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. Video presentations from recent conferences may be accessed from this page as well. 

The College bestows honorary degrees upon Nobel laureates visiting the campus. 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). Presenters who are Nobel laureates are identified as such: the prize and year they won are listed after their name.

The college archives contain a wealth of materials about past conferences, including programs, planning documents, publicity materials and written transcripts of lectures not available electronically. You can locate a finding aid to the collection here. 

2020 (LVI) - Cancer in the Age of Biotechnology

WATCH ARCHIVED PRESENTATIONS

2019 (LV) - Climate Changed: Facing Our Future

Watch Archived Presentations

2018 (LIV) - Living Soil: A Universe Underfoot

WATCH ARCHIVED PRESENTATIONS

2017 (LIII) - Reproductive Technology: How Far Do We Go?

WATCH ARCHIVED PRESENTATIONS

2016 (LII) - In Search of Economic Balance

2016 Nobel Conference Poster

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2015 (LI) - Addiction: Exploring the Science and Experience of an Equal Opportunity Condition

2015 Poster

Watch Archived PresentationsClassroom Resources

 

2014 (L) - Celebrating 50 Years of the Nobel Conference: Where Does Science Go from Here?

2014 Poster

Watch Archived PresentationsClassroom Resources

*Freeman Dyson was unable to attend. A link to his talk at another event has been included.

 

2013 (XLIX) - The Universe at Its Limits

2013 Poster

Watch Archived PresentationsClassroom Resources

 

2012 (XLVIII) - Our Global Ocean

2012 Poster

Watch Archived PresentationsClassroom Resources

 

2011 (XLVII) - The Brain and Being Human

2011 Poster

Watch Archived PresentationsClassroom Resources

 

2010 (XLVI) - Making Food Good

2010 Poster

Watch Archived PresentationsClassroom Resources

Additional Participants

 

2009 (XLV) - H2O Uncertain Resource

2009 Poster Watch Archived Presentations

Additional Participants

 

2008 Poster

2008 (XLIV) - Who Were the First Humans?

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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

2007 Poster

Watch Archived Presentations

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

2006 Poster

Watch Archived Presentations

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 Poster

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

2004 Poster

  • 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

2003 Poster

  • 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

2002 Poster

  • 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?

2001 Poster

  • 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

2000 Poster

  • 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

1999 Poster

  • 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

1998 Poster

  • 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

1997 poster

  • 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

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1996 Poster

For nearly a generation, research into primate studies shed little light on human language and behavior. That may well have been by intent. Until recently, most primate researchers believed that human language was distinct and, as such, was separable from everything nonhuman. That point was well illustrated on the Gustavus campus nearly 30 years ago, when presenters for Nobel Conference® IV, "The Uniqueness of Man," rejected the notion of studying apes in order to learn about humans.

Today, the argument may have turned to support an early theory formed by evolutionist Charles Darwin, who anticipated continuity in mental and behavioral processes among primates. While there are important exceptions, it has become increasingly clear to researchers that animals developed their identities largely through historical cultures, not essential laws of physiology. With that in mind, the study of apes has taken on new importance as a way to better understand the roots of human language and behavior.

This year, Nobel Conference® XXXII, "Apes at the End of an Age: Primate Language and Behavior in the '90s," has assembled six of the world's finest primatologists to discuss these new and exciting developments in their field. We invite you to join us as we learn about primates on the brink of human consciousness, and how research into their language and behavior holds implications for human intellectual development.

  • Biruté M.F. Galdikas, Professor of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Canada
    • Reflections of Eden
  • Gordon Kaufman, Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity Emeritus, Harvard Divinity School
    • The Human Niche in Earth’s Ecological Order
  • Tetsuro Matsuzawa, Professor, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan
    • Chimpanzee Intelligence in the Laboratory and in the Wild
  • Duane M. Rumbaugh, Director, Language Research Center, Georgia State University
    • On the Psychology and Intelligence of Human, Ape and Monkey
  • Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Professor of Biology and Psychology, Georgia State University
    • Why Do We Limit Language to Homo sapiens?
  • Frans B.M. de Waal, Research Professor, Yerkes Primate Research Center, Emory University
  • Richard W. Wrangham, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University
    • Apes and the Evolution of Human Violence

 

1995 (XXXI) - The New Shape of Matter: Materials Challenge Science

1995 Poster

Experimentalists, the diversifiers of the scientific world, have both revealed and created the rich texture of the universe. Theorists, the unifiers of science, have traditionally met this challenge by establishing a framework for understanding this experimental diversity. 

But in the past quarter century, this fundamental balance has changed. Much of today's leading technologies have been created with little or no theoretical guidance. For example, while synthetic chemists have created and improved polymers over several decades, they have done so with only limited theoretical constructs for understanding polymer behavior. The discovery of ceramic superconductors in the mid-1980s challenged physicists to reformulate theories developed for metallic superconductors in the 1950s. And today, advances in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray spectroscopy and atomic resolution microscopy, coupled

with the wide availability of inexpensive high-speed computing, have enabled organic chemists and biochemists to investigate larger and more complex molecules without a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding how this new technology could be applied.

During Nobel Conference® XXXI, "The New Shape of Matter: Materials Challenge Science," an international group of experimental scientists will discuss their work on the cutting edge of scientific creation. The Nobel panel also will include modern-day theorists, who will seek to bring meaning and purpose to these discoveries. We invite you to attend a conference that promises to explore the farthest frontiers of materials science.

  • Philip W. Anderson (Physics '77), Princeton University
    • New Physics of Metals: Fermi Surfaces without Fermi Liquids
  • Susan N. Coppersmith, James Franck Institute, University of Chicago
    • The Complexity of Materials
  • Frederick Ferré, Department of Philosophy, University of Georgia
    • The Matter with Matter
  • Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (Physics '91), Collège de France, Paris
    • Principles of Adhesion
  • Harry B. Gray, Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology
    • Engineered Enzymes for Photosynthesis
  • Harold W. Kroto (Chemistry '96), School of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, University of Sussex, England
    • C60 Buckminsterfullerene: The Celestial Sphere That Fell to Earth
  • Silvan S. Schweber, Martin Fisher School of Physics, Brandeis University
    • The Metaphysics of Physics: The Landscape at the End of a Heroic Century

 

1994 (XXX) - Unlocking the Brain: Progress in Neuroscience

1994 Poster

Dramatic advances in our understanding of how the human brain functions have been made in the past decade.Rapid growth in what is known about the biochemistry of brain cells, development of network models of neural processing, and technological advances in our ability to watch the brain at work all promise even further advances. Indeed, the National Science Foundation has declared the 1990s to be the "Decade of the Brain." The 1994 Nobel Conference will offer its audience an opportunity to hear what leading researchers think about how the brain performs its tasks. Emphasis will be placed on how changes in the tools we use to study the brain have heightened our level of understanding.

The 1994 Nobel speakers will address a number of very interesting questions: Are the connections within the brain fixed at birth, or subject to change with experience? How can a visual image of the activity of the brain improve our understanding of motor control, language, and memory? To what extent can we use a computer as a model for understanding how the brain works? What changes in the brain are associated with diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's? Can these changes be reversed?

We hope that this conference will demonstrate the fruits of interdisciplinary research efforts, introduce the broad range of questions which challenge those who are trying to understand how the brain works and most of all, increase our appreciation of the human mind. We invite you to attend a conference which we are confident will be both fascinating and stimulating.

  • Anders Björklund, Neurology Section, University of Lund, Sweden
    • Cell Transplants for Repair of the Damaged Brain
  • Patricia Smith Churchland, Department of Philosophy, University of California-San Diego
    • Prospects for a Neurobiology of Consciousness
  • Antonio Damasio, Department of Neurology, College of Medicine, University of Iowa
    • A Neurobiology for Emotion and Reason
  • Apostolos Georgopoulos, Brain Sciences Center, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Minneapolis
    • Behavioral Neurophysiology of the Motor Cortex
  • David Hubel (Medicine '81), Harvard Medical School
    • Eye, Brain and Perception
  • Eric R. Kandel (Medicine '00), Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University
    • Genes, Synapses and Memory
  • Oliver Sacks, Clinical Professor of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine
    • Neurology and the Soul

 

1993 (XXIX) - Nature Out of Balance: The New Ecology

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1993 Poster

As the dominant species on the planet Earth, human beings have not been good caretakers of their world. Many environmentally-concerned citizens and political leaders believe that by-products of an industrialized world, including threats to the integrity of nature, diversity of species, or impoverishment of ecosystems, are threatening our environment and, ultimately, the sustainability of all life. Solutions to these problems do not come easily. While the world's environmental problems arise from a combination of political, social and economic factors, long-term solutions must be based on the science of ecology. This science has been working for more than a century to unravel the complexities of the world's natural ecosystems.

In the past 15 years, however, scientists have learned that disturbances–such as fires and hurricanes–play a natural role in ecosystems. Scientists have also found that the traditional solution of reducing an ecological system to its smallest parts will not explain the behavior of the whole. People all over the world are becoming increasingly interested in ecological issues. During this Nobel Conference, our hope is to raise public awareness about the most recent trends and discoveries in the new ecology.

 

1992 (XXVIII) - Immunity: The Battle Within1992 Poster

1991 (XXVII) - The Evolving Cosmos

1991 Poster

  • 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

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1990 Poster

1989 (XXV) - The End of Science?

1989 Poster

  • 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

1988 Poster

  • 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

1987 Poster

  • 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

1986 Poster

  • 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

1985 Poster

  • 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

1984 Poster

  • 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

1983 Poster

  • 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

1982 Poster

  • 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

1981 Poster

  • 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

1980 Logo

  • 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

1979 Logo

  • 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

1978 Logo

  • 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

1977 Logo

  • 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

1976 Logo

  • 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

1975 Logo

  • 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

1970 Logo

  • 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