Bioethics Calendar Of Event
Event Title: Understanding Science for Public Choices

Date: 11/5/2009   Time: 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm

Place: Columbia University, Lerner Hall, Room 555 2920 Broadway, at 116th Street

Speaker: Martin Chalfie, Professor of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Jean Salençon, Professor Emeritus at the Ecole Polytechnique, President of the French Academie des Sciences; Claude Henry, Professor of Sustainable Development, Sciences Po & Columbia University

Sponsor: The Alliance Program and the School of International and Public Affairs

Contact Information: This event is open to the public. Please RSVP to the Alliance Program if you are planning to attend: mj2412@columbia.edu

Description:
Communicating the meaning of science to public policy-makers is a delicate and necessary challenge. In this panel discussion, Martin Chalfie, Jean Salençon and Claude Henry present the risks and rewards of helping policy-makers understand scientific relationships so that public policy decision-making reflects scientific integrity.

Martin Chalfie is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, where he is also the Department Chair. In 2008, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien for their discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Dr. Chalfie’s work investigates aspects of nerve cell development and function.

Jean Salençon is a Professor Emeritus at Ecole Polytechnique. In 2008, he was elected President of the French Academy of Sciences, and he is currently the chairman of the Institut de France. Dr. Salençon’s research focuses on structure analysis, soil mechanics, and continuum mechanics.

Claude Henry is a Professor of Sustainable Development at Sciences Po and a regular Visiting Professor at Columbia University. He is a member of the Committee on the Measure of Economic Performance and Social Progress, led by Joseph Stiglitz and Jean-Paul Fitoussi. In 1970, Claude Henry was the first scholar to articulate the ‘precautionary principle.’ He has taught at the Ecole Polytechnique for more than 30 years.