The Upcoming Neuroscience and Public Policy Seminar will take place next Friday, March 4.
Speaker: Bruce Alberts, Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Emeritus, UCSF; Editor-in-chief, Science magazine; U.S. Science Envoy
"Science and the World’s Future" [pdf]
Friday, March 4th, 4pm in the Genetics Biotech Center Auditorium (Room 1111)
The world badly needs the innovation that comes from continual scientific and technical advances. More than ever before, it is critical that we work together to constantly improve our institutions and our structures for science, so that we can make maximum use of our intellectual and financial resources. This requires that we reward risk-taking and that we support vigorous mechanisms for creating a random, cross-disciplinary collision of different scientific approaches and ideas.
The knowledge and the problem-solving skills of scientists are critical for every nation, no matter how rich or poor. Every society also needs the values of science: honesty, generosity, and a respect for all ideas and opinions regardless of their source of origin. From my 12 years as president of the US National Academy of Sciences, I came to recognize that, for the long run success of science, we will need talented people from the scientific community in a wide variety of different professions. This will require that our university science departments greatly enlarge their view of their mission, and that we create new pathways to move scientists into positions where they can make a difference in public policy, industry, government, journalism, law, commerce, community colleges, and our public school systems.
For more information, contact Jessica Karis at 608-262-4932 or karis@wisc.edu.