2009 AAAS Annual Meeting

James J. McCarthy, Ph.D.

Dear Colleagues,

The 2009 AAAS Meeting will bring together an exceptional array of speakers addressing some of the most crucial and timely areas of science, technology, and engineering.

I am also honored to announce that former U.S. Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Honorable Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. will give a Special Invited Address to registered attendees on Friday, February 13.

The meeting's theme—Our Planet and Its Life: Origins and Futures—recognizes that 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. New understanding of the processes that fascinated Darwin continues to be the focus of intense research 150 years later. Indeed every discipline can demonstrate its own unique evolutionary path and speculate on where it may lead.

Attendees will have the opportunity to choose among a broad range of activities, including nearly 175 symposia, seminars, and career development workshops as well as plenary and topical lectures by some of the world's leading scientists and engineers.

Typically the meeting includes up to 10,000 participants and hundreds of members of the national and international media. It offers unparalleled networking opportunities. More details can be found here online, including how sustainability science, an emerging field, has found a home.

The Annual Meeting reflects tremendous efforts from the AAAS sections, divisions, and committees, which we gratefully acknowledge. I also extend a personal thanks to the members of the Scientific Program Committee who reviewed and assembled the many excellent ideas and proposals into this outstanding meeting.

I urge you to join us in Chicago,

James J. McCarthy, Ph.D.
AAAS President and Alexander Agassiz Professor of
Biological Oceanography, Harvard University