Topical Lectures

Watch for more updates to this multidisciplinary collection of science and technology luminaries who have accepted our invitation to the 2010 Annual Meeting.

Karen Emmorey Language and Cognitive Neuroscience	Robert T. Fraley Sustainable Crops	Lawrence S. B. Goldstein Stem Cell Research	Kristina M. Johnson Energy	Thomas Hillman Jordan Earthquakes
Stephen R. Palumbi Climate Change Adaptation	Kellogg Schwab Safe Water	Steffanie Strathdee Global Public Health	Jed Z. Buchwald Sarton Memorial Lecture

Karen Emmorey, Ph.D.

Director, Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience, and Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
San Diego State University

Neural and Cognitive Underpinnings of Language Across Modalities

Dr. Emmorey's research focuses on what sign languages can reveal about the nature of human language, cognition, and the brain. She studies the processes involved in how deaf people produce and comprehend sign language and how these processes are represented in the brain. She also investigates how experience with a signed language impacts nonlinguistic visual-spatial cognition, such as face processing, memory, and imagery. Her research interests include how language modality impacts spatial language, the linguistic functions of eye gaze in sign language, and the nature of bimodal bilingualism. Her investigations of the neural correlates of language and nonlinguistic cognitive functions draw on data from neuroimaging techniques (i.e., functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography). She is the author of four books and more than 50 journal articles. Dr. Emmorey received her Ph.D. degree in linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Robert T. Fraley, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Monsanto Co., St Louis, Missouri

Sustainable Solutions for Doubling Crop Productivity by 2030

Dr. Fraley oversees Monsanto's integrated crop and seed agribusiness technology and research with facilities in most world areas. He has been involved in agricultural biotechnology since the early eighties and has been with Monsanto for 25 years. His educational background includes a fellowship from the University of California, San Francisco, and a Ph.D. degree in microbiology and biochemistry from the University of Illinois. Dr. Fraley has contributed to years of agricultural development through a number of significant activities, including authoring more than 100 publications and patent applications relating to technical advances in agricultural biotechnology. He received the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton in 1999.

Lawrence S. B. Goldstein, Ph.D.

Director, Stem Cell Research Program, and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

The Future of Stem Cell Research

Dr. Goldstein is actively engaged in pursuing the promise of research with human embryonic stem cells, which are pliable, generic cells from the early embryo that scientists can convert into the body's specialized cells to study basic biological processes, disease, and organ regeneration. Funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the state of California, his research may help to identify the cause of Alzheimer's disease and to better understand cancer and Huntington's disease. He also has had an active role in national science policy. He has served on many public science advisory committees, and has written about, spoken about, and been interviewed on science issues by the news media. He also has testified before the U.S. Congress about federal funding and stem cell research. As a co-founder and consultant of the biotechnology company Cytokinetics, he also has had an active role in private industry. Dr. Goldstein received his B.A. degree in biology and genetics from UCSD and his Ph.D. degree in genetics from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Kristina M. Johnson, Ph.D.

Under Secretary for Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Washington, D.C.

Title To Be Determined

Before joining the U.S. Administration, Dr. Johnson was the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs of Johns Hopkins University and formerly dean of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering where she helped to set up interdisciplinary efforts in photonics, bioengineering and biologically inspired materials, and energy and the environment. She is an electrical engineer who has 142 refereed papers and proceedings and more than 129 U.S. and foreign patents or patents pending which include pioneering work on liquid crystal on silicon microdisplays and pattern recognition systems for cancer prescreening. Among numerous awards, she received the 2008 John Fritz Medal, widely considered the highest award in the engineering profession. Dr. Johnson is a fellow of the Optical Society of America, IEEE, and SPIE, and is a Fulbright Scholar. She has served on the Board of Directors of Mineral Technologies Inc., Boston Scientific Corp., AES Corp., and Nortel Networks. She helped found several companies, including ColorLink Inc, SouthEast Techinventures, and Unyos. She received a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Thomas Hillman Jordan, Ph.D.

Director, Southern California Earthquake Center, and the W. M. Keck Professor of Earth Sciences
University of Southern California

Understanding Earthquakes Through Large-Scale Simulations

Jordan directs the Southern California Earthquake Center, a distributed organization involving more than 60 universities and research institutions. His research is focused on system-level models of earthquake processes, earthquake forecasting and forecast-evaluation, and full-3D waveform tomography. His other scientific interests include continental formation and tectonic evolution, mantle dynamics, and statistical descriptions of geologic phenomena. He is an author on approximately 190 scientific publications, including two popular textbooks. He currently chairs the International Commission on Earthquake Forecasting for Civil Protection, is a member of the California Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, and serves on the Governing Board of the National Research Council. Jordan received his Ph.D. degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1972.

Stephen R. Palumbi, Ph.D.

Professor of Biological Sciences
Stanford University

How Marine Species React and Adjust to Ocean Acidification and Climate Change

Dr. Palumbi's research group engages in the study of the genetics, evolution, conservation, population biology, and systematics of a diverse array of marine organisms. His own research interests are similarly widespread, and he has published on the genetics and evolution of sea urchins, whales, cone snails, corals, sharks, spiders, shrimps, bryozoans, and butterflyfishes. A primary focus is the use of molecular genetic techniques in conservation, including the identification of whale and dolphin products available in commercial markets. Current conservation work centers on the genetics of marine reserves designed for conservation and fisheries enhancement, with projects in the Philippines, Bahamas, and the western U.S. coast. His recent book, The Evolution Explosion: How Humans Cause Rapid Evolutionary Change, shows how rapid evolution is central to emerging problems in modern society. Dr. Palumbi received his Ph.D. degree in marine ecology from the University of Washington.

Kellogg Schwab, Ph.D.

Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Water and Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Improving Access To Potable Water Throughout The World

With colleagues, Dr. Schwab initiated the Johns Hopkins University Global Water Program. It integrates researchers from public health, engineering, behavior, policy, and economic disciplines to address the critical triangle of water, food, and energy and achieve sustainable, scalable solutions for domestic and international water needs. His research focuses on environmental microbiology and engineering with an emphasis on the fate and transport of pathogenic microorganisms in water, food, and the environment. With federal and state health laboratories, Dr. Schwab has investigated waterborne and foodborne outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis. He also investigates how human pathogens, such as noroviruses, hepatitis A virus, rotaviruses, Campylobacter, antibiotic resistant E. coli and enterococci, Cryptosporidium parvum, Toxoplasma gondii, and molds such as Aspergillus persist and are transported through water, air, and food. He is evaluating the effects of pollution on urban streams and the Chesapeake Bay, and facilitating ways to provide potable water in low-income countries. Dr. Schwab received his Ph.D. degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D.

Associate Dean of Global Health Sciences, Harold Simon Professor, and Chief of the Division of Global Public Health in the Department of Medicine
UCSD School of Medicine

Infectious Diseases Have No Passport: Battling HIV, TB, and STDs on the Mexico-U.S. Border

Dr. Strathdee, an infectious disease epidemiologist, has spent the last two decades focusing on HIV prevention in underserved, marginalized populations in developed and developing countries. Since 1994, she has published more than 325 peer-reviewed publications on HIV prevention and the natural history of HIV and related infections. She is engaged in several research projects on HIV prevention in international settings including Mexico, Brazil, Canada, and Afghanistan. She also leads three NIH-funded studies of HIV risk behaviors among drug users and sex workers on the Mexico-U.S. border as well as a Fogarty-funded Global Health Program Frameworks grant. She also directs UCSDÕs Global Health Initiative, where she leads the Center on Migration and Health. In 2009, Dr. Strathdee and her binational research team from UCSD and Mexico received the Leadership Award in International Collaboration from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She received her Ph.D. degree in epidemiology from the University of Toronto, and is an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Jed Z. Buchwald, Ph.D.

Doris and Henry Dreyfuss Professor of History
California Institute of Technology

2010 George Sarton Memorial Lecture

Knowledge in the Early Modern Era: The Origins of Experimental Error

Dr. Buchwald has written books and articles on the histories of optics and electromagnetism, and continues to work and publish in these areas. Since arriving at Caltech, his interests also include issues that arose in the 18th and 19th centuries from attempts by scientists and others to engage with new archaeological discoveries and with historical chronology. This led to collaboration with his colleague, Moti Feingold to write a book on Isaac Newton's attempt to redate the past using astronomical evidence. Along the way they have discovered what they believe to be important issues concerning the understanding and manipulation of data before the development of statistical methods. Dr. Buchwald was previously director of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT. He won the McArthur Fellowship in 1995.

George Sarton, professor of the history of science at Harvard from 1940 to 1951, is widely regarded as one of the key figures in the establishment of the history of science as a discipline in its own right. In 1960, the History of Science Society, under the auspices of AAAS, established the George Sarton Memorial Lecture. The first lecturer was Rene Dubos. The lecture is coordinated through the AAAS History and Philosophy of Science Section and delivered at the AAAS Annual Meeting.