Science Policy in the 21st Century

Friday, January 28, 2005

Debates on scientific issues from genetically modified organisms to climate change have been intense, especially when data are scarce or difficult to interpret. As a society we have trouble resolving these debates in part because the issues are politicized and in part because we lack objective procedures for setting policies based on sound science. Since we can expect many more such controversies in the twenty-first century, it makes sense to consider new mechanisms and institutions that could reduce controversy and lead to more effective policies. At this Joint Center conference, renowned author Michael Crichton will discuss these issues, which are an integral part of his new book, State of Fear.

For a comment on Crichton's book, please see Mr. David Sandalow's article, "Michael Crichton and Global Warming."

Click Here for a descripton of this Joint Center event by C-SPAN2. This event will air on C-SPAN2 this Sunday, February 20th at 10:45am..


AGENDA

Friday, January 28, 2005
12:15 p.m.–2:00 p.m.
Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

12:00 p.m.  Registration and Lunch


12:15 p.m.  Welcome

              ROBERT W. HAHN, AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies 
                     Introduction

              CHRISTOPHER DEMUTH, American Enterprise Institute         

             

              Keynote Speech

     

              Science Policy in the 21st Century

     

              MICHAEL CRICHTON


2:00 p.m.    Adjournment


To register online, please click here.


BIOGRAPHIES

Michael Crichton is a prolific author and filmmaker. His books have sold more than 100 million copies and have been translated into thirty languages, while twelve have been made into films. Called "the father of the techno-thriller," his novels include The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Jurassic Park, Timeline, Prey and State of Fear. He has also written four non-fiction books, including Five Patients, Travels, and Jasper Johns, and is the creator of the television series ER. He is the only person to have simultaneously had the number one book, the number one movie, and the number one television show in the United States. After graduating from the Harvard Medical School, Michael Crichton embarked on a career as a writer and filmmaker. Always interested in computers, Dr. Crichton ran a software company, FilmTrack, which developed computer programs for motion picture production in the 1980s; for this pioneering work he won an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Technical Achievement Award in 1995. His film Westworld was first feature film to employ computer-generated special effects. Dr. Crichton has won an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer's Guild of America award for ER. In 2003, a newly-discovered armored dinosaur was named for him: Crichtonsaurus bohlini. Crichton was named one of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People" by People magazine in 1992, but, he observes, never again.

Christopher DeMuth has been president of the American Enterprise Institute since 1986. He was previously a practicing lawyer, a consulting economist, a teacher at the Kennedy School of Government, and a White House official in the Reagan and Nixon administrations. His essays have appeared in The American Enterprise, the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The Public Interest, and the Harvard Law Review.

Robert W. Hahn is co-founder and executive director of the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center and a resident scholar at AEI. Previously, he worked for the Council of Economic Advisers. He also has served on the faculties of Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Hahn frequently contributes to leading scholarly journals and general-interest periodicals, including the American Economic Review, Yale Law Journal, Science, and the New York Times, He is the author of Reviving Regulatory Reform: A Global Perspective and In Defense of the Economic Analysis of Regulation. In addition, Dr. Hahn is co-founder of the Community Preparatory School--an inner-city middle school in Providence, Rhode Island, that provides opportunities for disadvantaged youth to achieve their full potential.