Participants
Called 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 MoreSuresh Jagannathan joined DARPA in September 2013. His research interests include programming languages, program analysis and verification, and concurrent/distributed systems.
Read MoreBestselling Author
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 …
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