Symposium Tracks

Learn from many of the world's leading experts on the life cycles of matter and galaxies, unlocking biology's potential, climate change in northern latitudes, the power of indigenous cultures, and more. Be informed about how to solve, not just talk about, many of the world's most complex challenges that impact you and the global community.

Attend a program that speaks to your personal interests. Interact with your peers from around the world, all in one place. Come to Vancouver for the AAAS Annual Meeting.

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.

Climate

• Adapting to Climate Change: The Case of Bangladesh

• Chemistry in the Clouds: Impacts of Aerosols on Climate Change

• Climate Change and Human Evolution: Problems and Prospects

• Climate Change and the Long-Term Sustainability of Human Societies

• Climate Solutions: The Challenges of Getting to 350

• Designing Marine Protected Area Networks Within Changing Global Climate Conditions

• Developing Integrated Understanding of Global Climate Using Dynamic Visualizations

• The Future of Ecological Communities Under Climate Change: No Analog?

• Indigenous Perspectives on Climate Change

• Non-Carbon-Dioxide Greenhouse Gases and Aerosols: Climate Science Information for Decisions

Collaboration

• Analogy in Applications of Mathematics and Statistics to Other Disciplines

• Coordinating, Learning, and Sharing Best Practices Among Scientific Diaspora Networks

• Documenting a Changing Ocean Through International Multidisciplinary Collaborations

• The Earth Microbiome Project: Modeling the Microbial Planet

• Global Knowledge: The Challenge of Diversity and Localism

• Global Knowledge Collaborations: The Atlas of Islamic World Science and Innovation

• HUBzero: Building Collaboratories for Research on a Global Scale

• Transcending Interdisciplinary Research Barriers: Best Practices To Mobilize Knowledge

• New Concepts in Integrating Arts and Science Research for a Global Knowledge Society

• Particle Physics: Pushing Back the Frontiers of Global Collaboration

• Physical Sciences Approaches to Cancer: Growing Interdisciplinary Collaborations

• Population, Development, and Environment: Solutions for Global Challenges

• Quantum Information Science and Technology: A Global Perspective

• Successful Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Insights from Practice and Theory

• Toward a Global Lab: Building Science Capacity in Developing Countries

Communication

• Beyond Climate Models: Rethinking How to Envision the Future with Climate Change

• Community-Engaged Scholarship: Co-Producing Knowledge for Societal Impact

• Endangered and Minority Languages Crossing the Digital Divide

• Everyone's an Expert but Who Is Listening?

• Globalization Then and Now: Scale, Complexity, and Communication of Sustainability

• Innovations in Reducing International Knowledge Isolation

• Misreporting Fukushima: A Failure of Science Journalism with Global Repercussions?

• The Roles of Citizen Science and Serious Leisure in Public Engagement with Science

• Science, Sustainability, and the Arts

• Sharing Science with the Public Worldwide: Resources for Informal Education Outreach

• Perspectives from Science Media Centers: Should Scientists Bother with Media?

• Unmuzzling Government Scientist: How To Re-Open The Discourse

• Using Pop-Culture Icons To Slip Science into the Mainstream

Culture

• The American Society in 2035

• Archaeoacoustics: Did Ancient Civilizations Use Acoustic Design To Create Powerful Ritual Spaces?

• Constructing a Human World Fit for Nature

• Creating a Global Knowledge Society: Lessons from History, Philosophy, and Sociology

• Culture and Controversy in Science Education Engagement

• Early Career Scientists in a Flat World

• The Effects of Early Experience on Lifelong Functioning: Commitment and Resilience

• Gesture, Language, and Performance: Aspects of Embodiment

• Globalizing Indigenous Architecture: The Power of Tradition, Providing for the Future

• Late Talkers in Any Language: Finding Children At Risk Worldwide

• Making Visible the Invisible

• Neuroscience and Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: A Cross-Country View

• Scientific Humanists and Humanistic Scientists: Flattening the World with Anthropology

• Six Things Everyone Cares About: Connecting Ecosystems and Human Well-Being

• The Social Consequences of Mass Imprisonment in the United States

Development

• Anthropology and Engineering: Technological Innovations in Global Health

• Conquering the Final Frontier: The Importance of Space Technologies in All that We Do

• The Future of Mineral Resource Dependence in the 21st Century

• Make It Fit: Supporting a Decent Standard of Living Within Planetary Boundaries

• Making Science Work for Development: Case Studies and Best Practices

• Marine Biological Diversity: Who Owns the Greatest Reservoir of Unexplored Diversity?

• Research as a Portfolio of Projects for Building Our Global Knowledge Society

• Searching for the Right Space for Innovation

Discovery

• Autophagy: An Emerging Therapeutic Target in Human Disease

• Chemical Evolution: From Prebiotic Soup to Intelligent Molecules of the Future

• Excursions into the Mathematics of Medical Imaging

• Illuminating the Obesity Epidemic with Mathematics

• Imaging and Controlling Molecular Dynamics with Ultrashort Laser Pulses

• Isotopes for Science and Medicine: Rare, Radioactive, and Useful

• NanoCellulose: An Abundant, Sustainable, Versatile Biopolymer

• New Frontiers in the Radio Universe: Protoplanetary Disks to the Far Universe

• Pulsars: Astronomical Gifts that Keep on Giving

• Quantum Computing: Current Status and Future Prospects

• Quantum Information Technologies: A New Era for Global Communication

• Solar Effects on Earth's Atmosphere and Climate: Results from Space Observatories

• Things that Go Bump: The Latest Discoveries in Particle Physics

• Understanding Cellular Machinery Through X-Ray Imaging

Education

• Beyond Evolution: Religious Questions in Science Classrooms

• Connecting Education and Research on Retention in Engineering

• Demand-Driven Science: Engaging the Future Generation in Solving Tomorrow’s Problems

• Excellence Gaps in K-12 Education: Race, Gender, and Poverty and High Achievement

• Interconnected Communities for Biological Research: Integrating Undergraduates

• Interdisciplinary Science: Teaching the Key Points of Integration

• Making Better Scientists: Philosophy of Science in Practice

• Mismatched Resources: Underrepresented STEM Faculty in the Global Knowledge Society

• More than a Field Trip: Developing Student Leaders To Address Global Challenge

• Moving (Actively) from Vision to Change in Undergraduate Biology Education

• New Findings in Broadening Participation Research in STEM Education

• Online 21st Century Science Assessments

• The Role of Standards in Achieving Science Literacy: A Multi-Country Perspective

• Teaching Science Through Language

Energy

• Can Science and the Public Collaborate on the Global Future of Nuclear Waste?

• Can a Smarter Grid Slow Down Climate Change While Accelerating Energy Independence?

• Carbon-Dioxide Capture and Storage: A Global Solution to a Global Challenge

• The Climate and Health Impacts of Cooking with Biomass

• Energy Storage for Integration of Renewable Energy Sources into the Power Grid

• Food, Feed, and Fuel: Optimizing Economic and Sustainable Biofuel Production

• Hydraulic Fracturing of Shale: Building Consensus Out of Controversy

• Low-Carbon Innovation for an Electricity-Dependent World

• Putting Scientific Breakthroughs To Work in Support of Renewable Energy

• Routes to Enhanced Photosynthesis: Harvesting Sunlight for More Food and Fuel

• The True Costs of Coal

Environment

• Acid-Washed Genes and Altered Ecosystems: Biological Tales of Ocean Acidification

• Blue Carbon, Green Opportunities: Innovative Solutions To Protect Coastal Ecosystems

• Conquering the Final Frontier: The Importance of Space Technologies in All that We Do

• The Costs of Conservation: Impacts on Coastal Livelihoods, Health, and Equity

• Historical Biocomplexity in the North Pacific Ocean: Lessons from the Past

• Life in the Pressure Cooker: Evolution at the Bottom of the Ocean

• The Magnitude 9.0 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami: Significance for Japan and the World

• The Ocean Health Index: Diagnosis for a Crowded Blue Planet

• Predicting the Future Ocean: The Nereus Program

• Responding to and Recovering from Catastrophic Events: The Road to Resilience

• Sustaining People and Oceans: Governance in Marine Social-Ecological Systems

• Swimming in Sick Seas

• Toward Stabilization of Net Global Carbon Dioxide Levels

• Vulnerability and Adaptation to Oil Spills

• Water Security: Multidisciplinary Responses to a Global Challenge

Food

• Bringing a Global Plant Science Perspective to Issues that Threaten Humankind

• The Compound Effects of Climate Variability and Climate Change on Food Security

• Do Public Health and Food Safety Policies and Regulations Impede Innovation?

• Emerging Risks in the Global Food System

• Enhancing Information Flow for Global Food Security in the Face of Climate Change

• The Next Agricultural Revolution: Emerging Production Methods for Meat Alternatives

• The Role of information and Communications Technology in Making Sense of Global Food Prices

• Sub-Saharan Africa: Livestock Science Provides New Hope and Faces New Challenges

• Underreported Yet Overoptimistic: Fisheries Catch Reconstructions and Food Security

Health

• Aging: Cells to Society

• Autism: Genetic, Epigenetic, and Environmental Factors Influencing Neural Networks

• Comprehensive Approaches for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control

• Curing Spinal Cord Injury: The Need for Global Collaboration

• Defeating Alzheimer’s Disease To Avoid the Looming Worldwide Health Crisis

• Fifty Years of the Pill: Risk Reduction and Discovery of Benefits Beyond Contraception

• Genomics and Cancer: A Global Challenge Needing Global Solutions

• Has the Women's Health Initiative Hormone Therapy Trial Helped Improve Women's Health?

• The Mouth as a Global Window to Systemic Health

• Norovirus: The Modern Scourge of Food and Family

• The One Health Vision: From Institutional Support to Local Practice

• Personalized Medicine: Improving Health Outcomes Through Research

• Stem Cell and Cell Therapy Approaches to Understanding Cell Injury and Wound Healing

• Toward the Control of HIV and AIDS Through Comprehensive Treatment as Prevention

• Winning: Superbugs or Surveillance and Science?

Information

• Accelerating Scientific Progress Through Public Availability of Research Data

• Applying Assistive Technology To Improve Quality of Life

• Architectural Precautions in Networked Networks

• Data to Knowledge to Action: Computational Science in a Global Knowledge Society

• Human Rights: Quantitative Methods in the Age of Information and Communication

• Innovating Innovation: Open Source Successes for Neglected Diseases and Beyond

• Is There Life Beyond Moore’s Law?

• Leveling the Global Playing Field: Global inferences from Reliable Global Samples

• Tracking Progress: Success and Failure of Biologging in Protecting the Global Ocean

• Updating the International System of Units: The Foundation for Science and Technology

• Web Surveillance: Fighting Terrorism and Infectious Diseases

• Whole Earth Simulations for Decision-Making: Realistic Goal or Pipe Dream?

Policy

• Assessing Assessments: How Do They Work for Environmental Policy Making?

• Can Community Models Help Solve Global Challenges?

• Changing Paradigms in the Delivery of Health Care in the United States

• Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans: Ethical and Policy Implications of Intelligence

• Exploding Myths on Reactor Security, Harm Reduction, and Genetically Modified Organisms

• Global Challenges to Peer Review of Scientific Publications

• The Global Quest for Excellence

• Harm Reduction: Policy Change To Reduce the Global Toll of Smoking-Related Disease

• International Comparisons of Research and Development Policy

• Redesigning the Governance of Science, Technology, and Innovation After Japan's Earthquake

• Science-Informed Public Engagement: Building Support for Policy

• Scientific Integrity Reform in the U.S. Administration: Pitfalls, Progress, and Plans

• Whole-Ocean Economics: Global Fisheries Analysis Reveals Potential for Policy Action