Past Conferences
Nobel Conference
Listed below are the topics of and participants in the Nobel conferences at Gustavus Adolphus College since the inception of the conference series in 1965. Nobel laureates have the prize and year they won after their name in parentheses. The College has developed a tradition of honoring laureates visiting the campus with honorary degrees: Since 1950, 92 laureates have been so honored, and of the 66 laureates who have appeared at one or more conferences since 1965, 60 have accepted honorary degrees (Tjalling Koopmans declined the honor in 1978; Stanley Prusiner was not present on campus to received the honor in 2001; and Steven Weinberg, James Buchanan, Elizabeth Blackburn, and Joseph Stiglitz had not yet won Nobel Prizes when they appeared at their respective conferences in 1976, 1986, 1999, and 2000).
2019 (LV) - Climate Changed: Facing Our Future
Watch Archived Presentations
- Amitav Ghosh (Not archived by request)
- Richard Alley
- Diana Liverman
- Sheila Watt-Cloutier
- Gabriele Hegerl
- David Keith
- Mike Hulme
2018 (LIV) - Living Soil: A Universe Underfoot
- David Montgomery
- Claire Chenu
- Rattan Lal
- Frank Uekotter
- Ray Archuleta
- Jack Gilbert
- Suzanne Simard
2017 (LIII) - Reproductive Technology: How Far Do We Go?
- Ruha Benjamin – Rethinking Reproduction, Re-imagining Technology
- Jacob Corn – CRISPR Gene Editing
- Marsha Saxton – Disability Rights Meets DNA Research
- Alison Murdoch – Reproductive Technology Regulation in the UK: 40-Year Review
- Diana Blithe – Prospects and Pipeline for Male Contraception
- Charis Thompson – The End of the World As We Know it? Human Technology Futures in a Time of Automation, Augmentation, and Deselection
- Jad Abumrad – Reproductive Technology and the Radiolab Podcast
2016 (LII) - In Search of Economic Balance
- Dan Ariely – The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty*
- Orley Ashenfelter – Comparing Real Wages around the World: Inequality in Human Wealth
- Joerg Rieger – What Does Jesus Have to Do with Wall Street
- Panel Discussion – Tales from the Tightrope: Economic Balance in Everyday Life
- Paul Collier – Africa’s Prospects in a Difficult Decade
- John List – Using Field Experiments to Make the World a Better Place
- Deirdre McCloskey – How the World Grew Rich: The Liberal Idea, Not Accumulation or Exploitation
- Chris Farrell – On Economic Inclusion
*This presentation is not available for viewing
2015 (LI) - Addiction: Exploring the Science and Experience of an Equal Opportunity Condition
- Eric Kandel – We Are What We Remember: Memory and Age Related Memory Disorders
- Denise Kandel with Eric Kandel – Molecular Basis for the Gateway Hypothesis
- Sheigla Murphy – Understanding Prescription Drug Misuse from a Sociological Perspective
- Panel Discussion – Front-Line Triage
- Carl Hart – Why Drug-related Research is Biased: Who Benefits and Who Pays
- Owen Flanagan – Willing Addicts? Drinkers, Dandies, Druggies and other Dionysians
- Panel Discussion – Exploring Different Treatment Options
- Marc Lewis – Reflections on the Science and Experience of Addiction
2014 (L) - Celebrating 50 Years of the Nobel Conference: Where Does Science Go from Here?
- Sean B. Carroll – Evolution at the Molecular and Planetary Scale: A Tale of Two Biologies
- Steven Chu (Physics '97) – Energy and Climate Change
Transcript of Lecture - Patricia Smith Churchland – The Brains behind Morality
- Antonio Damasio – The Consciousness Issue
- Freeman Dyson* – Living through Four Scientific Revolutions
- W. Gary Ernst – Earth Resources, Global Equity, and Future Sustainability
Transcript of Lecture - Harry Gray – Solar–Driven Water Splitting
- Sir Harry Kroto (Chemistry '96) – How to Survive & preview lecture The Birth of Natural Philosophy and Its Son: Science
- Svante Pääbo – Of Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Modern Humans
- Steven Weinberg (Physics '79) – Glimpses of a Hidden World
- Jennifer West – Nanotechnology and Biomedical Engineering
*Freeman Dyson was unable to attend. A link to his talk at another event has been included.
2013 (XLIX) - The Universe at Its Limits
- Fr. George V. Coyne, SJ – Quantum Cosmology and Creation
- Alexei V. Filippenko – Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe
- S. James Gates Jr. – The Audience of Nature
- Lawrence M. Krauss – A Universe from Nothing
- Tara G. Shears – The Innermost Universe: Exploring the Subatomic Frontier
- George F. Smoot III (Physics '06) – Mapping the Universe and Its History
- Samuel C.C. Ting (Physics '76) – The Alphamagnetic Spectrometer Experiment on the International Space Station
- Frank A. Wilczek (Physics '04) – Geometric Fantasy
2012 (XLVIII) - Our Global Ocean
- Barbara Block – Sushi and Satellites: Tracking Large Predators in the Blue Serengeti
- William Fitzgerald – Mercury, Microbes, Mosquitoes, and More…
- David Gallo – Beyond Titanic – What’s Left to be Discovered in the Deep Sea
- Ove Hoegh-Guldberg – Coral Reefs in a Rapidly Changing Climate: Going, Going, Gone?
Transcript of Lecture - Kathleen Dean Moore – Red Sky at Morning: Ethics and the Oceanic Crisis
Transcript of Lecture - Christopher Sabine – What Does Midwest Coal Have to Do with the Price of Shellfish in Seattle? Understanding How Fossil Fuels Contribute to Ocean Acidification
Transcript of Lecture - Carl Safina – Caught in the Same Net: The Ocean and Us
- Maya Tolstoy – Our Global Ocean Floor
2011 (XLVII) - The Brain and Being Human
- John Donoghue – Merging Mind to Machines: Brain Computer Interfaces to Restore Lost Function
- Martha Farah – 21st-Century Neuroscience: From Lab and Clinic to Home, School, and Office
- Paul W. Glimcher – The Neurobiology of Decision-Making
- Helen Mayberg – Mapping Depression Circuits: Foundation for New Treatment Strategies Using Direct Brain Stimulation
- Nancey Murphy – Did My Neurons Make Me Do It? A Philosophical and Cognitive Science Analysis of Moral Responsibility
- Aniruddh D. Patel – Music and Biological Evolution
- Vilayanur Ramachandran – The Neurology of Human Nature
- Larry J. Young – The Monogamous Brain: Implications for Novel Therapies for Autism
2010 (XLVI) - Making Food Good
- Bina Agarwal – Can We Make Food Good for All?
- Linda Bartoshuk – Variation in Sensation and Affect: We Live in “Different Taste Worlds”
- Cary Fowler – Food Security in a Frightening and Finite World
- Jeffrey Friedman – Leptin and the Biologic Basis of Obesity
- Frances Moore Lappé – Getting a Grip—Gaining Clarity, Creativity, and Courage for the World We Really Want
- Marion Nestle – Food Politics: Personal Responsibility vs. Social Responsibility
- Paul Thompson – What Is Good Food? An Argument with My Wife
Additional Participants
- Mitch Davis – Panel speaker for Minnesota Food Forum
- Martin Lang – Screening of Farming Forward
- Jeff Larson – Panel speaker for Minnesota Food Forum
- Thomas Nuessmeier – Panel speaker for Minnesota Food Forum
- Margo O’Brien – Panel speaker for Minnesota Food Forum
2009 (XLV) - H2O Uncertain Resource
- Asit K. Biswas – Water Crisis: Myth or Reality?
- Peter H. Gleick – Water for the 21st Century: New Thinking
- William L. Graf – Where the Wild Things Are: Dams, Rivers, and Wildlife Preservation
- Rajendra K. Pachauri (Peace '07) – Climate Change and Global Peace
Transcript of Lecture - Nancy N. Rabalais – Nutrients, Nutrients Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink: Land Meets the Sea
- Larry L. Rasmussen – Just Water
- David L. Sedlak – Short-Circuiting the Hydrologic Cycle to Meet Urban Water Needs
Additional Participants
- Erin Binder – The Acara Challenge: Applying Corporate Best Practices to Local, Sustainable Water Solutions
- Steve Colman – The Superior Sea: What about All That Water?
- Lucinda Johnson – Minnesota’s Aquatic Ecosystems: What Can We Expect under a Changing Climate?
- Shawn Lawrence Otto – Democracy in the Age of Science
- Fred Rose – The Acara Challenge: Applying Corporate Best Practices to Local, Sustainable Water Solutions
- Edward Swain – Climate Change Impacts on Lakes – The Mercury Example
2008 (XLIV) - Who Were the First Humans?
- Robin Dunbar – Mind the Gap: Why Humans Aren’t Just Great Apes
- Marcus Feldman – The History of Migration and Selection Seen through the Human Genome
- J. Wentzel van Huyssteen – Human Origins and Religious Awareness – An Interdisciplinary Challenge for Theology?
- Curtis Marean – The African Evidence for the Origins of Modern Human Behavior
- Svante Pääbo – A Neandertal View of Human Origins
- Dennis Stanford – The Ice-Age Discovery of the Americas: Constructing an Iberian Solution
Additional Participants
- Scott Anfinson – Finding Minnesota: The First People of the North Star State
- Guy Gibbon – After the PaleoIndians: Archaic and Woodland Peoples in Minnesota
- Rod Johnson – Flintknapping Demonstration
- Tom Sanders – Atlatl Dart Throwing Demonstration
2007 (XLIII) - Heating Up: The Energy Debate
- Steven Chu (Physics '97) – The World’s Energy Problem and What We Can Do about It
- Kenneth S. Deffeyes – Peak Oil: Here and Now
- James E. Hansen – The Threat to the Planet: The Dark and Bright Sides of Global Warming
- Paul L. Joskow – Placing a Price on Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Lee Rybeck Lynd – Biofuels: Technology, Challenges, and Their Role in a Sustainable World
- Joan M. Ogden – Prospects for Hydrogen Energy
- Will Steger – The Front Lines of Global Warming – Will Steger’s Eyewitness Account
Additional Participants
- Doug Cameron – Advances in Biofuels: Ethanol and Beyond
- J. Drake Hamilton – Global Warming: Minnesota Impacts, Minnesota Solutions
- Bishop Craig Johnson – Care for Our World’s Resources: A Biblical Perspective
- Dan Juhl – Community-Based Energy: Local Ownership of Renewable Energy
2006 (XLII) - Medicine: Prescription for Tomorrow
- Henry J. Aaron – Healthcare in America: Three Paradoxes
- J. Michael Bishop (Medicine '89) – Entering the Genomic Era
- Daniel Callahan – Affordable Healthcare: Reforming the Idea of Medical Progress
- James Orbinski – Family emergency prevented him from attending.
- Michael T. Osterholm – A Modern World and Infectious Diseases: A Collision Course
- Dame Julia M. Polak – Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
- Jennifer L. West – Biomimetic and Biofunctional Materials
Additional Participants
- Robert Brown – Research in Neurology: Unlocking the Cause and Optimal Treatment of Selected Disorders of the Brain
- James Hart – A Collaborative and Alternative Approach to Medicine of the Future
- William Manahan – A Collaborative and Alternative Approach to Medicine of the Future
- Dean V. Marek – Healing and Spirituality
- Anne L. Taylor – Population Variability and Cardiovascular Disease
2005 (XLI) - The Legacy of Einstein
- George F.R. Ellis – The Existence of Life in the Universe and the Crucial Issue of Ethics
- Wendy Freedman – The Legacy of Albert Einstein for Cosmology
- S. James Gates Jr. – Is Cosmic Concordance in Concomitance with Superstring/M-Theory?
- Wolfgang Ketterle (Physics '01) – Bose-Einstein Condensates and Other New Forms of Matter Close to Absolute Zero
- Thomas Levenson – The Education of Albert Einstein
- Kip S. Thorne – Warped Spacetime: Einstein’s General Relativity Legacy
Additional Participants
- Ira Flatow – Closing panel moderator
- John F. Haught – Issues in Science and Religion: Einstein and Religion
2004 (XL) - The Science of Aging
- Laura L. Carstensen – Motivation, Emotion and Aging
- Leonard Hayflick – Longevity Determinants, Aging and Age-Associated Disease
- Cynthia J. Kenyon – From Worms to Mammals: Regulation of Lifespan by Insulin/IGF-1 Signaling
- S. Jay Olshansky – Human by Design
- Dennis J. Selkoe – Aging, Amyloid and Alzheimer’s Disease
- Peter J. Whitehouse – The Dementia of Alzheimer’s Disease: The Wisdom of Just Aging
Additional Participants
- Richard Q. Elvee – Banquet moderator
- Joseph Gaugler – Caregiver and Healthcare Policy Issues
- Michael Hendrickson – Caregiver and Healthcare Policy Issues
- Gabe Maletta – Clinical Aspects of Alzheimer’s Disease: Assessment and Treatment
2003 (XXXIX) - The Story of Life
- Sean B. Carroll – Butterflies, Zebras, and Fairy Tales: Genetics and the Making of Animal Diversity
- Philip J. Currie – Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds
- Christian R. de Duve (Medicine '74) – Life Evolving
- Niles Eldredge – What Drives Evolution
- B. Rosemary Grant – Evolution of Darwin’s Finches
- Peter R. Grant – Evolution of Darwin’s Finches
- John F. Haught – God after Darwin: Evolution and Divine Providence
- Tim D. White – Evolution: A View from Afar
2002 (XXXVIII) - The Nature of Nurture
- Avshalom Caspi – The Child Is Father to the Man: Personality Development from Childhood to Adulthood
- Jerome Kagan – The Tapestry Woven by Biology and Experience
- Eric R. Kandel (Medicine '00) – Genes, Synapses, and Long Term Memory
- Eleanor E. Maccoby – The Nature of Children and Their Nurture by Parents
- Thomas H. Murray – Parents and Children: What We Value and How That Is Challenged by Cloning and New Reproductive Technologies
- Robert Plomin – Nature and Nurture: Genetic and Environmental Influences on Behavioral Development
- Judith L. Rapoport – Normal and Abnormal Brain Development in Children and Adolescents
2001 (XXXVII) - What is still to be discovered?
- Günter Blobel (Medicine '99) – Protein Targeting
- Edmond H. Fischer (Medicine '92) – How Proteins Speak to One Another in Cell Signaling
- Roald Hoffman (Chemistry '81) – Science and Ethics: A Marriage of Necessity and Choice for This Millennium
- Sir Harold W. Kroto (Chemistry '96) – Science: A Round Peg in a Square World
- Sir John R. Maddox – What Remains to Be Discovered
- Erling C.J. Norrby – A Century of Nobel Prizes
- Stanley B. Prusiner (Medicine '97) – Mad Cows, Demented People, and the Biology of Prions
2000 (XXXVI) - Globalization 2000: Economic Prospects and Challenges
- Jagdish N. Bhagwati – Globalization and Appropriate Governance
- John B. Cobb Jr. – The Stake of Christian Theology in Economic Globalization
- Amitai Etzioni – The Future of the Global Community
- Robert Mundell (Economics '99) – Does a Global Economy Need a Global Currency?
- Jeffrey D. Sachs – New Approaches to Helping the Poorest of the Poor in the Global Economy
- Michael Sohlman – Globalization—Some Reflections of a Practitioner
- Joseph E. Stiglitz – Globalization, Equity, and the Developing World
1999 (XXXV) - Genetics in the New Millennium
- Bruce Baker – The Molecular Basis of Sex
- Elizabeth Blackburn – Telomerase: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?
- Lindon Eaves – Revisiting the Biology of Ultimate Concern
- Dean Hamer – Genes for Human Behavior
- Leroy Hood – The Human Genome Project: Revolutions in Biology, Medicine, and Society
- Evelyn Fox Keller – Nature and Nurture in a Post-Genomic Age
- J. Craig Venter – Genomics in the Next Millennium
1998 (XXXIV) - Virus: The Human Connection
- Alfred Worchester Crosby – The History of Infectious Disease as a Characteristic of Civilization
- Robert C. Gallo – Some New Approaches to HIV and HIV Disease
- John J. Holland – Virus Evolution: Implications for Diseases
- Wolfgang K. Joklik – The Evolution of Virology: From the Beginnings of Molecular Biology to the Conquest of Viral Disease
- Elizabeth G. Nabel – Recombinant Gene Transfer: Lessons from Viruses and Applications to Human Disease
- Gary J. Nabel – Recombinant Gene Transfer: Lessons from Viruses and Applications to Human Disease
- Clarence J. Peters – Emerging Virus diseases: 5000 B.C. to the Present
- Ted Peters – Co-Evolution: Pain or Promise?
1997 (XXXIII) - Unveiling the Solar System: 30 Years of Exploration
- Alan P. Boss – Forming Star Systems, Here and Elsewhere
- Story Musgrave – An Artist’s View of the Universe
- F. Sherwood Rowland (Chemistry '95) – Our Changing Atmosphere
- Robert John Russell – How the Heavens Have Changed
- Carl Sagan – Scheduled to speak but died prior to conference.
- Roald Sagdeev – New Horizons for Solar System Exploration
- Eugene Shoemaker – Scheduled to speak but died prior to conference.
- David J. Stevenson – Formation of the Earth and the Origin of Life
- Edward C. Stone – The Search for Life Elsewhere
1996 (XXXII) - Apes at the End of an Age: Primate Language and Behavior in the '90s
- Biruté M.F. Galdikas – Reflections of Eden
- Gordon Kaufman – The Human Niche in Earth’s Ecological Order
- Tetsuro Matsuzawa – Chimpanzee Intelligence in the Laboratory and in the Wild
- Duane M. Rumbaugh – On the Psychology and Intelligence of Human, Ape and Monkey
- Sue Savage-Rumbaugh – Why Do We Limit Language to Homo sapiens?
- Frans B.M. de Waal – Chimpanzee Behavior and the Origins of Human Morality and Justice
- Richard W. Wrangham – Apes and the Evolution of Human Violence
1995 (XXXI) - The New Shape of Matter: Materials Challenge Science
- Philip W. Anderson (Physics '77) – New Physics of Metals: Fermi Surfaces without Fermi Liquids
- Susan N. Coppersmith – The Complexity of Materials
- Frederick Ferré – The Matter with Matter
- Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Physics '91) – Principles of Adhesion
- Harry B. Gray – Engineered Enzymes for Photosynthesis
- Harold W. Kroto (Chemistry '96) – C60 Buckminsterfullerene: The Celestial Sphere That Fell to Earth
- Silvan S. Schweber – The Metaphysics of Physics: The Landscape at the End of a Heroic Century
1994 (XXX) - Unlocking the Brain: Progress in Neuroscience
- Anders Björklund – Cell Transplants for Repair of the Damaged Brain
- Patricia Smith Churchland – Prospects for a Neurobiology of Consciousness
- Antonio Damasio – A Neurobiology for Emotion and Reason
- Apostolos Georgopoulos – Behavioral Neurophysiology of the Motor Cortex
- David Hubel (Medicine '81) – Eye, Brain and Perception
- Eric R. Kandel (Medicine '00) – Genes, Synapses and Memory
- Oliver Sacks – Neurology and the Soul
1993 (XXIX) - Nature Out of Balance: The New Ecology
- Daniel B. Botkin – Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the 21st Century
- Jared M. Diamond – New Guinea: A Biological Treasure House
- Thomas E. Lovejoy – National Biological Survey
- Robert McCredie May – Causes and Consequences of Biological Diversity
- Donella H. Meadows – Nature in Balance: A Vision
Transcript of Lecture - Bryan G. Norton – Finding Our Place: The Origins of Sustainability
- George Masters Woodwell – Science and Government: Revolutions in Store for the Third Millennium
1992 (XXVIII) - Immunity: The Battle Within
- Baruj Benacerraf (Medicine '80) – The Requirement of Antigen Processing and Presentation to Initiate Immunologic Response
- R. Michael Blaese – Gene Therapy: Medicine for the Future
- Robert C. Gallo – Human Retroviruses and Alterations of the Immune System: The Second Decade
- Philippa Marrack – T-Cells in Health and Disease
- Candace Pert – Immune System Neuro-Receptors: The Mind in the Body
- Holmes Rolston III – Immunity in Natural History
- Jonas Salk – The Immune System: The Mind of the Body
1991 (XXVII) - The Evolving Cosmos
- Timothy Ferris – Evolution of Interstellar Communications Systems
- William A. Fowler (Physics '83) – Early Nuclear Synthesis
- Margaret Geller – Where the Galaxies Are
- Edward Harrison – Our Evolving View of the Universe
- Ernan McMullin – Extrapolating to a Distant Past
- Phillip Morrison – Newton and Anti-Newton: Enforced Simplicity, Inaccessible Origins
1990 (XXVI) - Chaos: The New Science
- Mitchell Feigenbaum – The Transition to Chaos
- James Gleick – Chaos and Beyond
- Benoit Mandelbrot – The Fractal Geometry of Nature and Chaos
- Heinz-Otto Peitgen – The Beauty of Fractals
- John Polkinghorne – Chaos and Cosmos: A Theological Approach
- Ilya Prigogine (Chemistry '77) – Time, Dynamics, and Chaos: Integrating Poincaré’s “Non-Integrable Systems”
- Stephen Smale – On the Role of Mathematics in Chaos
1989 (XXV) - The End of Science?
- Sheldon Lee Glashow (Physics '79) – The Death of Science!?
- Ian Hacking – Disunified Sciences
- Sandra Harding – Why Physics Is a Bad Model for Physics: Feminist Issues
- Mary Hesse – Need a Constructed Reality Be Non-Objective? Reflections on Science and Society
- Gerald Holton – How to Think about the End of Science
- Gunther S. Stent – Cognitive Limits and the End of Science
1988 (XXIV) - The Restless Earth
- Don L. Anderson – Earth’s Interior: The Last Frontier
- W.G. Ernst – The Pacific Rim: Plate Tectonics, Continental Growth, and Geological Hazards and The Future of the Earth Sciences
- David Ray Griffin – The Restless Universe: A Postmodern View
- Jack Oliver – Plate Tectonics: The Discovery, the Lesson, the Opportunity
- David M. Raup – Catastrophes and the History of Life on Earth
- J. Tuzo Wilson – Some Controls That Greatly Affect Surface Responses to Mantle Convection beneath Continents
1987 (XXIII) - Evolution of Sex
- William Donald Hamilton – Sex and Disease
- Philip J. Hefner – Sex, for God’s Sake: Theological Perspectives
- Sarah Blaffer Hrdy – The Primate Origins of Female Sexuality and Raising Darwin’s Consciousness: Was There a Male Bias?
- Lynn Margulis – Sex in the Microcosm
- Dorion Sagan – Sex in the Microcosm
- Peter H. Raven – The Meaning of Flowers: Evolution of Sex in Plants
- John Maynard Smith – Theories of the Evolution of Sex
1986 (XXII) - The Legacy of Keynes
- Karl Brunner – The Sociopolitical Vision of Keynes
- James M. Buchanan (Economics '86) – Keynesian Follies
- Geoffrey C. Harcourt – The Legacy of Keynes: Theoretical Methods and Unfinished Business
- Axel Leijonhufvud – Whatever Happened to Keynesian Economics?
- Ronald Haydn Preston – The Ethical Legacy of John Maynard Keynes
- Baron Stig Ramel – The Swedish Model: Keynesian Policies Put into Practice
- Lester Thurow – Constructing a Microeconomics That Is Consistent with Keynesian Macroeconomics
- James Tobin (Economics '81) – Keynesian Economics and Its Renaissance
1985 (XXI) - The Impact of Science on Society
- Winston J. Brill – The Impact of Biotechnology and the Future of Agriculture
- Daniel J. Kevles – Genetic Progress and Religious Authority: Historical Reflections
- Salvador E. Luria (Medicine '69) – The Single Artificer
- J. Robert Nelson – Mechanistic Mischief and Dualistic Dangers in a Scientific Society
- Merritt Roe Smith – Technology, Industrialization, and the Idea of Progress in America
1984 (XX) - How We Know: The Inner Frontiers of Cognitive Science
- Daniel Dennett – Can Machines Think?
- Gerald Edelman (Medicine '72) – Neural Darwinism: Population Thinking and Higher Brain Function
- Brenda Milner – Memory and the Human Brain
- Arthur Peacocke – A Christian “Materialism”?
- Roger Schank – Modeling Memory and Learning
- Herbert Simon (Economics '78) – Some Computer Simulation Models of Human Learning
1983 (XIX) - Manipulating Life
- Christian Anfinsen (Chemistry '72) – Bio-Engineering: Short-Term Optimism and Long-Term Risk
- Willard Gaylin – What’s So Special about Being Human?
- June Goodfield – Without Laws, Oaths and Revolutions
- Clifford Grobstein – Manipulating Life: The God-Satan Ratio
- Karen Lebacqz – The Ghosts Are on the Wall: A Parable for Manipulating Life
- Lewis Thomas – The Limitations of Medicine as a Science
1982 (XVIII) - Darwin's Legacy
- Stephen Jay Gould – Evolutionary Hopes and Realities
- Richard E. Leakey – African Origins: A Review of the Record
- Sir Peter Medawar (Medicine '60) – The Evidences of Evolution
- Jaroslav Pelikan – Darwin’s Legacy: Emanation, Evolution, and Development
- Edward O. Wilson – Sociobiology: From Darwin to the Present
Additional Presenters
- Irving Stone – The Human Mind after Darwin
1981 (XVII) - The Place of Mind in Nature
- Ragnar Granit (Medicine '67) – Reflections on the Evolution of the Mind and Its Environment
- Wolfhart Pannenberg – Spirit and Mind
- Richard Rorty – Mind as Ineffable
- John Archibald Wheeler – Bohr, Einstein, and the Strange Lesson of the Quantum
- Eugene Wigner (Physics '63) – The Limitations of the Validity of Present-Day Physics
Additional Presenters
- Czesław Miłosz (Literature '80) – Reflections
1980 (XVI) - The Aesthetic Dimension of Science
- Freeman J. Dyson – Manchester and Athens
- Charles Hartshorne – Science as the Search for the Hidden Beauty of the World
- William N. Lipscomb Jr. (Chemistry '76) – Some Aesthetic Aspects of Science
- Gunther Schuller – Form and Aesthetics in Twentieth Century Music
- Chen Ning Yang (Physics '57) – Beauty and Theoretical Physics
Additional Presenters
- Isaac Bashevis Singer – On Beauty
1979 (XV) - The Future of the Market Economy
- Robert Benne – Ought the Market Economy Have a Future?
- Richard Lipsey – An Economist Looks at the Future of the Price System
- Kenneth McLennan – Redefining Government’s Role in the Market System
- Baron Stig Ramel – Sweden: How a Mixed Economy Gets Mixed Up
- Mark Willes – Rational Expectations and the Future of the Market System
1978 (XIV) - Global Resources: Perspectives and alternatives
- Ian Barbour – Justice, Freedom, and Sustainability
- Barry Commoner – A New Historic Passage: The Transition to Renewable Resources
- Garrett Hardin – An Ecolate View of the Human Predicament
- Tjalling C. Koopmans (Economics '75) – Projecting Economic Aspects of Alternative Futures
- Letitia Obeng – Benevolent Yokes in Different Worlds
1977 (XIII) - The Nature of Life
- Max Delbrück (Medicine '69) – Mind from Matter?
- René Dubos – Biological Memory and the Living Earth
- Sidney W. Fox – The Origin and Nature of Protolife
- Bernard M. Loomer – The Web of Life
- Peter R. Marler – In the Mind’s Eye: Perception and Innate Knowledge
Additional Presenters
- Elizabeth Shull Russell – Panelist
1976 (XII) - The Nature of the Physical Universe
- Murray Gell-Mann (Physics '69) – What Are the Building Blocks of Matter?
- Sir Fred Hoyle – An Astronomer’s View of the Evolution of Man
- Stanley L. Jaki – The Chaos of Scientific Cosmology
- Hilary W. Putnam – The Place of Facts in a World of Values
- Steven Weinberg (Physics '79) – Is Nature Simple?
- Victor F. Weisskopf – What Is an Elementary Particle?
1975 (XI) - The Future of Science
- Sir John C. Eccles (Medicine '63) – The Brian-Mind Problem as a Frontier of Science
- Langdon Gilkey – The Future of Science
- Polykarp Kusch (Physics '55) – A Personal View of Science and the Future
- Glenn T. Seaborg (Chemistry '51) – New Signposts for Science
Panelists
- Ian Barbour, Theologian
- John Cobb Jr., Theologian
- William Dean, Theologian
- Van Austin Harvey, Theologian
- Hans Schwartz, Theologian
- Christian Anfinsen (Chemistry '72)
- George Beadle (Medicine '58)
- Hans Bethe (Physics '67)
- Felix Bloch (Physics '52)
- Walter Brattain (Physics '56)
- Leon Cooper (Physics '72)
- André Cournand (Medicine '56)
- Christian de Duve (Medicine '74)
- Gerald Edelman (Medicine '72)
- Ulf S. von Euler (Medicine '70)
- Robert Hofstadter (Physics '61)
- Charles Huggins (Medicine '66)
- Simon Kuznets (Economics '71)
- Willis Lamb Jr. (Physics '55)
- Willard Libby (Chemistry '60)
- Fritz Lipmann (Medicine '53)
- Robert Mulliken (Chemistry '66)
- Lars Onsager (Chemistry '68)
- Julian Schwinger (Physics '65)
- Emilio Segre (Physics '59)
- William B. Shockley (Physics '56)
- Ernest Walton (Physics '51)
- Thomas Weller (Medicine '54)
- Chen Ning Yang (Physics '57)
Additional Presenters
- David Matthews – Closing Address
1974 (X) - The Quest for Peace
- Rubem Alves – Diagnosis of a Sickness: The Will to War
- Elisabeth Mann Borgese – The World Communities as a Peace System
- Polykarp Kusch (Physics '55) – Is Enduring Peace a Realistic Hope?
- Robert Jay Lifton – Survival and Transformation—From War to Peace
- Baron Stig Ramel – Nationalism and International Peace
- Paul A. Samuelson (Economics '70) – Economics and Peace
1973 (IX) - The Destiny of Women
- Mary Daly – Scapegoat Religion and the Sacrifice of Women
- Martha W. Griffiths – Legal and Social Rights and Responsibilities of Women
- Beatrix Hamburg – The Biology of Sex Differences
- Eleanor Maccoby – The Development of Sex Differences in Intellect and Social Behavior
- Johnnie Tillmon – The Changing Cultural Images of the Black Woman in America
1972 (VIII) - The End of Life
- Alexander Comfort – Changing the Life Span
- Ulf S. von Euler (Medicine '70) – Physiological Aspects of Aging and Death
- Nathan A. Scott Jr. – The Modern Imagination of Death
- Krister Stendahl – Immortality Is Too Much and Too Little
- George Wald (Medicine '67) – The Origin of Death
Additional Presenters
- Edgar M. Carlson – Moderator
1971 (VII) - Shaping the Future
- Norman E. Borlaug (Peace '70) – The World Food Problem—Present and Future
- John McHale – Shaping the Future: Problems, Priorities, and Imperatives
- Glenn T. Seaborg (Chemistry '51) – Shaping the Future—Through Science and Technology
- Joseph Sittler – The Perils of Futurist Thinking: A Common Sense Reflection
Additional Presenters
- Anthony J. Wiener – Faust’s Progress: Methodology for Shaping the Future
1970 (VI) - Creativity
- William A. Arrowsmith – The Creative University
- Jacob Bronowski – The Creative Process
- Willard F. Libby (Chemistry '60) – Creativity in Science
- Donald W. MacKinnon – Creativity: A Multi-faceted Phenomenon
- Gordon Parks – Creativity to Me
1969 (V) - Communication
- Leroy G. Augenstein – A Little Black Box Called the Mind
- Noam Chomsky – Form and Meaning in Natural Language
- Abraham Kaplan – The Life of Dialogue
- Eric H. Lenneberg – A Word between Us
- Peter R. Marler – Animals and Man: Communication and Its Development
Additional Presenters
- Edgar M. Carlson – Moderator
1968 (IV) - The Uniqueness of Man
- Theodosius Dobzhansky – The Pattern of Human Evolution
- Sir John C. Eccles (Medicine '63) – The Experiencing Self
- Ernan McMullin – Man’s Effort to Understand the Universe
- W.H. Thorpe – Vitalism and Organicism
- S.L. Washburn – The Evolution of Human Behavior
- Daniel Day Williams – The Prophetic Dimension
1967 (III) - The Human Mind
- Sir John C. Eccles (Medicine '63) – Evolution and the Conscious Self
- James M. Gustafson – Christian Humanism and the Human Mind
- Holger Hyden – Biochemical Aspects of Learning and Memory
- Seymour S. Kety – Biochemical Aspects of Mental States
- Francis O. Schmitt – Molecular Parameters in Brain Function
- Huston Smith – Human versus Artificial Intelligence
- Nils K. Stahle – The Nobel Foundation at Work
1966 (II) - The Control of the Environment
- Kenneth E. Boulding – The Prospects of Economic Abundance
- René Dubos – Adaptations to the Environment and Man’s Future
- Roger Revelle – The Conquest of the Oceans
- Carl T. Rowan – The Free Spirit in a Controlled Environment
- Glenn T. Seaborg (Chemistry '51) – The Control of Energy
Additional Presenters
- Orville L. Freeman – Convocation Speaker
1965 (I) - Genetics and the Future of Man
- Kingsley Davis – Sociological Aspects of Genetic Control
- H. Bentley Glass – The Effect of Changes in the Physical Environment on Genetic Changes
- R. Paul Ramsey – Moral and Religious Implications of Genetic Control
- Sheldon C. Reed – The Normal Process of Genetic Change in a Stable Physical Environment
- William B. Shockley (Physics '56) – Population Control or Eugenics
- Edward L. Tatum (Medicine '58) – The Possibility of Manipulating Genetic Change
Additional Presenters
- Philip S. Hench (Medicine '50) – Honorary Chair
- Polykarp Kusch (Physics '55) – Symposium Chair