Speakers:
All Years
2009
Ronald Dixon
Physician
Ronald Dixon, MD, MA, is the creator and director of the Virtual Practice Project at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He is the director of CIMIT’s (Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology) Value Based Healthcare Delivery Program, and the associate medical director of MGH Beacon Hill.
2009
Peter Galison
Science Historian and Filmmaker
Peter Galison is the Joseph Pellegrino University Professor of the History of Science and of Physics at Harvard University. In 1997, he was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow; in 1999, he was a winner of the Max Planck Prize, given by the Max Planck Gesellschaft and Humboldt Stiftung.
2009
Lisa Genova
Author and Neuroscientist
Neuroscientist turned author whose bestselling novel, Still Alice, portrays the enduring humanity of Alzheimer's patients. The book is also a testament to Genova's perseverance in overcoming repeated obstacles among mainstream publishers that ultimately led her to self-publish her work.
2009
Helen Greiner
Robotics Innovator
Cofounder and former president/chairman of iRobot Corporation, a company that makes home robots (Roomba Vacuuming Robot) and military robots (PackBot Tactical Robot). Helen is currently CEO of The Droid Works, Inc., a new start-up company working in the UAV (flying robots) space.
2009
Deb Roy
Cognitive Science Pioneer
Director of the MIT Media Labs Cognitive Machines group and founding director of the Center for Future Banking, Roy studies how children learn language and designs machines that learn to communicate in humanlike ways. To enable this work, he has pioneered new data-driven methods for analyzing and modeling human linguistic and social behavior that are now being applied to a wide range of domains, from retail behavior to autism.
2008
Susan Athey
Economic Theorist
Harvard professor of economics and the first woman to win the prestigious American Economic Association’s John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the most accomplished American economist under age 40, for her contributions to industrial organization, econometrics, microeconomic theory, and auctions.
2008
Joseph Ayers
Biomimetic Robotics
Professor of biology and former director of Northeastern’s Marine Science Center best known for his RoboLobster, his recent research using technology to mimic biological organisms and processes may someday help rehabilitate people with traumatic brain injuries.
2008
Robin Bowman
Photojournalist
A photojournalist devoted to documenting social and political issues at home and abroad, her 2007 book It’s Complicated: The American Teenager chronicles her five-year journey across America to explore the shape of this generation and the country that formed them.
2008
David Edwards
Art/Science Innovator
Founder of Le Laboratoire, an artscience center in Paris dedicated to experimental collaboration between artists and scientists, author, and Harvard professor of biomedical engineering interested in developing new cultural and educational environments for innovation.
2008
Noah Feldman
Constitutional Law Scholar
A Harvard Law professor, author, and lecturer who specializes in constitutional studies, with particular emphasis on the relationship between law and religion, constitutional design, and the history of legal theory, his book The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State was published in April 2008.