At Harvard University, Stephen Jay Gould is a Professor of Zoology, Professor of Geology, adjunct member of the Department of the History of Science, and Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. He is also the author of the January article in the Pathways of Discovery Essay Series on "Science Wars" in the journal Science. He is one of America's best-known writer in the biological and geological sciences, particularly with regard to the theory of evolution, the interpretation of fossil evidence, and the meaning of diversity and change in biology. His essays in Natural History magazine and his writings on the history of science, particularly 'The Mismeasure of Man,' have been influential and controversial. Gould was born in New York City in 1941. When he was five years old he was taken to the American Museum of Natural History by his father, a court stenographer with an interest in natural history. Gould's interest in paleontology grew unabated through his childhood and teenage years, rivaling his intense passion for the New York Yankees. He completed his undergraduate education with a degree in geology from Antioch College in 1963 and returned to New York to earn a Ph.D. in paleontology from Columbia University in 1967. He has established a reputation as one of Harvard's most visible and engaging instructors, offering courses in paleontology, biology, geology, and the history of science. Since 1996, he also has been Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University and now divides his time between New York and Cambridge.

Professor Daniel Kleppner is a principal investigator in the Atomic, Molecular and Atomic Physics group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Kleppner joined the Physics Department at MIT in 1966, where he is now the Lester Wolfe Professor of Physics and Associate Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics. Dr. Kleppner's research interests are in high-precision measurements, quantum optics, and experimental atomic physics. Dr. Daniel Kleppner received his graduate education at Harvard University, where he participated in the invention of the hydrogen laser with Norman F. Ramsey. He is also the author of the August article in the Pathways of Discovery Essay Series on "Quantum Physics" in the journal Science. His talk will revolve around the "Impact of Quantum Physics on Everyday Life."
 
 

Ruth Hubbard was born in Austria and escaped Nazism as a teenager. She and her family moved to the Boston area where she started her career as a biologist. From the 1940's to the 1960's, she made important contributions to the understanding of the biochemistry and photochemistry of vision in vertebrates and invertebrates. Ruth Hubbard was the first woman to be awarded a tenured biology professorship at Harvard University. She may be best known for her brilliant and courageous challenges to colleagues who promote sociobiology. The distinguished geneticist Richard Lewontin says, "No one has been a more influential critic of the biological theory of women's inequality than Ruth Hubbard." Another major focus of her interest has been in the sociology of science, where she has tried to document the ways in which the questions scientists ask and the answers they accept as true are shaped by their sex, race and class and by the social institutions in which they operate. She has encouraged other scientists to question the validity of their profession's paradigms regarding gender issues.  Ruth Hubbard has published more than 150 articles in books, professional journals and popular magazines, including "Exploding the Gene Myth," with Elijah Wald (Boston: Beacon Press, 1993).

Related Links:
Reinventing Biology: Respect for Life and the Creation of Knowledge by Lynda Birke and Ruth Hubbard (editors)
Exploding the Gene Myth: A Conversation with Ruth Hubbard

Anne McLaren November 29th  7:30pm@ the MSU 'Auditorium'

Anne McLaren is Principal Research Associate at the Wellcome/CRC Institute of Cancer Research and Developmental Biology at Cambridge University.  Her research has concentrated on the genetics, reproductive biology, and developmental biology of mammals, using the laboratory mouse as a model.  Prior to joining the Institute, she was Director of the Medical Research CouncilÃs Mammalian Development Unit and worked for the UK Agricultural Research Council.  She is a member of both the European Group on Ethics, which advises the European Commission on social and ethical implications of new technologies, and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority in the UK, which regulates in vitro fertilization and human embryo research. Among her many awards, she is a Fellow of the Royal Society, received the Society's Royal Medal in 1990, and served as its Vice-President, the first woman Officer in 332 years).  Anne McLaren was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1993 is also the author of the June, 2000 article on "Cloning: Pathways to a Pluipotent Future" in the Pathways of Discovery Essay Series in the journal Science.
 
 

Veteran National Public Radio® (NPR) science correspondent and Emmy Award-winning TV journalist Ira Flatow is the science anchor of 'Talk Of The Nation Science Friday.' He hosts the show each Friday, bringing NPR listeners a lively, informative discussion on science. Flatow's interest in things scientific began in boyhood when he almost burned down his mother's bathroom trying to recreate a biology class experiment. "I was the proverbial kid who spent hours in the basement experimenting with electronic gizmos, and then entering them in high school science fairs," Flatow says. As NPR's science correspondent from 1971 to 1986, Flatow covered science, health, technology and the environment; his career found him reporting from the Kennedy Space Center, Three Mile Island, Antarctica and the South Pole. Before joining NPR, Flatow was News Director at WBFO-FM/Buffalo, New York. He began reporting at the station while studying for his engineering degree at State University of New York in Buffalo. Flatow's articles have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Science Digest magazine, TV Guide, and Scholastic magazine. He wrote the highly acclaimed science book Rainbows, Curve Balls and Other Wonders of the Natural World Explained. He is a double winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS-Westinghouse Science and Journalism Award, a member of the National Association of Science Writers, and a consultant for Sciences Institute for Public Information. A native of Brooklyn, NY, Flatow now lives in Stamford, CT with his wife, Miriam, and their three children.