Woods Lecture Series Schedule
Fall Series Schedule
Gregory Pence
"Ethics of Stem Cell Research"
Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012 - 7:30 p.m., Reilly
Room
Gregory Pence is known
as one of the founders of bioethics and an aggressive defender of
all cloning research. One of the pioneering bioethicists in
America, Pence has a unique point of view since he has seen many
past prophecies of doom fail and is optimistic about
biotechnology.
In a phrase: Pence believes his opponents are creating a new Age
of Darkness.
He is nationally and internationally famous for defending
cloning and genetically modified food against bio-Luddites and
Nay-Sayers, who oppose research on stem cells and cloning. And
because of his views, his talks have been picketed by Greenpeace
and anti-cloning zealots.
His book Who's Afraid of Human Cloning? rigorously
attacks opponents of cloning.
His second book on cloning, Cloning After Dolly: Who's Still
Afraid?, argues for the legalization of artificial wombs and
trans-species hybrids. Pence notes that most people's perception of
cloning is based more on science fiction than science, and that
anti-cloners draw false or irrelevant distinctions based on
questions of human dignity and a religious view of the embryo as a
human life. He argues that cloning is actually a biological
imperative: we must develop cloning technology in order to survive
the next plague.
Indianapolis Zoo Prize Winner - Steven
Amstrup
"Polar Bears and Global Warming: Reliable Predictions and Hope in
an Uncertain World"
Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 - 7:30 p.m., Reilly
Room
In 2007, Dr. Amstrup's research team
at the U.S. Geological Survey projected that we could lose
two-thirds of the world's polar bears by mid century and may lose
all of them by the end of this century. More recently, he and his
colleagues showed that preventing the extinction of polar bears is
largely a matter of controlling greenhouse gas rise. The good news
is that prompt action to arrest greenhouse gas rise will preserve
sustainable polar bear populations over much of their current
range. Even more importantly, acting in time to save polar bears
will benefit the rest of life on earth-including humans.
Read more about the Indianapolis Zoo Prize.
Ronald Mallett
"Time Traveler: A Scientist's Personal Mission to Make Time Travel
a Reality"
Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012 - 7:30 PM, Reilly
Room
In his popular lectures, attended by
his peers and interested onlookers, Ronald Mallett explains his
theories, which are derived from the work of Einstein and Gödel and
from his own experiments over 30 years (much of which has been
published in journals). But behind the science - which is delivered
in clear, captivating language with inspired metaphors (a spoon
stirring a glass of water)-lies Mallett's personal story. He
touches on the death of his father when he was a boy (which set him
on his current path to invent a time machine) and tells us how he
overcame poverty and racism to become one of the few
African-American Ph.Ds in theoretical physics.
Spring 2013 Woods Lecture Series
Schedule
John Marzluff
Paving paradise: the response of birds to
urbanization
Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013 - 7:30 p.m., Reilly
Room
John Marzluff is Professor of Wildlife Science at the University
of Washington. His
graduate (Northern Arizona University) and initial post-doctoral
(University of Vermont) research focused on the social behavior and
ecology of jays and ravens. With his wife, Collen, he has just
published Dog Days, Raven Nights (2011), which combines
reflection with biology and the recreational pursuit of dog
sledding to show how a life in science blooms. Gifts of
the Crow (2012) applies a neurobiological perspective to
understand the amazing feats of Corvids. He has led studies
on the effects of military training on falcons and eagles in
southwestern Idaho, the effects of timber harvest, recreation, and
forest fragmentation on goshawks and marbled murrelets in western
Washington and Oregon, conservation strategies for Pacific Island
crows, and the effects of urbanization on songbirds in the Seattle
area. He is currently leader of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service's Recovery Team for the critically endangered Mariana Crow,
a member of the Washington Biodiversity Council, and a Fellow of
the American Ornithologist's Union.
Frances Champagne
Epigenetics and early life experiences
Wednesday, Mar. 6, 2013 - 7:30 p.m., Reilly
Room
Frances A. Champagne Ph.D. completed graduate training in 2004
at McGill University, obtaining a M.Sc. in Psychiatry and a Ph.D in
Neuroscience followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the
University of Cambridge, UK and is currently an Associate Professor
in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University and a
Sackler Scientist with the Sackler Institute for Developmental
Psychobiology at Columbia University. Dr. Champagne's current
and ongoing research explores the implications of these influences
for the transmission of behavior across generations and the
molecular mechanisms through which these effects are
achieved. The interplay between genes and the environment is
critical during the process of development and exploring the role
of epigenetic mechanisms in linking experiences with developmental
outcomes is an evolving field of study. Dr. Champagne uses
rodent models to study epigenetics, neurobiology, and behavior and
also collaborates with clinical researchers who would like to apply
the study of epigenetics to better understand origins of variation
in human behavior. In addition to investigating the
modulating effects of mother-infant interactions, Dr. Champagne is
currently exploring a broad array of social influences and
environmental exposures.
Keith
Devlin
The Symbol Barrier: Using Video Games to Overcome the
Greatest Obstacle to Good Mathematics Learning
Tuesday, Apr. 2nd, 2013 - 7:30 p.m., Reilly
Room
Dr. Keith Devlin is a mathematician at Stanford University in
California, a co-founder and Executive Director of the university's
H-STAR institute, a
co-founder of the Stanford Media X research network,
and a Senior Researcher at CSLI. He is a World
Economic Forum Fellow and a Fellow of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. His current research is focused on the
use of different media to teach and communicate mathematics to
diverse audiences. He also works on the design of
information/reasoning systems for intelligence analysis. Other
research interests include: theory of information, models of
reasoning and communication, and mathematical cognition. He has
written 31 books and over 80 published research articles. Recipient
of the Peano Prize, the Pythagoras Prize, the Carl Sagan Award, and
the Communications Award of the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics.
In 2003, he was recognized by the California State Assembly for his
"innovative work and longtime service in the field of mathematics
and its relation to logic and linguistics." And he is "the
Math Guy" on National Public Radio.