them reduce the stresses associated with climate change, and her work has helped establish the science of fluorescent protein biology as a rapidly growing new discipline.
Read MoreClaire Max studies adaptive optics, a technology that can remove the blurring effects of the earth’s atmosphere and let telescopes on the ground “see” as clearly as if they were in space.
Read MoreAngela Belcher is the W. M. Keck Professor of Energy at MIT. She combines chemistry, molecular biology and electrical engineering to understand how living things make molecular-scale materials and incorporate their tricks into new organic-inorganic hybrid technologies.
Read MoreNancy Knowlton researches the ecology, evolution, and conservation of coral reef organisms as the Sant Chair in Marine Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.
Read MoreJanet Conrad’s work focuses on the lightest known particle of matter, the neutrino. The number of neutrinos in the universe far exceeds the number of atoms, yet we know surprisingly little about them. Conrad is now exploring whether neutrinos have other unexpected properties and is working to develop an updated model for particle physics that incorporates these new surprises.
Read MoreTomás Saraceno’s work defies traditional notions of space, time, gravity, consciousness and perception through architectural, social and communitarian means that are utopian and participatory. His installations blend the boundary between sky and the earth, creating the sensation of flight.
Read MoreRenowned arachnologist Peter Jäger has discovered more than 200 species of spiders in the last decade, including a rare species in Malaysia that he named Heteropoda davidbowie after the legendary British rocker to raise awareness of endangered spiders and their threatened tropical habitats.
Read MoreBoaz Almog studies superconductors—materials with no electrical resistance—and their applications at Tel-Aviv University in Israel. By using exceptional superconductors, Boaz and his colleague Mishael Azoulay recently succeeded in demonstrating a phenomenon called “quantum levitation”: They trapped a superconductor disc in a powerful magnetic field, causing the disc to float uncannily in midair.
Read MoreKatherine Isbister has a joint appointment between the NYU-Poly computer science department and the NYU Game Center. Isbister is research director of the Game Innovation Lab at NYU-Poly, and an investigator in the NYU Games for Learning Institute.
Read MoreNow in its 37th year, Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) is one of America’s foremost and most versatile ensembles. St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble consists of 22 virtuoso artists who form the artistic core of OSL.
Read MoreMatt Mountain has been the Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute since September 1, 2005. He leads the 400-person organization responsible for the science operations and education and public outreach of the Hubble Space Telescope and of its planned successor, the James Webb Space Telescope.
Read MoreNatalie Batalha is a UC Presidential Chair, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Director of Astrobiology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She will lead the Early Release Science program for transiting exoplanets — a scientific community effort to acquire some of the first observations of exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope.
Read MoreJarod Miller is a young naturalist, zoologist, pet expert, and regular guest lecturer for zoos, universities, and promotional events, having lectured on captive management and wildlife conservation at venues including the White House.
Read MoreSara Seager is a planetary scientist and astrophysicist. She has been a pioneer in the vast and unknown world of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the sun.
Read MoreLaurie Garrett is currently the senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. Garrett is the only writer ever to have been awarded all three of the Big “Ps” of journalism: The Peabody, The Polk and The Pulitzer.
Read MoreSuzanne Staggs is an experimental physicist who uses cutting-edge detectors and optical technology to measure the cosmic microwave background, the low-level radiation left over from the very first moments of the universe. A physics professor at Princeton University, Staggs is now in charge of the detectors for the Atacama Cosmology Telescope project.
Read MoreRichard Rhodes is the author or editor of twenty-four books including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which won a Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, a National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award; Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, which was shortlisted for a Pulitzer Prize in History; Why They Kill; a personal memoir, A Hole in the World; a biography, John James Audubon; and four novels.
Read MoreRachel Yehuda, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, is the Director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the Mental Health Patient Care Center Director at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Read MoreTim Wu is an author, policy advocate, and professor at Columbia Law School, and director of the Poliak Center for the study of First Amendment Issues at Columbia Journalism School.
Read MoreCynthia McFadden is the senior legal and investigative correspondent for NBC News. Before joining NBC News, she co-anchored Nightline at ABC News. She has won Emmy, Peabody, and duPont awards, among others.
Read MoreMichael B. First, M.D. is a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and a research psychiatrist at the Biometrics Department at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Read MoreMaja Matarić is at the forefront of the growing field of “socially assistive” robotics, building intelligent machines that can interact with humans socially, rather than physically, to help them learn new skills or recover from illness and injury.
Read MoreHailed by Time Out New York as “one of New York’s most reliably adventurous performers”, violinist Jennifer Choi has charted a career that breaks through the conventional boundaries of solo violin, chamber music, and the art of creative improvisation.
Read MoreFor the past sixteen years, American composer Tyondai Braxton has been actively involved in music composition and performance. His music has received critical acclaim from an extraordinarily diverse expanse of the music world.
Read MoreKathleen Supové is one of America’s most acclaimed and versatile contemporary music pianists. She regularly presents a series of solo concerts entitled The Exploding Piano, in which she has performed and premiered works by the world’s leading composers as well as countless emerging ones.
Read MoreDonald Goff is director of the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and vice chair for research in the Department of Psychiatry at New York University Langone Medical Center. Goff earned his medical degree at the University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles.
Read MoreGlenn Saxe is the Arnold Simon Professor and Chair, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and director of the NYU Child Study Center. Saxe is a physician scientist with a focus on the psychiatric consequences of traumatic events on children.
Read MoreCarmelo ‘Nino’ Amarena is an electrical engineer with expertise in the field of digital wireless communications. He is also an inventor, designing a personal rocketpack called the ‘Thunderpack,’ which uses a peroxide-based reciprocating engine.
Read MoreGary Nabel is a nationally recognized expert at the forefront of virology, immunology, gene therapy and molecular biology. He is the director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institute of Allergy and InfectiousDiseases.
Read MoreJoyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde, and the New York Times bestsellers The Falls and The Gravedigger’s Daughter.
Read MoreJeffrey Eugenides grew up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and attended Brown and Stanford Universities. His novel Middlesex was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Ambassador Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, France’s Prix Medicis, and the Lambda Literary Award.
Read MorePetr Janata is a cognitive neuroscientist studying the psychology of music. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in 1996, where he performed electrophysiological studies of auditory object representations in the barn owl brain and musical image formation in the human brain.
Read MoreConcetta Tomaino is the executive director and co-founder of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function. Dr. Tomaino is also the senior vice president for Music Therapy at CenterLight Health System where she has worked since 1980.
Read MoreJohn Rennie is a deputy editor at Quanta Magazine, overseeing its coverage of biology topics. Previously, he was the editor in chief of Scientific American for 15 years and the editorial director of McGraw-Hill’s AccessScience.
Read MoreTim McHenry, the program producer at New York City’s Rubin Museum of Art, presents theater-going audiences with what the Huffington Post has called “some of the most original and inspired programs on the arts and consciousness in New York City.”
Read MorePatrick McGovern is the scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, where he is also an adjunct professor of anthropology.
Read MoreWhen Sam Calagione opened Dogfish Head in 1995, it was the smallest commercial brewery in America. Today Dogfish is among the country’s fastest-growing breweries. He is the author of Brewing Up a Business and Extreme Brewing, and co-authored He Said Beer, She Said Wine.
Read MoreHelen Blair Simpson, M.D., Ph.D., is professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The Anxiety Disorders Clinic was founded in 1982 as one of the first research clinics in the world to study the causes of and treatments for anxiety.
Read MoreLeVar Burton has been capturing the admiring attention of both audiences and his industry peers for three decades and continues to enjoy longevity truly rare within the industry. His deftness in avoiding stereotype continues to be a hallmark of an incredibly diverse career.
Read MoreDavid Brancaccio is a correspondent for the radio program Marketplace produced by American Public Media. He hosted Marketplace for ten years after serving as a London-based correspondent for the program.
Read MoreThe fundamentals of foundational hip-hop pulsate vibrantly through the veins of the multi-dimensional artist, John Robinson. This native New Yorker has sojourned and resided in the underground scenes of New York, New Jersey, Atlanta and Los Angeles.
Read MoreSandro Galea is a physician and an epidemiologist. He is the Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Read MoreRobert J. Full is a Chancellor’s and Goldman Professor of Integrative Biology at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Full completed his undergraduate, master and PhD studies at SUNY Buffalo.
Read MoreHeinrich Frontzek has more than 15 years of experience in corporate communication of innovation, technology, education and knowledge in engineering industrial companies.
Read MoreTelevision personality, filmmaker and philosopher, Jason Silva was recently described as “part Timothy Leary, part Ray Kurzweil, and part Neo from The Matrix.”
Read MoreDavid Hibbard most recently was in the 10 time Tony Award winning production of Billy Elliot, both on Broadway and in the second national tour. His mark on ‘the Great White Way’ is completing 2,197 performances in Broadway’s CATS, in the coveted role of the Rum Tum Tugger. Other Broadway credits include Spamalot, Once Upon A Mattress, and A Class Act.
Read MoreDavid Kuhn, a musician, singer, songwriter, performer was one of the original musicians chosen for both the development and Broadway productions of Pete Townshend’s Tony Award-winning rock opera The Who’s Tommy.
Read MoreDebra Monk has starred on Broadway in Curtains, Chicago; Reckless; Thou Shalt Not; Ah, Wilderness!; Steel Pier; Company; Picnic; Redwood Curtain; Nick and Nora; Pump Boys and Dinettes. Off-Broadway, she has appeared in Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Show People; The Seagull; The Time of the Cuckoo; Death-Defying Acts; Three Hotels; Assassins; and Oil City Symphony.
Read MoreDrew Gehling was an original cast member of the revival of the classic musical On A Clear Day You Can See Forever where he played the role of Warren to critical acclaim alongside the incomparable Harry Connick, Jr.
Read MoreEryn Murman, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, is a New York City-based actress, singer, and songwriter. She appeared on Broadway in Spring Awakening where she performed all the female roles and worked under JoAnn Hunter’s guidance as the dance captain for the production.
Read MoreFrom Broadway and regional theatre to television and films, James Naughton has won critical acclaim in dramas, comedies, and musicals. Naughton has appeared on-screen in The Devil Wears Prada, Childless, Factory Girl, and Suburban Girl.
Read MoreJoAnn Hunter will begin work on the pre-Broadway production of The Nutty Professor. Other theatre credits include: Broadway – On A Clear Day You Can See Forever, Broadway Bound, Spring Awakening, Curtains, The Wedding Singer, and All Shook Up.
Read MorePaige Faure just completed the run of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway, having originated the role of Miss Grabowski/Scrubwoman and eventually taking over the role of office sex-pot Hedy La Rue for a spell.
Read MoreRose Hemingway just completed a successful run as Rosemary Pilkington in the 50th Anniversary Broadway revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. She previously appeared as Mary Phagan in Parade at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and as Sophie Sheridan in the National Tour of Mamma Mia!.
Read MoreSean McDaniel is currently the drummer for American Idol Runner Up Clay Aiken and for the Grammy and Tony award winning The Book Of Mormon on Broadway. He has also performed with Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Jennifer Hudson, and Dolly Parton. On Broadway, McDaniel was also the drummer for the Grammy and Tony award winning musical Monty Python’s Spamalot.
Read MoreTodd Ellison is one of the most accomplished music directors on Broadway, having worked on productions of Annie, Spamalot, Cats, and more. His international credits include directing Jerry Hadley, Dawn Upshaw, and the Dublin Film Orchestra.
Read MoreAbbey O’Brien can be seen on stage and film alike, appearing in Pal Joey and TV’s SMASH. She was notably part of the original, Tony Award winning cast of Spamalot.
Read MoreAlex Pasternack is a journalist, filmmaker, and former Princeton-in-Asia fellow in Beijing, and the current editor of Motherboard, a “cutting edgy” science and technology culture site, where he also acts as supervising producer for their award-winning documentary series. He is passionate about the future of cities, and co-founded Weeels, the taxi-sharing app suite, and Starlab, the social transit research lab.
Read MoreHowie Choset is a professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. Motivated by applications in confined spaces, Choset has created a comprehensive program in snake robots, which has led to basic research in mechanism design, path planning, motion planning, and estimation.
Read MoreEitan Grinspun is associate professor of computer science at Columbia University, and Director of the Columbia Computer Graphics Group. His research seeks to discover connections between geometry, physics, and computation.
Read MoreDon Ingber is Founding Director of the Wyss Institute and a leader in the emerging field of biologically inspired engineering. He oversees a multifaceted effort to identify the mechanisms that living organisms use to self assemble and to apply these design principles to develop advanced materials and devices.
Read MoreTristan Perich’s work is inspired by the aesthetic simplicity of math, physics and code. WIRE magazine describes his compositions as “an austere meeting of electronic and organic.”
Read MoreVinod Menon is an Associate Professor of Physics at the City University of New York (CUNY) – Queens College and Graduate Center. He joined CUNY as part of the Photonic Initiative in 2004. Prior to joining CUNY he was a research staff member at Princeton University (2003-04).
Read MoreJin Kim Montclare is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, who is performing groundbreaking research in engineering proteins to mimic nature and, in some cases, work better than nature.
Read MoreJohn Carlstrom studies the origin and evolution of the universe from the very bottom of the Earth. Carlstrom is the Subramanyan Chandrasekhar Professor of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Physics at the University of Chicago, and deputy director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics.
Read MoreBruce Cuthbert, Ph.D., was named director of the Division of Adult Translational Research and Treatment Development (DATR) at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 2010. A major component of this position involves coordinating the new Research Domain Criteria project to develop neuroscience-based criteria for studying mental disorders.
Read MoreTricia Rose Burt grew up in the South, where she was strongly encouraged to pursue business, marry a Southerner, raise children, and live below the Mason-Dixon line. Attempts to lead that life backfired. She is now a writer, performer, and artist and lives in New England.
Read MoreTed Widmer is a historian who has starred in a rock and roll band, written speeches for an American president, enjoyed a lifelong love affair with cartoons, and now leads one of the most cherished libraries in the land.
Read MoreElizabeth Stark is a visiting fellow at the Yale Information Society Project and a Lecturer in Computer Science at Yale University. She is an influential open internet advocate who was deeply involved in stopping SOPA and fostering online engagement in support of internet freedom.
Read MoreTuring Award
Yann LeCun is VP & Chief AI Scientist at Facebook and Silver Professor at NYU affiliated with the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences & the Center for Data Science. He …
Read MoreStephanie Butler Velegol first heard about the ability of the seeds of the Moringa Oleifera tree to clean water while teaching Water and Wastewater Treatment at Penn State University. Since then she has advised over a dozen students on the use of Moringa seeds for sustainable water treatment in the developing world.
Read MoreJay Allison is an independent journalist, documentary maker, and leader in public broadcasting. He is a frequent producer for NPR news programs and This American Life, and a six-time Peabody Award winner.
Read MoreCaitlin Trainor is the artistic director of Trainor Dance and a lecturer at Barnard College/Columbia University. Originally from Rhode Island, Trainor has taught, choreographed, and performed on both sides of the Atlantic.
Read MoreApoorv Agarwal is a fourth year doctoral student in the Computer Science department at Columbia University, New York City. His areas of interest and specialization are Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning.
Read MoreMariette DiChristina is Director of Editorial & Publishing for Nature Research Magazines, overseeing the global editorial teams for Nature magazine, Partnership & Custom Media and Scientific American, for which she also serves as editor in chief.
Read MoreOliver Medvedik earned his Ph.D. at Harvard Medical School, in the Biomedical and Biological Sciences program. As part of his doctoral work he has used single-celled budding yeast as a model system to map the genetic pathways that underlie the processes of aging in more complex organisms, such as humans.
Read MoreAs a former student of NYU’s ITP program, Syed Salahuddin has been involved in various transmedia projects that explore relationships and create dialogues between humans and machines.
Read MoreThe Babycastles story has been one of opening new cultural territory for independent video games by inserting them aggressively into new spaces. This includes DIY punk-houses, Brooklyn music culture, art galleries, wearable games dance parties, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Read MoreEllen Jorgensen is a molecular biologist and a passionate advocate of citizen science. Her research interests have encompassed such diverse areas as free radicals in disease, DNA fingerprinting, virus protein structure/function relationships, and cancer biomarkers.
Read MoreKent Larson directs the Changing Places research group and co-directs the City Science Initiative at the MIT Media Laboratory. His current research is focused on responsive urban housing, new urban vehicles, ubiquitous technologies, and living lab experiments.
Read MoreAndrew Blum is the author of Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet, the first book-length look at the physical heart of the Internet itself. When not immersed in the Internet’s depths, Blum writes about architecture, design, technology, urbanism, art, and travel.
Read MoreRalph Borland is a South African artist, designer, and technologist. With an undergraduate degree in fine art from the University of Cape Town and a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from New York University, he recently completed his Ph.D. in the School of Engineering at Trinity College, Dublin.
Read MoreBritt Reichborn-Kjennerud is an experimental astrophysicist who uses measurements of the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the big bang, to understand the origin, composition, and evolution of the universe.
Read MoreSebastien Gouin is intellectual property and venture capital technical manager at Vestergaard Frandsen, working out of headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, but spends much of his time traveling to evaluate new innovative technologies being fostered in labs, startups, and university incubators across the world.
Read MoreCarey Hidaka is an IBM Public Sector Business Solutions Professional in IBM Global Business Services, with experience as a consultant in the Smarter Water Management business development team and mobile/wireless services.
Read MoreMark Mescher is a professor of entomology who focuses on the role of plant volatiles in mediating ecological and evolutionary interactions among plants, insects, and pathogens. The main areas of interest of our lab are chemical ecology, disease ecology, co-evolution, and tritrophic interactions.
Read MorePhilip White’s performances center on a non-linear feedback system, which consists of a mixer and several homemade circuits. In addition to his work with analog and digital electronics, White has written extensively for chamber ensembles and created a large body of intermedia pieces.
Read MoreT. Oliver Reid was the recipient of the 2012 MAC Award for Debut Artist-Male and the 2011 Julie Wilson Award from the Mabel Mercer Foundation, Reid has spent the last 18 months singing and records the songs of the American Songbook across the country.
Read MoreAlan Jacobsen is a senior scientist at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, CA. He is the inventor and lead developer of a new technique to fabricate microlattice materials based on a self-propagating optical waveguide phenomenon.
Read MoreEthan Brown is a 12-year-old “Mathemagician.” After watching an online video of Arthur Benjamin’s performance at TED, Ethan was inspired to learn the art and science of performing Mental Mathematics on stage. He began with a 5th-grade talent show in May 2010 and only 1 month later joined Benjamin onstage at The World Science Festival in NYC.
Read MoreWendy Suzuki is a professor of Neural Science and Psychology at New York University where she studies the effects of physical aerobic exercise on brain function.
Read MoreJohn Kovac is an associate professor in the Astronomy and Physics Departments at Harvard University. His cosmology research focuses on observations of the cosmic microwave background to reveal signatures of the physics that drove the birth of the universe.
Read MoreRebecca McMackin is the Park Horticulturalist at Brooklyn Bridge Park where she ecologically manages the flora and fauna of 85 acres of parkland habitat consisting of native woodlands, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, ornamental gardens, and, of course, expansive organic lawns.
Read MoreJohn Donvan was just named a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist for his bestselling book, In a Different Key: The Story of Autism, published in 2016 by Crown Books. He is also host of the Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates, which are heard on public radio and by podcast.
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 MoreKelle Cruz is an Assistant Professor in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Hunter College and a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), Department of Astrophysics.
Read MoreDr. David Gruber is a marine biologist who uses extended-range SCUBA and Remote Operated Vehicle technologies to explore the deeper portion of the world’s coral reefs. His research focuses on photosynthesis and biofluorescence and his research team has discovered over 30 novel fluorescent proteins from coral reefs, including one that is responsive to phosphorylation.
Read MoreMark Skwarek is a new media artist working to bridge the gap between virtual reality and the real world by using augmented reality technology. He is one of the founding members of the artist augmented reality group manifest.AR.
Read MoreFrench-Israeli Moran Cerf is a neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the departments of neurosurgery at UCLA and NYU, studying memories and emotions using electrodes implanted deep inside the brains of patients undergoing neurosurgery.
Read MorePeter Edwards is an American artist, musician, and teacher. He has been exploring the field of circuit bending and musical electronics since 2000 through his business Casperelectronics. He performs regularly under the same name.
Read MoreStanley Jordan is a much acclaimed guitarist known for his expertise in “The Touch” technique, or what’s known as two-handed tapping. Jordan started playing piano at age 6, before moving onto guitar.
Read MoreLesley Stahl is one of America’s most honored and experienced broadcast journalists, her five-decade career marked by political scoops, surprising features and award-winning foreign reporting. She was CBS’ first female White House correspondent and moderator of Face The Nation.
Read MoreJeffrey Levinton is Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Read MoreJohn Fontanella is a Physics Professor Emeritus at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. In addition to writing The Physics of Basketball, Fontanella has published approximately 150 papers and has given about the same number of talks at conferences on condensed matter physics.
Read MoreTeal Wicks is best known for her critically acclaimed performance as Elphaba in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Broadway companies of Wicked. She was last seen making her TV debut on an episode of The Good Wife.
Read MoreThorsten Ritz is a biophysicist interested in the role of quantum mechanics in biological systems, ranging from photosynthetic light harvesting systems to sensory cells. He has championed the idea that a quantum mechanical reaction may lie at the heart of the magnetic compass of birds and other animals.
Read MoreThe Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre is dedicated to fostering both an appreciation and education of the arts through affordable and high quality comedic performances and classes. The Upright CItizen’s Brigade first brought its award winning sketch comedy show to New York in 1996.
Read MoreLaura Allen is the editorial producer of the American Museum of Natural History’s Science Bulletins program, which produces video and visualization for exhibition at the museum and other public spaces that highlight cutting-edge scientific research and issues.
Read MoreElizabeth Stahlmann is an actress. Her New York stage credits include The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet (The Acting Company), Paper Plane (Three Sticks), Scream Along With Billy (Joe’s Pub), and Little Broken Hearts (The Universal ClockWorks).
Read MoreA graduate of the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. actor training program, Michael Roush moved to New York City to act with the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Following that season, he worked to bring We Happy Animals, a new play by Andrew Kramer, to the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival where he originated the role of Ben.
Read MoreWritopia Lab is a national community of young writers, ages 8-18. Founded in New York City in 2007, Writopia Lab has now spread to Greater New York, Greater Washington, and Los Angeles.
Read MoreRobert Woodrow Wilson is an astronomer most well known for his role in discovering cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), for which he and his colleague, Arno Allan Penzias, won the Nobel prize.
Read MoreHeather Sparks explores art and science at Science Sparks Art and has also contributed to Wired, Popular Science, and BoingBoing. She studied molecular genetics at The Ohio State University, has a graduate degree in science journalism from New York University, and writes advertising for the pharmaceutical industry.
Read MoreRachel Sussman is a Brooklyn-based artist and photographer. Since 2004, she has traveled the world to find continuously living organisms 2,000 years old and older for her transdisiplanary project The Oldest Living Things in the World. Sussman has exhibited across the U.S. and Europe, received numerous awards, and spoken at TED.
Read MoreArla Berman is a Brooklyn-based actress. She is passionate about using the arts as a means of exciting passion for science, and likes to spend her time writing plays about science, interning at the World Science Festival, and teaching science classes to New York City children in an after school program.
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 MoreDominic Ffytche is a psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. He researches visual perceptual disorders from a clinical and neuroscientific perspective and has published more than 70 scientific papers, book chapters and lay articles in the field. He recently reviewed Oliver Sacks’ Hallucinations for the journal Nature.
Read MoreAnn Harada is best known for originating the role of Christmas Eve in Avenue Q on Broadway and in London. She is currently playing Charlotte, a stepsister, in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella.
Read MoreGregory Hildreth has appeared in Broadway shows such as Cinderella, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. His Off-Broadway credits include roles in Peter and the Starcatcher (New York Theatre Workshop), and Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (The Public Theatre).
Read MoreMichael J. Cirino is the founder, principal, and executive chef of a razor, a shiny knife, a culinary performance art and experience design group. a razor, a shiny knife creates immersive experiences that break the boundaries of theater and restaurant.
Read MoreSantino Fontana was raised on the west coast, went to school in the Midwest, and currently lives in New York. After graduating from the Guthrie Theater/University of Minnesota’s Actor Training Program he played the title role in Hamlet at the Guthrie at 23.
Read MoreSamantha Zack has performed in Broadway roles such as Wicked and How to Succeed in Business—for which she was nominated for an Astaire Award. Other performances include It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman, the Astaire awards with Dancing with the Stars’ Tony Dovolani, the 2012 Tony Awards, and Happy We’ll Be.
Read MoreMost recently, Lewis Grosso created the role of Les in the Tony award-winning, Disney’s Newsies, and previously made his Broadway debut starring as Michael Banks in Mary Poppins. In his Carnegie Hall debut, he had the honor of performing the role of JoJo, in the New York Pops 29th Birthday.
Read MoreCarrie Manolakos’ Broadway credits include the lead role of Sophie in Mamma Mia as well as Elphaba on the Second National Tour of Wicked. Her debut album, Echo, is a lyrical blend of folk, pop and soul.
Read MoreClarke Thorell is currently playing Rooster Hannigan in the Broadway revival of Annie. He made his Broadway debut in The Who’s Tommy, and originated the roles of Corny Collins in Broadway’s Hairspray and Jim Farrell in Titanic.
Read MoreErica Mansfield was recently seen in the Broadway revival company of Evita starring Ricky Martin. Prior to that she was seen in the Broadway company of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe where she understudied Miss Jones.
Read MoreDavid Chase has been a Music Director, Supervisor and/or Arranger for over 25 Broadway productions, including Cinderella, Nice Work If You Can Get It, How To Succeed In Business…, Anything Goes, Billy Elliot, Evita, Elf, Promises, Promises, The Little Mermaid, Curtains, and The Pajama Game.
Read MorePeter Benson is a Broadway performer, with roles in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Harvey, Promises, Promises, To Be or Not To Be, Boeing-Boeing, The Pajama Game, Wonderful Town, Cabaret, Little Me, American Daughter, and State Fair.
Read MoreAshley Hale has appeared in numerous shows in the West End of London and Europe including Shrek, Jersey Boys, Finding Neverland, Fame, Guys and Dolls, Candide, Dirty Dancing, Starlight Express, Saturday Night Fever, and On the Town.
Read MoreBrynn O’Malley has appeared on Broadway in Wicked, Sunday in the Park with George, Hairspray, and Beauty and the Beast. Other stage work includes Avenue Q, Boeing-Boeing, Oklahoma!, Meet Me In St. Louis, She Loves Me, Arsenic and Old Lace, Into the Woods, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Jekyll & Hyde. TV credits include The Big C, Royal Pains, and A Gifted Man.
Read MoreBeth Nicely has traveled the country with the National Tour of 42nd Street. She then moved to NYC and performed as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall. She has been in the Broadway shows Spamalot, Young Frankenstein, and White Christmas. She has also been seen in numerous Saturday Night Live skits and recently on 30 Rock.
Read MoreC. David Allis received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and performed postdoctoral work with Martin Gorovsky at the University of Rochester. Allis held several academic positions, including ones at the Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Virginia Health System.
Read MoreAmanda Kinchla is the Food Science Extension Specialist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She leads a new Food Science Extension program at UMass that focuses on applied research and food science education to support the Massachusetts and national food industry.
Read MoreHelen Fisher is a biological anthropologist at Rutgers University. She studies the evolution, brain systems (fMRI) and biological patterns of romantic love, mate choice, marriage, gender differences, personality, and the biology of leadership styles.
Read MoreJean Ashton is currently senior director for research and programs at the New-York Historical Society and curator of AIDS in New York: The First Five Years. Ashton holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, as well as degrees from Michigan, Harvard, and Rutgers.
Read MoreJohn Cooley grew up fascinated by the natural world in general and cicadas in particular. He spent a number of years studying flies in high alpine meadows of Colorado and exploring the mountains of the Front Range.
Read MoreKate Stafford is a principal oceanographer in the applied physics laboratory at the University of Washington. Stafford’s research focuses on the use of passive acoustic monitoring to study geographic and seasonal variation of large whale species.
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 MoreMetin Sitti’s academic discipline is robotics, with emphasis on micro- and nano-scale robotics. His research program combines applied micro/nano-robotic systems with micro/nanoscale mechanics modeling and analysis.
Read MoreMichelle Khine is an associate professor of biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, and materials science at University of California, Irvine. She was an assistant & founding professor at U.C. Merced from 2006 to 2009.
Read MoreMohan K. Wali is Professor Emeritus in the school of environment and natural resources (SENR) at Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus. At OSU since 1990, he served as director both of SENR, and of the OSU’s multi-college environmental science graduate program. He was also a professor in the John Glenn school of public affairs.
Read MoreMurray Campbell is a research scientist at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY. He was a member of the team that developed Deep Blue, the first computer to defeat the human world chess champion in a match.
Read MoreMurray Shanahan is a professor of cognitive robotics at Imperial College London. In the 1980s, he studied computer science as an undergraduate at Imperial College, and then obtained his Ph.D. from Cambridge University (King’s College).
Read MoreMusa Syeed is a writer and director. His first feature, Valley of Saints won the World Cinema: Dramatic Audience Award and the Alfred P. Sloan Film Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The film will have a theatrical release later this summer. He previously co-produced the award-winning documentaries, Bronx Princess and A Son’s Sacrifice.
Read MoreNeil Turok is Director and Niels Bohr Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario, Canada. Previously he was Professor of Physics at Princeton and Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge. He is also Founder and Chair of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences.
Read MoreNicholas Schiff studied history and philosophy of science at Stanford University before training as a physician at Cornell University Medical College. Following a detour into further training in applied mathematics, he completed a residency in neurology and post-doctoral training in quantitative systems neurophysiology.
Read MoreNita A. Farahany is a Professor of Law & Philosophy at Duke University and the director of Duke Science & Society. In 2010, she was appointed by President Obama to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, and continues to serve as a member.
Read MoreNora D. Volkow is the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at NIH. She pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate the effects of drugs in the human brain and has demonstrated that drug addiction is a brain disease.
Read MoreOmid Farokhzad is among the Nano50 winners by NASA Nanotech Briefs, which awards the most innovative people and design ideas that will revolutionize nanotechnology. He was one of 12 people to be recognized among the top innovators in Massachusetts by the Boston Globe.
Read MorePeter Hoffmann is a professor of physics at Wayne State University and an Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. His research interests are the area of nanomechanics, biophysics and atomic force microscopy. He is one of the founders of the Wayne State Biomedical Physics program.
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 MorePhilip Clayton is the dean of Claremont School of Theology (CST) and provost of Claremont Lincoln University. He also holds the Ingraham Chair at CST.
Read MoreRandy Jirtle headed the epigenetics and imprinting laboratory at Duke University until 2012. He is presently a visiting professor at McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jirtle’s research interests are in epigenetics, genomic imprinting, and the fetal origins of disease susceptibility.
Read MoreRichard Matthew is a professor in the schools of social ecology and social science at the University of California at Irvine, and founding director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs.
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 MoreSarah Robertson is an independent wildlife and science documentary producer and director specializing in the Arctic for 20 years. In 2007, Robertson was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award in recognition of excellence in exploring climate change.
Read MoreScott McVay is founding executive director of the Robert Sterling Clark and Geraldine R. Dodge Foundations, and the 16th president of the Chautauqua Institution. A graduate of Princeton, he discovered and documented the six-octave song of the Humpback whale and, with Roger Payne, published a cover article in Science.
Read MoreSteven Strogatz is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of applied mathematics at Cornell University. He studied at Princeton, Cambridge, and Harvard and taught at MIT before moving to Cornell. He is a renowned teacher and one of the world’s most highly cited mathematicians.
Read MoreSusan Zolla-Pazner, professor of pathology at the New York University’s school of medicine and director of AIDS research at the New York Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is a scientist who has devoted her professional life to areas of immunology.
Read MoreTim Maudlin is a professor of philosophy at NYU. He holds a B.A. in physics and philosophy from Yale and a Ph.D. in history and philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity.
Read MoreWilliam Hugh Woodin is a set theorist at University of California, Berkeley. He has made many notable contributions to the theory of inner models and determinacy. His recent work on Ω-logic suggests an argument that the continuum hypothesis is false.
Read MoreKareem Abdul-Jabbar is a retired American professional basketball player. He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points. During his career with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers, Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships and a record six regular season MVP Awards.
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 MoreCraig Callender is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, San Diego. His work focuses on the philosophy of science, especially physics. He has a lifelong interest in the mysteries of time. By attacking the problems associated with time through interdisciplinary means—especially physics, philosophy and psychology—he hopes to show how our manifest image of time arises in creatures like us.
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 MoreEdwin Olson is an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on autonomous robots, ranging from self-driving cars to teams of robots that work together to perform search and rescue missions. He received a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008 for his work in robust robot mapping.
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 MoreGarth Stevenson is a Brooklyn-based film composer and double bassist. Raised in the mountains of Western Canada, nature became his primary inspiration and the common thread between his life and music. He has released two full-length solo albums, informed by his experiences carrying his 150-year-old double bass to the woods, the beach, and the desert.
Read MoreGregory Wheeler is an American logician, philosopher, and computer scientist, who specializes in formal epistemology. Much of his work has focused on imprecise probability.
Read MoreWilliam Yosses previously worked as White House executive pastry chef, where he was closely involved with Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative with the goal of reducing childhood health problems related to diet. Other executive pastry chef experience include The Dressing Room in Westport Connecticut, Josephs Citarella in New York City, Bouley Bakery, and Bouley Restaurant.
Read MoreDavid Freedberg, the Pierre Matisse Professor of the history of art at Columbia University, is best known for his work related to psychological responses to art—particularly for his studies of iconoclasm and censorship. He is now devoting a substantial portion of his attention to collaborations with neuroscientists working in the fields of vision, movement, and emotion.
Read MoreLuke Syson is the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Curator in Charge of the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He received his B.A. from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.
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 MoreLawrence Rosenblum is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside and author of See What I’m Saying: The Extraordinary Powers of Our Five Senses. He is an award winning teacher of perceptual, cognitive, and introductory psychology.
Read MoreMaia Guest trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, and has worked in theater, television and film in London, New York, Los Angeles, and throughout the United States. She can be currently seen playing a scientist in BYUtv’s new period scripted drama, Granite Flats, and has appeared on shows on PBS, VH1, BBC, MTV.
Read MoreCarl Howell is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts. His theatre work includes the First National Tour of the Tony Award-winning Peter and the Starcatcher, directed by the late Roger Rees and Alex Timbers. In New York, Howell has appeared in Twelfth Night (The Pearl Theatre Co), Sleepless City (Pipeline Theatre Co.), and The Land Whale Murders (Shelby Company.)
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 MoreBeth Simone Noveck served in the White House as the first United States deputy chief technology officer and founder and director of the White House Open Government Initiative.
Read MoreFrancois Grey is a physicist and the head of Citizen Science at NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress. He launched the popular Science and the City hackfest series at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Read MoreSteven E. Koonin was appointed as the founding director of NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress in April 2012. He previously served as the U.S. Department of Energy’s second Senate-confirmed under secretary for science from 2009–2011.
Read MoreJed Rakoff is a U.S. District judge and an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School. Prior to going on bench, Rakoff was an assistant U.S. attorney, a criminal defense lawyer, and partner at two major law firms. He teaches an upperclass course on science and the courts at Columbia Law School and is the author of several judicial opinions and law review articles on the interplay of science and the law.
Read MoreKent Kiehl is an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of New Mexico, and executive science officer of the non-profit Mind Research Network in Albuquerque, NM.
Read MoreJamie Simmonds is a professionally trained producer, audio engineer, and performer who specializes in hip-hop, theater, and custom projects. He has worked with several record labels such as NTone (Ninja Tune), K7, and Crammed/SSR, as well as major label artists like Alison Goldfrapp, Leftfield, and Pressure Drop.
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 MoreLone Frank is an award-winning science journalist and author with a Ph.D. in neurobiology and a background in biomedical research. A native of Denmark, she lives in Copenhagen and is a well-known voice in European debates relating to science, technology, and society.
Read MoreHarold McGee writes about the science of food and cooking. He has been named food writer of the year by Bon Appetit magazine, and to the TIME 100, an annual list of the world’s most influential people. He started out studying physics and astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, and then English literature at Yale University.
Read MoreAndreas Albrecht is a leading theoretical cosmologist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 where, with Paul Steinhardt, he wrote one of the original papers on “new” or “slow roll” inflation.
Read MoreMichael Laiskonis was named creative director of New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education in 2012. Previously executive pastry chef at Le Bernardin for eight years, his pastry philosophy manifested itself in a style of desserts that balanced art and science, and contemporary ideas with classic.
Read MoreJames Gleick is the author of several bestselling books about science and technology and their cultural implications. His first, Chaos: Making a New Science, made the Butterfly Effect a household word; his latest The Information, won awards for both science writing and history.
Read MoreJoel Benjamin was hailed as a chess prodigy when he became a national master at the age of 13, breaking Bobby Fischer’s record for youngest-ever master. A three-time U.S. junior champion, he became a grandmaster in 1986.
Read MoreRachel Dutton, Ph.D. is a Bauer fellow at the Harvard University Center for Systems Biology. After receiving her Ph.D. in microbiology from Harvard Medical School, she founded her own lab with the mission of using cheese as a way to understand microbial ecosystems.
Read MoreMaxime Bilet is the co-author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, which received the 2012 Book of the Year Award from the James Beard Foundation and the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Visionary Achievement, among many other awards. He is also the co-author and of Modernist Cuisine at Home.
Read MoreAmy Rowat is an assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Originally from Canada, she studied physics and various other subjects at Mount Allison University and completed her graduate work in Denmark.
Read MoreCheryl Perry is a classically trained chef who has more than 20 years experience working in New York City as a culinary instructor, restaurant owner, and consultant. Perryl was the owner of the contemporary American restaurant Dish for six years, and has been an instructor at the Natural Gourmet Institute of Health and Culinary Arts since 1992.
Read MoreIn 2004, Dave Arnold founded the Museum of Food and Drink in New York to promote learning about the history and culture of food. In 2005, The International Culinary Center, home of The French Culinary Institute, tapped him to head its new culinary technology department until 2013.
Read MoreKent Kirshenbaum is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at New York University. He has appeared on the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, the Science Channel, the Discovery Channel, Sid the Science Kid (PBS), and at the Wellington-on-a-Plate Festival.
Read MoreWylie Dufresne opened WD-50 in 2003, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. His partners in the venture are Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and restaurateur Phil Suarez.
Read MoreOwen Clark is the executive chef at Gwynnett St., where he started as sous chef on the opening team. Clark has cooked in New York City for seven years. Starting his culinary career in a family style Italian restaurant, he decided to enter a culinary program in Boulder at the Culinary School of the Rockies.
Read MoreAnne E. McBride is the culinary program and editorial director for strategic initiatives at The Culinary Institute of America, where her responsibilities include leading the programming for the Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival.
Read MoreRobert (Bob) Grant has 29 years of experience with HIV/AIDS research and clinical care. He is a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco.
Read MoreTom Igoe is an associate arts professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Coming from a background in theatre lighting design, Igoe makes tools that sense and respond to a wide range of human physical expression.
Read MoreClay Shirky is a leading voice on the social and economic impact of Internet technologies. Considered one of the finest thinkers on the Internet revolution, Shirky provides an insightful and optimistic view of networks, social software, and technology’s effects on society.
Read MoreBilly Barlow has been the Chef and Director of Operations for Blue Marble Ice Cream since 2011, although he has unofficially been involved with the company since 2008.
Read MoreAfter rapidly rising through the ranks of some of the world’s finest restaurants, Najat Kaanache “The Pilgrim Chef” continues to demonstrate her culinary skills not only with her creative restaurant concept but also with her tireless passion for culinary innovation, education, and clean food advocacy.
Read MoreCésar Vega earned his doctorate in food science from the University College Cork in Ireland. His areas of expertise include dairy products, particularly ice cream and yogurt, the physical chemistry of cocoa and chocolate, and the science of cooking.
Read MoreCara Santa Maria has dedicated her life to improving science literacy by communicating scientific principles across media platforms. Prior to moving to the west coast, Santa Maria taught biology and psychology courses to university undergraduates and high school students in Texas and New York.
Read MoreDarlene Cavalier is the founder of SciStarter, an online citizen science community. The site is a one-stop-shop for citizen scientists and a shared space where researchers recruit participants. She is also the founder of ScienceCheerleader.com.
Read MoreKristen Harris is one of the world’s leading neuroscientists investigating synapse structure and function. She has been a professor of neuroscience at Harvard, Boston University, Georgia Health Sciences University, and since 2006 in the Center for Learning and Memory at the University of Texas at Austin.
Read MoreMelanie Boly is a neurologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research and at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She conducts research investigating the neural correlates of decreased consciousness during vegetative state, anesthesia, and sleep using functional neuroimaging techniques.
Read MoreHolly Robbins is a recent graduate of NYU’s master’s program in media culture and communication. Her research area is human computer interaction with a special focus on qualitative methodologies from anthropology.
Read MoreJean-Pierre Issa is a professor of medicine and director at Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology at Temple University. Issa’s laboratory has made important contributions to the understanding of the importance of epigenetics in the pathophysiology and treatment of cancer.
Read MoreBjørn Torger Stokke holds an engineering degree in physics and a Ph.D. in biophysics from the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH). Stokke is currently a professor in physics, specialization in biophysics and medical technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway.
Read MoreIn 2005, Jonathan Coulton dropped out of a perfectly good software career to write music on the Internet. He embarked upon a bold experiment called Thing a Week, in which he home-recorded and released a new song every week for an entire year, giving them all away for free.
Read MoreOphira Eisenberg is a comedian, writer, and host of NPR’s new weekly trivia comedy show, Ask Me Another. Her writing has been published in five anthologies and she is a regular host and teller with The Moth.
Read MoreBesides being the voice double for Matthew McConaughey, Brian Ralph has an amazing way with cheese. Ralph made his way into the cheese world after studying neurobiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, so clearly, the man knows a thing or two about science.
Read MoreEmmy Award-winning journalist David Novarro is co-anchor of Eyewitness News First on Channel 7 WABC-TV in New York. A native of Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Queens, Novarro started his career with Eyewitness News as a college intern and rose through the ranks to become a reporter.
Read MoreRafael Yuste is professor of biological sciences and neuroscience at Columbia University. He was born in Madrid, where he obtained his M.D. at the Universidad Autónoma. He performed Ph.D. studies with Larry Katz in Torsten Wiesel’s laboratory at Rockefeller University and was a postdoctoral student of David Tank at Bell Labs.
Read MoreMassimo Porrati is a professor of physics, and a member of the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, at New York University. His major research interests are string theory, supersymmetry and supergravity, nonperturbative aspects of strings and quantum field theory, and cosmology.
Read MoreHeather Berlin is a cognitive neuroscientist, assistant professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Visiting Scholar at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute.
Read MoreJuan Maldacena is the Carl P. Feinberg Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has made numerous ground-breaking contributions to theoretical physics, …
Read MoreTerry Moran is a co-anchor of ABC News’ Nightline and covers the Supreme Court for the network from his base in Washington, DC. At Nightline Moran has led the program’s distinguished coverage of many of the major news stories over the past several years.
Read MoreJoel David Hamkins conducts research in mathematical and philosophical logic, particularly set theory, with a focus on the mathematics and philosophy of the infinite.
Read MoreMiyoung Chun is vice president of science programs at The Kavli Foundation in Oxnard, California. Prior to her current role, Chun was an assistant dean of science and engineering at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), in particular serving for the California Nanosystems Institute.
Read MoreTrained as an epidemiologist, Julie Herbstman’s research focuses on the impact of prenatal exposures to environmental pollutants, including polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on child growth and development.
Read MoreSarah Elizabeth Richards is a journalist specializing in health, medicine, psychology, and social issues. She has written for more than two dozen newspapers, magazines, and websites.
Read MoreRobin Dando, originally from the UK, is a professor at Cornell University. His lab studies the neurotransmitter interactions and signaling events that occur within the mammalian taste system. Our sense of taste is one of the strongest drives that we possess, and is inexorably linked to emotions, memories, and our quality of life.
Read MoreFrank O. Nitsche received his M.S. in geophysics from the University of Kiel, Germany and a Ph.D. from the University of Bremen, Germany. In 2001, he came to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, where he started as a postdoctoral researcher and is now a research scientist.
Read MoreSuzanne Carbotte is a marine geophysicist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. Her research interests span from the global, focused on magma chambers beneath deep-sea mid-ocean ridge volcanoes, to studies closer to home of sedimentation within the Hudson River.
Read MoreMarion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at NYU. She holds a doctorate in molecular biology. Her books, Food Politics and What to Eat won James Beard Awards; Why Calories Count won the 2013 IACP food matters book award.
Read MoreMeg Schwamb is an astronomer and planetary scientist. She is currently a National Science Foundation (NSF) astronomy and astrophysics postdoctoral fellow at Yale University’s Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (YCAA).
Read MoreEmily Rice is an assistant professor at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York and a research associate in the astrophysics department of the American Museum of Natural History. She earned her Ph.D. at UCLA studying enigmatic objects called brown dwarfs, which form like stars but then cool and fade to resemble gas giant planets.
Read MoreJessica Wapner is a freelance writer focused mainly on science and medicine. Her first book, The Philadelphia Chromosome, was published in 2013. Publishers Weekly named The Philadelphia Chromosome a top-ten science book for Spring 2013, and Kirkus calls it “an absorbing, complex medical detective story.”
Read MoreMichael Moss is the author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us (Random House, 2013). He has been an investigative reporter with The New York Times since 2000.
Read More20ll marked Alison Stewart’s twentieth year as a professional journalist. In 2010-2011 she hosted the PBS news magazine Need to Know. In 2007 Stewart was the founding host of NPR’s breakthrough multiplatform news program, The Bryant Park Project, the first public radio news program to seamlessly incorporate audio, video, and social media.
Read MoreNell Benjamin is the playwright of The Explorers Club. She co-wrote the score to Legally Blonde: The Musical with composer Laurence O’Keefe, for which they received a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk nomination.
Read MoreZahi Fayad serves as professor of radiology and medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is the director of the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute; vice chair for research, department of radiology; director and founder of the Eva and Morris Feld Imaging Science Laboratories.
Read MoreJ. Kenji López-Alt is the author of the New York Times Best-Selling cookbook The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, the managing culinary director of Serious Eats, and a columnist for Cooking Light.
Read MorePhilip Rubin is the principal assistant director for science at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, where he also leads the White House Neuroscience Initiative.
Read MoreCorey S. Powell writes the column and blog Out There for Discover magazine. He is also the Interim Editor of American Scientist magazine, a contributor to Slate and Popular Science, and a glutton for intellectual punishment.
Read MoreJoel and Ethan Coen direct, produce and write their films and are among today’s most honored and respected filmmakers.
Read MoreCarter Burwell has composed the music for many feature films written, directed, and produced by the Coen Brothers, including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, and True Grit.
Read MoreAniruddh D. Patel is associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Tufts University. After attending the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar, he received a Ph.D. in organismic and evolutionary biology from Harvard University in 1996.
Read MoreAlec Baldwin has appeared in more than 40 films, including Beetlejuice, Working Girl, Miami Blues, The Hunt for Red October, Glengarry Glen Ross, Malice, The Juror, The Edge, Ghosts of Mississippi, State and Main, The Cat in the Hat, The Cooler, The Aviator, The Departed, and It’s Complicated.
Read MoreArthur L. Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor and head of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City. Prior to coming to NYU, he was the Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics and director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Read MoreJob Cohen is the popular former mayor of Amsterdam and leader of the Dutch Labour Party. He studied law at the University of Groningen and joined the University of Maastricht in 1981 where he became full professor and Rector.
Read MoreAndré Kuipers is the first Dutchman with two space missions to his name. His second mission is the longest spaceflight in European history. In total, the ESA astronaut spent 204 days in space: 11 days during mission DELTA in 2004 and 193 days during mission PromISSe.
Read MoreErik Verlinde is a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Amsterdam. He is known for the Verlinde formula, which has a wide range of applications in physics and mathematics. In 2010, he attracted international attention with a paper in which he argued that gravity is emergent, and results from changes in the entropy associated with microscopic information.
Read MoreGianfranco Bertone is an Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he investigates topics at the interface between Particle Physics and Cosmology.
Read MoreThe Metropole Orchestra is the world’s largest professional pop and jazz orchestra. Renowned for its wide-ranging abilities, the Metropole Orchestra performs anything from chansons to World-music, film-scores, Rock- or Pop-tunes as well as high-octane jazz.
Read MoreMarco Bersanelli is Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Director of the Ph.D. School in Physics, Astrophysics and Applied Physics at the University of Milan, Italy.
Read MoreMartijn van Calmthout is the chief science editor of the Dutch newspaper ‘de Volkskrant’. He studied physics at the University of Utrecht and writes about the natural sciences. He is the author of the biographical Einsteins Licht, the Survivalgids voor de Toekomst and many other popular books.
Read MoreSteve Vance is a scientist in the Planetary Chemistry and Astrobiology group at Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Dr. Vance is an Acting Staff Scientist for the Europa Clipper, a NASA mission pre-formulation study for a robotic mission, which is being conducted by JPL in partnership with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.
Read MoreSiu-Lan Tan is Professor of Psychology at Kalamazoo College. She served as primary editor of The Psychology of Music in Multimedia published by Oxford University Press 2013.
Read MoreScott D. Lipscomb is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Minnesota, where he also serves as Associate Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the School of Music.
Read MoreJim Ottaviani is the author of many graphic novels about scientists, ranging from physicists to paleontologists to behaviorists. His most recent are The New York Times bestselling Primates, about Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas and Feynman, a book about the Nobel-prize winning physicist, bongo-playing artist, and best-selling author Richard Feynman.
Read MoreCharles Soule is a Brooklyn-based writer, attorney, and musician. His creator-owned work includes Strange Attractors (Archaia), Letter 44 (Oni), 27 (Image/Shadowline) and others. He is currently writing Swamp Thing, Superman/Wonder Woman and Red Lanterns for DC Comics, and She-Hulk and Thunderbolts for Marvel.
Read MoreDominic Walliman is a physicist and an award-winning science writer. He is co-creator of the Professor Astro Cat science books with illustrator Ben Newman. He also makes YouTube videos communicating science.
Read MoreSimone Buitendijk is vice-rector magnificus at Leiden University, and as such responsible for education, student affairs and diversity. She is a professor in Women’s and Family Health at the Leiden University Hospital LUMC.
Read MoreMarie-José Goumans is professor of cardiovascular cell biology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), and a member of the Royal Academy’s Young Academy. She did her Ph.D. in cardiovascular development at the Hubrecht Laboratory. Still fascinated by the beating heart, she studies cardiac progenitor cells for heart regeneration.
Read MoreJuliette Walma van der Molen is a professor of Talent Development and Science and Technology Education at Twente University. She researches the development of children’s and teachers’ skills and attitudes in science and technology.
Read MoreMarise Born is a professor of Personnel Psychology and Chair of the Institute of Psychology at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She also is Extraordinary Professor of Industrial and Personnel Psychology at the Free University Amsterdam.
Read MoreNaïma Azough is an author, editor, documentary filmmaker and a former member of parliament. She studied English, German and International Relations at the Universities of Antwerp and Amsterdam.
Read MoreDr. Peter L. Salk graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University in 1965 and Alpha Omega Alpha from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1969.
Read MoreCarolyn Porco is the leader of the imaging science team on the Cassini mission presently in orbit around Saturn, a veteran imaging scientist of the 1980 Voyager mission to the outer solar system, and an imaging scientist on the New Horizons mission on its way to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
Read MoreMichelle Thaller is a nationally recognized spokesperson for astronomy and science and the Assistant Director of Science at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center. She has a Bachelor’s in astrophysics from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University.
Read MoreLuis Daniel is a Research Fellow at The Governance Lab at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Policy and a recent graduate of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Previously, he worked as a Solomon Fellow at NYC Digital where among other things, he created and ran New York City government’s first official Spanish Twitter account.
Read MoreFred Kavli, a Norwegian-born U.S. citizen, was a physicist, entrepreneur, business leader, innovator and philanthropist dedicated to supporting research and education that has a positive, long-term impact on the human condition.
Read MoreDavid Brenner is the Director of the Columbia University Center for Radiological Research, which is the oldest and largest radiological research laboratory, worldwide. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Center for High-Throughput Minimally-Invasive Radiation Biodosimetry.
Read MoreDr. Heather Savage is a geophysicist studying fault and earthquake mechanics at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
Read MoreMichael Corradini is a mechanical and nuclear engineer with research interests centered primarily in thermal hydraulics and multiphase flow. He especially emphasizes the areas of reactor operation, reactor safety, reprocessing, and recycle and risk assessment.
Read MoreDOWNTOWN Magazine Editor-in-Chief Mike Hammer is a veteran media consultant, marketing veteran, and journalist with a long track record of accomplishments as at a wide variety of publications and online products.
Read MoreMichael Q. Bullerdick is a freelance contributing editor for several print, web and book publishers. He also frequently consults with publishers during critical transitions: launches, turnarounds, major workflow overhauls and leadership changes.
Read MoreAmir Levine is an adult, adolescent, and child psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Columbia University in New York and The Center of Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
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 MoreBobak Ferdowsi, also known as “Mohawk Guy,” is a member of the Engineering Operations Team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He acted as Flight Director during the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity on Gale Crater in 2012.
Read MoreOdest Chadwicke Jenkins is an associate professor of Computer Science at Brown University. He explores human-robot interaction and robot learning with the goal of creating autonomous systems that can collaborate with humans in real-world tasks.
Read MoreChristina Tosi is the chef, owner and founder of Momofuku Milk Bar and the 2012 recipient of the James Beard Rising Star Chef Award.
Read MoreClaudia Raschke is an award-winning cinematographer who has worked on feature films and documentaries for more than 20 years. Her most recent feature documentary, Particle Fever, follows the quest for the Higgs Boson and the launch of the Large Hadron Collider.
Read MoreDana Karwas is a media artist and educator working in video installation, architecture, live data visualization, and experimental film. She is an Instructor of Integrated Digital Media at NYU’s Polytechnic School of Engineering.
Read MoreDavid Grier is a physicist specializing in soft condensed matter physics. He is a professor of physics at NYU and has worked on new techniques to probe and manipulate the microscopic world—including using single beams of light imprinted with computer-designed holograms and developing methods of particle tracking.
Read MoreDavid Kaplan is a theoretical particle physicist who explores supersymmetry, extra dimensions, dark matter, cosmology, and particles such as the Higgs boson. He is developing new techniques to discover physics beyond the standard model using particle colliders.
Read MoreDimitar Sasselov studies stars and planets at Harvard University, where he is the Phillips Professor of Astronomy. His research explores modes of interaction between light and matter. Sasselov and his team discovered several planets orbiting other stars with novel techniques that he hopes to use to find other planets like Earth.
Read MoreTodd Disotell is a biological anthropologist who researches primate and human evolution. He runs NYU’s Molecular Primatology Laboratory, a research group that has developed molecular analysis techniques and helped clarify the primate evolutionary tree.
Read MoreEric Nestler is a neuroscientist, professor of psychiatry, and chair of the neuroscience department at Mount Sinai, and the director of the Friedman Brain Institute.
Read MoreMichael S. Hopkins is a current NASA astronaut who returned from a six-month stay aboard the International Space Station in March. He served as a flight engineer and conducted both science experiments and maintenance, spending almost 13 hours outside of the station on spacewalks.
Read MoreDean Buonomano is a neuroscientist in the Departments of Neurobiology and Psychology, and a member of the Brain Research Institute and the Integrative Center for Learning and Memory at UCLA. He is a leading researcher on how the brain tells time and neurocomputation.
Read MoreCatherine Ball leads a group of population geneticists, statisticians, and computer scientists and oversees the analytical approaches behind Ancestry.com’s direct-to-consumer genotyping services.
Read MoreAndrea Hanson joins us from NASA Johnson Space Center, where she works in the Exercise, Physiology and Countermeasures Laboratory. She supports and conducts research centered on using exercise and fitness to keep astronauts strong and healthy while living aboard the space station.
Read MoreEdward Frenkel is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society, and the winner of the Hermann Weyl Prize in mathematical physics.
Read MoreSheldon Krimsky is a professor of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning as well as adjunct professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University. From 2012 to 2014, he is also a professor of philosophy at Brooklyn College, CUNY.
Read MoreCeCe Moore is a professional genetic genealogist who is considered an innovator in the use of DNA for genealogical purposes. Currently, she is working as the genetic genealogy consultant and scriptwriter for PBS’ Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Read MoreSimon Levin is a professor of biology and director of the Center for BioComplexity at Princeton University. His research centers on understanding how macroscopic patterns are maintained at the level of ecosystems and finding parallels between ecological and economic systems.
Read MoreRob DeSalle works in molecular systematics, microbial evolution, and genomics. His current research concerns the development of bioinformatic tools to handle large-scale genomics problems using phylogenetic systematic approaches.
Read MoreHannah Morris is an archaeologist studying how humans and plants interacted in the past. She is founder of the paleoethnobotanical consulting company, Chena Consulting Services, and is working on a long-term project with the American Museum of Natural History on St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia.
Read MoreSelena Ahmed is an assistant professor and Program Leader of Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems at Montana State University, as well as a partner of Shoots & Roots Bitters. She examines the effects of global environmental change, policy, and management on food system quality and the resulting linkages to land-use strategies and community well-being.
Read MoreAnna Christina Nobre (known as Kia Nobre) is a cognitive neuroscientist interested in understanding the principles of the neural systems that support cognitive functions in the human brain. Her current research looks at how neural activity linked to perception and cognition is modulated according to memories, task goals, and expectations.
Read MoreNaveen Sinha uses analogies from cooking to teach science. He has served as Teaching Fellow for the Science and Cooking course at Harvard University, helping illuminate the science of cocktails, the mathematics of cookie recipes, and the physics of chocolate.
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 MoreEvelynn Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and a professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University.
Read MoreJody Oberfelder is a choreographer and director who recently created her first immersive performance installation piece, “4Chambers,” which focuses on the heart.
Read MoreBecca Peixotto is an archaeologist and Ph.D. student in the Department of Anthropology at American University in Washington, D.C. Her areas of specialization and interest are historic landscapes, material culture, ideas of wilderness and public engagement with the past.
Read MoreAlvar Saenz-Otero is the director of the MIT Space Systems Laboratory at the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His primary role is as lead scientist of the SPHERES program, where he develops research activities for tests aboard the International Space Station and in ground facilities.
Read MoreNancy Hechinger is a faculty member at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunication Program and has a diverse background in education, which includes interactive multimedia production, the development of interactive museum exhibits, and publishing.
Read MoreJennifer Ouellette is a science writer and the author of four popular science books, most recently Me, Myself and Why: Searching for the Science of Self. Her work has appeared in Discover, Slate, New Scientist, Salon, Smithsonian, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and Quanta.
Read MoreFarren Isaacs is assistant professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and Systems Biology at Yale University. He pioneered the development of synthetic RNA molecules capable of probing and programming cellular function.
Read MoreMark Shriver is Professor of Anthropology and Genetics at The Pennsylvania State University. His research seeks to elucidate the genetic evolution that took place during and after the spread of modern humans.
Read MoreTim Chartier is a mathematician and author whose work regularly appears in the Huffington Post Science blog. In 2014, he was named the inaugural Math Ambassador of the Mathematical Association of America. He is on the advisory council for MoMath, the first museum of mathematics in the U.S.
Read MoreTed Williams is a planetarium professional who brings stars down to earth. He presents regularly at the Hayden Planetarium and Fels Planetarium, and serves as educator for the Franklin Institute for the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society in Philadelphia.
Read MoreTara M. Ruttley is an associate program scientist for the International Space Station for NASA at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Her current role consists of representing and communicating all research on the ISS, and supporting the ISS Chief Scientist’s research recommendations to NASA Headquarters.
Read MoreSheldon Goldstein is a professor of mathematics, physics, and philosophy at Rutgers University. He studies the very foundations of quantum theory, probability theory, and statistical mechanics.
Read MoreSheila Nirenberg develops neuroprosthetics that interact directly with the brain, but she also works on building new kinds of robots. Her honors include a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Klingenstein Fellowship, a Frontiers of Science award, and a Stein Oppenheimer award.
Read MoreRachel Meyer is a plant evolutionary biologist and co-founder of Shoots and Roots Bitters. Many of the species that she uses to manufacture bitters are simultaneously her research subjects.
Read MorePaula Amato is an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Oregon Health and Science University who specializes in reproductive endocrinology and infertility. Some of her research explores the ways to reprogram aged, differentiated cells into pluripotent cells that can give rise to any cell type.
Read MoreHunter Peckham works on functional electrical stimulation, a method to restore limb control in paralyzed individuals. The technique uses implantable neural prostheses to control the muscles.
Read MoreMichel Maharbiz is one of the inventors of neural dust, a low-power solution for chronic brain-machine interfaces and untethered neural recording. He also developed the world’s first remotely radio-controlled cyborg insects (beetles).
Read MoreMike Massimino is an engineer, NASA astronaut, and veteran of two spaceflights. He logged more than 571 hours in space, where he conducted four spacewalks and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.
Read MoreRick and Michael Mast are the co-founders and head chocolate makers of Mast Brothers Chocolate, a bean-to-bar chocolate making company located in Brooklyn. They are involved in every aspect of the process, from roasting and grinding the beans to aging the chocolate and molding the bars.
Read MoreMark Siddall is known as “the leech guy,” though he has focused on the evolutionary biology of a wide range of parasites. He has led expeditions around the world, most recently including South Sudan, Cambodia, and the Lower Amazon of Brazil.
Read MoreMark Weislogel is a thermal and fluid dynamics researcher specializing in microscale thermal devices and fluids in small, complex geometric shapes. He has 10 years of aerospace experience with NASA, where he worked on microgravity capillary phenomena that played an important role in space flight experiments aboard the Space Shuttle, Russian Mir Space Station, and the International Space Station.
Read MoreMargie Turrin is an education coordinator at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University. There, she develops science projects that teach people about the Hudson River, climate science, human impacts on the planet, biodiversity, mapping, the polar regions, and how to use Earth system data in outreach education.
Read MoreKim Janda is a professor of chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute whose research efforts merge biology and chemistry. He has investigated using the immune system to target drug addiction, catalytic antibodies, and creating molecules to treat cancer.
Read MoreKevin Denton is bar director of both wd~50 and Alder, where he crafts cocktails using obscure ingredients and modern techniques. He has been featured in The New York Times, Esquire, GQ, Details, and on the Cooking Channel and Martha Stewart Show.
Read MoreKaitlyn Hova is a neuroscientist performing violinist/composer and the creator of ‘The Synesthesia Network’. Hova has several types of synesthesia, a neurological condition where stimulation of one sense triggers experiences in a second sense.
Read MoreJoseph J. Fins is The E. William Davis, Jr. M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics and Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College where he is a tenured Professor of Medicine, Professor of Medical Ethics in Neurology and Professor of Health Care Policy and Research.
Read MoreJo Marchant is an award-winning science journalist who has served as editor for both New Scientist and Nature. Her work has appeared in The Economist, The Observer, and The Guardian. She has a Ph.D. in genetics and medical microbiology and has written on everything from genetics to underwater archaeology.
Read MoreJennifer French is the 2012 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, a silver medalist in sailing, and a quadriplegic. She is the first woman to receive the implanted Stand and Transfer system, an experimental device that uses implanted electrodes and an external control device.
Read MoreJay Neitz is a vision researcher and professor of ophthalmology at the University of Washington in Seattle. At the Neitz Lab, he explores color vision in primates to better understand the visual system and develop gene therapies for human vision problems.
Read MoreJared Lamenzo is the founder of Mediated Spaces, Inc., an award-winning development lab that uses mobile technology to spur citizen science. He also founded the WildLab, a program that facilitates data collection about the environment and enhances STEM education.
Read MoreJamie Grifo is the program director of the NYU Fertility Center. He is also director of reproductive endocrinology and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the NYU School of Medicine. As co-director of the NYU Egg Freezing Division, he has helped lead one of the largest and most successful egg preservation programs.
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 MoreJack Szostak shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his investigation of telomeres. His current research delves into self-replicating systems and the origin of life.
Read MoreHilary Peddicord is a science educator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her work supports the Science On a Sphere program, which uses a massive globe and projection system to explain storms, climate change, and other atmospheric patterns.
Read MoreMike Flowers is CUSP’s first Urban Science Fellow. Flowers works closely with CUSP to identify approaches to advance the use of data analytics in municipal operations and urban policymaking. A recognized leader in promoting the use of civic data, Flowers is a key participant in CUSP projects that will help define the emerging field of urban informatics around the world.
Read MoreR. Luke DuBois is the director of the Brooklyn Experimental Media Center at the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering, and is on the Board of Directors of the ISSUE Project Room. He holds a doctorate in music composition from Columbia University, and has lectured and taught worldwide on interactive sound and video performance.
Read MoreAnn Graybiel is a neuroscientist and investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. Her research focuses on the basal ganglia, a group of forebrain structures involved in controlling movement, cognition, and habit learning.
Read MoreJim Baggott is a freelance science writer and author. He received his doctorate in chemical physics at the University of Oxford and became a lecturer at the University of Reading, England, where he also ran a research team studying aspects of chemical kinetics and high-energy molecular vibrations.
Read MorePaul S. Weiss holds a UC Presidential Chair and is a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and of materials science and engineering at UCLA. He served as the director of the California NanoSystems Institute and held the Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences.
Read MoreDavid Holland is a physical climate scientist who studies phenomena relating to the polar regions and their impacts on global climate. His current research focuses on the computer modeling of the interaction of the Earth’s ice sheets with ocean waters.
Read MoreDenise Holland works as the Field and Logistical Co-coordinator for David Holland’s research team in New York and Abu Dhabi. She has been organizing and participating in Greenland expeditions for seven years, both at east and west coast locations.
Read MoreDr. Xichen Li works on climate modeling and climate changes in David Holland’s research group at New York University (NYU). He uses different diagnostic tools and numerical models to analyze and simulate the atmospheric circulations of the earth system, in order to study the natural variability and anthropogenic forcing to the present climate systems.
Read MoreRuediger Schack is a Professor at the Department of Mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research interests are quantum information theory, quantum cryptography, and quantum Bayesianism. He obtained his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics at the University of Munich in 1991.
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 MoreDr. Sarah Kapnick is a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program at Princeton University and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.
Read MoreLouise Mirrer joined the New-York Historical Society as President and CEO in June 2004. Under her guidance, New-York Historical is reinvigorating its commitment to foster greater public understanding of history and its impact on the world of today.
Read MoreBrian Hecht is a serial entrepreneur and a veteran of many startups in the digital media space. He is currently at the helm of two NY-based startups, both of which he co-founded. With a specialty in content and consumer marketing, he was also the Publisher of Premium Services for TheStreet.com, a publicly-traded financial media company.
Read MoreVictoria Weeks is a filmmaker and the founder of Verglas Media, a production company focused on inspiring audiences through the partnership of art and science. Spending over a decade as a science media producer for NASA, Weeks specialized in spherical filmmaking and was the editor of Footprints, the original film for Science On a Sphere (SOS).
Read MoreDr. John Krasting is a climate scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (NOAA-GFDL) located in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Krasting earned his doctorate in atmospheric science from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.
Read MoreMaria Spiropulu is the Shang-Yi Ch’en Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. Born and educated in Macedonia/Greece, she moved to the U.S. to pursue her Ph.D. at …
Read MoreBefore embarking on his film career, Mark Levinson earned a doctoral degree in particle physics from the University of California at Berkeley. In the film world, he became a specialist in the post-production writing and recording of dialogue known as ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement).
Read MoreDr. Emily Rauscher received her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in Physics and Astrophysics. Rauscher then came to New York City for grad school, obtaining a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Columbia University.
Read MoreCaleb Scharf’s research career spans cosmology, exoplanetary science, and astrobiology. He currently leads efforts at Columbia University in New York to understand the nature of exoplanets and living environments in the universe.
Read More“Science Bob ” Pflugfelder is a science teacher, maker, author, and presenter who loves sharing his passion for all things science. He regularly appears on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, Live With Kelly & Michael, and The Dr. Oz Show.
Read MoreBrenna Henn is principal investigator of the Henn Lab and also teaches in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, SUNY. Her expertise is the history of African populations and diverse, indigenous populations from around the world who harbor genetic, linguistic and phenotypic variation.
Read MoreAmanda Gefter is a physics and cosmology writer and a consultant for New Scientist magazine, where she formerly served as books and arts editor and founded CultureLab.
Read MoreJohn Brockman is a cultural impresario whose career has encompassed the avant-garde art world, science, books, software, and the Internet. In the 1960s he coined the word “intermedia” and pioneered “intermedia kinetic environments” in art, theatre, and commerce, while also consulting for clients such as General Electric, Columbia Pictures, Scott Paper, The Pentagon, and the White House.
Read MoreLisa O’Sullivan, Ph.D., is director of the Center for the History of Medicine and Public Health at The New York Academy of Medicine. The Center preserves and promotes the heritage of medicine and public health and explores its cultural significance.
Read MoreNicholas Wade received a B.A. in natural sciences from King’s College, Cambridge. He was deputy editor of Nature magazine in London and then became that journal’s Washington correspondent.
Read MoreArtur B. Chmielewski is the US Rosetta Project Manager. He has managed several flight projects at JPL: the Space Technology 8 mission, Mars Telecommunication Orbiter Rendezvous Experiment, Space Technology 6 mission, Gossamer Program, and Inflatable Antenna Flight Experiment.
Read MoreStatia Luszcz Cook is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. Her research focuses on observing and modeling planetary atmospheres. She is an enthusiastic observer, having spent more than 50 days and nights at CARMA, a millimeter array in Eastern California; and several nights at the Palomar and W.M. Keck Observatories in California and Hawaii, respectively.
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 MoreE.L. Doctorow’s works of fiction include Homer & Langley, The March, Billy Bathgate, Ragtime, the Book of Daniel, City of God, Welcome to Hard Times, Loon Lake, World’s Fair, The Waterworks, and All the Time in the World.
Read MoreFrancesca Faridany can currently be seen in NBC’s hit series Manifest as Dr. Fiona Clarke and she also appears in the movie Black Panther. Other credits include Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Macbeth, Man and Boy, The 39 Steps, The Homecoming.
Read MoreMark Brokaw’s work on Broadway includes Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Lyons, After Miss Julie, Cry-Baby, The Constant Wife, Reckless. He has directed at London’s Donmar Warehouse and Menier Chocolate Factory, Dublin’s Gate Theatre, and the Sydney Opera House. Brokaw is the Artistic Director of the Yale Institute for Music Theatre.
Read MorePaul Rudd has performed on Broadway in Grace, Three Days of Rain, The Last Night at Ballyhoo, Twelfth Night (Lincoln Center). Other theater: Long Day’s Journey Into Night (West End, London), The Shape of Things (Off Broadway, Almedia Theatre London), Bash (Off Broadway, LA), Ancestral Voices.
Read MoreCynthia Nixon made her film debut in Little Darlings at 12 years old and her Broadway debut at 14 in The Philadelphia Story. Since then she’s appeared in over 40 plays, countless films and television shows, and received Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards.
Read MoreAnn Bordwine Beeder, MD is the Chief of the Division of Public Health Programs in the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and The New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Read MoreSteve B. Howell is currently the Head of Space Science and Astrobiology for the NASA Ames Research Center. He previously was the project scientist for
NASA’s premier exoplanet finding missions: Kepler and K2. Howell has written over 800 scientific publications, numerous popular and technical articles, and has authored and edited eight books on astronomy and astronomical instrumentation.
A.J. Jacobs is the author of four New York Times bestsellers about self-experimentation, including Drop Dead Healthy, The Year of Living Biblically, My Life as an Experiment and The Know-It-All. He is the editor at large at Esquire magazine and a correspondent for NPR.
Read MoreJohnny Luo received his BS from Peking University in 1997 and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2003, both in atmospheric sciences. He joined the faculty of the City College of New York in 2007 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2012.
Read MoreRandall Pinkston was a CBS News correspondent for more than 30 years, including two years covering the White House. Among his many awards are three Emmys, including one for Outstanding Investigative Reporting for CBS Reports: Legacy of Shame about migrant farm workers in the USA.
Read MoreSteve Metzger grew up in Queens, NYC. He went to Baruch College and received his Masters in Education from Bank Street College. He taught young children for 15 years before moving on to Scholastic, where he has mainly worked with the Book Clubs.
Read MoreRick Karr’s been reporting for NPR’s news magazines for more than 20 years and for various PBS shows for more than a decade. Much of his work examines the intersection of technology, culture, and law.
Read MoreHoward Greller is an emergency physician, medical toxicologist and the associate director of the Mount Sinai Upper West Side Urgent Care Center. He teaches emergency medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and serves as a consultant to NYC’s Poison Control Center.
Read MoreIra Breite is a gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Medical Center and an expert in food poisoning of all types. He works day in and day out to figure out what precisely is ailing his patients and how to fix it. As one of the hosts of the Sirius XM’s Doctor Radio channel, Dr. Breite also aims to answer any medical question people can think of.
Read MoreDeborah Heiligman is the author of 30 books for children and teens, many of them nonfiction, including Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith, a National Book Award Finalist, Printz Honor, and YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award winner.
Read MoreIrene Pease has a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Arizona, in Tucson, AZ, where she briefly studied accretion discs around binary pulsars. As Brooklyn’s Friendly Neighborhood Astronomer, she leads astronomy classes indoors and also under the night skies at local parks.
Read MoreKyle Cranmer is a physicist and a professor at New York University at the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics and Affiliated Faculty member at NYU’s Center for Data Science. He is an experimental particle physicist working, primarily, on the Large Hadron Collider, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Read MoreCatherine Crier earned her B.A. in political science and international affairs from the University of Texas and her Juris Doctor from Southern Methodist University School of Law. In 1984, she was elected to the 162nd District Court in Dallas County, Texas as a State District Judge. During her tenure on the bench, Crier also served as Administrative Judge for the Civil District Courts.
Read MoreScott Fessler is the founder and CEO of The Fessler Foundation, which provides financial support for primary research facilities whose goal is to find a cure for spinal cord injuries, as well as to benefit the community of individuals with these injuries.
Read MorePeter Neufeld, a nationally recognized civil-rights lawyer, has spent over thirty-five years trying cases on behalf of victims of police misconduct and wrongful convictions. These trials have led to numerous substantial verdicts and settlements and caused systemic criminal-justice reforms.
Read MoreSaul Kassin is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Kassin pioneered the scientific study of false confessions to help prevent and correct wrongful convictions. He created the first laboratory research methods used in forensic psychology to study the problems with certain types of police interrogation techniques and why innocent people confess.
Read MoreJim Dwyer is a columnist with The New York Times, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, and a finalist for the National Book Award. He is the author or co-author of six books. His latest, False Conviction: Innocence, Guilt & Science is an electronic book using video, animations, and text to explore the science behind errors in criminal investigations.
Read MoreEric Siegel leads the program, exhibition development, science and technology functions at the New York Hall of Science. He has been in senior roles in art and science museums for over 30 years and has published extensively in the museum field.
Read MoreEkow N. Yankah is a Professor of Law at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Columbia University School of Law, and a post-graduate degree from Oxford University, where he was awarded a Lord Crewe Scholarship.
Read MoreMechthild Prinz is currently an Associate Professor and the Director of the Master in Forensic Science Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
Read MoreJami Floyd is an award-winning journalist and national television personality. She is the former anchor of Court TV’s Jami Floyd: Best Defense, a daily live show that tackled the day’s front-page legal stories.
Read MoreKathryn Minshew is the CEO & Founder of TheMuse.com, a career platform and job discovery tool helping 15+ million people find inspiring careers at thoughtful companies.
Read MoreJennifer Lawton is the chief executive officer of MakerBot® and has been responsible for the overall strategy and growth of the company.
Read MoreGraham Moore is a screenwriter and author, best known for his New York Times best-selling debut novel The Sherlockian, published in 2010. The Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and based upon an adapted screenplay by Moore was released in November 2014.
Read MoreNick Payne is a playwright. He is the author of If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, for which he won the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright. He also authored the plays Wanderlust, Sophocles’ Electra, Lay Down Your Cross, Blurred Lines, Incognito, and The Same Deep Water As Me, which was nominated for the Olivier Awards Best New Comedy.
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 MoreFrederick E. Lepore is Professor of Neurology and Ophthalmology at Rutgers University/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He was formerly Chief of the Neurology Service at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and Acting Chairman of the medical school’s Department of Neurology.
Read MoreThomas Levenson is Professor of Science Writing and Director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT. He has written five books on science and the history of science, including Newton and the Counterfeiter, Einstein in Berlin and Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science.
Read MoreRebecca Skloot is an award-winning science writer who contributes to The New York Times Magazine; O, the Oprah Magazine; NPR’s RadioLab; and others. Her debut book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, took more than a decade to research and write, then instantly hit The New York Times Best Seller list, where it has remained for four years.
Read MoreAllyson Sheffield is an observational astronomer whose research focuses on the formation and structure of the Milky Way galaxy. She studies the motion and chemistry of old stars, from which we can infer the evolutionary history of the Milky Way.
Read MoreAmber Straughn is an astrophysicist at NASA and a member of the James Webb Space Telescope Project Science Team. Straughn grew up in the small farming town of Bee Branch, Arkansas where her fascination with astronomy began under beautifully dark, rural skies.
Read MoreBreakthrough Prize
Andrew Strominger is the Gwill E. York Professor of Physics at Harvard University and a founding member of the Black Hole Initiative. He is a renowned theoretical physicist who has …
Read MoreDr. Ellen Stofan is the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. She comes to the Museum with more than 25 years of experience in space administration and planetary science. Dr. Stofan was previously Chief Scientist at NASA.
Read MoreArtur Ekert is a Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, and a Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapore. He’s also the director for the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT).
Read MoreDaniel Gottesman is a faculty member at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario. He does research in the field of quantum computation, particularly quantum error correction, fault-tolerant quantum computation, quantum complexity, and quantum cryptography.
Read MoreEleanor G. Rieffel explores algorithm design and fundamental questions in quantum computation as a leader of NASA’s QuAIL team. Her book, Quantum Computing: A Gentle Introduction, with co-author Wolfgang Polak, was published by MIT Press and has received stellar reviews.
Read MoreNobel Laureate
Adam Riess is the Thomas J. Barber Professor in Space Studies at the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, a distinguished astronomer at the Space Telescope Science …
Read MoreJosh Frieman is a senior staff scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics. He’s also a member of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago.
Read MoreJan Tauber has been involved in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) since 1993 when the European Space Agency received two proposals for space experiments to map the CMB. These experiments eventually became the Planck satellite, Europe’s flagship experiment in the field.
Read MoreSuresh Jagannathan joined DARPA in September 2013. His research interests include programming languages, program analysis and verification, and concurrent/distributed systems.
Read MoreMasoud Mohseni is a senior research scientist at Google Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he develops machine-learning algorithms that fundamentally rely on quantum dynamics.
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 MoreProfessor Lee R. Berger is an award-winning researcher, author, paleoanthropologist, and speaker. His explorations into human origins on the African continent, Asia, and Micronesia for the past two and a half decades have resulted in many new discoveries.
Read MoreAfter receiving a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard, Paul Bingham spent two years at the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park. He later joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University.
Read MoreDean Falk divides her time between Florida and New Mexico. She is the Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology and a Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee, and she serves as a senior scholar at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe. Falk is interested in the evolution of the brain and cognition.
Read MoreBrian Lehrer is host of the Peabody Award–winning program The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC New York Public Radio, 93.9 FM, AM 820, and wnyc.org. From scientists to heads of state, Lehrer hosts major thinkers and major newsmakers and involves the audience through phone calls and social media.
Read MoreMichael Weisend is a neuroscientist whose research uses structural and functional neuroimaging to investigate normal memory, epilepsy, mental illness, and cognitive dysfunction.
Read MoreRichard J. Haier is professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine. Haier is also the associate editor of the Intelligence journal and the president-elect of the International Society for Intelligence Research.
Read MoreRoi Cohen Kadosh is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the neurocognitive mechanisms of numerical understanding and mathematics in people with all ability levels.
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Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist in the field of quantum gravity and in the history and philosophy of science. He is a co-founder of the loop approach to quantum …
Read MoreAs a theoretical physicist at the University of Pennsylvania, Vijay Balasubramanian pursues research in two different fields: string theory and theoretical neuroscience. He is an expert in statistical inference and “Occam’s Razor”—the trade-off between simple and accurate mathematical models.
Read MoreJim Holt writes about math, science, and philosophy for The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Review of Books. His book Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story was an international bestseller.
Read MoreGabriela González is a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Louisiana State University (LSU), where there is a large group of people working on the detection of gravitational waves, both in theory and experiment.
Read MoreSamir Mathur is a physicist who has spent over two decades working on the black hole information paradox. He has proposed that this paradox is resolved because the structure of black holes is radically altered in string theory: Instead of having all their mass at their center, black holes are “fuzzballs” with no regular horizon or singularity.
Read MoreAlayar Kangarlu is an associate professor in the psychiatry department at Columbia University. His research is on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and its application in medicine. While at Ohio State University in 1996, their team built an 8 Tesla MRI scanner.
Read MoreBob Reiss is a best-selling author of 20 books, as well as a journalist, a former Chicago Tribune reporter, and former correspondent for Outside Magazine. His work has been published in The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Parade, Rolling Stone, and other national publications.
Read MoreCatherine Price’s written and multimedia work has appeared in publications including The Best American Science Writing, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post Magazine, Slate, Salon, Men’s Journal, Mother Jones, the Oprah Magazine, and Parade, among others.
Read MoreLaura J. Snyder is a historian, philosopher, and science writer. Oliver Sacks has called her “both a masterly scholar and a powerful storyteller.” Snyder is the author of Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek and the Reinvention of Seeing.
Read MoreChristina Maslach is a Professor of Psychology (Emerita) at the University of California at Berkeley. She is widely recognized as one of the pioneering researchers on job burnout. She is the author of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).
Read MoreDan Fagin is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author and an associate professor and director of the Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
Read MoreNeal Stephenson is an award-winning author and game designer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been variously categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, “postcyberpunk,” and “baroque”.
Read MoreDavid Quammen is an author and journalist whose 12 books include The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and Spillover, a work on the science, history, and human impacts of emerging diseases. Quammen is a contributing writer for National Geographic and a three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award.
Read MoreDiane Ackerman is the author of 24 works of nonfiction and poetry. Her works include the New York Times best sellers The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us, which received the PEN Henry David Thoreau Award and One Hundred Names for Love, a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Circle Critics Award.
Read MoreMichael Stone is professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. From 2006 to 2008, Stone hosted the series Most Evil on the Discovery Channel, for which he developed a “Gradations of Evil Scale” to rank homicides from 1 to 22 based on their level of evil.
Read MoreGlenn E. Martin is a national leader and criminal justice reform advocate who spent six years in New York State prisons. Prior to founding JustLeadershipUSA, Martin served for several years as Vice President of The Fortune Society and Co-Director of the National HIRE Network at the Legal Action Center.
Read MoreAlexandra Zidovska is an assistant professor of physics at the Center for Soft Matter Research in the Physics Department at New York University. She received her Ph.D.from the University of California, Santa Barbara after she completed her undergraduate studies and M.Sc. at the Technical University of Munich, Germany.
Read MoreArtie Bennett is the executive copy editor for a children’s book publisher. Hailed as “the Dr. Seuss of your caboose” for his much-acclaimed The Butt Book, his first “mature” work, he followed it with Poopendous!, his “number two” picture book.
Read MoreChiye Aoki majored in biology at Barnard College, Columbia University. She entered the world of neuroscience during those years by participating in research that monitored brain activities of animals undergoing the natural transition from wakefulness to REM sleep to answer the question: Why do we need to sleep?
Read MoreChristian Schaal has been bartending in New York for over a decade. In that time, he has contributed original cocktails to chef-driven restaurants such as Estela and Alder and run the bar program at Nights & Weekends and Manhattan Inn.
Read MoreAstronaut Clayton Anderson (“Astro Clay”) applied 15 times before NASA selected him as an astronaut in 1998; he spent 30 years working for NASA as an engineer and astronaut.
Read MoreJack Stuster is a certified professional ergonomist specializing in human performance in extreme environments. He has analyzed the work performed by technicians, military specialists, and astronauts. His research for NASA began in 1982 with a systems analysis of space shuttle refurbishing procedures, followed by studies of conditions that are analogous to space missions.
Read MoreJake Hofman is a Researcher at Microsoft Research in New York City, where his work in computational social science involves applications of statistics and machine learning to large-scale social data. Prior to joining Microsoft, he was a member of the Microeconomics and Social Systems group at Yahoo! Research.
Read MoreJanelle Robbins is the executive director at Bedford Audubon Society. She began her career championing clean water and strong communities as the staff scientist at Waterkeeper Alliance.
Read MoreJennifer Fogarty is the clinical translational scientist for Space and Clinical Operations Division in the Human Health and Performance Directorate, NASA. She facilitates communication, project development, and program interactions between the operations and research communities.
Read MoreKoos Lodewijkx is the chief technical officer for IT risk in the office of the IBM CISO. His responsibilities include the multiyear technical strategy for Cybersecurity for the IBM Corporation, technical architecture, IT risk assessment, and various IT risk policies and standards.
Read MoreLara K. Mahal is an associate professor of chemistry at New York University. She earned her B.A. at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and her PhD at the University of California at Berkeley. Mahal was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctral Fellow from 2000-2003 at Sloan-Kettering Institute before starting her first independent position at the University of Texas in Austin.
Read MoreLeah Moran is a postdoctoral research fellow at New York State Psychiatric Institute. Moran’s research involved neuroimaging techniques applied to psychiatric disorders with the aim of improving conventional treatments and informing novel treatment strategies.
Read MoreMandë Holford is as an Associate Professor in Chemistry at Hunter College and CUNY-Graduate Center, with scientific appointments at the American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medical College.
Read MoreGiven the choice, Marah J. Hardt prefers to be under the sea. As a marine scientist she has swum with sharks, watched corals being born, and had her teeth cleaned by shrimp—all in an effort to better understand how healthy oceans work. Today, Hardt works more on land in order to help businesses invent solutions to problems such as overfishing, and other threats to marine life.
Read MoreJasna Brujic is an associate or tenured professor of physics in the Physics Department of New York University. She is one of several core faculty members that comprise the Center for Soft Matter Research. Brujic received her Ph.D. for work on the transmission of stress through particulate matter at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, UK.
Read MoreMarco Leona is the David H. Koch Scientist in Charge of the Department of Scientific Research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He studied in Italy where he obtained a Laurea in Chimica (M.Sc., Chemistry), and a Ph.D. in Crystallography and Mineralogy from the Universita’ degli Studi di Pavia.
Read MoreProfessor Mary Carskadon is an authority on adolescent sleep. Her research raised public awareness about the consequences of insufficient sleep in adolescents and influenced education policy, prompting school districts to delay school start times for teens.
Read MoreMichael López-Alegría has over three decades of aviation and space experience with the U.S. Navy and NASA in a variety of roles.
Read MoreNancy Giles has been a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning since 2003, voicing her opinions on everything from politics and race to pop culture and the conspiracy of high heels. As an actress, she was in the ensemble cast of ABC-TV’s Emmy Award-winning series China Beach.
Read MoreNicole Stott has explored from the heights of outer space to the depths of our oceans. In awe of what she has experienced from these very special vantage points, she has dedicated her life to sharing the beauty of space — and Earth — with others. A veteran NASA Astronaut, her experience includes two spaceflights and 104 days spent living and working in space on both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS).
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 MorePaul Shaw received his Ph.D. working with Allan Rechtschaffen at the University of Chicago investigating the effects of chronic total sleep deprivation in the rat. He subsequently joined the Neurosciences Institute as a postdoctoral fellow with Giulio Tononi where they began using the fruit fly as a model system to identify molecules that play critical roles in regulating sleep homeostasis.
Read MoreRein Ulijn is the founding director of the Nanoscience Initiative at CUNY’s Advanced Science Research Center. He was previously professor and vice dean of research at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, where he continues to hold a position.
Read MoreRadu Sion is a professor at Stony Brook University (on leave), the director of the National Security Institute, and the CEO of Private Machines Inc. Sion’s research is in cyber security and large-scale computing. He has published 85-plus peer-reviewed works in top venues and has organized 65-plus conferences.
Read MoreShara Bailey is an associate professor in the Center for the Study of Human Origins, in the Department of Anthropology at New York University. Bailey’s research focuses on answering questions about human evolution from a dental perspective.
Read MoreSteve Wolf has been producing film, TV and live events for 25 years. He is the President of Special FX International, and founder of Science in the Movies Inc., an organization that teaches physics and chemistry through stunt demonstrations.
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 MoreTarique Perera is a board-certified psychiatrist with offices in Greenwich and Danbury, Connecticut, and Manhattan. He received his medical doctorate at Harvard Medical School and completed his residency training at Columbia University.
Read MoreTina Walsh is the environmental educator with Hudson River Park Trust. She received her Bachelor of Science in biology and chemistry from St. John’s University. Since then she has been active in the field of urban environmental education.
Read MoreTony Wilson is interested in how and why animals reproduce the way they do, and is fascinated by the remarkable reproductive diversity of aquatic organisms. Over the past decade, Wilson’s research has focused on seahorses and pipefish, a group with a unique and highly developed form of reproduction—male pregnancy.
Read MoreYarrow Dunham is an assistant professor of psychology and a faculty member in the Cognitive Science Program at Yale. He is also the director of Yale’s Social Cognitive Development Lab. He received his B.A. in philosophy and English literature from UC Santa Barbara and his doctorate in developmental psychology from Harvard University.
Read MoreWhen Danielle Ofri isn’t seeing patients at Bellevue Hospital, the oldest public hospital in the country, she’s writing about the doctor-patient connection for The New York Times, Slate, and other publications. She’s editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review.
Read MoreMindy Greenstein is a clinical psychologist, psycho-oncologist, and writer, who also serves as a consultant to the geriatric group in the Department of Psychiatry at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Read MoreKyle Patrick Alvarez is a Los Angeles–based director, writer, producer, and editor. The Stanford Prison Experiment marks his third film as a director. It premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival where it won two awards and will be released in theaters this summer through IFC Films.
Read MoreChristine Vogel originally trained as a biochemist in Germany, but moved to Cambridge, England, to obtain her PhD in computational and structural biology with Dr. Cyrus Chothia and Dr. Sarah Teichmann at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology.
Read MoreJane M. Carlton is director of the Center for Genomics and Systems Biology and a biology professor at New York University. She has spent the past 20 years on the faculty of several scientific institutions in the United States, including the genome sequencing center founded by J. Craig Venter.
Read MoreJeff Beal is an American composer of music for film and the concert hall. With musical beginnings as a jazz trumpeter and recording artist, his works are infused with an understanding of rhythm and spontaneity.
Read MoreMelissa Lee is an educator and researcher. She received a B.A. in biology from Johns Hopkins University, with her primary research focusing on Down syndrome. After college, Lee worked at New York University, studying mouse brain development.
Read MoreScott Faris directed the arena spectacular Walking with Dinosaurs, Bette Midler’s The Showgirl Must Go On, at Caesars Palace and EFX at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas; William Shatner’s one-man show, Shatner’s World on Broadway, many concerts at New York’s prestigious Lyrics & Lyricists series at the 92Y, and traveled to six continents to stage productions of the hit musical, Chicago.
Read More59 Productions is a multi-award-winning design studio and production company based in London and New York. Whether creating stage productions, museum installations, live music shows, large-scale events, or films, 59’s team generates creative and technical ideas to help realize ambitious artistic projects.
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 MoreBlanca Li, whose ROBOT received its American premiere at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, has created music videos for Daft Punk, fashion videos for Beyonce, dances for films by Pedro Amodovar, runway shows for Jean Paul Gaultier, and commissions from the Paris Opera Ballet and Metropolitan Opera.
Read MoreJeffrey Toobin, a staff writer for The New Yorker and senior analyst for CNN, is one of the most recognized and admired legal journalists in the country. His most recent book, The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court, was a New York Times best seller.
Read MoreScott Atran is currently Research Professor and Presidential Scholar at the Center on Terrorism at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Visiting Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at the University of Michigan.
Read MoreMichael Winther has appeared on Broadway in 33 Variations, Mamma Mia, 1776, Artist Descending a Staircase, The Crucible, and Damn Yankees. His recent credits include “Bruce standby” Fun Home National Tour, “Albert Einstein” in physicist Brian Greene’s Light Falls in New York and Princeton, Australia.
Read MoreMichael Purugganan is the Dorothy Schiff Professor and Dean of Science at NYU. His research focuses on identifying the genes that are involved in the evolutionary adaptation of plants.
Read MoreScott Barry Kaufman is scientific director of the Imagination Institute in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He conducts research on the measurement and development of imagination, creativity, and play.
Read MorePatricia Kovatch is the founding Associate Dean for Scientific Computing at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She established a scalable and sustainable high-performance computing and data infrastructure to better diagnose and treat disease.
Read MoreAlvaro Pascual-Leone is Director of the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation and chief of the Division of Cognitive Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is an associate dean for clinical and translational research and a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.
Read MoreBrian Elbel is an associate professor of population health and health policy at the NYU School of Medicine, where he heads the section on health choice, policy and evaluation within the department of population health, and at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
Read MorePaul R. Marantz (MD, MPH) is associate dean for Clinical Research Education, and professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Population Health, and Medicine, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System.
Read MoreHeather McKellar received her Ph.D. from Columbia where she studied the hippocampus, a part of the brain important for learning and memory. Now at the NYU Neuroscience Institute, she is passionate about education and runs the graduate program in Neuroscience and Physiology as well as NOGN at NYU.
Read MoreMarom Bikson is a Cattell Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York (CUNY) and codirector of the Neural Engineering Group at the New York Center for Biomedical Engineering.
Read MoreLee M. Morin was selected as a NASA astronaut candidate in 1996 and took part in the 13th space mission of the shuttle Atlantis in 2002 as it traveled to the International Space Station. After the Atlantis mission, Morin served in the State Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Science, Space, and Health in the Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Science.
Read MoreDean A. Haycock is the author Murderous Minds: Exploring the Criminal Psychopathic Brain: Neurological Imaging and the Manifestation of Evil, The Everything Health Guide to Adult Bipolar Disorder, and The Everything Health Guide to Schizophrenia.
Read MoreAlan Peters is the principal architect of Neocortex. He’s also an associate professor of electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University where he supervises research on a humanoid robot, ISAC, in the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory. He has over fifty publications and has secured research funding in excess of $4 million.
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 MoreAlex Young is a solar astrophysicist and the associate director for Science in the Heliophysics Science Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Young received a Masters and Ph.D. in high-energy astrophysics studying cosmic gamma-ray bursts and solar gamma-ray flares.
Read MoreMarcia Bartusiak is an author, journalist, and Professor of the Practice of the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT. She writes about the fields of astronomy and physics. Bartusiak has been published in National Geographic, Discover, Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, Science, Popular Science, and more.
Read MoreMatthias Scheutz is a professor at Tufts University School of Engineerings Computer Science Department, and is director of the Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory.
Read MoreJustin Khoury is associate professor and undergraduate chair of physics & astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. He obtained his B.Sc. from McGill University and his Ph.D from Princeton University under Paul Steinhardt.
Read MoreStacy McGaugh is an astrophysicist and cosmologist who studies galaxies, dark matter, and theories of modified gravity. He is an expert on low surface brightness galaxies, a class of objects in which the stars are spread thin compared to bright galaxies like our Milky Way.
Read MoreAngela Janas is a New York-based actor who has toured nationally with the critically acclaimed Acting Company, playing Ophelia in Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth.
Read MorePamela Silver seeks to reprogram life for improved health and sustainability. Recently, she engineered gut microbes to report on animal health and is the co-creator of the Bionic Leaf.
Read MoreMiguel Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D., is the Duke School of Medicine Distinguished Professor of Neuroscience at Duke University, professor of neurobiology, biomedical engineering, and psychology & neuroscience, and founder of Duke’s Center for Neuroengineering.
Read MoreNergis Mavalvala is a physicist whose research links the world of quantum mechanics, usually apparent only at the atomic scale, with some of the most powerful, yet elusive, forces in the cosmos.
Read MoreDavid Shoemaker is the Director of the MIT LIGO Lab and the Leader of the Advanced LIGO Project to build the detectors used in the discovery of gravitational waves.
Read MoreFrans Pretorius is a Professor of Physics at Princeton University. His primary field of research is general relativity, specializing in numerical solution of the Einstein equations.
Read MoreBarry Barish is an experimental physicist and a Linde Professor of Physics, emeritus at Caltech. He became the Principal Investigator of LIGO in 1994 and was LIGO Director from 1997-2005. Barish led the effort through the approval of funding by the NSF National Science Board in 1994, and the construction and commissioning of the LIGO interferometers in Livingston, LA and Hanford, WA in 1997.
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 MoreA trained musician-mathematician, Whitney L. Coyle found her calling in Acoustics, the science of sound. Coyle studied clarinet performance and mathematics at Murray State University in Kentucky and is a recent Acoustics Ph.D. from the Penn State Graduate Program in Acoustics.
Read MoreEddie Goldstein is a science communicator, program developer and performer who specializes in creating dynamic presentations, demonstrations and exhibits for museums and science centers. He also coaches scientists in communication skills to help them better tell the science stories that they want to tell.
Read MoreMichal Lipson joined the Electrical Engineering faculty at Columbia University in July 2015. She completed her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Physics at the Technion in 1998, followed by a Postdoctoral position at MIT in the Materials Science Department.
Read MoreCori Bargmann is a neuroscientist at The Rockefeller University in New York who studies the biology of the brain, asking how genes, the environment, and experience interact to give rise to flexible behaviors.
Read MoreFrance A. Córdova is an astrophysicist and the 14th director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), the only government agency charged with advancing all fields of scientific discovery, technological innovation, and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
Read MoreAngelique Corthals is a biomedical/forensic anthropologist who earned her PhD at the University of Oxford. Her work has focused on biomedical research, including the study of the ecology of infectious diseases and auto-immune diseases, as well as forensic anthropology in South America and the Middle East.
Read MoreErick Ordoñez is currently in the Systems Engineering Group at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and the lead systems engineer for In Space Manufacturing (ISM) and Additive Construction with Mobile Emplacement (ACME) Projects at NASA MSFC.
Read MoreRachel Rothman is the chief technologist and engineering director for the Good Housekeeping Institute, the legendary consumer product evaluation laboratory founded in 1900.
Read MoreMerry Camhi is director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Seascape program. This initiative, based at the NY Aquarium, seeks to raise public awareness and action to conserve threatened marine wildlife and habitats in the New York Bight, through field research, improved policy, and education.
Read MoreKeith Ellenbogen is an award-winning underwater conservation photographer that works at the intersection of art, science, and technology. He is 2015-16 Visiting Artist in Residence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Read MoreColonel Linell Letendre is the permanent professor and Head of the Department of Law at the United States Air Force Academy.
Read MoreMore participants for the World Science Festival 2016 will be announced in the coming days.
Read MoreChantel Prat is an associate professor of Psychology with an appointment at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at University of Washington. She is also faculty in the Neuroscience graduate program, at the Institute for Neuroengineering, and at the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering.
Read MoreAndrea Stocco is an assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is also affiliated with the university’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, Institute for Neuroengineering, and Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences.
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 MoreAlyssa Loorya is a New York City-based archaeologist and preservationist. Co-founder and President of Chrysalis Archaeology she also serves as a board member for several preservation organizations, including the Hendrick I. Lott House and Historic Districts Council.
Read MoreDr. Skateboard is Bill Robertson, a Ph.D. in Education and a skateboarder for over thirty-five years. His academic areas of expertise are science education, curriculum development, and technology integration.
Read MoreJohn Christian Plummer was head writer on all 3 seasons of Granite Flats, the cold war spy drama featuring Christopher Lloyd and Parker Posey, now on Netflix. He’s worked as a writer and producer for NBC, Fox, Bravo, Comedy Central, TBS, IFC, VH1, MTV, Discovery, and co-wrote the feature Knowing Me, Knowing You.
Read MoreDanielle Vellucci is a clinical assistant professor of Chemistry at New York University. She studied chemistry at Boston College and earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine. Her research focused on using chemical cross-linkers to study the proteasome.
Read MoreDrew Endy is an assistant professor of Bioengineering at Stanford. His Stanford research team develops genetically encoded computers and redesigns genomes. Endy co-founded the BioBricks Foundation as a public-benefit charity supporting free-to-use standards and technology that enable the engineering of biology.
Read MoreMartha J. Farah grew up in New York City, was educated at MIT and Harvard, and taught at Carnegie-Mellon University before joining the University of Pennsylvania. Her research in cognitive neuroscience has ranged widely, from vision at the back of the brain to executive function at the front.
Read MoreJames B. McClintock is the Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is an expert on invertebrate nutrition, reproduction, and primarily, Antarctic marine chemical ecology, climate change, and ocean acidification.
Read MoreLeon Wieseltier is the Isaiah Berlin Senior Fellow in Culture and Policy at the Brookings Institution. He is the author, among other books, of the acclaimed Kaddish. He was the literary editor of The New Republic from 1983 to 2014, and is now contributing editor and critic at The Atlantic.
Read MoreEric Chown is a professor of Computer Science at Bowdoin College. In 2012 he helped create Bowdoin’s Digital and Computational Studies program and has served as Co-Director of the program ever since. Since 2005 he has led Bowdoin’s RoboCup team, the Northern Bites, in worldwide robotic soccer competitions.
Read MoreWendell Wallach is a consultant, ethicist, and scholar at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. He is also a senior advisor to The Hastings Center, a fellow at the Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law (Arizona State University), and a fellow at the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technology.
Read MoreLinda C. Rourke is a board certified criminalist and a life-long science geek. She studied biochemistry in college but hadn’t found her career passion until she learned about forensic science.
Read MoreDan Juda is a product engineer at OXO. He studied both Mechanical Engineering and Product Design at Lehigh University. Soon after graduating from college, Juda worked at Arm & Hammer as a packaging engineer, designing detergent bottles.
Read MoreMary Roach is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. Her latest book, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, came out in 2016.
Read MoreSzabolcs Marka is leader of the Columbia Experimental Gravity Group in LIGO and a professor of physics at Columbia. He has received an NSF Career Award and a Grand Challenges Explorations Award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Read MoreAnna L. Fisher is a NASA astronaut with a BsC in Chemistry, a PhD in Medicine, and a Master of Science in Chemistry, all from UCLA. With the completion of her first flight, Fisher logged a total of 192 hours in space.
Read MoreHarry Ostrer, M.D. is professor of Pathology and Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He develops new technologies and investigates the genetic basis of common and rare disorders, then translates the findings into tests that can be used to identify people’s risks for having a disease or for predicting its outcome.
Read MoreTobias Picker, called “our finest composer for the lyric stage” by The Wall Street Journal, has composed works in all genres including five operas to date. Picker’s operas have been commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera, The LA Opera, The Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera, and have gone on to be produced by New York City Opera, L’Opera de Montreal, and many other distinguished companies.
Read MoreEric Jordan has been sought by opera companies for his trademark “big bass and presence to match” (Opera News). His voice is described as possessing “a resonant, ringing tone that was well produced throughout its range” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), and The New York Times stated that his “powerful, nuanced singing and thoughtful acting amounted to a wholly remarkable portrayal.”
Read MoreChristine Ebersole has captivated audiences throughout her performing career, from the Broadway stage to television series and specials, films, concert appearances, and recordings.
Read MoreAletta Collins studied at the London Contemporary Dance School and is a former associate artist at the Royal Opera House where her commissions include The Red Balloon, Cocteau Voices, and Magical Night.
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 MoreBertram F. Malle is professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University. He studied psychology, philosophy, and linguistics in Graz, Austria, before coming to the United States in 1990 for graduate studies.
Read MoreTom Knight spent most of his career in computer science and electrical engineering at MIT, before playing a major role in creating the field of synthetic biology. In 1996, he seeded interest in the field at DARPA, and built a molecular biology laboratory in the MIT computer science department.
Read MoreJesse Prinz is a distinguished professor of Philosophy and director of Interdisciplinary Science Studies at the City University of New York, Graduate Center. Prinz has been a leader in the experimental philosophy movement, which brings empirical methods to bear on philosophical debates.
Read MoreJosephine Johnston is a bioethicist and lawyer at The Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute in Garrison, New York. She works on the ethics of emerging biotechnologies with a focus on their use in reproduction, psychiatry, genetics, and neuroscience.
Read MoreJennifer Newell is curator of Pacific Ethnography. Her particular interests are in material culture and the relationship between Pacific Islanders and their environments. Dr. Newell’s major research project explores climate change and cultural change in the Pacific.
Read MoreJennifer Ackerman has been writing about science, nature, and human biology for almost three decades. Her new book, The Genius of Birds (Penguin Press, 2016)–a New York Times bestseller–has been called a “lovely, celebratory survey” by The New York Times and “gloriously provocative and highly entertaining” by the Wall Street Journal.
Read MoreMaria Konnikova is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Confidence Game and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. She is a contributing writer for The New Yorker and is currently working on a book about poker and the balance of skill and luck in life, The Biggest Bluff.
Read MorePianist-Composer Michael Brown, winner of a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, has been described by The New York Times as a “young piano visionary” and “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.”
Read MoreSince 2002, Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf has held chairs in 14 Broadway productions, including The Bridges of Madison County, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George and, currently, Fiddler on The Roof. She has been a featured performer with John Pizzarelli, Jeremy Jordan, and Jason Robert Brown.
Read MoreJoshua Knobe is a professor at Yale University, appointed in both the Program in Cognitive Science and the Department of Philosophy. Most of his work involves using the kinds of experimental methods associated with cognitive science to address the kinds of questions associated with philosophy.
Read MoreNina Strohminger is a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, with appointments at the School of Management and the Cognitive Science program. She conducts research on moral psychology, personal identity, and emotion.
Read MorePhilip Sabes is a neuroscientist, neural engineer, and a Lange Endowed Chair in Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco. He directs the UCSF Swartz Center for Theoretical Neuroscience and is a member of the UCSF Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience and the UCB/UCSF Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses.
Read MoreSridevi Sarma received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University; and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is now an assistant professor in the Institute for Computational Medicine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, at Johns Hopkins University.
Read MorePeter Parnell’s most recent play Dada Woof Papa Hot was produced by the Lincoln Center Theater Company in 2015. He wrote the new books for Disney Theatrical’s production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (music and lyrics Menken-Schwartz), and the Broadway revival of Lerner and Lane’s On a Clear Day You Can See Forever starring Harry Connick, Jr. and Jessie Mueller.
Read MoreMatt Brown is the writer & director of The Man Who Knew Infinity starring Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Devika Bhise, Stephen Fry, and Toby Jones. The film was released domestically by IFC, and was produced by Edward R. Pressman of Pressman Film. It is the true story of a friendship that forever changed mathematics.
Read MoreDr. Joanna Kaczorowska, internationally acclaimed for her virtuosity and artistry, has performed as a soloist and in combination with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and the Emerson String Quartet.
Read MoreElisa Konofagou is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, and Director of the Ultrasound and Elasticity Imaging Laboratory at Columbia University. Her main interests are in the development of novel elasticity imaging techniques and therapeutic ultrasound methods.
Read MoreHistorian, psychoanalyst, and psychiatrist George Makari is the author of Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind, which the Wall Street Journal called “brilliant, essential reading.” Makari also wrote the award-winning, widely acclaimed Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis.
Read MorePedro G. Ferreira is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford. Originally from Portugal, he has studied and worked in London, Berkeley and at CERN in Geneva. His area of expertise is cosmology, focusing on the physics of the early universe and with a special interest in Einstein’s general theory of relativity.
Read MoreA Guggenheim Fellow in Science Writing, Richard Panek received the American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award in 2012. He teaches in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and in the MFA Writing program at Goddard College.
Read MoreStephen Tsang is the László Bitó Associate Professor in Ophthalmology, Pathology & Cell Biology at Columbia University and an attending ophthalmologist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He has been culturing embryonic stem (ES) cells since 1992.
Read MoreLaura Overdeck is the founder of Bedtime Math, a nonprofit that aims to help kids love math like playtime or dessert. Over a quarter million families enjoy Overdeck’s wacky nightly math problems. Bedtime Math is also the creator of Crazy 8s Club, a lively hands-on after-school math club for grades K-5 which has served nearly 90,000 kids in just 2 years.
Read MoreNeville Sanjana is a Core Faculty Member at the New York Genome Center and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Biology and of Neuroscience and Physiology at New York University. Dr. Sanjana creates new tools to understand the impact of genetic changes on the nervous system and cancer evolution.
Read MoreRaychelle Burks is an analytical chemist and assistant professor at St. Edward’s University. She has a background in forensic science, having a passion for scientific detection since junior high school. Out of the lab, Dr. Burks specializes in applying scientific principles to stories and trends in popular culture.
Read MoreRush D. Holt, is the CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. Before coming to AAAS, Holt served for 16 years as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Read MoreJuan Manuel Benitez is a political reporter for the 24-hour news television station NY1. He hosts the weekly current-affairs program Pura Política on NY1 Noticias. Benitez also teaches journalism at CUNY and Columbia University. He is a frequent contributor to WNYC Radio and MSNBC.
Read MoreConor Doyle graduated from The London Contemporary Dance School with a first class BA (Honors) and a Distinction in his Post Graduate Diploma, which he gained as an apprentice with artistic director Jasmin Vardimon. Conor is now a member of the Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company while working towards his Masters.
Read MoreDuncan Watts is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research and a founding member of the MSR-NYC lab. He is also an AD White Professor at Large at Cornell University. Prior to joining MSR, he was from 2000-2007 a professor of Sociology at Columbia University, and then a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research.
Read MoreChris Wiggins is an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University and the Chief Data Scientist at The New York Times. At Columbia he is a founding member of the Department of Systems Biology, the executive committee of the Data Science Institute, and the Institute’s education and entrepreneurship committees.
Read MoreCathy O’Neil earned a Ph.D. in math from Harvard, was a postdoc at the MIT math department, and a professor at Barnard College where she published a number of research papers in arithmetic algebraic geometry.
Read MoreTimo Andres is a composer and pianist who studied at Yale University. A Nonesuch Records artist, his album, Home Stretch, has been hailed by The Guardian for its “playful intelligence and individuality.” Notable works include Strong Language, a string quartet for the Takacs Quartet, and The Blind Banister, a piano concerto for Jonathan Biss and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, which was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist.
Read MoreMary Elizabeth Williams is the author of A Series of Catastrophes and Miracles: A True Story of Love, Science, and Cancer. She has written for numerous publications including The New York Times, LA Times, and Salon.
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 MoreAdam Gopnik, New Yorker staff writer, has been contributing to the magazine since 1986. During his tenure at the magazine, he has written fiction, humor, book reviews, and profiles, and reported pieces from abroad. Gopnik has engaged in many musical projects, working both as a lyricist and librettist.
Read MoreCathy Olkin is a planetary scientist at Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. Her main topic of research is the outer solar system. As a Deputy Project Scientist for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto, Olkin has been busy soaking in all the new information about her favorite planet.
Read MoreAmy Harmon covers the social implications of science and technology for The New York Times. She has won two Pulitzer Prizes, one in 2008 for her series, The DNA Age, the other as part of a team in 2001 for a series on race relations in America.
Read MoreS. Matthew Liao is Arthur Zitrin Professor of Bioethics, Director of the Center for Bioethics, and Affiliated Professor in the Department of Philosophy at New York University. He is the author of The Right to Be Loved, Moral Brains: The Neuroscience of Morality, and over 60 articles in philosophy and bioethics.
Read MorePaola Antonelli’s work investigates design’s influence on everyday experience, often including overlooked objects and practices, and combining design, architecture, art, science, and technology. She is a Senior Curator at The Museum of Modern Art in the Department of Architecture & Design, as well as MoMA’s founding Director of Research & Development.
Read MoreFernando Diaz is a senior researcher at Microsoft Research and a founding member of the MSR-NYC lab. Prior to joining Microsoft, Fernando was a senior scientist at Yahoo Research.
Read MoreRachel A Rosen is an assistant professor of theoretical physics at Columbia University. Her research focuses on gravity, quantum field theory and the intersection of the two. She is best known for her contributions to massive gravity, a theory in which the graviton — the particle that transmits the gravitational force — has a mass.
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 MoreNoel Sauer is the Director of Technology at Cibus. Dr. Sauer earned her B.S. degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Southern California, and a doctoral degree in Microbiology and Molecular Genetics from Harvard University. For her postdoc, Dr. Sauer joined Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, studying host-pathogen interactions.
Read MoreCarl Safina’s work has been recognized with MacArthur, Pew, and Guggenheim Fellowships, and his writing has won Orion, Lannan, and National Academies literary awards and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals.
Read MoreShahid Naeem is professor of Ecology in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology and director of the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability at Columbia University. He obtained his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley, was a postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College of London, the University of Copenhagen, and University of Michigan.
Read MoreJacob S. Sherkow is an associate professor of Law at the Innovation Center for Law and Technology at New York Law School, where he teaches a variety of courses related to intellectual property. His research focuses on how scientific developments affect patent law and litigation.
Read MoreAnnabelle Selldorf is principal of Selldorf Architects, a 65-person architectural design practice founded in New York City in 1988. The firm creates public and private spaces that manifest a clear and modern sensibility to enduring impact.
Read MoreLuke Dow is an assistant professor of Biochemistry in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. Dow completed his PhD in Melbourne, Australia, before joining the laboratory of Professor Scott Lowe for his postdoctoral work in 2008, where he developed new systems to interrogate gene function in the mouse, including the first application of inducible in vivo CRISPR-based genome editing tools.
Read MoreClaudia Perlich leads the machine learning efforts that power Dstillery’s digital intelligence for marketers and media companies. With more than 50 published scientific articles, she is a widely acclaimed expert on big data and machine learning applications, and an active speaker at data science and marketing conferences around the world.
Read MoreGregory E. Kaebnick is a scholar at The Hastings Center and editor of the Hastings Center Report. He is the author of Humans in Nature: The World as We Find It and the World as We Create It, he has testified before Congress on ethical issues concerning the use of new genetic technologies, and he served on a National Research Council.
Read MorePablo Lavandera appears regularly in many prestigious venues in the United States, South America and Europe, both as a soloist and chamber musician, and in duo with violinist Joanna Kaczorowska with whom he received First Prize at the 2009 Liszt-Garrison International Piano Competition in the collaborative artists category including the Liszt and Bayreuth (Germany) performance prizes.
Read MoreRobert Benezra received his PhD at Columbia University before becoming a postdoctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. There Dr. Benezra identified the Id proteins that are naturally occurring antagonists of other proteins that stimulate development and the cessation of cell growth in a variety of tissue types.
Read MoreGuy McKhann has over 20 years of experience as a neurosurgeon/neuroscientist at Columbia University/New York Presbyterian Hospital, combining clinical skill and compassionate care to maximize patient outcomes.
Read MoreNeal Weiner received his undergraduate degree in Physics and Mathematics from Carleton College and a PhD in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley. After completing his postdoctoral training at the University of Washington, Dr. Weiner joined the faculty of the Department of Physics at NYU in 2004.
Read MoreCaren Zucker is a veteran and award-winning television producer with ABC News and PBS, and the mother of an adult son with autism.
Read MoreAgustín Fuentes, trained in Zoology and Anthropology, is a Professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. His research delves into the how and why of being human.
Read MoreAnoopa Singh is a two-time graduate of CUNY Hunter College and holds degrees in Biology, Chemistry, and Education and is devoted to developing as both a scientist and a teacher. She proudly teaches Chemistry and AP Chemistry at her alma mater, Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics.
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 MoreDavid Van Essen is the Alumni Endowed Professor of Neurobiology at Washington University in St Louis. He is internationally known for his research on the structure, function, connectivity, evolution, and development of cerebral cortex in humans and nonhuman primates.
Read MoreDavid Wallace is a philosopher of physics. In 2016, he arrived at the Philosophy School of the University of Southern California, after twenty-two years at the University of Oxford as a student, a researcher, and faculty member. Wallace’s original training was in theoretical physics.
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 MoreDietrich Stout is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Emory University, and Associate Director of the Emory’s Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture. He received his Ph.D. in Paleoanthropology from Indiana University, Bloomington.
Read MoreDr. Valerie Camille Jones was recently honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, which is America’s highest honor in math and science for teachers. For over 16 years, Dr. Jones has served her country and the people of metropolitan Atlanta.
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 MoreCaroline Bragdon works to develop and improve neighborhood level responses to rat infestation and is developing case studies for pest management planning at the neighborhood and building level.
Read MoreErin Styfco is an engineer working in a very unlikely industry, insurance. After earning her Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Clarkson University, Styfco entered the workforce as a project manager in commercial construction. While working, she also earned her Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Norwich University which, like her undergraduate work, focused on structural engineering.
Read MoreJeff W. Lichtman is Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Ramón y Cajal Professor of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Lichtman is a developmental neurobiologist interested in the way in which experience alters nervous system organization in long-lasting ways.
Read MoreJesse Engel is a research scientist with Google Brain’s Magenta team on the coevolution of artificial intelligence algorithms and their creative applications. He received his Bachelors, Ph.D., and Postdoc degree from UC Berkeley.
Read MoreJessica Joyner works at CUNY Brooklyn College exploring the microbiome of our daily, urban environment. Dr. Joyner’s research is centered on the microscopic life in the coastal waters and looking for specific bacteria that indicate pollution.
Read MoreA Mississippi to NYC transplant, Joshua Winter has been teaching physics for over 15 years to students of all age levels. Whether kindergartners or college students, his engaging teaching style and exciting demonstrations make even the most complex concepts accessible.
Read MoreBirgitta Whaley is Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, co-Director of the Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation Center, and Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Read MoreKevin Laland is Professor of Behavioural and Evolutionary Biology at the University of St Andrews, where he is a member of the Centre for Biological Diversity, the Centre for Social learning and Cognitive Evolution, the Institute for Behavioural and Neural Sciences, and the Scottish Primate Research Group.
Read MoreKevin Ochsner directs the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN) Lab at Columbia University, which studies the brain bases of emotion, person perception, and self-control. Ochsner received a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard and postdoctoral training at Stanford.
Read MoreKubi Ackerman is the Director of the Future City Lab at the Museum of the City of New York. Ackerman has been conducting design-based research in New York City since 2004. His work focuses on urban design strategies for resilience, with a particular focus on urban food systems, green infrastructure, transportation, and energy.
Read MoreLav Varshney is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science (by courtesy), and a research affiliate in the Beckman Institute and in the Neuroscience Program, all at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Read MoreLouise Barrett was trained in both ecology and anthropology and is currently Professor of Psychology and Canada Research Chair in Cognition, Evolution & Behaviour at the University of Lethbridge. She ran a long-term project on baboons in South Africa for twelve years.
Read MoreMark Van Raamsdonk is a professor of physics at the University of British Columbia, where he also received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics. He completed a Ph.D. in physics at Princeton University followed by postdoctoral research at Stanford University.
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 MorePeter Ulric Tse is interested in understanding, first, how matter can become conscious, and second, how conscious and unconscious mental events can be causal in a universe where so many believe a solely physical account of causation should be sufficient.
Read MoreRoy Arezzo, a native of Brooklyn, is a veteran NYC science teacher who has served as a department leader/curriculum developer in a variety of secondary education settings. He has a B.S. in biology from Marist College and received his Master in Environmental Science Education through CUNY.
Read MoreRussell Burke’s longstanding interest in reptiles was the major influence in his decision to pursue a career in biology. As a child, he collected local snakes in northern Ohio and kept them in captivity. He earned a B.S. in zoology from Ohio State University, where he fell in love with sea turtles.
Read MoreSarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, holding appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. She studies genomic and phenotypic variation in ethnically diverse Africans.
Read MoreSean Dixon is an attorney at Hudson Riverkeeper where he is primarily responsible for Riverkeeper’s New York City Programs. Dixon is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace Law School and Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program.
Read MoreTom McFadden is a middle school science teacher by day at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, CA, and a science rapper by night. His YouTube channel, “Science With Tom,” features rap battles between Rosalind Franklin and Watson & Crick.
Read MoreYemi Amu is the owner and operator of Oko Farms, LLC, an urban aquaponics farm, education, and design company in Brooklyn, New York. Amu is the Farm Manager at the Moore Street Farm, an outdoor aquaponics farm developed by Oko Farms.
Read MoreBorn and raised in Los Angeles, Yenmin Young graduated with a degree in Physics Education from New York University. She teaches Physics and Engineering Design at East Side Community High School, a project-based school in New York’s Lower East Side.
Read MoreDr. Jackie Faherty received a Bachelors in Science as a Physics major from the University of Notre Dame in 2001. She received her Ph.D. in Physics from Stony Brook University in 2010 with a thesis entitled the Brown Dwarf Kinematics Project, for which she received the University’s highest honors.
Read MoreRenée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time. In 2013, President Obama awarded her America’s highest honor for an artist, the National Medal of Arts. Winner of the 2013 Grammy Award (her 4th) for Best Classical Vocal Solo, she brought her voice to a vast new audience in 2014, as the first classical artist ever to sing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.
Read MoreMore participants for the 2018 World Science Festival will be announced in the coming days.
Read MoreCaleb Harper is the Principal Investigator and Director of the Open Agriculture (Open Ag) Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. He leads a diverse group of engineers, architects, and scientists in the exploration and development of future food systems.
Read MoreJoe Brown is the Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science. He has made his career as a science and tech journalist and editor, with a passion for modernizing high-quality magazine-style journalism.
Read MoreVeronika Hubeny is a theoretical physicist, currently a Professor in the Department of Physics at University of California, Davis. She is one of the founding members of the newly-formed Center for Quantum Mathematics and Physics (QMAP).
Read MoreDr. Yvonne Cagle is a NASA Astronaut and Physician. In 2008, she retired as a Colonel in the USAF where she served as a Senior Flight Surgeon prior to her selection to the NASA Astronaut Corp in 1996.
Read MoreYury Gogotsi is Distinguished University Professor and Trustee Chair of Materials Science and Engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia. He is the founding Director of the A.J. Drexel Nanomaterials Institute and Associate Editor of ACS Nano.
Read MoreBenjamin Pearcy joined 59 Productions in 2011 with the Broadway production of War Horse and works from 59’s New York studio. Also a projections designer, Pearcy has lit or designed projections for theater, opera, and architectural projects around the world.
Read MorePilobolus has created and toured over 120 pieces of repertory to more than 65 countries and currently performs its work each year for over 300,000 people across the U.S. and around the world. In 2015, Pilobolus was named one of the Dance Heritage Coalition’s “Irreplaceable Dance Treasures.”
Read MorePilobolus is a rebellious dance company. For 45 years, Pilobolus has tested the limits of human physicality to explore the beauty and the power of connected bodies. They continue to bring this tradition to global audiences through our post-disciplinary collaborations with some of the greatest influencers, thinkers, and creators in the world.
Read MoreSanjoy Banerjee is Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of the CUNY Energy Institute, which he founded on moving to CUNY from UC Santa Barbara in 2008. The Institute develops sustainable energy technologies with low carbon footprints.
Read MoreCassie Lee is the Director of Aerospace at Vulcan, Inc. where she leads the development of innovative space solutions in support of Paul G. Allen’s philanthropic initiatives.
Read MoreLynn Trahey is a materials scientist in the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research Energy Innovation Hub where she leads scientific integration efforts as the Research Integration Officer. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
Read MoreHerman Pontzer, professor of Anthropology at Hunter College and the City University of New York, investigates the energetics and evolution of humans and other apes. Dr. Pontzer’s work seeks to understand how our bodies evolved and how our evolutionary past shapes our lives today.
Read MoreDr. Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD is a Professor in the Department of Surgery and deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
Read MoreDoris A. Taylor, Ph.D., FACC, FAHA is the Director, Regenerative Medicine Research, and Director, Center for Cell and Organ Biotechnology at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston.
Read MoreDany Spencer Adams explores how ions moving among cells act as signals during regeneration, development, and cancer. She has uncovered evidence that bioelectric signals can trigger and regulate diverse complex processes that include gene expression changes.
Read MoreLars Jan is a director, writer, visual artist, and founder of Early Morning Opera, a genre-bending performance and art lab whose works explore emerging technologies, live audiences, and unclassifiable experience. His works have been presented by The Whitney Museum, Sundance Film Festival, and BAM Next Wave Festival.
Read MoreEarly Morning Opera (EMO) is a genre-bending performance and art lab whose works explore emerging technologies, live audiences, and unclassifiable experience, while reflecting artistic director Lars Jan’s background in progressive activism.
Read MoreDr. Eugenia (Genia) Naro-Maciel is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies at New York University and a graduate of Yale University. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology from Columbia University. She has co-authored numerous educational materials on protected areas and biodiversity conservation.
Read MoreWriter and Director Peter Livolsi is a graduate of the American Film Institute and a Sundance Screenwriters Lab alum. Livolsi’s feature film debut The House of Tomorrow premiered in competition at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April 2017. The Hollywood Reporter calls it “A confident and perfectly cast debut feature.”
Read MoreHenry T. (Hank) Greely is the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law and Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics at Stanford University. Greely graduated from Stanford and Yale Law School. He was a law clerk for Judge John Minor Wisdom on the Fifth Circuit and Justice Potter Stewart on the Supreme Court.
Read MoreEllen Burstyn’s illustrious sixty-year acting career encompasses film, stage, and television. In 1975 she became only the third woman in history to win both the Tony Award and the Academy Award in the same year for her work in Same Time, Next Year on Broadway and in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore for which she also received a Golden Globe nomination and a British Academy Award for Best Actress.
Read MoreLesa Roe is the Acting Deputy Administrator and Deputy Associate Administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
Read MoreDava Sobel has been writing about science for forty years, including a series of articles for The New York Times describing her month-long stint as a human subject in a laboratory study of circadian rhythm. Sobel is the author of several bestselling books about the history of astronomy.
Read MoreShana Corey has a flair for finding the story in history and making it fun. She was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for her first picture book, You Forgot Your Skirt, Amelia Bloomer!, which went on to inspire the American Library Association’s Amelia Bloomer Project.
Read MoreSusannah Meadows is a former Senior Writer for Newsweek. She has been a frequent contributor to The New York Times, most recently writing a column for the Arts section about books, along with reviews.
Read MoreConor Liston is a neuroscientist and psychiatrist at Weill Cornell Medical College, and his laboratory operates at the interface between these two fields. He leads a team of scientists who are working to advance our understanding of how brain circuits support learning, memory, and motivation, and how these processes are disrupted in depression, autism, and other neuropsychiatric illnesses.
Read MoreTime for Three (Tf3) transcends traditional classification, with high-energy performances free of conventional practices. Drawing from the members’ differing musical backgrounds, the trio performs its own arrangements of traditional repertoire with elements of classical, country western, gypsy and jazz idioms forming a blend all its own.
Read MoreDan Kahan is the Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law & Professor of Psychology at Yale Law School. His primary research interests are risk perception and science communication.
Read MoreSamuel H. Sternberg, PhD, runs a research laboratory at Columbia University, where he is an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. Sternberg’s research focuses on the mechanism of DNA targeting by RNA-guided bacterial immune systems (CRISPR-Cas) and on the development of these systems for genome engineering.
Read MoreNaomi S. Baron is Professor of Linguistics and Executive Director of the Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning at American University in Washington, DC. For over thirty years, she has been studying the impact of technology on language.
Read MoreJan L. Plass, Ph.D., is the Paulette Goddard Chair of Digital Media and Learning Sciences, Professor in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University, and he co-directs the Games for Learning Institute.
Read MoreTing (C.-ting) Wu is a Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. She is also Director of the Consortium for Space Genetics and Director of the Personal Genetics Education (pgEd.org) Project. She received her B.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University and is a recipient of the NIH Director’s 2012 Pioneer Award for her laboratory’s work on genome organization and inheritance.
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 MoreProfessor Ponisseril Somasundaran received his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He was invested as the first La von Duddleson Krumb Professor.
Read MoreDr. John R. Smith is an IBM Fellow and Manager of Multimedia and Vision at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. He leads IBM’s Research & Development on Visual Comprehension including IBM Watson Developer Cloud Visual Recognition, Intelligent Video Analytics, and Video Understanding for Augmented Creativity.
Read MoreVasant Dhar is a Professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and the Center for Data Science, and Editor-in-Chief of the Big Data journal. He is also the founder of SCT Capital Management, a machine learning based investment entity in New York City that implements a systematic process of knowledge discovery to make trading decisions autonomously.
Read MoreMassimo Pigliucci is the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. He works on philosophy of science and on the nature of pseudoscience. His latest book is How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (Basic Books).
Read MoreIvan Oransky, MD, is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University’s Arthur Carter Journalism Institute, co-founder of Retraction Watch, and editor at large of MedPage Today. Previously, he was executive editor of Reuters Health and held editorial positions at Scientific American and The Scientist.
Read MoreDr. Jerry M. Chow is the Manager of the Experimental Quantum Computing group at IBM and a Distinguished Research Staff Member. His technical expertise is in the area of design, measurement, and integration of superconducting qubits.
Read MoreMatias Zaldarriaga is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has a PhD from MIT and is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Gribov Medal from the European Physical Society, and the Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society.
Read MoreNima Arkani-Hamed is a theorist with wide interests in fundamental physics, from quantum field theory and string theory to collider physics and cosmology. He was educated at Toronto, Berkeley and Stanford, was a professor of physics at Berkeley and Harvard before joining the Institute for Advanced Study in 2008.
Read MoreFronting GRAMMY® Award-nominated multiplatinum rock leviathan Disturbed and industrial disruptor Device, vocalist, songwriter, and producer David Draiman casts an inescapable shadow over modern rock.
Read MoreKate Orff is the Founder of SCAPE. She focuses on retooling the practice of landscape architecture relative to the uncertainty of climate change and fostering social life which she has explored through publications, activism, research, and projects.
Read MoreDr. Christopher Mason is currently an Associate Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, with appointments at the Tri-Institutional Program on Computational Biology and Medicine between Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University, the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, and the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute.
Read MoreJennifer M. Zosh, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Pennsylvania State University. Her areas of expertise include cognitive development, playful learning, and the impact of technology on families.
Read MoreJessica Garrett is a science educator/author and a voice actress who thinks kids are fabulous. She loved writing slimy, kid-friendly “ICK-speriments” with her co-authors Joy Masoff and Ben Ligon, in the truly disgusting, yet totally interesting, Oh Ick! 114 Science Experiments Guaranteed to Gross You Out!
Read MoreDr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, policy expert, conservation strategist, and Brooklyn native. She is founder and principal of Ocean Collectiv.
Read MoreDanielle Dana serves as the Executive Director for Science Friday, which she joined from the Leakey Foundation. Dana is responsible for partnership development, fundraising, and overall organization strategy and management.
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. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie is a forensic psychiatrist with especial expertise in military and veteran’s issues. She is currently Chief of the Community Based Outpatient Clinics for the Washington DC VA.
Read MoreSarah Demers is the Horace D. Taft Associate Professor of Physics at Yale University. She is a particle physicist who works to understand the most fundamental constituents of the universes and the forces between them.
Read MoreMaryam Zaringhalam is a molecular biologist and an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow. She received her Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Rockefeller University, where she used protozoan parasites as a model to investigate how small changes to our genetic building blocks can affect how we look and function.
Read MoreDr. Aprille J. Ericsson is the first female to receive a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University, and the first African-American civil servant female to receive a Ph.D. in Engineering at NASA GSFC. She received her B.S. in Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering from MIT.
Read MoreBettina Hoerlin served as health commissioner of Philadelphia and taught health care disparities at the University of Pennsylvania for sixteen years. She also has been a visiting lecturer at Haverford College and Oxford University.
Read MoreGino Segrè is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting professor at New York University/Abu Dhabi, MIT and Oxford University, Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania and director of Theoretical Physics at the National Science Foundation.
Read MoreA four-time Emmy Award-winning writer for Bill Nye the Science Guy, Lynn Brunelle has over 25 years experience writing for people of all ages, across all manner of media. Brunelle has created, developed and written projects for National Geographic, Scholastic, Random House, Penguin, A&E, The Discovery Channel, Disney, ABC TV, NBC, NPR, World Almanac, Cranium, and PBS.
Read MoreMayim Bialik is best known for her award-winning role on the hit CBS comedy, The Big Bang Theory as ‘Amy Farrah Fowler’ and her role as ‘Blossom Russo’ on the hit 90’s sitcom Blossom. After starring as the lead in her own TV show, she left acting to attend UCLA, where she earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience.
Read MoreJames Ransome and Lesa Cline-Ransome collaborated on their first book together with a biography of Satchel Paige, an ALA Notable Book and a Bank Street College “Best Children’s Book of the Year.”
Read MoreBudd Mishkin is a broadcast journalist in New York City. As correspondent and host for NY1’s weekly profile series, One on 1 with Budd Mishkin, Mishkin profiled almost 400 influential New Yorkers with significant personal and professional ties to the city.
Read MoreSougwen Chung (愫君) is a Chinese-born, Canadian-raised artist based in New York. Her work explores transitional edges — the mark-made-by-hand and the mark-made-by-machine — as an approach to understanding the interaction between humans and computers.
Read MoreBarry Loewer is a philosopher of science currently teaching at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. He received a BA from Amherst College in philosophy and mathematics and a Ph.D. from Stanford. Loewer has also taught at Stanford, University of South Carolina, University of Michigan, and CEU in Budapest.
Read MoreLauren Sherman is a psychology and neuroscience researcher who studies social media use in adolescence and across the lifespan. Her research investigates the role of new media and digital communication in shaping social and brain development, particularly during adolescence.
Read MoreDavid Baron is a journalist, author, and broadcaster who has spent his thirty-year career largely in public radio. He has worked as a science correspondent for NPR, a science reporter for Boston’s WBUR, and science editor for PRI’s The World. An avid umbraphile, Baron has traveled the world to witness nature’s grandest spectacle, a total solar eclipse.
Read MoreJamie Metzl is a leading futurist, geopolitical expert, science fiction novelist, and Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council. He was recently appointed to the World Health Organization expert advisory committee on human genome editing.
Read MoreBill Nye is a science educator, mechanical engineer, New York Times bestselling author, and the creator and host of the Emmy award-winning syndicated television show Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Read MoreGregory Mone is a novelist, science journalist, and speaker who has written several books for children including Fish and Dangerous Waters. As a magazine writer, he has covered artificial intelligence, robots, physics, and biology.
Read MoreOlivia Koski is head of operations for Guerilla Science, an organization that brings scientific discussion to unusual places. She began her career as an engineer researching high power laser systems for Lockheed Martin before moving to New York City to pursue a science journalism master’s at New York University.
Read MoreSeth Fletcher is chief features editor at Scientific American. His first book, Bottled Lightning, on the lithium-ion battery and the rebirth of the electric car, was published in 2011 by Hill & Wang/FSG. His next book, currently in progress, is about a group of astronomers and their quest to take the first picture of a black hole.
Read MoreJana Grcevich is co-author of The Vacation Guide to the Solar System, a travel guide to the planets. She holds a PhD in Astronomy from Columbia University, worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History, and is a data scientist living in New York.
Read MoreDr. Kathy-Anne (Brickman) Soderberg, Senior Research Scientist at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Information Directorate, is the primary investigator for AFRL’s Trapped-Ion Quantum Networking group.
Read MoreTina Fey is an award-winning writer, actress, and producer who broke barriers as Liz Lemon on her three-time Emmy Award-winning comedy series 30 Rock. Prior to creating 30 Rock, Ms. Fey completed …
Read MoreAnita de Waard has a degree in low-temperature physics from Leiden University and worked in Moscow before joining Elsevier as a physics publisher in 1988. Since 1997, she has worked on bridging the gap between science publishing and computational and information technologies, collaborating with groups in Europe and the United States.
Read MoreWendy Zukerman is a science journalist and host of Gimlet Media’s podcast Science Vs. She previously worked at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and New Scientist Magazine.
Read MoreIn 2001, Dayu Lin received a B.S. in biological sciences from Fudan University in China. In 2006, she received her Ph.D. in Neurobiology from Duke University, working with Larry Katz. She studied as a postdoctoral fellow with David Anderson at California Institute of Technology.
Read MoreKathryn Hume is VP Product & Strategy for integrate.ai, a Toronto-based startup that helps large enterprises reinvent customer experiences using artificial intelligence. Prior to joining integrate.ai, Hume was President of Fast Forward Labs.
Read MoreJulia Kempe is a mathematician, physicist, and computer scientist. Her research has focused on the interdisciplinary theory of quantum computers and quantum information. She has contributed to the theory of quantum codes and the understanding of quantum entanglement and quantum algorithms.
Read MoreMichael Hildreth is Professor of Physics at the University of Notre Dame. Next to working on the CMS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, Hildreth is also the PI for the NSF-sponsored DASPOS project, a collective effort to explore the realization of a viable data, software, and computation preservation architecture for high-energy physics.
Read MoreDr. Kirk Borne is the Principal Data Scientist in the Strategic Innovation Group at Booz-Allen Hamilton since 2015. He was Professor of Astrophysics and Computational Science in the George Mason University (GMU) School of Physics, Astronomy, and Computational Sciences during 2003-2015
Read MoreMichael Tuts is experimental particle physicist whose early research focused on the spectroscopy of the b-bbar bound states (the Upsilons) using the CUSB detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). Presently, his research is on the D0 experiment at Fermilab and the ATLAS experiment at the LHC located at CERN.
Read MoreDalton Conley is the Henry Putnam University Professor in Sociology at Princeton University. He earned a PhD in sociology from Columbia University in 1996 and a PhD in Biology (Genomics) from NYU in 2014. His research focuses on how socioeconomic status and health are transmitted across generations and on the public policies that affect those processes.
Read MoreSteve Lohr has covered technology, business, and economics for The New York Times for more than twenty years. In 2013, he was part of the team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. He is the author of Data-ism, which examines the field of data science and decision-making.
Read MoreJames L. Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at Mayo Clinic and Noaber Foundation Professor of Aging Research. He is a Board-certified specialist in internal medicine, geriatrics, and endocrinology and metabolism.
Read MoreDubbed “The Last Leading Man” by the New York Times, Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a rich and varied career on Broadway, television, film and recordings, along with appearances in the great American concert halls.
Read MoreAnnalisa Calo has a degree in Chemistry and a master in Photochemistry and Chemistry of Materials, based in the design of molecules and materials with new properties and on their characterization by means of high-resolution techniques from the University of Bologna, Italy.
Read MoreElisa Riedo, PhD joined the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center’s Nanoscience Initiative in August 2015. She completed both her B.S. and Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Milan and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Ecole Polytechnic Federale Lusanne in Switzerland.
Read MoreVirginia W. Cornish graduated summa cum laude from Columbia University with a B.A. in Biochemistry in 1991, where she did undergraduate research with Professor Ronald Breslow. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry with Professor Peter Schultz at the University of California at Berkeley and then was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biology Department at M.I.T. under the guidance of Professor Robert Sauer.
Read MoreSummer Ash is the Director of Outreach for Columbia University’s Department of Astronomy. Ash is also a freelance science writer and communicator. Her work has been published in The Atlantic, Smithsonian, Now.Space, Scientific American, Slate, and Nautilus.
Read MoreJill Bargonetti, a renowned cancer researcher, earned her B.A. at SUNY College at Purchase and her Ph.D. at New York University and did postdoctorate work at Columbia University. She serves as chair of the molecular, cellular, and development subprogram in the Ph.D. Program in Biology at the Graduate Center and as professor of biological sciences at Hunter College.
Read MoreFrida E. Kleiman is a chemistry professor at Hunter College. Kleiman received her M.S. and her PhD at the National University of Córdoba in Argentina. She received her Postdoc at Columbia University in New York.
Read MoreDaniela Buccella is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at New York University. Born and raised in Venezuela, she received her B.S. in Chemistry in 2002 from Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, and started research as an undergraduate in the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research under the supervision of Professor Roberto Sánchez-Delgado.
Read MoreChef Christopher Burgess is currently the executive chef/owner of Fresh Kitchen, where he spends his time between the kitchen and local organic hydroponic farms. Burgess grew up working in kitchens, where he learned at an early age that quality food was an essential ingredient to good living.
Read MoreDr. Vicki Colvin is the Victor Kreible Professor of Chemistry and Engineering at Brown University and the Director of its Center for Biomedical Engineering. A physical chemist by training, Professor Colvin studies how very small crystalline materials such as quantum dots and carbon nanotubes interact with environmental and biological systems.
Read MoreEnergy Floors is an impact driven company based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. With their Sustainable Dance Floor they engage people in sustainable energy generation at events, festivals and science centers. …
Read MoreJonathan Butcher is Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University. His research focuses on understanding how tissue assembly and maturation during embryonic development are controlled by mechanical signaling.
Read MoreRichard Gallagher, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist who holds a senior position at the Child Study Center of the NYU Langone Medical Center.
Read MoreOver the last two decades Justin Brice Guariglia has developed a unique transdisciplinary art practice which often involves collaboration with scientists, philosophers and journalists in order to develop a more informed, holistic, ontological world view.
Read MoreDr. Cynthia Rosenzweig is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, where she heads the Climate Impacts Group. She is Co-Chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, a group of climate science experts that provides regular updates about climate change in the metropolitan region to the Mayor of New York.
Read MoreAnna Gunn starred as “Skyler White” on the Emmy Award-winning series Breaking Bad on AMC, earning an Emmy Award, an AFI Award, and the prestigious Peabody Award. She previously starred in the role of “Martha Bullock” in the iconic HBO series Deadwood.
Read MoreVicky Kalogera directs the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), and is the Daniel I. Linzer Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern. Kalogera is lead astrophysicist in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC)
Read MoreCarla Shatz has broken new ground for women in neuroscience. At Harvard Medical School, she was the first woman to receive a PhD in Neurobiology and the first woman to chair the department. Her research aims to understand how early developing brain circuits are transformed into adult connections during developmental critical periods.
Read MoreHitoshi Murayama is a theoretical physicist who works on the connection between the physics of the small (elementary particles) and the large (the Universe). He is also a founding director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo and he’s a member of American Academy for Arts and Sciences, as well as Science Council of Japan.
Read MoreAlexandra Cohen received her B.S. in Neuroscience from Duke University and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. She is particularly interested in how individual differences in learning emerge over the course of development and influence memory processes.
Read MoreJoanna Neiss is an animal behaviorist currently working in the Staten Island Zoo’s Education Department. Through her years as a Marine Mammal Trainer, Neiss has gained experience and skills in operant conditioning that can be applied to all species.
Read MoreTrey Taylor co-founded Verdant Power, a New York-based company. He is a founding member of the American Council on Renewable Energy and recently founded Anchor Coalition – a project of The Ocean Foundation, a non-profit organization – dedicated to securing water and energy for our communities.
Read MoreShannon Louie is a chemist in the Global R&D Regulatory Operations & Ingredient Coordination group at Avon Products, Inc. She works with ingredient suppliers to maintain Avon’s Raw Ingredient specifications to ensure a robust safety and technical evaluation of new materials and compliance with product related regulations.
Read MoreAnastasia Brown is an Analytical Chemist for Avon Products, Inc. at their Global Innovation Center. She develops methods to measure trace levels of active ingredients in cosmetic products. Brown’s work focuses on the effectiveness of personal care and cosmetic products.
Read MoreLiz Knapp is a senior chemist in the New Technology group in Research and Development at Avon Products, Inc. In this role, she uses her skill in science and art to develop new skin care and color cosmetics. She enjoys working on teams to come up with innovations to help consumers around the world look and feel like their best selves.
Read MoreMellanie Garner is a regulatory scientist in the Regulatory Operations/Raw Ingredients group in Research and Development at Avon Products, Inc. In her time at Avon she was responsible for global regulations on new raw ingredients for consumer products, including color; skincare; and hair care products.
Read MoreShae Shenefield is a principal scientist in the R&D Analytical Department at Avon Products, Inc.’s Global Innovation Center, with over 24 years of experience in the industry.
Read MoreChristopher Wolyniak is the senior manager of the Analytical Department in Research and Development at Avon Products, Inc., based at the Avon Global Innovation Center in Suffern, New York. He leads a team of chemists focused on developing ways to characterize and measure compounds and materials in cosmetic and personal care products, supporting all of Avon’s product categories.
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 MoreKely Norel is a research staff member in the Computational Biology Center at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. She received a B.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering from Universidad de Chile, a M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Weizmann Institute, Israel and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Read MoreJo Handelsman is the Director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a Vilas Research Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. She is responsible for groundbreaking studies in microbial communication and work in the field of metagenomics.
Read MoreDavid A. Relman, M.D., is the Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor in the Departments of Medicine, and of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University, and Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in Palo Alto, California.
Read MoreJennifer Swanson is the award-winning author of over 35 nonfiction books for children. Swanson’s passion for science resonates in all her books. She is the creator of the STEM Tuesday blog and the President and Founder of KidLiteracy, Inc., a literacy nonprofit.
Read MoreKen Blackburn is an aeronautical engineer for the Air Force conducting research in Florida. Blackburn has set the Guinness Record for time aloft for a paper airplane four times, the last being in 1998 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta with a flight time of 27.6 seconds.
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 MoreZoran Josipovic, PhD, is a research associate at NYU Langone Medical Center, and adjunct assistant professor for cognitive and affective neuroscience in the Department of Psychology, New York University. He is the founder and principal science investigator at Nonduality Institute.
Read MoreSusan Schneider is the 2019 Distinguished Scholar at the Library of Congress and the Director of the AI, Mind and Society (AIMS) Group at the University of Connecticut. She writes about the fundamental nature of the self and mind.
Read MoreSara Walker is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist, researching the origin of life and how to discover life on other worlds. She is developing new theory to understand life, based on the fundamental role information plays in living matter. Her goal is to develop quantitative criteria for the origin of life and for identifying life on other worlds.
Read MoreMike Vago is the creator of several unusual-format books, including The Miniature Book of Miniature Golf and the Journey Through the Pages series. He is also a regular contributor to The A.V. Club.
Read MoreHelaine Becker is the bestselling author of 80+ books for children and young adults, including the “enduring Canadian Christmas classic,” A Porcupine in a Pine Tree, and the giggle-inducing Ode to Underwear. Becker’s award-winning STEM-related nonfiction includes Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13, Monster Science and Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs.
Read MoreNobel Laureate
Andrea M. Ghez, professor of Physics and Astronomy and Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, is one of the world’s leading experts in observational astrophysics and …
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 MoreLisa Barrett is a University Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University, with positions in psychiatry and radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Read MoreStephen Macknik is currently an Empire Innovator Scholar and a professor of Ophthalmology, Neurology, and Physiology/Pharmacology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Macknik received his PhD at Harvard University.
Read MoreOki Gunawan is a Research Staff Member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yoktown Heights, NY. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University in Electrical Engineering. Gunawan’s research areas are semiconductor technology and physics such as nanoscale transistor, solar cell and novel sensors for internet of things technology.
Read MoreRob Knight is Professor of Pediatrics and Computer Science & Engineering and is Director of the Center for Microbiome Innovation at the University of California San Diego. He authored Follow Your Gut: The Enormous Impact of Tiny Microbes.
Read MoreMike Ressler has combined his passion for sports with his computer science education and accidentally stumbled across his favorite line of work, Sports Technology. Hooked on sports tech, Ressler joined local Pittsburgh startup Diamond Kinetics as director of engineering.
Read MoreMike Meacham holds a M.Eng. in mechanical engineering from Cornell University, concentrating in vehicular design and creating off-road skateboards as part of his education. He spent the first part of his career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
Read MoreBrett Frischmann is The Charles Widger Endowed University Professor in Law, Business, and Economics at Villanova University. He is also an affiliated scholar of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, and a trustee for the Nexa Center for Internet & Society, Politecnico di Torino.
Read MoreSean Brady graduated with a degree in molecular biology from Pomona College in Claremont, California and received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Cornell University. he later moved to Harvard Medical School as a fellow in the Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology and was named an instructor in the department of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at Harvard Medical School.
Read MoreVincent A. Fischetti Ph.D. is Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology at the Rockefeller University in New York. Fischetti’s research has focused on developing alternative methods to control bacterial infections.
Read MoreMargaret Flanagan is a native New Yorker, who after years of serving as a classroom teacher, brought her marine education expertise out to the waterfront full time. While sailing, she continued inspiring students and community members to better understand and appreciate our valuable natural resources.
Read MoreJanice Kaplan has enjoyed wide success as a magazine editor, television producer, writer, and journalist. The former editor-in-chief of Parade magazine, she is the author of thirteen popular books including the New York Times bestseller The Gratitude Diaries, which received international praise.
Read MoreBarnaby Marsh is an expert on risk taking. As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, Dr. Marsh did pioneering research on decision making in complex situations. He works with leaders of major corporations, foundations, and philanthropists, and continues academic research at both the Center for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
Read MoreTim Hwang is director of the Harvard-MIT Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative, a philanthropic project working to ensure that machine learning and autonomous technologies are researched, developed, and deployed in the public interest.
Read MoreLisa Kaltenegger is the director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell and professor in Astronomy. She is fascinated by the new worlds orbiting other Suns. Her research focuses on modeling these new worlds especially on how to spot signs of life.
Read MoreAviv Ovadya is Chief Technologist at the Center for Social Media Responsibility at the University of Michigan School of Information, where he works on ensuring our information ecosystem has a positive impact on society. This involves identifying, measuring, and mitigating indirect harms of technologies that affect public discourse. Ovadya received his bachelors and masters degrees in computer science at MIT.
Read MoreDr. Casie Parish Fisher is the Director of the Forensic Science Program, and Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. She has been awarded for outstanding teaching and recognized for innovative teaching.
Read MoreMeredith Whittaker is co-founder of the AI Now Institute, a leading university institute dedicated to researching the social implications of artificial intelligence and related technologies in an interdisciplinary context.
Read MoreBreakthrough Prize
Shep Doeleman is an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the Founding Director of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. He led the international team that three years ago …
Read MoreDr. Bhavna Agrawal, a leading researcher at IBM, is bringing education and artificial intelligence technology together to help solve various problems in elementary and higher education. Some of her latest work involved working with automatic recognition of children’s speech.
Read MoreSusana Martinez-Conde is a neuroscientist and Professor at the State University of New York. She is best known for her studies on illusions, eye movements and perception, neurological disorders, and attentional misdirection in stage magic.
Read MoreAriel Zych is an educator, scientist, writer, and producer dedicated to sparking a love of science and math in others. Currently education director at Science Friday, she’s produced and created hundreds of experiments, activities, lessons, events, and workshops for kids, parents, and teachers in video, radio, print, web, and social media.
Read MoreAdam Alter is an associate professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business with an affiliated appointment at the NYU Psychology Department where he studies human judgment and decision-making.
Read MoreAneesh Chaganty is a write and director whose two minute short film, a Google Glass spot called “Seeds”, became an internet sensation after garnering more than 1 million YouTube views in 24 hours. He is a recipient of the Future of Storytelling Fellowship.
Read MoreJay Van Bavel is an Associate Professor of Psychology & Neural Science at New York University. He conducts research on how group identities’ moral values and political beliefs shape the mind and brain.
Read MoreJonathan Haidt is a Social Psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Haidt’s research examines the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultural and political divides.
Read MoreMartin Blaser is the Singer Professor of Medicine, Professor of Microbiology, and Director of the Human Microbiome Program at NYU School of Medicine. He served as Chair, Department of Medicine from 2000-2012. A physician and microbiologist, Dr. Blaser studies the relationships we have with our persistently colonizing bacteria.
Read MoreMichael Doser is a research physicist at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland, who has specialized in working with antimatter, using it either as a tool (to study the strong interaction), or as an object of study itself.
Read MoreDr. William “Buddy” Clark grew up on a farm in rural Virginia where he enjoyed building things and learning how machinery worked. He also developed a passion for baseball.
Read MoreSev Ohanian is a screenwriter and producer native to Los Angeles. Since graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, he has been a producer on over a dozen feature films. Four of his films have been Sundance Film Festival Official Selection.
Read MoreOren Harman is the Chair of the Program in Science Technology and Society at Bar Ilan University and a Senior Fellow at the Van Leer Institute. He trained in history and biology at Oxford and Harvard and became a renowned professor of the history of science.
Read MoreBernadette Woods Placky is often called upon to discuss and explain extreme weather events and has appeared on a number of national and local television broadcasts. Before coming to Climate Central, she spent 11 years as a TV weather forecaster. Her most recent station was WJZ in Baltimore, where she earned an Emmy.
Read MoreMatthew R. Willmann is the Director of the Plant Transformation Facility (PTF) at Cornell University. PTF is a service facility that makes transgenic and CRISPR/Cas genome-edited plants (maize, rice, wheat, and apple) for Cornell and external faculty.
Read MoreTimnit Gebru works in the Fairness Accountability Transparency and Ethics (FATE) group at Microsoft Research, New York. She is currently studying the ethical considerations underlying any data mining project, and methods of auditing and mitigating bias in sociotechnical systems.
Read MoreVictoria Bill is the founding Manager of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering MakerSpace Lab. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the first-year engineering program, teaching EG 1003 Introduction to Engineering and Design. Her research interests include IoT, wearable technology, and engineering education.
Read MoreKaren Lewis is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Barnard College, Columbia University. She specializes in philosophy of language, with a particular focus on the interface between semantics and pragmatics. Her work is informed both by philosophy and linguistics and much of it seeks to explain how a conversational context affects what a speaker communicates, and vice versa.
Read MoreKathryn Denning is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at York University in Toronto. Her research includes projects on the social impacts of astrobiology and SETI, the evolution of intelligence, and contemporary ideas concerning the colonization of space.
Read MoreJaron Lanier is the Prime Unifying Scientist at Microsoft, where he helps lead the company’s development and implementation of artificial intelligence systems. A leading computer scientist, he is renowned his …
Read MoreSteven Liddell is a passionate science educator who has a remarkable ability to communicate science to people of all ages. As a high school science and math teacher, Liddell created a student-centered learning approach now taught through “Street Science” that engages and inspires kids to foster a love of learning.
Read MoreYiping Qi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at University of Maryland, College Park. His current research focus is developing and applying plant genome editing tools for plant biology and crop improvement.
Read MoreJeanna N. Matthews is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York and a 2017-18 Fellow at Data and Society. She is a co-chair of the Association for Computing Machinery Subcommittee of Algorithmic Transparency and Accountability and an ACM Distinguished Speaker.
Read MoreNatalie Wolchover is a senior writer at Quanta Magazine covering the physical sciences. Wolchover has a bachelor’s in physics from Tufts University, studied graduate-level physics at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-authored several academic papers in nonlinear optics.
Read MoreFred Gould is Co-Director of the Genetic Engineering and Society Center of North Carolina State University. He conducts research on the application of evolutionary biology and population genetics to sustainable use of insect resistant crops and genetically engineered agricultural pests.
Read MoreLaura H. Greene is the chief scientist at the National MagLab, Eppes Professor of Physics at Florida State University, and past-president of the American Physical Society. Her research is in quantum materials, including high-temperature superconductivity.
Read MoreMichael Benson’s work focuses on the intersection of art and science. A writer, artist, and filmmaker, Benson has staged a series of large-scale shows of reprocessed planetary landscape photography in major museums.
Read MoreJocelyn Read is an assistant professor in the Gravitational Wave Physics and Astronomy Center of California State University, Fullerton. She has spent more than a decade studying neutron star astrophysics and gravitational waves.
Read MoreDr. Scott M. Smith leads the Nutritional Biochemistry Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center. This group is charged with keeping crews healthy with respect to nutrition, including using nutrition as a means to optimize astronaut health and safety.
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 MoreDavid Kipping is a Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University where he leads the Cool Worlds Lab – a research team primarily focussed on discovering new planets and moons. Kipping’s …
Read MoreAndrea Pocar joined the physics faculty at UMass-Amherst in 2009, where his research in experimental nuclear/particle physics includes searches for neutrino-less double beta decay, for weakly-interacting dark matter particles, and solar neutrinos.
Read MoreClifford Stein is Professor of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and of Computer Science at Columbia University. He is also a member of the Data Science Institute.
Read MoreLindley Winslow’s work focuses on answering big questions about the universe by developing novel particle detectors. She received her BA in physics and astronomy in 2001 and her PhD in physics in 2008, both from the University of California at Berkeley.
Read MoreJill Shapiro is the E3B Senior Lecturer/Director of Undergraduate Studies-EBHS. Systematics is at the core of her research, which spans several areas of biological anthropology, including human evolution, human and non-human skeletal biology, the history of the scientific race concept, and hominoid taxonomy.
Read MoreMariam Aly is a professor of psychology in Columbia University, where she spends her days thinking about, researching, and teaching cognitive neuroscience: the study of how the brain supports the way we think.
Read MoreJanelle Ayres is an Associate Professor in the Nomis Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Her pioneering research on host-pathogen interactions is redefining our definition of health.
Read MoreIrwin Shapiro is the Timken University Professor at Harvard University. He is best known for his tests of general relativity, especially the so-called fourth test of what is known as the Shapiro delay, the predicted slowing down of light signals passing massive objects.
Read MoreFriedrich Soltau is a Senior Sustainable Development Officer in the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs. He has worked on a range of issues at the intersection of climate change, energy, new and emerging issues, and sustainable development goals.
Read MoreDave Jackson is a Professor of Plant Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, USA. His lab finds and studies the genes that control plant growth and architecture. They have discovered genes that control stem cell proliferation.
Read MoreDr. Dianne Greenfield studies the complex environmental feedbacks between global change stressors (such as urbanization, nutrients, and climate) and coastal phytoplankton ecology, physiology, and biogeochemistry.
Read MoreShana Elbaum-Garfinkle, PhD, is an Assistant Professor with the ASRC Structural Biology Initiative, as well as an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
Read MoreMarcelo Magnasco carried out his undergraduate studies in Physics at the University of La Plata, in Argentina, and his PhD, also in Physics, at the University of Chicago, and currently heads the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience at Rockefeller University.
Read MoreKate Porterfield is a clinical psychologist at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, where she provides clinical care to individuals and families who have survived torture and refugee trauma. She is often called on to evaluate young people involved in activities linked to extremist thought.
Read MoreCarolee Carmello is an actress and singer best known for her performances in Broadway musicals. She is a three-time Tony Award nominee and a 5-time Drama Desk nominee, winning the 1999 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical for her role in Parade.
Read MoreHannah Elless made her Broadway debut singing “Bless the Lord” in the revival of Stephen Schwartz’s Godspell. She was most recently seen Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company in Tennessee William’s Summer and Smoke.
Read MoreBrooke Borel is a Journalist and Author. She has written on everything on everything from biotech in agriculture, to the seedy world of cannabis pesticides, to the history of the bed bug. She is a contributing editor at Popular Science and an editor-at-large at Undark.
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 MoreSolon Barocas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University. His current research explores ethical and policy issues in artificial intelligence, particularly fairness in machine learning, methods for bringing accountability to automated decision-making, and the privacy implications of inference.
Read MoreMeredith Broussard is an assistant professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University, an affiliate faculty member at the Moore-Sloan Data Science Environment at the NYU Center for Data Science, and a 2019 fellow at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Read MoreMichelle Wilson is best known for her Tony nominated performance in the Pulitzer-Prize winning play Sweat. Wilson played long-time factory worker Cynthia, a role she originated off-Broadway at the Public …
Read MoreRosemary Loar is a veteran of six Broadway shows. As a concert singer, she has sung at Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, and with the Raleigh N.C. Symphony. Loar received the Hansen Award for continued excellence in cabaret.
Read MoreFlorian Pinel is a Senior Technical Staff Member and Master Inventor in the Watson Content and IoT group at IBM. He is the co-inventor of IBM Chef Watson, an application that uses machine learning and natural language processing to demonstrate computational creativity and suggest original recipe ideas.
Read MoreAnita Lo is chef and restaurateur. In 2001, she was named by Food & Wine magazine one of ten “Best New Chefs in America”. She studied French Literature at Columbia University, but has never worked in any field other than the restaurant business, having been inspired by food while studying abroad in Paris in college.
Read MoreSoumyadeep Mukherjee aka “Deep” is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Program in Public Health (PPH) at Stony Brook University. He is interested in better understanding how past traumatic and stressful experiences can impact long-term mental health and well-being.
Read MoreShannon Odell is a Brooklyn based writer, comedian, and scientist. She co-hosts and produces Drunk Science, an experimental comedy show deemed “a stroke of genius” by Gothamist and a finalist in TruTV’s comedy break out initiative.
Read MoreTim Urban is the Writer, Illustrator, and Co-Founder of Wait But Why, a long-form, stick-figure-illustrated website with over 600,000 subscribers and a monthly average of one million visitors. He has produced dozens of viral articles on a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence to social anxiety to humans becoming a multi-planetary species.
Read MoreDr. Edward Large is a Professor of Psychological Sciences and Professor of Physics at University of Connecticut, where he directs research at the Music Dynamics Lab. His expertise is in nonlinear dynamical systems, auditory neuroscience, and music perception.
Read MoreMari Kimura is a Violinist/Composer, and a leading figure in the field of interactive computer music. She received numerous awards including Guggenheim Fellowship Fromm Award residency at IRCAM in Paris and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Read MoreJessica Brillhart is an Immersive Director, Writer, and Theorist. She’s the founder of the independent studio, Vrai Pictures, and is on the roster for Mssng Peces. Previously, Brillhart was the Principal Filmmaker for VR at Google where she worked with engineers to develop Google Jump.
Read MoreGrowing up in South Africa, Master distiller Kevin Herson, formulated concoctions with his now antique chemistry set. His love for culture led him to travel the world and experience food and drinks of all customs and varieties. With a doctorate degree, “The Doc” has developed a unique palate for distilling, introducing delightful spirits to the craft beverage industry.
Read MoreIngrid Michaelson is best known for earworm, platinum-selling singles like “Girls Chase Boys” and “The Way I Am,” but it’s her focus on giving back that she’s most proud of. …
Read MoreViolinist Jennifer Koh is recognized for intense, commanding performances, delivered with dazzling virtuosity and technical assurance. She collaborates with artists across disciplines, including today’s foremost composers, and curates projects that …
Read MoreTony Award winner, Alice Ripley is an actor, singer, songwriter, and mixed media artist. She is best known for her roles on Broadway musicals, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next to …
Read MoreLinsay Firman is Director of Play Development at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Associate Director of the EST/Sloan Project. At EST she has directed the World Premiere of Lucas Hnath’s Isaac’s Eye and the NY Premiere of Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51.
Read MoreCatherine Birndorf, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics/Gynecology and Founding Director of the Payne Whitney Women’s Program, is Co-Founder of The Motherhood Center. The Motherhood Center provides supportive services for new and expecting moms.
Read MoreCarolyn P. Neuhaus is a Bioethicist at The Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute in Garrison, New York. She explores philosophical and ethical questions that arise throughout biomedical research, with an eye toward the wise use of emerging technologies.
Read MoreDuncan Brown is the Charles Brightman Professor of Physics at Syracuse University. Brown has worked in gravitational-wave astronomy for 20 years and played a lead role in LIGO’s discovery of binary black hole and binary neutron star collisions. Brown’s research involves using gravitational-wave observations to understand the nature of the universe.
Read MoreNeeraj Sakhrani is a rising sophomore at Columbia University planning to major in mathematics and pre-medicine. Accompanying his academic pursuits, Sakhrani is an associate editor for the Journal of Global Health.
Read MoreCyndy Desjardins is a Food Web Biologist at the International Institute for Sustainable Development Experimental Lakes Area. She has extensive field experience in limnology research, having managed and trained both laboratory teams and fieldwork teams in a large-scale, multi-year aquatic ecology project.
Read MoreNancy Anderson has starred on Broadway in A Class Act, Wonderful Town, and the revival of Sunset Boulevard. She is a three-time Drama Desk Nominee and a three-time Helen Hayes Nominee.
Read MoreWendy Ju is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Science at Cornell Tech’s Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, where she leads the Future Autonomy Research (FAR) Lab. Her work focuses on ways that interactive devices like robots can communicate with people without interrupting or intruding.
Read MoreMatthew Chun graduated from Jericho High School in 2014 and participated in ISEF in 2013 (4th place: Materials and Bioengineering) and 2014 (2nd place: Chemistry). Chun is currently a senior at MIT studying Mechanical Engineering.
Read MoreDr. Serena McCalla has dedicated her life to the advancement of science and science education. Dr. McCalla was raised in New York City and fell in love with science in elementary school. She earned her Bachelors in Biological Sciences.
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 MoreTamara Tunie is a versatile actress who consistently garners praise and recognition for her work on the big and small screens, in theater, and in her community. She currently stars in the upcoming AMC dark comedy Dietland as Julia with Joy Nash and Julianna Margulies.
Read MoreActor Maria Dizzia’s New York credits include: If I Forget, The Layover, Belleville (2013 Drama Desk Nomination), Uncle Vanya, Cradle and All, In the Next Room (2010 Tony Award nomination), The Hallway Trilogy, and more. Dizzia portrayed Polly on two seasons of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black.
Read MoreMariska Hargitay is an actress, director, producer, and advocate, who has used her Emmy award-winning role as Olivia Benson on NBC’s Law & Order: SVU to shed light on sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. In 2004, she took her commitment to a higher level by founding the Joyful Heart Foundation.
Read MoreDavid Poeppel is the Director of the Department of Neuroscience at the Max-Planck-Institute (MPIEA) in Frankfurt, Germany and a Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU. Trained at MIT in cognitive science, linguistics, and neuroscience, Poeppel did his post-doctoral training at the University of California San Francisco, where he focused on functional brain imaging.
Read MoreVera Zarubin is a 17-year-old senior at the Bronx High School of Science and an incoming freshman at MIT. In the past two years, she has worked on four graduate-level research projects in applied physics and materials science.
Read MoreAnjali Chadha is a rising Senior at duPont Manual High School, a Math Science Technology Magnet school in Louisville, Kentucky. She has a deep passion for technology and innovation and has been developing a novel IoT based 3D printed arsenic sensor for the past 2 years.
Read MoreKendra Zhang is a current senior at Jericho High School and will attend Columbia University in the fall. Zhang participated in ISEF in 2017 and 2018, winning Best in Category and 1st Place her junior year and 4th Place her senior year.
Read MoreA student of Jericho High School, Marc Huo is an aspiring scientist who has conducted research on nanotechnology, won 1st Place in Cell and Molecular Biology at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), was named a Regeneron Scholar, and co-authored a paper that was published in Advanced Materials.
Read MoreMichael Lai is currently pursuing a medical degree in Hofstra University’s combined BS/MD program in which he will directly matriculate into the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine. He attended Jericho High School in Jericho New York.
Read MoreLeo Lo is a senior at Jericho High School. Lo has conducted nano-optics research at Stony Brook University for 2 years, creating a computer simulation platform that could improve the accuracy of the state-of-the-art optical nano-imaging method.
Read MoreAna Nogueira is an actor, playwright and screenwriter who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Her Off-Broadway appearances include: Engagements, Mala Hierba (Second Stage Uptown), and Knives and Other Sharp Objects (The Public).
Read MoreDr. Vimla Aggarwal is the Director of Diagnostic Genomics at the Columbia University Medical Center Institute for Genomic Medicine. She received her medical degree from the University of Mumbai.
Read MoreAmanda Bergner, MS, CGC, is the Program Director of the Genetic Counseling Graduate Program at Columbia University. She has 19 years of experience in clinical care, education, and industry work.
Read MoreOlivier Elemento, PhD is the Director of the Weill Cornell Medicine Englander Institute for Precision Medicine, an institute that focuses on using genomics and informatics to make medicine more individualized.
Read MoreJessica Giordano is a genetic counselor with 11 years of prenatal genetic counseling experience. She is currently working at Columbia’s Division of MFM and Institute of Genomic Medicine.
Read MoreDr. Ruth Gotian is the inaugural Assistant Dean of Mentoring and Executive Director of the newly launched Mentoring Academy at Weill Cornell Medicine, and the Chief Learning Officer in Anesthesiology.
Read MoreAnya Revah-Politi, MS, CGC, is a genetic counselor at the Columbia University Medical Center Institute for Genomic Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.
Read MoreSince 2002, Kim Binsted has been a professor in the Information and Computer Sciences Department at the University of Hawaii, conducting research on human space exploration. She is the principal investigator on the NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation project, which conducts long-duration space exploration simulations.
Read MoreJoseph Silk is Homewood Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a researcher at Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, and a Senior Fellow at the Beecroft Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Oxford.
Read MoreDr. Stephen Ross researches the therapeutic application of psychedelic treatment models to treat psychiatric and addictive disorders. He is an expert in psycho-oncology and is studying novel pharmacologic-psychosocial approaches to treating psychological and existential distress associated with advanced or terminal cancer.
Read MoreDrew Dollaz is a pioneer of flexing, a Brooklyn-based genre of street dance also referred to as bone breaking, which is characterized by rhythmic contortionist movements. A self-taught dancer, Dollaz is known for blending flexing with other styles including ballet to create a transcendent hybrid of movement artistry.
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 MoreAs an internationally renowned professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at U.C. Berkeley, Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues rocked the research world in 2012 by describing a simple way of editing the DNA of any organism using an RNA-guided protein found in bacteria.
Read MoreWilliam B. Hurlbut is a physician and adjunct professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University Medical Center. His primary areas of interest involve the ethical issues associated with advancing biomedical technology, the biological basis of moral awareness, and studies in the integration of theology and philosophy of biology.
Read MoreRisa Wechsler is the Director of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology and an associate professor of Physics at Stanford and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Her work combines numerical simulations and modeling with data from the largest existing and future galaxy surveys to model and map out the evolution and contents of the Universe from its earliest moments to the present day.
Read MoreAlison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. She is a world leader in cognitive science, particularly the study of children’s learning and development, and the author of over 100 journal articles and several books.
Read MoreAnil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience and Director of the Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex. He is also Co-Director of the Canadian Institute …
Read MoreLara Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Physics and Affiliate Professor of Mathematics, and currently a Hamlett Fellow in Integrated Science at Virginia Tech. She is currently visiting faculty at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics.
Read MoreMichael Dine is a professor of physics at University of California Santa Cruz. He is noted for work on cosmology where he has proposed one of the leading candidates for the dark matter and several ideas for how the asymmetry might arise between matter and antimatter for work in particle physics.
Read MoreMarcelo Gleiser is the Appleton Professor of Natural Philosophy and a professor of physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College. He obtained his PhD from King’s College London and received the 1994 Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House.
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 MoreDavid Chalmers is University Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science and co-director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Consciousness at New York University. He is the author of The …
Read MoreDr. Isabel Pedersen is Canada Research Chair in Digital Life, Media and Culture and an associate professor at Ontario Tech University. She founded Decimal Lab, a digital culture and media lab that concentrates on the social implications of emerging technology.
Read MoreDr. Joe Henrich is currently a Harvard professor and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. Before moving to Harvard, he was a professor of both economics and psychology at the University of British Columbia, where he held the Canada Research Chair in Culture, Cognition and Coevolution.
Read MoreMichael Collins flew in both the Gemini 10 and the Apollo 11 space missions in the 1960s. After retiring from NASA in 1970, he became director of the National Air and Space Museum until 1978, when he became Under Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Read MoreShannon Vallor is the Regis and Dianne McKenna Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Santa Clara University. She is also a Visiting Researcher and AI Ethicist at Google, and a former President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology.
Read MoreAbigail Marsh is an associate professor of psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science at Georgetown University. She received her PhD from Harvard University and conducted her post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Read MoreDavid Sloan Wilson is one of the world’s foremost evolutionary thinkers and a gifted communicator about evolution to the general public. He is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University in New York and President of the Evolution Institute.
Read MoreWhen he isn’t saving strangers from certain death, Chad Lindsey is an actor, director, and artist based in New York. He is the co-artistic director of Hook & Eye Theater, helms The Mark O’Donnell Theater at The Actors Fund Arts Center in downtown Brooklyn–a modern black-box theater, dance, film and rehearsal space.
Read MoreLera Boroditsky is an associate professor of cognitive science at University of California San Diego. She previously served on the faculty at MIT and Stanford. Her research is on the relationships between mind, world, and language (or how humans get so smart).
Read MoreJim Hudspeth conducts research on hair cells, the sensory receptors of the inner ear. He and his colleagues are especially interested in the active process that sensitizes the ear, sharpens its frequency selectivity, and broadens its dynamic range. They also investigate the replacement of hair cells as a potential therapy for hearing loss.
Read MoreDonald Hoffman received his PhD from MIT and is a professor of cognitive science at the University of California Irvine. He is an author of over 120 scientific papers and three books, including Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See.
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 MoreSimon Garnier is an associate professor in the Federated Department of Biology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers-Newark. He is the head of the Swarm Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab that studies the mechanisms underlying collective behaviors and swarm intelligence in natural and artificial systems.
Read MoreDouglas McCuistion has 40 years’ experience in high technology and aerospace sectors. His NASA career culminated in the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover mission after leading the “Golden Decade” of Mars exploration as NASA’s director of the Mars Program.
Read MoreGarry Kasparov is widely regarded as the greatest chessplayer in history, becoming the youngest world champion ever at 22 in 1985. His matches against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue were a landmark for AI, making headlines around the world.
Read MoreMariangela Lisanti is an associate professor of physics at Princeton University whose research focuses on the nature of dark matter. She has tested ideas about dark matter using data from a wide range of experimental and observational probes.
Read MoreDr. Denise Herzing, Founder and Research Director of the Wild Dolphin Project, has completed 34 years of her long-term study of the Atlantic spotted dolphins inhabiting Bahamian waters. She is an affiliate assistant professor in Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.
Read MoreSuzana Herculano-Houzel, PhD, is a biologist and neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University, where she is associate professor in the Departments of Psychology and Biological Sciences. Her research focuses on what different brains are made of.
Read MoreDr. Omer Mei-Dan is an Orthopedic Sports and Trauma Surgeon. Originally from Israel, he has also trained and practiced medicine in Spain, New Zealand, and Australia, prior to establishing the Hip Preservation Service with the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Read MoreCynthia Thomson completed her PhD in Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia. Her graduate research centered on gaining a better understanding of high-risk sport participation, a topic largely inspired by time spent between degrees living in the Canadian Rockies.
Read MoreJoseph Lykken leads the Fermilab Quantum Division and was formerly Fermilab’s Deputy Director for Research. A distinguished scientist at the laboratory, Lykken was a former member of the Theory Division …
Read MoreConstance “Connie” Lehman, MD–PhD, is professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School, and chief of Breast Imaging and co-director of the Avon Comprehensive Breast Evaluation Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She is a pioneer in the domain of Artificial Intelligence implementation in clinical medical practice.
Read MoreJens Ludwig is the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab, and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
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 MoreMonica Gagliano is a research associate professor in evolutionary ecology. She is based at the University of Sydney as a Research Affiliate at the Sydney Environment Institute and a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences.
Read MoreJames R. Irons is director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). He leads over 1400 scientists and support staff, all dedicated to studying the Earth as an integrated system that includes the atmosphere, oceans, biosphere, cryosphere, and geosphere.
Read MoreDr. Nour E. Raouafi is a solar physicist. He is the project scientist of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission. He obtained his PhD from the University of Paris XI. His research spreads over a wide range of solar and heliospheric areas with an emphasis on the dynamic solar corona via the analysis of spectral and imaging observations, theory, and modeling.
Read MorePadi Boyd is the project scientist for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Mission (a NASA Explorer Mission launched in 2018), and chief of the Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics Laboratory in the Astrophysics Science Division, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Read MoreDaniel Kish has been an innovator in neuroscience since he learned to walk. After losing both eyes to retinal cancer by the age of 13 months, he spontaneously began to echolocate by clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth and listening to the echoes from the environment around him to navigate.
Read MoreE.J. Chichilnisky is the John R. Adler Professor of Neurosurgery, and Professor of Ophthalmology, at Stanford University, where he has worked since 2013 after 15 years at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Read MoreMarlee Matlin’s first film Children of a Lesser God garnered her the Academy Award for Best Actress. At 21 she became the youngest recipient and only one of four actresses to receive the honor for a film debut.
Read MoreDavid Pogue is a four-time Emmy winner for his stories on CBS Sunday Morning, host of 17 science specials on NOVA on PBS, and the “Crowdwise” columnist for The New York Times.
Read MoreMichael Bartlett is an Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. His research investigates and creates soft materials with multifunctional properties for soft robotics and electronics, adaptive materials, and ‘smart’ adhesives.
Read MoreElizabeth Hellmuth Margulis studies music from the perspective of cognitive science. She is interested in how people without formal training come to make sense of music and be moved by it.
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 MoreBrian Floca is the author and illustrator of Locomotive, winner of the 2013 Caldecott Medal; Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book; Lightship, also a Sibert Honor Book; and Racecar Alphabet, an ALA Notable Children’s Book.
Read MoreBruce Goldstone has written more than a dozen books for children, many of which encourage readers to see the playful side of math and numbers, such as Great Estimations, I See a Pattern Here, 100 Ways to Celebrate 100 Days, and That’s a Possibility! His latest book, Super Summer, completes his exploration of the sights, smells, and science of the seasons.
Read MoreColleen R. Evans is the Staten Island Museum’s Director of Natural Sciences. A biologist who specializes in museum collections, Evans also brings a wide knowledge of arthropods and science education to her post. She earned her BS and MS in Biology at the University of North Texas.
Read MoreDanielle M. Brown is a PhD student at Rutgers University and an associate researcher with Gotham Whale. Her doctoral research focuses on the foraging ecology of humpback whales in New York and New Jersey, and she assists in managing the New York City Humpback Whale Catalog.
Read MoreGrammy®-winning composer and conductor Eric Whitacre is one of the most popular musicians of our time. His music has been performed by millions across the world while his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united singers from over 120 different countries.
Read MoreGloria P. Huang is a research scientist in the New Technology group in Research and Development at Avon Products, Inc. She works to develop innovations for skin care and color cosmetics by combining her love of research and collaboration to help uncover ways to delight consumers around the world.
Read MoreHans Walters is an animal department supervisor at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s New York Aquarium in Brooklyn NY, and a field scientist with WCS’ New York Seascape Program. As animal supervisor, he oversees the daily care of sharks and rays, sea turtles and numerous marine fishes and invertebrates.
Read MoreScott Kelly is a former military fighter pilot and test pilot, an engineer, a retired astronaut, and a retired US Navy captain. A veteran of four space flights, Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the yearlong mission to the ISS.
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 MoreThomas R. Horton is professor of Mycology at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. His research is focused on mycorrhizal fungi.
Read MoreRachel Dougherty is the illustrator of three educational picture books, Your Life as a Cabin Attendant on the Titanic, Your Life as a Pioneer on the Oregon Trail, and The Twelve Days of Christmas in Pennsylvania. She is a lifelong history buff and believes that some of the best stories out there are the true ones.
Read MoreRuth Spiro is the author of the Baby Loves Science board book series, published by Charlesbridge. Titles include Baby Loves Aerospace Engineering, Baby Loves Coding, and Baby Loves Green Energy. She hopes her books inspire kids to observe the world, ask questions, and when it comes to their futures, dream big!
Read MoreDr. Sarah Pearson is a Danish astrophysicist who received her PhD from Columbia University in New York City, where she specialized in colliding galaxies and dark matter.
Read MoreDr. Jennifer Wiseman is a senior astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where she serves as the senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope.
Read MoreSusan MacIsaac graduated with undergrad and graduate degrees in plant physiology. Now as Head of Agricultural Science at Bowery, MacIsaac is on a mission to produce clean, healthy food in indoor farms.
Read MoreMelissa Metrick is a graduate of the master’s program in Food Studies at New York University, where she was instrumental in establishing the NYU Urban Farm Lab, an educational greenspace located right on the university’s campus.
Read MoreStefano Scarani is the founder of Tangatamanu group with Alberto Morelli. He is professor of Electroacoustic and Audiovisual composition at Musikene and associate professor in Fine Art faculty at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).
Read MoreJorge Sastre, PhD, is the Director of Performing Arts and Technology at the Universitat Politècnica de València. Sastre is also the Director of the Soundcool Project, a collaborative audiovisual project that uses smartphones and augmented reality.
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 MoreLily Xu is a PhD student studying computer science at the University of Southern California. She is part of the USC Center for AI in Society (CAIS), which aims to leverage artificial intelligence to address issues in conservation, public health, and public security.
Read MoreLaGuardia High School Senior Chorus is an advanced level mixed choir for junior and senior music majors at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, a public specialized school in New York City.
Read MoreStavros Lomvardas is a professor of biochemistry and neuroscience at Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University. His research lab’s goal is to understand the evolutionary mechanisms that shape sensory perception.
Read MoreChristine Constantinople is a neuroscientist interested in how we make decisions, and the neural mechanisms of suboptimal decision-making and behavioral variability.
Read MoreDr. Farah Alibay is a systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Her primary projects so far have been the InSight Mars Lander, as well as its companion mission: the Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeSats. Alibay is part of the team that helped build and test the spacecraft.
Read MoreEduardo Kohn is associate professor of Anthropology at McGill University. He studies the intimate relationships that the indigenous peoples of Ecuador’s Upper Amazon have with one of Earth’s most complex ecosystems.
Read MoreKimberly Arcand is one of the world’s preeminent experts in astronomy visualization and has been a pioneer in 3D imaging and printing in this field. Arcand began her career in molecular biology and public health.
Read MoreMoira R. Dillon PhD is an assistant professor of Psychology at New York University and director of the Lab for the Developing Mind at New York University. She is a 2019 recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Read MoreJasmine Lawrence currently serves as a technical program manager on the Portal team at Facebook. This team is building products that make it easier for people to connect with the ones they love most.
Read MoreAriane Cornell is currently on the board of the Society of Satellite Professionals International. She has served on the board of Women in Aerospace – Europe. Previously, Cornell worked in international management consulting.
Read MoreRobert Gallager has been a professor at MIT since his ScD thesis in 1960 where he invented LDPC codes, which have evolved to be a major error-correction technique in the oncoming 5th generation wireless telecommunication standard.
Read MoreMichelle Rucker is a native of Anchorage, Alaska and a veteran of NASA. She began her career in the Houston oil industry, designing down-hole sensors while pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering.
Read MoreDaniel Sieberg is the CEO and founder of iO—a startup building an empathic AI/AR experience in service of what humans need. He also advises other startups including Pressland and Ground.
Read MoreNathan H. Lents is professor of Biology at John Jay College and author of two recent books: Not So Different and Human Errors. With degrees in molecular biology and human physiology, and a postdoctoral fellowship in computational genomics, Lents tackles the evolution of human biology from a broad interdisciplinary perspective.
Read MoreJeannette M. Wing is Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute and professor of computer science at Columbia University. Her current interests are in the foundations of security and privacy, with a new focus on trustworthy AI.
Read MoreLeanna McMillin is a curatorial assistant at the New York Botanical Garden. She hosts the Webby-nominated educational show Everything Explained and co-hosts the Brooklyn Free Speech program, Saturday Morning Live with Braden and Leanna.
Read MoreKenya Murray is the director of Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Currently, she leads the development of a citywide disease surveillance system focused on detecting tracking and enhancing containment of two emerging multi-drug resistant superbugs.
Read MoreNuria Lloret Romero PhD, is a professor of Digital Communication and collaborative online projects at Universitat Politècnica de València. Her research focuses on the use of technology to create and enable online collaborative projects.
Read MoreGeorgia Frances King is an editor and facilitator born in Melbourne Australia and based in New York. Currently the Ideas Editor at Quartz and formerly the Editor of Kinfolk magazine, she has fused her background in lifestyle journalism with her passion for emerging technology.
Read MoreLoren Grush is a senior science reporter for The Verge, the technology and culture brand from Vox Media, where she specializes in all things space—from distant stars and planets to human spaceflight and the commercial space race.
Read MoreBarbara Natterson.-Horowitz, M.D., is a cardiologist and psychiatrist who turns to the natural world for insights into human health and development. Faculty in Harvard-MIT HST Program, Harvard Department of Human …
Read MoreMarkus J. Buehler is a materials scientist and engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a professor and the department head at MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, …
Read MoreRobert Conn is the former president and CEO of The Kavli Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to advance science for the benefit of humanity. He retired at the end of 2020 after serving 12 years in this role. Dr. Conn is a co-founder of the Science Philanthropy Alliance and served as board chair from 2015 to 2019.
Read MoreSilvia Jonas is a philosopher and Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. Her primary areas of research are in philosophy of mathematics and science, epistemology, and metaphysics.
Read MoreSilvia Jonas is a philosopher and Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. Her primary areas of research are in philosophy of mathematics and science, epistemology, and metaphysics. …
Read MoreDaniel Dor, a linguist, media researcher and political activist, received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford University (1996). He is a professor at Tel Aviv University. Dor is the author …
Read MoreEv Fedorenko is is currently the Frederick A. (1971) and Carole J. Middleton Career Development Associate Professor of Neuroscience in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department and the McGovern Institute …
Read MoreNoam Chomsky is a seminal figure in the field of linguistics, and ranks among the most cited widely scholars in modern history. In 1959, he revolutionized the study of modern …
Read MoreJohn Preskill is the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology, and Director of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech. Preskill …
Read MoreDavid Julius, PhD, is professor and chair of the Department of Physiology at UC San Francisco and holds the Morris Herzstein Chair in Molecular Biology and Medicine. He is a …
Read MoreArdem Patapoutian, PhD, is professor and chair of the Dorris Neuroscience Center at Scripps Research in La Jolla, CA, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Dr. Patapoutian was awarded …
Read MoreEwine van Dishoeck is Professor of molecular astrophysics at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. She is co-editor of the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and was president of the International Astronomical Union between 2018 and 2021.
Read MoreNir Barzilai is the founding director of the Institute for Aging Research, the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging and the Paul F. Glenn Center …
Read MoreElissa Epel is a Professor, as well as Vice Chair, of the Department of Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco. She is a member of the National Academy of …
Read MoreLaura Niedernhofer is Director of the Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism at the University of Minnesota, where she is also a professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and …
Read MoreAna Alonso-Serrano is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics. With a PhD in Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid, her works are focused on …
Read MoreMichael Halassa is the Class of 1958 Career Development Professor at MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and is also an associate investigator at MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain …
Read MoreEdward Chang is the Joan and Sanford Weill chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He co-directs the Center for Neuroengineering and Prostheses, …
Read MoreMichael Kahana is the Edmund J. and Louise W, Kahn Term Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is the principal investigator at the university’s Computational Memory …
Read MoreHelen Mayberg is the director of the Center of Advanced Circuit Therapeutics and a professor of neuroscience, neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at the Mount …
Read MoreGyorgy Buzsaki is the Biggs Professor of Neuroscience at the New York University School of Medicine. He is the author of The Brain From Inside Out, in which he proposes …
Read MoreConny Aerts is Professor of Astronomy and Vice-Dean of Communication & Outreach in the Faculty of Science at KU Leuven. She is also a part-time professor of Asteroseismology at the …
Read MoreRalph Nuzzo is the G.L. Clark Professor Emeritus of Analytical Chemistry, and Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a recipient of the 2022 …
Read MoreChristopher Walsh is Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an Investigator of the …
Read MoreHuda Y. Zoghbi is a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Molecular and Human Genetics, Neurology and Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine. She is also an investigator at the …
Read MoreMarcia J. Rieke is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, and is the principal investigator for the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) on the James Webb Space Telescope. Rieke …
Read MoreGeorge Rieke is Regents Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and serves as the science team lead for the James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared …
Read MoreRene Doyon is the Principal Investigator of NIRISS, Canada’s contribution to James Webb Space Telescope’s instrumentation. He is Director of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets in Canada, and is …
Read MorePierre Ferruit is the European Space Agency’s project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, where he has been overseeing the development and implementation of NIRSpec, one of four scientific …
Read MoreRick Doblin is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which has become one of the leading organizations behind modern psychedelic research. A pioneering …
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 MoreReggie Watts is an internationally renowned vocal artist, beatboxer, musician, and comedian. He blurs the lines between music and comedy in his live performances, which are 100% improvised. On screen, …
Read MoreKaren Armstrong is the author of numerous books on religious affairs, including The Case for God, A History of God, The Battle for God, Holy War, Islam, Buddha, and The Great Transformation, as …
Read MoreFrom October 2016 until the end of 2022, Thomas Zurbuchen was the Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA. The directorate’s stated mission is to find answers to …
Read MoreKen Paller is the director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at Northwestern University. His work focuses on sleep, memory, and consciousness, and the recent groundbreaking research he conducted with colleagues …
Read MoreAntonio Zadra is a professor in the psychology department at the University of Montreal and an investigator at the Center for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine. Tony’s work explores lucid …
Read MoreDeirdre Barrett is a Lecturer and dream researcher at Harvard Medical School. She has written five books including Pandemic Dreams and The Committee of Sleep and is the editor of …
Read MoreVicki Ferrini is a Senior Research Scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). Her research focuses on using mapping techniques to understand the processes that shape the seafloor in …
Read MoreDr Helen Scales teaches at Cambridge University, where she completed her PhD in Marine Biology. She is an avid scuba diver, and author of several bestselling books, most recently The …
Read MoreVictor Vescovo is the first person to dive “The Five Deeps” – the deepest point in all five of the world’s oceans. He is the first person to dive the …
Read MoreRodrigo Quian Quiroga is a Neuroscientist and former Director of the Centre for Systems Neuroscience at the University of Leicester, UK. He is currently an ICREA Professor at the Hospital …
Read MoreEmily Balcetis is an Associate Professor of Psychology at New York University. She studies how our motivations, emotions, and goals can shape, and even can change our visual perception. Her …
Read MoreJohn Krakauer has pioneered the use of immersive gaming to heal the physical effects of brain damage. He is the John C. Malone Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Physical Medicine …
Read MoreTakao Hensch has done groundbreaking research in understanding “critical windows” in the brain, and reopening them for therapeutic purposes. He is a Professor of Neurology at Boston Children’s Hospital Harvard …
Read MoreBrett Wingeier has over two decades of experience in the neuromodulation industry. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Magnus Medical, a medical device company developing brain stimulation …
Read MoreThomas (Tom) Higham is the author of the book The World Before Us: The New Science Behind Our Human Origins. He is a leading expert in dating ancient human remains …
Read MoreViviane Slon has done groundbreaking work in the relatively new field of Paleogenetics. She is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology, and the Department of Human Molecular …
Read MoreRebecca (Becky) Ackermann is one of the foremost biological anthropologists whose work is fundamentally reshaping our understanding of how we have evolved to be the diverse humans we are today. …
Read MoreSheela Athreya publishes on critical issues of race, colonialism, and representation in biological anthropology, and does extensive fieldwork in India and China. She is a Professor of Anthropology at Texas …
Read MoreDr. Masaki Fujimoto is Deputy Director General of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Sciences of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. He joined JAXA in 2006 as a Professor of Department …
Read MoreKirsten is the Research and Payloads Group Lead at the European Space Agency’s Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration. In that role, she leads a team of expert scientists and …
Read MoreAude is the Chief Technology Officer of the Australian Space Agency. where she is responsible for developing the agency’s technical \ strategy, defining the scope of its space programs, and …
Read MoreOliver Baumann is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Bond University. He has done significant research in the area of human spatial perception, memory and emotion, using …
Read MoreTimothy Bredy is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroepigenetics at the Queensland Brain Institute,where his lab studies the fundamental molecular mechanisms underlying fear-related learning and memory. He looks at specific forms …
Read MoreVeronica O’Keane is a neuroscientist, a retired professor of psychiatry and a consultant psychiatrist at Trinity College Dublin, with over 30 years’ experience in the field. She has done extensive …
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 …
Read MoreMichele Bannister is a Royal Society Te Apārangi Rutherford Discovery Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She is a planetary astronomer who researches planets …
Read MoreChristiansen is NASA’s Exoplanet Archive Task Scientist. As such, she works to maintain and enhance the capabilities of the NASA Exoplanet Archive to provide data and tools to the community …
Read MoreKarl Glazebrook is a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. Karl is an observational astronomer whose research interests …
Read MoreStefanie Milam is Deputy Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA. Her observational focus is on the composition of primitive bodies, such as comets and asteroids, and …
Read MoreBenjamin Pope is a Lecturer in Astrophysics & ARC DECRA Fellow at the University of Queensland. He is interested in the direct imaging of exoplanets and is co-investigator on three …
Read MoreDr. Chiara M. F. Mingarelli is an assistant professor at Yale University, and a gravitational-wave astrophysicist. She is best known for predicting the gravitational wave signatures of the cosmic population …
Read MoreJason Rhodes is NASA’s Science Lead on the EUCLID project. EUCLID is a European Space Agency project with which NASA collaborates, and its mission is to study the nature of …
Read MoreMicrosoft
Sébastien Bubeck is a Partner Research Manager at Microsoft Research (MSR). He won multiple awards for his machine learning results around robustness and optimization. Most recently, he has been interested …
Read MoreCenter for Humane Technology
Tristan is Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to align technology with humanity’s best interests.He regularly briefs heads of …
Read MoreMacArthur Fellow
Eva Silverstein is a professor of physics at Stanford whose research focuses on cosmology and related areas of gravitation and quantum field theory. A number of her contributions connect the …
Read MoreBreakthrough Prize
Jo Dunkley is a professor of Physics and Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. Her research is in cosmology, studying the origins and evolution of the Universe. Her major projects are …
Read MoreAuthor, Physics Historian
Elise Crull received a B.Sc. with Honors in Physics and Astronomy at Calvin University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in History & Philosophy of Science from the University of Notre …
Read MoreLise Meitner Award
Anna Ijjas is a theoretical and computational physicist, working in gravitation and cosmology, whose research is aimed at the most fundamental questions about the universe: what is the mechanism that …
Read MoreNewton Lacy Pierce Prize
Erin Kara is MIT’s Class of 1958 Career Development Assistant Professor of Physics. Her research focuses on how black holes grow and affect their environments. She also works to develop …
Read MoreBlavatnik Award
Claudia de Rham is professor of theoretical physics at Imperial College London and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She researches gravity, particle physics, and cosmology, …
Read MoreJames Peebles is the Albert Einstein Professor of Science (Emeritus) at Princeton University and is regarded as one of the greatest theoretical cosmologists of the last 50 years. His work …
Read MoreStephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha and the Wolfram Language; the originator of the Wolfram Physics Project; and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. Over the course …
Read MoreEric Schmidt is an accomplished technologist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He joined Google in 2001 and helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology …
Read MoreHeidi Boisvert (PhD) Boisvert is an Assistant Professor of AI & the Arts at the University of Florida, where she has been tasked with establishing the nation’s first AI and …
Read MoreBenjamín Labatut is a Chilean author born in the Netherlands in 1980. He is the author of The Maniac, a fictionalized biography of the polymath John von Neumann which explores …
Read MoreWendy Freedman is the John and Marion Sullivan University Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Her research is in observational cosmology (measures of the expansion rate …
Read MoreWill Kinney is a professor in the Department of Physics at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, where he has been on faculty since 2003. Dr. Kinney received his Bachelor of …
Read MoreDaniel Jafferis is a Professor of Physics at Harvard whose research involves string theory, supersymmetric quantum field theory, and quantum gravity. Jafferis was one of the discoverers of the low …
Read MoreRyan Babbush is a physicist and computer scientist that directs the Quantum Algorithms and Applications Team within Google’s quantum computing effort, Quantum AI. Ryan has been working with Quantum AI …
Read MoreDaphne Koller is CEO and founder of Insitro, a machine learning-driven drug discovery and development company transforming the way drugs are discovered and delivered to patients. She was the co-founder, …
Read MoreYoshua Bengio is recognized worldwide as one of the leading experts in artificial intelligence, most known for his pioneering work in deep learning, earning him the 2018 A.M. Turing Award, …
Read MoreJustine Bateman is a director, writer, producer, and author. She is also an Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor. She holds a degree in computer science and digital media management …
Read MoreLenore Blum (PhD, MIT) is Distinguished Career Professor Emerita of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Lenore’s research, from her early work in model theory and differential algebra has focused …
Read MoreManuel Blum (PhD, MIT) is Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon and at UC Berkeley. Manuel has been motivated to understand the mind since he was in second …
Read MoreRufin VanRullen is a cognitive neuroscientist and AI scientist based in Toulouse (France). He is a CNRS Research Director and holds a Research Chair at the Artificial and Natural Intelligence …
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