13th German-American Symposium

Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung – U.S. National Academy of Sciences

May 31-June 2, 2007
Irvine, California

Sessions:

Martian Geology

Organizers: Charles Keeton, Carrine Blank and Rainer Haag

Introductory Speaker:
Martian Geology
Victoria E. Hamilton, University of Hawai'i

Speakers:
The Watery Past of Mars
Jim Bell, Cornell University

Evidence for recent climate change on Mars as seen in High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) images
Ernst Hauber, DLR-Institut fuer Planetenforschung

Talking with your Bugs

Organizers: Todd Klaenhammer and Annette Peters

Introductory Speaker:
Microbial genomics: From single species to whole environments
Karen E. Nelson, The Institute for Genomic Research

Speakers:
Microbe-host interactions in the development of degenerative chronic diseases in Western societies
Dirk Haller, Technische Universitat Munchen

Too Much of a Good Thing: Microbes and Obesity
Ruth Ley Washington, University School of Medicine

Physics of Socio-Economic Systems

Organizers: Stefan Bornholdt and Lada Adamic

Introductory Speaker:
Introduction to Physics of Socio-Economic Systems
Thomas Lux, University of Kiel

Speakers:
From Collective Intelligence to Crowd Disasters: Spontaneous Emergence and Breakdown of Social Order
Dirk Helbing, Dresden University of Technology

Fat-Tails and the Physics of Financial Markets
Lisa Borland, Evnine & Associates, Inc.

Regenerative Medicine

Organizers: Rüdiger Blaschke and Daniel Tracey

Introductory Speaker:
Regenerative Medicine
Johannes Schwarz, University of Leipzig

Speakers:
Turning Embryonic Cells into Adult Cells and All the Way Back Again
Konrad Hochedlinger, Massachusetts General Hospital

Directions for Regenerative Medicine in the Adult
Laura Niklason, Yale University

Bio-Inspired Materials

Organizers: Patricia Clark and Regine von Klitzing

Introductory Speaker:
Bio-inspired materials
Thomas Scheibel, Technische Universitat Munchen

Speakers:
Form Follows Function: Bioinspired innovative materials and systems
Karin Jacobs, Universitat des Saarlandes

Protein-aided nanofabrication: merging biology and nanotechnology
Francois Baneyx, University of Washington

Human Dispersal

Organizers: Antje Schwalb and Charles Delwiche

Introductory Speaker:
Human Dispersal
Christine Hertler, University of Franfurt

Speakers:
First migration of modern humans out of Africa: The fossil evidence
Katerina Harvati, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

Genetic Insights into Prehistoric Human Dispersal
Joanna Mountain, Stanford University

Evolutionary Game Theory

Organizers: Stefan Bornholdt and John Logsdon

Introductory Speaker:
Evolutionary Game Theory
Christoph Hauert, Harvard University

Speakers:
Playing with sounds. How evolutionary game theory helps to explain features of natural languages
Gerhard Jager, University of Bielefeld

Information and Evolution
Michael Lachmann, Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

Mate Choice

Organizers: Nirao Shah, Ilse Storch and Ludwig Aigner

Introductory Speaker:
Mate Choice: Introduction
Molly Cummings, University of Texas, Austin

Speakers:
Mechanisms of Pheromone-Mediated Social Behavior
Lisa Stowers, The Scripps Research Institute

Mechanisms Influencing Female Mate Choice: from the Peripheral to the Central Nervous System
Molly Cummings, University of Texas, Austin

PROGRAMS