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Topical Lectures

Watch for additional speakers to join this multidisciplinary gathering of science and technology luminaries who have accepted our invitation to the 2013 Annual Meeting.

Special Session

John Grotzinger
Curiosity on Mars

Friday,
15 February

Karl Deisseroth
Optogenetics

Felice Frankel
Science Images

Topical Panel
European Science Policy

Saturday,
16 February

Richard Alley
Ice Sheets

Nina Jablonski
Evolution of
Skin Color

Silvan Schweber
Sarton Memorial Lecture

Sunday,
17 February

Chad Mirkin
Nanotechnology

Walter Mischel
McGovern Award Lecture

Peter Norvig
Education Technology

Friday, 15 February

SPECIAL SESSION

Friday, 15 February
10:00 a.m.—11:30 a.m.
Ballroom A

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John Grotzinger

Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology, and Project Scientist, Mars Science Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

Curiosity's Mission at Gale Crater, Mars

Dr. Grotzinger is a geologist interested in the evolution of surface environments on Earth and Mars. Field and subsurface exploration-scale mapping studies are the starting point for more topical laboratory-based studies involving geochemical, geologic, and geochronological techniques. He is currently the Project Scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory Rover mission launched in 2011. He is also a member of the Mars Exploration Rover Science Team and HiRISE camera imaging team on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

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Friday, 15 February
NOON—1:00 p.m.
Ballroom A

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Karl Deisseroth

D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University

Optogenetics: Development and Application

Dr. Deisseroth is a biological engineer, psychiatrist, and neuroscientist probing the dynamics of neural circuits in health and disease. He has pioneered optogenetic technology development by using light to control precise activity patterns in genetically defined cell types within the brains of freely moving mammals. He completed postdoctoral training, medical internship, and adult psychiatry residency at Stanford University and was board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 2006. His bioengineering laboratory is located at Stanford, and he treats patients in an interventional psychiatry-focused clinic.

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Friday, 15 February
NOON—1:00 p.m.
Room 302

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Felice Frankel

Research Scientist, Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

More Than Pretty Pictures: How the Process of Making Science Images and Graphics Clarifies Understanding

Ms. Frankel is a photographer and research scientist specializing in the visual communication of science and engineering. Collaborating with researchers across a host of disciplines, she creates images and graphics for journal submissions, presentations, and publications to advance the public understanding of science. She is a fellow of AAAS and has received awards and grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others. Her most recent book is Visual Strategies: A Practical Guide to Graphics for Scientists and Engineers, co-authored with Angela DePace. Her other books include Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image and No Small Matter: Science on the Nanoscale, co-authored with George Whitesides.

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Topical Panel: European Science Policy on the Move

Friday, 15 February
NOON—1:30 p.m.
Room 312

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Paul Boyle

President, Science Europe; Chief Executive, U.K. Economic and Social Research Council

Dr. Boyle became chief executive of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Research Councils U.K. International Champion in September 2010. In October 2011 he became president of Science Europe, a Belgium-based association of the 50 major European Research Funding Organizations and Research Performing Organizations. Before joining ESRC, he was head of the School of Geography and Geosciences at the University of St. Andrews. His research focused on population and health geography and he was director of the ESRC-funded Longitudinal Studies Centre — Scotland, co-director of the ESRC-funded Centre for Population Change, and co-investigator on both the Wellcome Trust-funded Scottish Health Informatics Programme and the ESRC-funded Administrative Data Liaison Service.

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Anne Glover

Chief Scientific Advisor to European Commission President, European Union

Dr. Glover was appointed January 2012 as the first European Union Chief Scientific Adviser reporting directly to the European Commission’s President, José Manuel Durăo Barroso. She previously served as the Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland. She holds a Personal Chair of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Aberdeen, and has honorary positions at the Rowett and Macauley Institutes. She is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a member of the Natural Environment Research Council, and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. In 2008 she was named Woman of Outstanding Achievement by the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology.

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Helga Nowotny

President, European Research Council

Dr. Nowotny was elected European Research Council (ERC) Vice President in 2007 and became President of the ERC in March 2010. She is Professor Emerita of Social Studies of Science at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University and a doctorate in jurisprudence from the University of Vienna. She is a member of the University Council of the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich and on numerous other international advisory boards. She is a past chair of the scientific advisory board of the University of Vienna, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Academia Europaea. Her latest book, with Giuseppe Testa, is Naked Genes: Reinventing the Human in the Molecular Age.

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Robert-Jan Smits

Director-General, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission

Mr. Smits is responsible for defining and implementing European Union policy and programs in the field of research and innovation. His previous role was Deputy Director-General of Joint Research Centre, responsible for programs and stakeholder relations, resource management, the Institute for Energy, the Institute for Environment and Sustainability, and the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies. He has also served as Director for Research Programmes and Capacity at Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, responsible for coordination of national research programs, cooperation with intergovernmental research organizations, and relations with the European Investment Bank. He is currently chairing the European Research Area Committee and the Steering Committee of the European Research Council. He has degrees from Utrecht University, University of Geneva, and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

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William H. Press, Moderator

AAAS President; Warren J. and Viola M. Raymer Professor in Computer Science and Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Press is a noted researcher in computer science, genomics, statistical methods, astrophysics, and international security. He is a member of the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. His current research focus is bioinformatics and whole-genome genetics. He previously served as deputy laboratory director for science and technology at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and as a professor of astronomy and physics at Harvard University. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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Saturday, 16 February

Saturday, 16 February
NOON—1:00 p.m.
Room 302

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Richard Alley

Evan Pugh Professor, Department of Geosciences, and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University

Ice Sheets, Sea Level, and Other Surprises: Benefits of Understanding Some Beautiful Places

Dr. Alley is a geologist who studies the great ice sheets to aid in prediction of future changes in climate and sea level. He has conducted field seasons in Antarctica, Greenland, and Alaska. He has served on many advisory panels, including having chaired the U.S. National Research Council’s Panel on Abrupt Climate Change and participated in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He has provided requested advice to numerous government officials. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and has been honored for his research, teaching, and public service by the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, and the International Glaciological Society, among others. He is host of a PBS television documentary on climate and energy, Earth: The Operators’ Manual.

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Saturday, 16 February
NOON—1:00 p.m.
Ballroom A

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Nina Jablonski

Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University

The Evolution and Meanings of Human Skin Color

Dr. Jablonski is a biological anthropologist and paleobiologist who conducts research on the evolution of adaptations to the environment in humans and their close primate relatives. She has spent much of the last 20 years studying the evolution of human skin and skin color. Her book, Skin: A Natural History, was awarded the W.W. Howells Book Award of the American Anthropological Association. Her latest book, Living Color: The Biological and Social Meaning of Skin Color explores skin color evolution and history of skin-color based race classifications and racism. She is a fellow of AAAS, the California Academy of Sciences, the Society of Biology (U.K.), and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (South Africa), and a member of the American Philosophical Society. She is a 2012 Guggenheim Fellow.

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Saturday, 16 February
NOON—1:00 p.m.
Room 312

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GEORGE SARTON MEMORIAL LECTURE IN THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Silvan Schweber

Emeritus Professor of Physics and Richard Koret Professor in the History of Ideas, Brandeis University

Hans Bethe and Physics in the 20th Century

Dr. Schweber is involved in research in the history of science. His interests include the history of quantum field theory since World War II, the visualization of elementary processes (Feynman diagrams), and the impact of these methods on the conceptualization of physics; post-World War II science; science at the end of the century; and a biography of Hans A. Bethe. He helped establish the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT and was its first director. Since 1981 he has been a faculty associate in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. He is a fellow of AAAS, the American Physical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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Sunday, 17 February

Sunday, 17 February
NOON—1:00 p.m.
Room 302

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Chad Mirkin

Director of International Institute for Nanotechnology and George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University

Nucleic Acid-Modified Nanostructures as Programmable Atom Equivalents: Forging a New Periodic Table

Dr. Mirkin is a chemist and a world-renowned nanoscience expert. He has developed spherical nucleic acid-nanoparticle conjugates and nanoparticle-based biodetection and therapeutics schemes, invented Dip-Pen Nanolithography, and contributed to developments in supramolecular chemistry. He directs the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University and is a professor of chemistry, chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering, materials science and engineering, and medicine at the university. He has authored more than 500 manuscripts and 500 patents worldwide and founded four companies, Nanosphere, NanoInk, AuraSense, and AuraSense Therapeutics, which are commercializing nanotechnology applications in the life science and semiconductor industries. He is currently listed as one of the most cited chemists (Thomson Reuters) and nanomedicine researchers (Nanomedicine Registry).

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Sunday, 17 February
NOON—1:00 p.m.
Room 312

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JOHN P. McGOVERN AWARD LECTURE IN THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Walter Mischel

Niven Professor of Humane Letters in Psychology, Columbia University

Demystifying Delay of Gratification

Dr. Mischel’s research interests focus on personality structure, process, and development, and self regulation, also known as willpower. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Ludwig Wittgenstein Award, Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Scientific Honoree of the Foundation of the Advancement of the Brain and Behavioral Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and member of the National Academy of Sciences. He has served as president of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Association for Research in Personality, and the Association for Psychological Science and editor of Psychological Review.

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Sunday, 17 February
NOON—1:00 p.m.
Ballroom A

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Peter Norvig

Director of Research, Google Inc.

Technology for Educating Everyone

Dr. Norvig is a computer scientist focused on artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and software engineering. From 2002 to 2005, he was Director of Search Quality at Google Inc., responsible for core web search algorithms. He previously was head of the Computational Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center and has served as an assistant professor at University of Southern California and a research faculty member at University of California, Berkeley. He is a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and the Association for Computing Machinery. His publications include the books Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Paradigms of AI Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp, Verbmobil: A Translation System for Face-to-Face Dialog, and Intelligent Help Systems for UNIX. In 2011, Norvig worked with Sebastian Thrun to develop a popular online course in artificial intelligence.

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