17th Annual U.S. Symposium

October 27-29, 2005
Irvine, California

Sessions:

Addiction: Proximate Mechanisms and Ultimate Causes

Organizer: Kaoru Kitajima

Chair:
Addiction: Proximate Mechanisms and Ultimate Causes
Brian Knutson, Stanford University

Speakers:
Why Our Brain Gets Addicted: Insights from Neurobiology
Regina Carelli, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Addiction: An Evolutionary Perspective on Understanding Individual Differences in Risk and Resilience
Allyson Bennett, Wake Forest University

Design Principles of the Brain

Organizer: Stephanie White

Chair:
How Does Evolution Build A Complex Brain?
Leah Krubitzer, University of California, Davis

Speakers:
Using Constrained Optimization to Understad Brain Design
Dmitri Chklovskii, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Metabolic, Functional and Volumetric Constraints on Brain Architecture
Sam Wang, Princeton University

Do Black Holes Destroy Information?

Organizer: Vijay Balasubramanian

Chair:
Black Hole Basics
Donald Marolf, University of California, Santa Barbara

Speakers:
Observational Evidence for Supermassive Black Holes
Laura Ferrarese, National Research Council Canada
Ideas for Resolving the Black Hole Information Paradox
Per Kraus, University of California, Los Angeles

Frontiers in Synthetic Chemistry and Biology

Organizer: Milan Stojanovic

Chair:
From Synthetic Chemistry to Synthetic Biology
Anna Map, University of Michigan

Speakers:
Efforts to Expand the Genetic Alphabet
Floyd Romersberg, Scripps Research Institute

Programming Collaborative Behavior and Pattern Formation in Synthetic Multicellular Systems
Ron Weiss, Princeton University

Micro RNA/SiRNA

Organizer: Blanka Rogina

Chair:
MicroRNAs and Small Interfering RNAs
Frank Slack, Yale University

Speakers:
Micro RNA / SiRNA
Phillip D. Zamore, University of Massachusetts Medical School
RNAi
Gregory Hannon, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Past Earths

Organizer: Ted Bergin

Chair:
Astrobiology and Planetary Exploration: Contextualizing Life on Earth
David Grinspoon, Southwest Research Institute

Speakers:

Titan's Elusive World
Caitlin Griffith, University of Arizona
Sedimentary and Isotopic Charaterization of the Paleoproterozoic Glacial Interval
Alan Jay Kaufman, University of Maryland

What's Driving Climate Change?

Organizer: Christina Hulbe

Chair:
What's Driving Climate Change?
Eric Steig, University of Washington

Speakers:
Evidence for Forced Changes in Climate Modes in the Past
Gavin Schmidt, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Center for Climate Systems Research
Patterns of Climate Variability
Clara Deser, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Robot Learning

Organizer: Juan Gilbert

Chair:
Robot Learning
Peter Stone, University of Texas, Austin

Speakers:
Robot Learning: Human-Inspired Techniques for Space and Field Robotics
Ayanna Howard, NASA-JPL
Social Learning
Brian Scassellatti, Yale University

The Kavli Frontiers of Science symposium is sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences. Major support is provided by the Kavli Foundation, with additional funding from the National Academy of Sciences.

↑ Top

PROGRAMS