Upcoming Conferences

Nobel Conference 59 (2023)

Insects: Little Body, Big Impact 
October 3-4

While the Bible declares that “the meek shall inherit the earth,” famed entomologist Thomas Eisner wryly observes “insects are not going to inherit the earth. They own it now. So we might as well make peace with the landlord.” Insects are tiny. Their effects–on us, and on their environment–are anything but. Consider: while less than one centimeter in length, mosquitoes infect close to 700 million people every year with pathogens causing a variety of diseases such as malaria, West Nile, and Zika, resulting in more than one million human deaths every year. Bees are only slightly larger than mosquitoes and their economic value as crop pollinators is worth more than $15 billion every year. Humans’ lives are inextricably connected with insects’, in ways that both benefit and harm us (and them). Insects also have their own lives that have nothing to do with us humans, but from which we might learn a great deal. If we observe, contemplate, and recreate facets of insects’ ways in the world, we may find in their lives the inspiration to constructively and creatively address many of the challenges of our time, from a global nutrition crisis to the challenges of social isolation. 

Confirmed 2023 Speakers

Michael Young, Rockefeller University, New York: Winner, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2017 
Jessica Ware, American Museum of Natural History, New York 
Shannon Olsson, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India 
Julie Lesnik, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 
Segenet Kelemu, International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya 
Peter Godfrey-Smith, University of Sydney, Australia 
May Berenbaum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Nobel Conference 2023 Poster Download 

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