Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities · 16-20 February 2006 St. Louis Missouri
Message to Members : The Meeting Ground of Challenge and Opportunity
Annual Meeting Highlights:
Photo Journal
Special Events
The President's Address
Plenary Lectures
Scientific Sessions
Award Recipients
Complete Press Coverage
NOTE: We've changed the format of this newsletter slightly, and where possible are no longer displaying long web addresses. Click instead on the hyperlinked text to view related stories and full articles.
Message to Members
THE MEETING GROUND OF CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY
Dear AAAS Member,
Thousands of researchers, educators, policy-makers, journalists, students, and families shared the inspiration of discovery at our 2006 Annual Meeting: Grand Challenges, Great Opportunities.
More than 200 symposia, lectures, seminars, and other events marked the year's most important gathering for interaction among scientific disciplines and advancement of scientific initiatives. Topics ranged from glacier velocity in Greenland to a more aggressive antipoverty movement worldwide. A special session focused on policies that are suppressing scientific freedom. Special emphasis was placed on students and younger scientists, including an evolution event for teachers, an American Junior Academy of Science poster competition, Family Science Days, and prizes and awards.
I would like to thank all who joined us in St. Louis . For those who could not attend, this issue of Advances details the highlights and provides links to the extensive coverage on our website.
Sincerely,
Alan I. Leshner, CEO, AAAS
P.S. It's not too early to mark your calendar for our 2007 Annual Meeting, "Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being," 15-19 February in San Francisco , California .Click here for information and to submit a symposium proposal, due 8 May.
A Photo Journal of the Annual Meeting
Take a virtual tour of Family Science Days,
plenary lectures, the awards ceremonies,
and the Exhibit Hall.
Annual Meeting Special Events
Teachers, Scientists, and Clergy Join Forces at Evolution Event
More than 400 educators from the St. Louis area and beyond took a frank look at the challenges of teaching evolution and defending scientific integrity in the classroom. Access full coverage, including the introduction video played at the event, videos of the speakers, slides, and links to related stories and resources.
AAAS Board of Directors Issues New Evolution Statement
Denouncing legislation and policies that undermine the teaching of evolution and deprive students of the tools they need to function in a technological, global community, the AAAS Board of Directors reconfirmed its original 18 October 2002 statement, saying that they see no conflict between religion and education. The statement opened the teachers' event.
Kids and Parents Revel in Family Science Days
Crawling through a limestone cave, riding gyroscope-embedded vehicles, creating floating raindrops -- hundreds of kids, parents, and teachers experienced the fun of science through hands-on workshops and demonstrations. The popular event, held every year during the Annual Meeting, is designed to bring science to the public and boost interest in science careers.
Celebrating the Ability to Overcome Disability
Thirty years ago, AAAS launched the Project on Science, Technology, and Disability. To celebrate the project, and its ten-year-old Entry Point! internship program, a panel of alumni spoke at a special luncheon. Scientists and engineers with disabilities have benefited from more than four hundred paid internships that assist the transition from school to workplace. Read about their abilities and achievements.
Embracing Diversity in Science and Technology
Students, young scientists and engineers, and established professionals gathered to hear about progress and challenges in S&T fields worldwide from AAAS Chair Shirley Ann Jackson and other leaders at the Women and Minorities in Science Forum. Find out about the need for further efforts in many developing countries despite the growing global culture of inclusion.
Annual Meeting Featured Speakers
THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS
PLENARY LECTURES
Topics covered by a group of renowned scientists and scholars who spoke at the Annual Meeting include:
Aquaporin Water Channels: From Atomic Structure to Clinical Medicine
Peter Agre, Vice Chancellor for S&T, Duke University Medical Center
Related Story: Laureate Peter Agre: Why the Nobels Are Important
Chemist Peter Agre gave a guided tour of his landmark 1991 discovery, for which he won a 2003 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, and added a wry view of his reaction.
The History of Nature: Why Aren't We Teaching It in Our Schools?
Ursula Goodenough, Professor of Biology, Washington University
Related story: Natural Science: The Cosmic View
Cell biologist Ursula Goodenough walked through her survey course that weaves a narrative from the Big Bang to plate tectonics, discussing how this approach to teaching could enhance regular science instruction in U.S. high schools and create lifelong interest. Includes a link to the PowerPoint presentation.
Science and the Sustainability Transition
Pamela Matson, Chester Naramore Dean, School of Earth Sciences , Stanford University
Flesh and Machines: The Interwoven Future of Robots and People
Rodney Brooks, Director, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Panasonic Professor of Robotics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Annual Meeting Scientific Sessions
More than 200 symposia, plenary and topical lectures, seminars, presidential tracks, and other sessions covered cutting-edge topics. Many speakers provided abstracts that may be accessed. Search for symposia and find related abstracts here .
A sampling of sessions:
A Nice Star System to Call Home
Margaret Turnbull, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, announced her short list of star systems or "habstars" that may harbor zones of habitability where life—primitive or otherwise—might thrive.
Greenland's Accelerating Glaciers
Eric Rignot from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and co-author of a new study published in Science 17 February, announced findings showing that Greenland is dumping ice into the Atlantic Ocean at a rate that has almost doubled in five years. Read how glacier velocity caused by the spread of warmer temperatures may be responsible.
Mathematics in Fact and Fiction
Leading mathematicians discussed the changing nature of the mathematics proof that takes math, seen by popular culture as the province of the lone genius, into a very different and crowded landscape. Read more about the increasingly complex, computer-assisted proof.
Reducing Poverty with Science and Technology
A panel of researchers and policy experts led an Annual Meeting forum for U.S. and international reporters to heighten public awareness and urge more aggressive global antipoverty efforts. Read the troubling facts about the tragedy of tens of thousands of deaths daily that could be prevented by effectively using the science, technology, and medical tools available today.
The Cultured Ape
A panel of primate researchers discussed human-like cultural behaviors of orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees at a press briefing during the Annual Meeting. Read what complex monkey cultures are revealing about humanity.
AAAS Annual Award and Prize Recipients
We congratulate the distinguished scientists, engineers, educators, and journalists who were honored during the Annual Meeting for their commitment to advancing the scientific enterprise. They work in different fields and pursue different goals, but the 2005 AAAS award winners have a lot in common: their positive impact on science and humanity worldwide. Read about the winners.
Related story: Scientists, Educators and Communicators Win AAAS Awards
AAAS Philip Hauge Abelson Prize
AAAS Award for International Scientific Cooperation
AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility
AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology
AAAS Mentor Award
AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement
AAAS Science Journalism Awards
Sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development L.L.C.
AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize
AAAS/Suburu SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books
Young Scientist Award
Supported by GE Healthcare
Related Story: Biophysicist Ahmet Yildiz Wins GE/ Science Young Scientist Award
Merck/AAAS School Awards
Eleven U.S. colleges and universities, winners of the Undergraduate Science Research Program, will receive grants for their biology and chemistry departments. Read about the winners of the award competition funded by the Merck Institute for Science Education and administered by AAAS.
Complete Press Coverage
Access complete news from the Annual Meeting