Academic Year Name Title Talk 1999-2000 Tona Gilmer Dept. Head of Cancer Biology at Glaxo Wellcome Pharmaceutical Company in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The Promise of Oncology Drug Discovery Benjamin S. Carson, Sr. Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions The Big Picture: The Life of a Professional Surgeon G. Terry Sharrer Curator of Health Science at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Gene Medicine: A History Thomas R. Reardon, MD President of the American Medical Association Council Member of the National Forum for Health Care Quality Measurement and Reporting The Future of Science and Medicine in the Next Millennium Keith J. Delvin Dean of the School of Science and Professor of Mathematics at Saint Mary’s College of California Senior Researcher at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University Consulting Professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh Geometries of Animals, Flowers, Art and the Human Body Voices of Discovery Speakers (1999-2015) Academic Year Name Title Talk 2000-2001 John Fitzgerald Tisdale, M.D. Senior Clinical Investigator of the Molecular and Clinical Hematology Branch of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Using Bone Marrow Stem Cells to Deliver Therapeutic Genes – A Story of Mice and Men Frank H. Portugal, Ph.D. Molecular Biologist President of Cabtech Inc., and Opto-Gene Inc. In Whose Image? The Cloning of Human Life 2001-2002 William D. Phillips National Institute of Standards and Technology Fellow Almost Absolute Zero: The Story of Laser
University Eric J. Barron, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Geosciences and Director of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Environment Institute, Penn State University Dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Penn State University Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change Academic Year Name Title Talk 2003-2004 Robert M. Panoff, Ph.D. President, Executive Director and Senior Computational Scientist, Shodor Education Foundation, Inc. Computational Modeling as an Interactive Learning Environment: Using Technology to Unlock Nature’s Secrets Sandra Postel, Ph.D. Director, Global Water Policy Project, Amherst, MA, Visiting Senior Lecturer in Environmental Studies, Mount Holyoke College Rivers for Life: Managing Water for People and Nature Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D. Professor of Biology and Honorary Curator in Entomology, Harvard University Pulitzer Prize-winning author The Future of Life Lynn Margulis, Ph.D. Distinguished University Professor, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Acquiring Genomes in the Origin of Species Academic Year Name Title Talk 2004-2005 David Suzuki, Ph.D. Chairman, The David Suzuki Foundation, Professor Emeritus, University of British Columbia The Challenge of the 21st Century: Setting the Real Bottom Line Kathleen Dudzinski, Ph.D. Founder and Director of the Dolphin Communication Project, Scientist-in-Residence, Mystic Aquarium/Institute of Exploration Inside a Dolphin’s Mind R. Michael Blaese, M.D. President, PreGentis Inc., Director of Research, Institute for Inherited Disease Research Using Genes as Medicines: The Promises and the
Adjunct Investigator, National Cancer Institute Challenge Mark Plotkin, Ph.D. President of the Amazon Conservation Team Rainforest Conservation and the Search for New Jungle Medicines Academic Year Name Title Talk 2005-2006 Mark A. Norell, Ph.D. Chairman and Curator of the Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, NY Dinosaur Feathers: How Fossils Inform Us About the Evolution of Birds Henry Petroski, Ph.D. Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of History, Duke University Success and Failure in Engineering Peter Brown, Ph.D. Professor of Paleoanthropology, School of Human and Environmental Studies, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia Discovery, Story and Implications of Homo floresiensis—the Hobbits May R. Berenbaum, Ph.D. Professor of Entomology, Swanlund Chair and Chair of the Department of Entomology at University of Illinois, Phytochemicals: Plant Sex, Human Drugs, and Insect Rock and Roll Edward T. McDonough, M.D. Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, State of Connecticut Member of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science, University of New Haven Forensic Pathology: Art or Science? Academic Year Name Title Talk 2006-2007 Dr. Christian Samper Director of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Biodiversity on the Edge: How Real is the 2010 Target? William W. Parsons Deputy Director, John F. Kennedy Space Center The Shuttle’s Return to Flight Following the Columbia Disaster William G. Perry Professor of Computer Information Systems, College of Business, Western Carolina University The Science of Protecting the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure W. Randolph Chitwood Professor of Surgery and Senior Medical Discoveries and
Jr., M.D.FACS, FRCS Associate Vice Chancellor for Health Services Director, Eastern Carolina Cardiovascular Disease Institute, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University Innovation in the 20th Century Academic Year Name Title Talk 2007-2008 Elizabeth C. Losos, Ph.D. President and CEO, Organization for Tropical Studies, Duke University Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Understanding Global Change Through the Costa Rican Experience John Ruffin, Ph.D. Director, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Washington, D.C. Health Disparities: Global Challenge Dr. Bassam Z. Shakhashiri Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea Science is Fun! William F. Ruddiman, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, Environmental Sciences University of Virginia, Charlottesville Farmers First Began Altering Global Climate Thousands (Not Hundreds) of Years Ago Academic Year Name Title Talk 2008-2009 Ellen T. Ruff, J.D. President, Duke Energy Carolinas Our Energy and Choices Dr. Bassam Z. Shakhashiri Professor of Chemistry, University of William T. Evjue Distinguished Chair for the Wisconsin Idea Science is Fun! Dr. Catherine Turner Hunt Immediate Past President, American Chemical Society Leader, Technology Partnerships, Rohm and Haas Company Sustainable Chemistries: Environmentally Advanced and Economically Viable! Dr. Nancy Knowlton Sant Chair for Marine Science, The Impact of Climate
Dioxide in Hybrid Algae Jay H. Sanders, M.D., F.A.C.P. President and CEO of The Global Telemedicine Group Adjunct Professor of Medicine , Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Visiting Professor, Yale University School of Medicine Telemedicine: Where We Are and Where We Need to Be Academic Year Name Title Talk 2011-2012 Cindy L. Van Dover, Ph.D. Harvey Smith Professor of Biological Oceanography, Duke University Director, Duke University Marine Laboratory Chair, Division of Marine Science & Conservation, Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment Gold Rush: Discovery of Gold Deposits in the Deep Sea & the Extraordinary Animals That Live on Them Andrew B. Schwartz, Ph.D. Professor of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Member, Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, McGowan Institute Member, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University The Power of Neuronal Populations David M. Eagleman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Dept. of Neuroscience and Menninger Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine Incognito: The Brains Behind the Mind 2012-2013 Robert T. Deacon, Ph.D. Professor, Dept. of Economics and Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of CA, Santa Barbara Enhancing the Wealth of Our Oceans: New Approaches to Marine Management Marie Davidian, Ph.D. William Neal Reynolds Professor of Statistics, North Carolina State University Personalized Medicine: The Right Treatment for the Right Patient
Director, Center for Quantitative Sciences in Biomedicine, North Carolina State University Christian Jobin, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Pharmacology, Immunology/Microbiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill How Much Should You Know About Your Intestinal Microbes? Academic Year Name Title Talk 2013-2014 Paul S. Lockhart, M.S. Colonel, USAF (ret.); NASA Astronaut Senior Vice President, Aerospace Operations, QinetiQ North America A Journey of Endeavor Sean Carroll, Ph.D. Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Wisconsin Vice President for Science Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Brave Genius: A Scientist’s Journey from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize Edward W. Felten, Ph.D. Professor, Computer Science and Public Affairs and Director, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University TMI: Information, Identity, and Privacy Academic Year Name Title Talk 2014-2015 Daniel J.C. Herr, Ph.D. Professor and Nanoscience Department Chair, The Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Catching the Nanotechnology Waves, a Nature Inspired Convergence of Form and Function Ann C. McKee, M.D. Professor of Neurology and Pathology Director of Neuropathology, Boston University School of Medicine Emerging Concepts in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy