2012 Speakers + Nominate a Speaker
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 | From Discovery to Health: Does It Have to Be a Long and Winding Road?Francis S. Collins Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In this role he oversees the work of the world’s largest supporter of biomedical research, spanning the spectrum from basic to clinical research. |
 | Do your proteins have their own social network?Albert-László Barabási Albert-László Barabási is a Distinguished University Professor at Northeastern University, where he directs the Center for Complex Network Research, and holds appointments in the departments of physics, computer science and biology, as well as in the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women Hospital, and is a member of the Center for Cancer Systems Biology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. |
 | What happens when one person’s disease becomes everybody’s business?Gail McGovern Gail McGovern has invigorated the Red Cross, a $3.3 billion organization, by leading drives for financial stability and streamlined operations nationwide. Under her direction, the Red Cross eliminated its operating deficit in 2009 and has since maintained a balanced budget. McGovern has also initiated extensive modernization projects, including an overhaul of IT systems, nationwide expansion of Red Cross health and safety instruction, and a growing social media presence. |
 | The bugs are getting smarter. Are we?Andrew Read Andrew F. Read is a Professor of Biology and Entomology at Pennsylvania State University and director of PSU’s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics. His research focuses on the ecology and evolution of infectious disease research, particularly evolution driven by drugs, vaccines and insecticides that undermines human and animal wellbeing. |
 | Who are “Me, Myself and Us?”Jonathan Eisen A pioneer in the study of microbial diversity, Dr. Jonathan Eisen focuses on the development and use of high-throughput laboratory and computational methods to study microbes by analyzing their genomes. |
 | War On Cancer, Year 40: Who’s Winning?Otis Brawley Otis Webb Brawley, M.D., is the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, responsible for promoting cancer prevention, early detection, and high-quality treatment through cancer research and education. A world-renowned cancer expert and practicing oncologist, Brawley has also been a professor of hematology, oncology, and epidemiology at Emory University, medical director of the Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and deputy director for cancer control at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. He has also co-chaired the Surgeon General's Task Force on Cancer Health Disparities and filled a variety of capacities at the National Cancer Institute. |
 | Faster, higher, smarter: the Olympics? No, Uncle SamTodd Park Todd Park is HHS’s Chief Technology Officer, a post he has held since August 2009. In this role, his mission is to be a change agent and “entrepreneur-in-residence,” helping HHS harness the power of data, technology, and innovation to improve the health of the nation. |
 | Take 3 songs and call me in the morning, OK?JILL SOBULE Over five albums and a decade of recording, Jill Sobule has mused on topics such as the death penalty, anorexia, shoplifting, reproduction, the French resistance movement, adolescence and the Christian right. Early hit songs include "I Kissed a Girl" and "Supermodel." |
 | Can the power of poetry save your soul…and your cells?SEKOU ANDREWS As an award-winning and internationally acclaimed spoken word artist, playwright, actor and musician, Sekou has mastered the art of creating original, custom-written spoken word pieces that illuminate the core message for companies, conferences and non-profits – and, as a result, transform the audience from simply receivers into energized responders. Sekou’s formula for inspiration consists of taking an organization’s message and adding the stimulus of motivational speaking, the impassioned fire of slam poetry, the emotional engagement of theater, the levity of stand-up comedy, and the human journey of storytelling to create an original anthem that will make an event into an experience. |
 | Can the power of poetry save your soul…and your cells?STEVE CONNELL Steve Connell is a new breed of presenter: a multi-faceted hybrid, fusing poetry, comedy, motivational speaking, acting and storytelling into a transformative and original experience that has been captivating audiences around the world for the past several years. |
 | Why is my joystick smarter than your stethoscope?Seth Cooper Seth Cooper is the Creative Director of the Center for Game Science at the University of Washington, where he received his Ph.D. in computer science and engineering. His current research focuses on using video games to solve difficult scientific problems. He is co-creator, lead designer, and developer of Foldit, a scientific discovery game that has allowed video gamers to advance the field of biochemistry. He has also done research in real-time animation and motion capture for games, and has previously worked at Square Enix, Electronic Arts, Pixar Animation Studios and the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory (on BOINC). |
 | Where’s the rest of the data iceberg?Ben Goldacre An award-winning writer and broadcaster, Ben Goldacre was trained in medicine at Oxford and London and now works full time as a physician. Since 2003, he has written the weekly Bad Science column in The Guardian, where he debunks any and all unfounded scientific claims made by parties from government to journalists and pharmaceutical companies. His book Bad Science (4th Estate), published in 25 countries, has sold over 500,000 copies worldwide, topping the paperback non-fiction charts. Among Goldacre’s many awards are the Royal Statistical Society’s first Award For Statistical Excellence in Journalism, the Faculty of Public Health DARE Prize Lecture, an honorary doctorate from Herriott-Watt University, “Best Freelancer” at the Medical Journalists Awards 2006, the Healthwatch Award in 2006, and “Best Feature” at the British Science Writers Awards (twice). He was also shortlisted in the Samuel Johnson and Royal Society literary prizes in 2009. Goldacre is a frequent guest on numerous British television and radio programs and speaks regularly at conferences and events. He made The Rise of the Lifestyle Nutritionists, as well as the two-part documentary The Placebo Effect, for BBC Radio 4. He is currently producing a three-part documentary series for the BBC World Service. |
 | When you finally find your voice, what do you most want to say?Virginia Breen and Elizabeth Bonker Elizabeth Bonker is a talented young woman who, like any other 14-year-old, is simply trying to discover her place in this world – a task made infinitely more difficult by autism. Unable to speak, Ms. Bonker nevertheless illuminates the inner world of autism through the poems she types one finger at a time. In her recently published book, I Am in Here, she implores us through her poetry to look past the unusual behaviors of autism to see the intelligent people beyond the condition. Bonker wants to be a voice for those who cannot yet speak for themselves. Her goal is to help parents, doctors and educators understand that children affected by autism are not problems to be endured, but hidden treasures waiting to be discovered. Virginia Breen is the mother of three beautiful children, two of whom are profoundly affected by autism. She has contributed inspirational stories from the journey to Elizabeth’s poetry in I Am in Here. Besides working to heal her children, Breen has more than 25 years’ experience as a venture capitalist, investing in emerging growth companies, and she currently sits on a number of corporate and non-profit boards. Previously, she studied computer science and electrical engineering at Harvard, business at Columbia and eastern philosophies in Singapore. She says even in the darkest days, she knew Elizabeth was in there. |
 | Why should we engineer for uncertainty?Frances Arnold Frances H. Arnold is the Dick and Barbara Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. She is known for her pioneering work in the directed evolution of biological molecules. Arnold has more than 30 U.S. patents and has served as science advisor to a number of biotech companies, including Amyris, Codexis, Mascoma, and Gevo, a company she co-founded in 2005 to make fuels and chemicals from renewable resources. Among her many awards, the most recent is the 2011 Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering. She has been elected to all three U.S. National Academies—the National Academy of Engineering (2000), the Institute of Medicine (2004), and the National Academy of Sciences (2008). She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. |
 | Is the “disease model” sick – or just exhausted?Ivan Oransky - Ivan Oransky, M.D., is executive editor of Reuters Health and treasurer of the Association of Health Care Journalists' board of directors. He blogs at Embargo Watch |
 | Can you bring a 3-D cadaver back to life on the web?John Qualter John Qualter is a pioneer in the field of biomedical visualization, promoting the implementation of high-end 3D media in the healthcare industry. He co-founded BioDigital Systems in 2002 where he heads up digital content creation, consulting for clients in the device, pharmaceutical and communications industries. John is a Research Assistant Professor of Educational Informatics at New York University School of Medicine, where he works closely with radiologists, surgeons, and educators assisting in adding 3D models and animation into the medical school curriculum and physician training programs. At NYU, John has worked on projects including the Web Initiative for Surgical Education (WISE-MD), The Merrin Bedside Teaching Faculty Development Program, and The Patient Education Initiative. John is also adjunct faculty at NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies. John is currently directing the completion of the BioDigital Human virtual anatomy models in collaboration with NYU School of Medicine’s Division of Educational Informatics and the Anatomy Faculty. John obtained a Master of Science in Digital Imaging and Design from New York University’s Center for Advanced Digital Applications. He is also a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he studied studio art, digital media, and biology. |
 | Can Medical School be a “Fantastic Voyage?”Marc Triola Dr. Marc Triola is the Associate Dean for Educational Informatics at New York University School of Medicine. He directs the NYU School of Medicine Division of Educational Informatics (DEI), one of the largest medical educational technology laboratories in the country. Dr. Triola's research experience and expertise includes computer-based medical education, the use of Virtual Patients, and the assessment of change in knowledge and attitudes resulting from computer-assisted instruction. He chairs numerous committees at the state and national level, focused on the future of health professions educational technology development and research. DEI has played a key role in transforming medical education locally and is recognized internationally as a leader of innovation within medical education. Dr. Triola and DEI have been funded by the NIH, the IAIMS program, the National Science Foundation Advanced Learning Technologies Program, the Centers for Disease Control, and the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Triola is currently the Principal Investigator of a grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation to support the development of NYU 3T: Teaching, Technology, Teamwork, which provides NYU medical and nursing students with longitudinal exposure to a diverse patient population and systematic interdisciplinary education in the competencies of team-based care; the first large scale medical-nursing education collaborative at NYU. His first textbook, Biostatistics for the Biological and Health Sciences, was published by Addison Wesley. |
 | Can I wear my computer like a second skin?David Icke Dave Icke joined mc10 in March 2009, as the company’s first Chief Executive Officer. Based near Boston, Massachusetts, mc10 is a venture-backed advanced materials company focused on commercializing stretchable silicon technology. At the heart of mc10 is the ability to design and develop high performance circuits that are capable of being stretched, wrapped, and deformed continuously while maintaining their core function. The technology harnesses the electronic characteristics of single-crystalline silicon and leverages the well-established semiconductor foundry infrastructure to open new possibilities for the most demanding use cases. mc10 works with partners to enable products for novel cleantech, robotics, imaging, and biomedical applications. Prior to mc10, Dave was VP of Marketing at Advanced Electron Beams, a venture-backed cleantech company which makes the green factory of the future both possible and profitable. In parallel, Dave also served as the VP of Sales and VP of Engineering during different periods of his time at AEB. Prior to joining Advanced Electron Beams, Dave held several general management roles at Teradyne, a leading supplier of automated test equipment to the semiconductor industry in Boston, Massachusetts. While at Teradyne, Dave ran the Wireless and Consumer Business Units within the Semiconductor Test Division, with responsibility for annual sales of up to $500M. Before Teradyne, Dave held a series of customer-focused roles over eleven years with KLA-Tencor Corporation, the leading supplier of process control and yield enhancement solutions for semiconductor manufacturing based in Silicon Valley. Dave integrated an acquisition as VP of Marketing of the Electron Beam Review Division at KLA. Previously, Dave was Vice President of Marketing for the Wafer Inspection Division, KLA-Tencor's largest business. While at KLA-Tencor, Dave led several joint development projects leading to successful introduction of new products and technology in markets across Asia, USA and Europe. Earlier in his career, in applications engineering management roles at KLA, Dave worked closely with customers worldwide to introduce new wafer inspection products and manufacturing strategies. He began his professional career at Cypress Semiconductor as a Process Development Engineer. Dave received his Bachelors Degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He has a passion for productizing innovative technology which enables customers to change the way they do business. |
 | How will the world handle 300 million Alzheimer’s patients?Gregory Petsko Gregory A. Petsko is Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, where from 1994 to 2008 he served as Director of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center. Since 1996 he has held the title of Gyula and Katica Tauber Professor of Biochemistry and Chemistry, succeeding Professor William P. Jencks, the first holder of this chair. His awards include the Sidhu Award of the American Crystallographic Association for outstanding contributions to X-ray diffraction, the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award, and in 1991 the Max Planck Prize, which he shared with Professor Roger Goody of Heidelberg for their work on the origins of some human cancers. In 1995 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and received a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2001 he received the Lynen Medal (shared with Professor Janet Thornton) and was elected to the Institute of Medicine. In 2002, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2010 he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. He is the immediate Past-President of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He is also the President-Elect of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. His research interests include protein structure and function and the development of methods to treat age-related neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases. For the past ten years he has written a widely-read column on science and society. |
 | Whose risk is it anyway?Nick Boulis In addition to working as a physician with the Emory Clinic, Georgia’s largest and most comprehensive group practice, Dr. Nicholas Boulis is also a scientist and founder of the Boulis Laboratory. His research interests include biological neurorestoration and neuromodulation through the use of cell, protein and gene delivery to the nervous system. Boulis graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale University with distinction in intensive biology and philosophy majors and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard Medical School, winning the Harold Lamport Biomedical Research Award. During his residency at the University of Michigan, Boulis began to study the techniques of growth factor gene delivery in the nervous system. He founded his independent laboratory at the Cleveland Clinic in 2001, focusing on the use of neural gene therapy to alter neural and synaptic function and affect neuroprotection. The laboratory applied the former approach in the spinal cord to develop therapies for spasticity, while the latter approach was used for the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. In 2004, his interest in the delivery of biological therapeutics to the spinal cord lead to a collaboration with Clive Svendsen, Ph.D, for the transplantation of stem cells into the spinal cord. This work resulted in the development of techniques and devices that are currently in human trials for the treatment of ALS. The Boulis Laboratory continues highly translational work in spinal cord cell and gene therapies for neurodegenerative and functional disorders of the spinal cord. |
 | How do you calculate risk in treating an “incurable” disease?Jonathan Glass Jonathan D. Glass is Professor of Neurology and Pathology, and the Director of the Emory ALS Center in the Department of Neurology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is widely known for his research on the pathogenesis and prevention of nerve degeneration in neurological diseases, and for his work in human and experimental neuropathology. His laboratory currently focuses on the causes of nerve degeneration in animal models of neurological diseases, including the development of novel therapeutic interventions to prevent the death of nerve fibers. Dr. Glass is a passionate advocate for bringing science to the clinic, and involving patients in the study of their own disease. Collaboration with ALS patients, he is exploring the biological markers of disease activity and progression. He is also the principle investigator for the current first-in-human, phase 1 study of spinal cord injection of neural stem cells for patients with ALS (funded by Neuralstem, Inc) – which is the subject of his TEDMED talk. Dr. Glass is an active clinician who has been cited each year since 2001 as one of "America's Top Doctors" (Castle Connelly) and since 2005 as one of the very few neurologists in "Atlanta's Top Doctors" (Atlanta Magazine). He is also a teacher and mentor to young physicians and served as the director of Emory's Neurology residency program from 2001-2006. Dr. Glass received his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College (Vermont) and his MD from the University of Vermont. He trained in Neurology and Neuropathology at Johns Hopkins, where he was a faculty member until moving to Emory in 1996. |
 | What is the sugeon's flight simulator?Barbara Bass Barbara Lee Bass MD is the chair of the department of surgery at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas and Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College, A general surgeon with a practice in surgical oncology, Dr. Bass has enjoyed a 30 year career in academic surgery: treating patients, training young and mature surgeons, leading research programs in basic, translational and clinical research, and serving the profession of surgery with leadership roles. She served as Chair of the American Board of Surgery, the organization that certifies surgeons for practice, Chair of the Board of Governors and member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons, and President of the Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, among others. Dr. Bass has led initiatives to develop innovative pathways in surgical training and in the development of the first national system to measure the quality of surgery – the NSQIP. A member of many editorial boards, Dr. Bass has published widely in surgical quality and education, oncology, and physiology. Honors include the Nina Starr Brunwald and Olga Jonasson awards from the Association of Women Surgeons for her work in promoting and improving surgery as a career for women. Her most recent project is MITIE – the Methodist Institute for Technology innovation and Education, an education and research institute focused on retraining surgeons in practice in new technologies coupled to research on the development of technologies to improve that vital process. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Dr. Bass has previously held positions in the VA health care system and served on active duty as a Captain in the US Army Medical Corps. |
