U.S. Frontiers of Science

Third Annual Symposium on Frontiers of Science

National Academy of Sciences
Irvine, California
November 7-9, 1991

1991 Program
(Topics are listed in alphabetical order)

Astrophysics: Looking Inside the Sun
ORGANIZER:
William Press, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
SPEAKERS:
Ken Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology - Helioseismic Observations of the Solar Interior
Doug Gough, Cambridge University, UK - Physical Inferences from Solar Oscillations
John Wilkerson, Los Alamos National Laboratory - Solar Neutrinos Probing the Sun or Neutrinos?

Biology: Basic Science Related to AIDS
ORGANIZERS:
Eric Lander, Whitehead Institute and Kevin Struhl, Harvard Medical School
SPEAKERS:
Eric Hunter, University of Alabama-Birmingham - Cell/Virus Interactions Involved in Retrovirus Replication
Richard Young, Whitehead Institute - Games that HIV and Molecular Geneticists Play

Computer Science: Aspects of Theoretical Computer Science
ORGANIZER:
Robert Tarjan, Princeton University
SPEAKERS:
Laszlo Babai, University of Chicago - Transparent Proofs
Maria Klawe, University of British Columbia - Geometry and Graphics: Challenges in Complexity
F. Thomson Leighton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - The Role of Randomness in Computer Architecture

Geosciences: Earthquake Prediction
ORGANIZER:
Maria McNutt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
SPEAKERS:
Thomas Heaton, US Geological Survey, Pasadena - The Physics of Earthquake Recurrence
William Ellsworth, US Geological Survey, Menlo Park - Clocks in the Earth
DISCUSSION PANEL:
Thorne Lay, University of California, Santa Cruz
Joann Stock, Geological Museum, Harvard
Kerry Sieh, California Institute of Technology
Duncan Agnew, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Geosciences: Mass Extinctions
ORGANIZERS:
Marcia McNutt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Richard Muller, University of California, Berkeley
SPEAKERS:
Walter Alvarez, University of California, Berkeley - The Link Between Large-body Impact on Earth and Biological Mass Extinction
Jan Smit, Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands - The Geological Record of Mass Extinctions
Piet Hut, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton - Astronomical Mechanisms for Multiple Impacts
Discussion Leader: Alessandro Montanari, University of California, Berkeley

Materials Science: Quantum Confined Semiconductors
ORGANIZERS:
Robert Cava, AT&T Bell Laboratories and Mark Davis, California Institute of Technology
SPEAKERS:
Kerry J. Vahala, California Institute of Technology - Quantum Wires and Quantum Dots
Michael L. Steigerwald, AT&T Bell Laboratories - Molecular Particles of Semiconductor Solids
David Rudman, NIST, Boulder, CO - Atomic Layer Growth of Thin Films

Mathematics: Topology
ORGANIZER:
William Thurston, Princeton University
SPEAKERS:
Michael H. Freedman, University of California, San Diego - A Lecture on the Energy of a Knot (or an Unknot)
Michael J. Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Recent Progress in Algebraic Theory

Physics: Manipulating Atoms by Laser Atom Trapping and Scanning Tunneling Tips
ORGANIZERS:
Sylvia Ceyer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Robert Cava, AT&T Bell Laboratories
SPEAKERS:
Steven Chu, Stanford University - Neutral Particle Manipulation with Light
Donald M. Eigler, IBM Almaden Research Center - Atomic and Molecular Manipulation with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope