Symposium Tracks

Do you want to hear from some of the world's leading experts on biosecurity, superconductivity, the search for other worlds, the machine and body interface, and marine sciences? What do you think the future of science and technology looks like both in the United States and abroad?

Learn firsthand by attending a program that speaks to your multidisciplinary and field-related interests. Interact with your peers from around the world, all in one place—the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, 17-21 February 2011.

The following list of symposia is organized by tracks. For complete details, including descriptions of each symposium, browse the program and create your own itineraries (available in late September).

Brain and Behavior

• Chronic Illness Management and Cognitive Science: Translation Beyond Genes?
• Crossing Borders in Language Science: What Bilinguals Tell Us About Mind and Brain
• Cultural Evolutionary Dynamics of Cooperation
• From Artificial Limbs to Virtual Reality: How the Brain Represents the Body
• From Freud to fMRI: Untangling the Mystery of Stuttering
• Hunter-Gatherers and Language Change
• Molecules to Mind: Challenges for the 21st Century
• Nature, Nurture, and Antisocial Behavior: Biological and Biosocial Research on Crime
• Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Need for Multidisciplinary and Global Approaches
• Science Behind Improved Foreign Language Expertise: Meeting the Global Challenge
• The Science of Eating: Perception and Preference in Human Taste
• Scientific and Ethical Issues for the Surgical Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders
• Thinking About Thinking: How Do We Know What We Know?
• Transatlantic Synergies To Promote Effective Traumatic Brain Injury Research

Climate Change

• Adapting to a Clear and Present Danger: Climate Change and Ocean Ecosystems
• Can Reef Fisheries Take the Heat? Ecological and Economic Impacts of Climate Change
• Changing Climate, Changing Approaches: Conservation in the Face of Climate Change
• Climate Change: Altering the Physics, Ecology, and Socioeconomics of Fisheries
• Comparing National Responses to Climate Change: Networks of Debate and Contention
• How Climate Change Affects the Safety of the World’s Food Supply
• In Hot Water: Rising Public Health Concerns from Changing Ocean Condition
• Limiting Climate Change: Reducing Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone Precursors
• Multidisciplinary Research Infrastructures for Environmental Research
• Rethinking Adaptation to a Changing Global Environment
• Where Ocean Meets Land: Dynamic Shorelines in a Warming World

Education

• Aiming for Scientific Literacy by Teaching the Process, Nature, and Limits of Science
• Celebrating Marie Curie's 100th Anniversary of Her Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• The Challenge of Teaching Evolution in the Islamic World
• Engaging Students in Undergraduate STEM Education with a Focus on Global Stewardship
• Implementing the Vision and Change Report on Undergraduate Biology Education
• Invisible Men? Addressing the Participation of Minority Males in Science and Engineering
• Just-In-Time Support for Science Teaching: Asynchronous Web-Based Approaches
• Learning Research and Educational Practice: How Can We Make Better Connections
• Science Without Borders: Learning from TIMSS Advanced 2008
• Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age: Reliable Resources Across the Disciplines
• Transcending Gender and Ethnic Barriers to Full STEM Participation
• The University of the Future

Emerging Science and Technology

• Aeroecology: Transcending Boundaries Among Ecology, Meteorology, and Physics
• Biological Role and Consequences of Intrinsic Protein Disorder
• Bioprinting: A Future of Regenerative Medicine
• Building on the Legacy of Marie Curie
• Chemically Speaking: How Organisms Talk to Each Other
• Explaining Phase Transitions
• First Physics from the Large Hadron Collider
• Growth and Form in Mathematics, Physics, and Biology
• Inspiring researchers: Building on the Legacy of Marie Curie
• Mathematics and Collective Behavior
• Matter Wave Magic and Technology
• Nanoworld, Megaproblems? The Impact of Nanotechnology on the Environment and Society
• Sharper Images in Astronomy, Microscopy, and Vision Science Using Adaptive Optics
• Superconductivity: From 1911 to 2021
• Through the Looking Glass: Recent Adventures in Antimatter
• Use of Lasers in Surgery, Regenerative Medicine, and Medical Device Fabrication

Energy

• Biorefinery: Toward an Industrial Metabolism
• Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
• Energy Efficiency in Europe and the United States: Success Stories and Potential
• The Energy and Water Nexus: Turning a Double Problem into a Solution
• Fractures Developing: The Science, Policy, and Perception of Shale Gas Development
• If Termites Can Do It, Why Can't Humans?
• Mathematics and Our Energy Future
• Pillars, Polymers, and Computers: Creative Approaches for Electrical Energy Storage
• Portraits of the California Energy System in 2050: Cutting Emissions by 80 Percent
• Powering the Planet: Generation of Clean Fuels from Sunlight and Water
• Waste Not, Want Not: Waste as the World’s Most Abundant Renewable Resource

Global Collaboration

• Bridging Nations and Fields: East Asian Approaches to Science and Technology Policy
• Bringing Innovation to International Development: New Actors, New Mechanisms
• Can Global Science Solve Global Challenges?
• Cross-Border Responses to Global Challenges: Can Everybody Win?
• Crossing Boundaries and Opening Borders: The European Research Council as Innovation
• The Crowd and the Cloud: The Future of Online Collaboration
• Education, Science, and Innovation as Tools for New Engagement with the Islamic World
• Europe, Africa, and Asia: Rising on the Same Tide
• Foreign Participation in National Technology Development Programs
• International Territory: Science at Sea, Science in Space, and Science at the Poles
• Joining Global Efforts in Post-Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction
• Networks, Collaboration, and Research in a Non-Western Context: The Role of Technology
• The Practice of Science Diplomacy in the Earth Sciences
• Research Integrity in Global Perspective
• Role of U.S. Federal Agencies in Building Scientific Capacity in Developing Countries

Human Biology and Health

• Anthropology and Global Health: Genes, Biology, and Culture
• Diseases Without Borders: Tuberculosis and AIDS
• Epigenetic Processes in Development: Gene-Environment Interplay
• Evolutionary Personalized Medicine
• Global Health Care: Advances and Challenges
• The Human Body as Supra-Organism, Microbial Observatory, and Ecosystem at Risk
• Humans Without Borders: Evolutionary Processes at Work in Humans and Their Relatives
• Interfering with Gene Expression and Interfering with Disease
• Medicine Safety in a World of Science Without Borders
• One Health: From Ideas to Implementation, Rhetoric to Reality
• Oral Clefts; Equal Opportunity Disorders
• Oral Sex Is Sex and Can Lead to Cancer
• Personalized Medicine: Moving Forward or Backward?
• Reducing the Cost of Health Care Through Science and Engineering
• The Surprising Influenza H1N1 Pandemic, Waves I and II: The Race To Vaccinate

Land and Oceans

• 2050: Will There Be Fish in the Ocean?
• Beyond Lines on Maps: Marine Spatial Planning for a Dynamic World
• Fishing for Solutions: Community Institutions for Effective Resource Management
• From Practice to Theory and Back: Ecosystem Services and Marine Spatial Planning
• Genetically Modified Crop Regulations: Safety Net or Insurmountable Obstacle?
• Global Agricultural History: Mapping the Past for Modeling the Future
• Global and Local Responses to the Nitrogen Challenge: Science, Practice, and Policy
• Invasive Species: What Harm Do They Do?
• Lost at Sea: Where Are the Humans in Marine Ecosystem Management?
• Marine Spatial Planning: A Science-Based Tool for Conservation and the Economy
• A New Vision for Research: Goals for the National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Norman Borlaug’s Impact on World Agriculture; Will There Be a Second Green Revolution?
• Plant Breeding Today: Genomics and Computing Advances Bring Speed and Precision

The Science Endeavor

• As Borders Dissolve, Which Standards and Mechanisms Prevail?
• Crisis Averted? How a Critical Shortage in Helium-3 Was Good and Bad for Science
• Design Thinking To Mobilize Science, Technology, and Innovation for Social Challenges
• The Digitization of Science: Reproducibility and Interdisciplinary Knowledge Transfer
• It Is Unethical Not to Do Research with Animals
• Measurements as a Cornerstone of Global Trade and Quality of Life
• Modeling Across Millennia: Interdisciplinary Paths to Ancient Socionatural Systems
• Networks and Culture of Scientific and Technological Communities in Global Policy
• Perspectives on Research and Development in the President's FY 2012 Budget Request
• Publication Without Borders: Spanning Countries, Disciplines, Audiences, and Roles
• Reaching a Global Standard in Research Integrity
• Solving the Weight of Evidence Problem: A Way Forward?

Science and Society

• Astronomical Pioneering: The Implications of Finding Other Worlds
• Communicating Diversity in Science: Implications for Climate Change Denial
• Communication Outside the Box
• Crossing Boundaries with Citizen Science
• Doing Good with Good OR: Applying Operations Research for Societal Impact
• Earth Science and Evolution
• Earthwatch and the HSBC Climate Partnership: A Unique Citizen Science Model
• Evangelicals, Science, and Policy: Toward a Constructive Engagement
• Innovative Strategies for Ensuring Access to the Benefits of Scientific Progress
• Reaching Out to People in East-Asia on Green Issues: Policies and Practices
• Science Without Borders and Media Unbounded: What Comes Next?
• Surprise... It’s Science! Reaching New Audiences in Unconventional Ways with Festivals
• Techno-Optimism or Pessimism? Media Coverage of Quick Fixes for Global Climate Change
• TV Meteorologists Communicating Climate Change
• When Pollution Gets Personal: Ethics of Reporting on Human Exposures

Security

• Atomic Detectives: Science Behind International Efforts To Combat Nuclear Terrorism
• International Neighborhood Watch: Citizen Scientists and International Security
• New START and Nuclear Winter: Climatic Consequences of the Nuclear Weapons Agreement
• Promoting Security and Sustaining Privacy: How Do We Find the Right Balance?
• Reconciling National Security Requirements with Research and Education
• Science and Policy for Environmental Security in the Asia-Pacific Region
• Space Weather: The Next Big Solar Storm Could Be a Global Katrina
• Using Quantitative Content Analysis To Assess the Likelihood of Terrorist Violence
• White-Blue Arctic: Promoting Cooperation and Preventing Conflict in the Arctic Ocean

Sustainability

• The Challenge of Measuring Sustainability
• Data Cocktails for Biodiversity: Protected Area Management Without the Hangover
• Estimating Earth’s Human Carrying Capacity
• How Can the World Feed 9 Billion People by 2050 Sustainably and Equitably?
• If a “Culture of Growth” Is Unsustainable, What Should Change?
• Mapping and Disentangling Human Decisions in Complex Human-Nature Systems
• Research Frontiers in Sustainability Science: Bridging Disciplines and Practices
• Resource Use and Ecological Resilience in a Tropical Socio-Ecological System
• Social Networks and Sustainability
• Telecoupling of Human and Natural Systems