Major science conference to feature MIT speakers

February 13, 2008

The largest interdisciplinary scientific gathering of the year begins Thursday in Boston, and MIT students, faculty and staff will play prominent roles during the five-day event.

Boston is hosting the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which is expected to attract some 10,000 science and technology professionals from across disciplines and around the world, as well as several hundred science journalists.

A large contingent of MIT faculty will talk about state-of-the-art developments in their fields, from quantum computing to biomedical engineering. MIT President Susan Hockfield, who is honorary co-chair of the conference, will help launch the meeting with a welcoming address.

The conference will feature more than 150 symposia as well as plenary and topical lectures. Following is a list of scheduled MIT speakers and their topics:

Angela Belcher
"From Nature and Back Again: Giving New Life to Materials for Energy, Electronics and the Environment"

Robert Berwick
"The Human and Chimp Genomic Interface"

James Glass
"Speech as Interface and Content: Advances and Challenges"

Martha Gray
"Inter-Institutional Training in the Life Sciences and Engineering"

Robert Langer
"Grand Challenges in Biomedical Engineering"

Seth Lloyd
"Quantum Sensing and Control"

John Negele
"Using the World's Largest Supercomputers to Understand Quantum Chromodynamics"

Nicholas Negroponte
Plenary Lecture: "One Laptop per Child"

Tomaso Poggio
"Rapid Object Recognition in the Visual Brain"

Harriet Ritvo
"American Society for Environmental History Advocacy Guidelines"

Gregory Stephanopoulos
"Challenges in Microbe Engineering for Biofuel Production"

Lawrence Susskind
"Joint Fact Finding: A Strategy for Resolving Information Conflicts"
"Strengthening the Global Environmental Treaty-Making System"

Aisha Walcott
"ACME: A Model for Supporting Minority Graduate Students in the Completion of Degree"

URL: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/aaas-intro-0213.html