Speakers

Richard Garwin is IBM Fellow Emeritus at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center in New York and is a consultant to the U.S. Government on military technology and arms control. He has made contributions to many areas of physics, including nuclear weapons design, low-temperature physics, superconducting devices, and more.

Fred Jerome is Co-author of Einstein on Race and Racism. He is also the author of The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret War Against the World’s Most Famous Scientist (St. Martin’s Press, 2002). A veteran journalist and science writer, his articles and op-ed pieces have appeared in dozens of publications, including Newsweek and The New York Times.

Young-Kee Kim is the Deputy Director of Fermilab and Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago. Kim studies experimental elementary particle physics centered on the origin of mass in the universe, and is a strong supporter of undergraduate research.

Neal Lane Neal Lane is a Professor at Rice University. He also holds appointments as a Senior Fellow of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, where he is engaged in matters of science and technology policy, and in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Leon Lederman is an experimental physicist and Physics Nobel Laureate for his work with neutrinos. He is Director Emeritus (1979-1989) of Fermilab and a former President and Chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Pier Oddone is the Director of Fermilab and has been since July 2005. His research interest is experimental particle physics, and his work focused primarily on electron-positron colliders at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Before coming to Fermilab he was the Deputy Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

James H. Stith is the Vice President, Physics Resources Center for the American Institute of Physics. He directs a broad portfolio of programs and services that includes AIP’s Magazine Division, the Media and Government Relations Division, the Education Division, the Center for the History of Physics, the Statistical Research Division and the Careers Division.

Jill Tarter is Director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute. She is deeply involved in the education of future citizens and scientists, and frequently speaks at meetings and science centers. Many people are familiar with her work as portrayed by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact.

Rodger Taylor is Co-author of Einstein on Race and Racism. His articles on city life, jazz, early African American New York, and the African Burial Ground have been published in local newspapers and magazines, including several in New York Newsday. His work about the slave galleries at St. Augustine's Church on the Lower East Side of Manhattan was published in the book Arts-Based Civic Dialogue in Action edited by Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon, 2005. 

Workshop Leaders

Workshops will include invited talks by citizen scientists working in the trenches and round-table discussions on the role of the scientist in addressing science-related issues within the community, society, and government. Attendees will deliberate topics such as curriculum integrity, energy production, science funding, and civic leadership; and will set the course for Sigma Pi Sigma’s involvement in these issues.

Aziza Baccouche, president of AZIZA Productions, Inc., will discuss her experience as a physicist using media to share science with the public in a workshop titled Mediating Public Perception, a Physicist's View from Behind the Camera.

Mike Fortner, State Representative in the Illinois General Assembly and former mayor of West Chicago, will share his experience as a physics-trained politician during the workship From Researcher to Representative.

David Goldston, Scholar in Residence at the Woodrow Wilson School, will talk about the American Physical Society (APS) study on energy efficiency that he co-chaired, in a workshop titled Energy Efficiency: Benchmarks and the Citizen's Response.

Louis Lanzerotti, distinguished research physicist and incoming chair of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) governing board, will talk about being mayor and a member of his local school board during the workship From Researcher to Representative.

Adrian Melott, founding director of Kansas Citizens For Science, will talk about his fight to keep evolution in and intelligent design out of the classroom in a workship titled The Evolution of Science Curricula.

Julia Phillips, Director of the Physical, Chemical, and Nano Science Center at Sandia National Laboratories, will talk about her experience on the forefront of the national energy policy discussions during the workshop Energy Efficiency: Benchmarks and the Citizen's Response.