President's Address

David Baltimore, Ph.D.

AAAS President; Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology, California Institute of Technology

Baltimore is one of the world's leading biologists and a co-recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of reverse transcriptase. Since then, he has published more than 600 papers, including seminal research on the genetics of cancer, the workings of the HIV virus and AIDS vaccine candidates, and fundamental observations in molecular immunology. He was founding director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and president of Rockefeller University and Caltech. Today he heads the Baltimore Lab at Caltech, with support from the Gates Foundation, to look for ways to genetically boost the immune system against infectious pathogens, particularly HIV. Throughout his career, Baltimore has influenced science policy. He helped set standards for recombinant DNA technology and received the 1999 National Medal of Science in part for his work on AIDS research policy. Today he is outspoken about what he sees as government efforts to distort and suppress scientific research.

Invited Address

His Excellency Paul Kagame

President of the Republic of Rwanda

Born in October 1957 in Ruhango, Southern Province, Kagame's family fled Rwanda in 1960 to escape persecution and ethnic programs that characterized the nation in subsequent decades. In 1990, he returned after 30 years in exile to lead the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA) in a liberation struggle that succeeded in 1994. In 2000, he was unanimously elected President by the Transitional National Assembly, and three years later, he became the first democratically elected President of Rwanda. Confronting deep poverty and the aftermath of genocide, Kagame has demonstrated his strong support of plans to pursue sustainable development that are built on science and education to achieve growth and prosperity. He has received achievement awards and international recognition for uniting and reconciling Rwandans, promoting the use of Information and Communication Technologies for the overall development of the African continent, furthering gender mainstreaming and addressing social and cultural barriers that impede the involvement and advancement of women in national affairs, and abolishing the death penalty.

Judith Rodin, Ph.D.

President, Rockefeller Foundation

Climate Change Adaptation: The Next Great Challenge for the Developing World

Rodin trained as a research psychologist and was the first woman to serve as president of an Ivy League institution, the University of Pennsylvania. A pioneer in the behavioral medicine movement, she taught at New York University before embarking on 22 years on the faculty at Yale and then becoming provost. Today she leads the Rockefeller Foundation, established in 1913 by John D. Rockefeller Sr., to "promote the well-being" of humanity by addressing the root causes of serious problems. The Foundation works around the world to expand opportunities for poor or vulnerable people and to help ensure that globalization's benefits are more widely shared. With assets of nearly $4 billion, it is one of the few institutions to conduct such work both within the United States and internationally. Rodin serves on several leading nonprofit and corporate boards. She has written or co-written 12 books, including most recently The University and Urban Revival. She served on President Clinton's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology. A member of several leading academic societies, including the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, she has received 14 honorary doctorate degrees.

Nina V. Fedoroff, Ph.D.

Special Adviser, Science and Technology, U.S. Department of State; Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and Willaman Professor of Life Sciences, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University

Making the World Flat: Science and Technology in the Developing World

In August 2007, Fedoroff was named the Science and Technology Adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. She holds an academic post as the Evan Pugh Professor of Biology and Willaman Professor of Life Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, where she is also founding director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. As a leading geneticist and molecular biologist, she has contributed to the development of modern techniques used to study and modify plants. Her book, Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods, examines the scientific and societal issues surrounding the introduction of genetically modified crops. She received the 2006 National Medal of Science for her pioneering work on plant molecular biology and for being the first to clone and characterize maize transposons.

Nicholas Negroponte, Ph.D.

Founder, One Laptop per Child

One Laptop per Child

Negroponte is founder and chairman of the One Laptop per Child non-profit association. He is currently on leave from MIT, where he was co-founder and director of the MIT Media Laboratory, and the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology. A graduate of MIT, Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design, and has been a member of the MIT faculty since 1966. Conceived in 1980, the Media Laboratory opened its doors in 1985. He is also author of the 1995 best seller, Being Digital, which has been translated into more than 40 languages. In the private sector, Negroponte serves on the board of directors for Motorola Inc., and as general partner in a venture capital firm specializing in digital technologies for information and entertainment. He has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired magazine.

Jim Yong Kim, M.D., Ph.D.

Director, François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health, and Professor of Social Medicine and Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Peter Piot, M.D., Ph.D.

Executive Director, UNAIDS, and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations

Timothy Wirth, Ph.D.

President, United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund

Recordings of the Plenary Panel, "Global Health Challenges"