The IMSA Great Minds Program®
IMSA
GREAT MINDS DIALOGUES
Dr. M.R.C. Greenwood
Paul Grobstein
Prof. Lawrence M. Krauss
Drummond Rennie
Gretchen Helfrich
Science, Technology and Society:
ETHICAL AWARENESS FOR TOMORROW'S LEADERS
Thursday, April 3, 2003, 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Universe Theatre at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum
1300 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
Whether today's students go on to careers in science or not, we must be able to count on them to give thoughtful and enlightened attention to the humane uses of science, the risks that accompany new knowledge, and the responsibilities of scientists and citizens. They must also be able to assess the power and the limitations of scientific knowledge as it applies to public policy decisions. Science is organic, tentative; in some instances, scientific knowledge can only provide equivocal answers to policymakers; and there are important questions--like moral issues--that science can inform, but not dictate. The new marketability of biotechnology raises anew a recurring question for our society: who owns science? It's our experience that the teaching we all try to do by example is indispensible, but it doesn't exhaust our responsibility to create an awareness of issues and obligations--not only for scientists, but also for the observers, consumers, and patrons of science.
The Panelists
Dr. M.R.C. Greenwood is Chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz. In addition to her position as Chancellor, Dr. Greenwood is professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Dr. Greenwood graduated summa cum laude from Vassar College and received her Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University. Her research interests are in developmental cell biology, genetics, physiology, nutrition and science and higher education policy issues. Her work over the past 25 years, focusing on the genetic causes of obesity, is recognized world-wide.
From November 1993 to May 1995, Dr. Greenwood was Associate Director for Science at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President. Chancellor Greenwood is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She is a fellow and past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Paul Grobstein is
Eleanor A. Bliss Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for
Science in Society at Bryn Mawr College. A neurobiologist, educator,
and parent, he is also director of the College's summer institute program
for K-12 teachers, and co-organizer of Serendip (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu),
a website founded in 1994 "to explore and support intellectual
and social change in education, in social organization... and in how
one makes sense of life." Grobstein received his Ph.D. from Stanford
University in 1973, spent ten years on the faculty at the University
of Chicago, and moved IN 1986 to Bryn Mawr, where he continued research
on developmental and integrative neurobiology. Grobstein's recent interests
have focused largely on problems of applied neurobiology
:
on thinking, teaching, and writing about the implications of ongoing
brain research for education and related social and philosophical problems.
Prof. Lawrence M. Krauss, Chairman of the Physics Department at Case Western Reserve University is an internationally known theoretical physicist with wide research interests at the interface between elementary particle physics and cosmology. His studies include the early universe, the nature of dark matter, general relativity, and neutrino astrophysics. He was born in New York City and grew up in Toronto, receiving undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Physics at Carleton University and his Physics Ph.D. from MIT.
An acclaimed teacher and lecturer, Professor Krauss is the author of several popular books, including, The Physics of Star Trek and Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond. His contributions to the public understanding of science and technology have been celebrated in prizes awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, and the British institute of Physics.
Drummond Rennie was educated at Cambridge University and Guy's Hospital Medical School, London, where he studied children short of oxygen because of congenital heart disease. He has conducted numerous investigations on the effects of hypoxia at very high altitudes.
Dr. Rennie is Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, and Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians.
A past member of the Public Health Service Commission on Research Integrity, Dr. Rennie has formed a group to research the influence of money on the conduct and reporting of clinical research.
Drummond Rennie is a member of the Alpine Club, the American Alpine Club and the Tobogganing Club of St Moritz. He lives in a forest near Buncom, a ghost town in the mountains of Southern Oregon.
The Moderator
Gretchen Helfrich hosts Odyssey, Chicago Public Radio's nationally syndicated daily talk show of ideas.
Gretchen began her WBEZ career answering phones as a pledge-drive volunteer in the fall of 1993. She became the producer of the station's international affairs program, Worldview, in 1994. After working with the program's host for more than three years, Gretchen became a substitute host. During this period, she also produced Artistic License, WBEZ's weekly arts magazine program, and was a featured contributor on Metropolis. She has been with Odyssey since it went on the air in January 1998.
Gretchen grew up in Southern California and holds a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. After college, she taught English as a second language in Florence. She moved to Chicago in 1993, after studying romance linguistics at UCLA.
This dialogue is being made available at no charge. If you would like to make a donation to support these types of awareness-building events, please contact:
IMSA Fund for Advancement of Education 630-907-5040
New Document Release:
Science Education in the 21st Century: Pushing the Envelope on Student Assessment (April 11, 2001 seminar)