James Fowler Biography

James H. Fowler is a social scientist specializing in social networks, cooperation, political participation, and genopolitics (the study of the genetic basis of political behavior). He is currently Professor of Medical Genetics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Political Science in the Division of Social Science at the University of California, San Diego. He was named a 2010 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.Fowler earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1992, a master’s degree in International Relations from Yale University in 1997, and a PhD. in Government from the Harvard University in 2003. He was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador from 1992 to 1994. In 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers.

Nicholas Christakis Biography

Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is a social scientist and physician who conducts research on social factors that affect health, health care, and longevity. He directs the Human Nature Lab at Harvard University. He is Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School; Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; and Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He is the Master of Pforzheimer House in Harvard College.

Dr. Christakis’ lab is currently focused on the relationship between social networks and health. People are inter-connected, and so their health is inter-connected. This research engages two types of phenomena: the social, mathematical, and biological rules governing how social networks form (“connection”) and the biological and social implications of how they operate to influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (“contagion”). Other ongoing investigations in the lab consider the biodemographic determinants of longevity and the genetic bases for human behaviors.

Along with his long-time collaborator, James Fowler, Dr. Christakis has authored a general-audience book on social networks: Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, which has been translated into nearly 20 foreign languages.

Annie Leonard Biography

Leonard is best known as the creator and narrator of the animated documentary about the life-cycle of material goods, The Story of Stuff (2007). The documentary began as an hour-long talk and was made into a condensed film version based on popular demand. She also published a book version of the film.

After The Story of Stuff, she created Story of Cap and Trade in 2009, which is on the topic of emissions trading, as well as, in 2010, The Story of Bottled Water, The Story of Cosmetics and The Story of Electronics. In March 1, 2011, Leonard released The Story of Citizens United v. FEC and later that year, The Story of Broke.

In addition to her work on the Story of Stuff documentary, Leonard is also co-creator and coordinator of GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives) and serves on the boards of International Forum on Globalization and the Environmental Health Fund. She previously held positions with Health Care Without Harm, Essential Information and Greenpeace International, and was coordinator of the Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption. In 1992 she testified in front of the US Congress on the topic of international waste trafficking.

Ervin Laszlo Biography

Ervin Laszlo is a systems philosopher, integral theorist, and classical pianist. Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, he has authored more than 70 books, which have been translated into nineteen languages, and has published in excess of four hundred articles and research papers, including six volumes of piano recordings. Dr. Laszlo is generally recognized as the founder of systems philosophy and general evolution theory, and serves as the founder-director of the General Evolution Research Group and as past president of the International Society for the Systems Sciences.He is also the recipient of the highest degree in philosophy and human sciences from the Sorbonne, the University of Paris, as well as of the coveted Artist Diploma of the Franz Liszt Academy of Budapest. Additional prizes and awards include four honorary doctorates.His appointments have included research grants at Yale and Princeton Universities, professorships for philosophy, systems sciences, and future sciences at the Universities of Houston, Portland State, and Indiana, as well as Northwestern University and the State University of New York. His career also included guest professorships at various universities in Europe and the Far East. In addition, he worked as program director for the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). In 1999 he was was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Canadian International Institute of Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics.

For many years he has served as president of the Club of Budapest, which he founded. He is an advisor to the UNESCO Director General, ambassador of the International Delphic Council, member of both the International Academy of Science, World Academy of Arts and Science, and the International Academy of Philosophy.

Dean Radin Biography

Dean Radin, PhD, is Senior Scientist at the INSTITUTE OF NOETIC SCIENCES (IONS) and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Psychology at SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY. His original career track as a concert violinist shifted into science after earning a BSEE degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude with honors in physics, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and then an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For a decade he worked on advanced telecommunications R&D at AT&T Bell Laboratories and GTE Laboratories. For over two decades he has been engaged in consciousness research. Before joining the research staff at IONS in 2001, he held appointments at Princeton University, University of Edinburgh, University of Nevada, and several Silicon Valley think-tanks, including Interval Research Corporation and SRI International, where he worked on a classified program investigating psychic phenomena for the US government.

He is author or coauthor of over 200 technical and popular articles, a dozen book chapters, and several books including the bestselling The Conscious Universe (HarperOne, 1997) and Entangled Minds (Simon & Schuster, 2006). Both of these books are in print, and so far they’ve been translated into six foreign languages. A new book will be published in 2013. His technical articles have appeared in journals ranging from Foundations of Physics and Physics Essays to Psychological Bulletin and Journal of Consciousness Studies; he was featured in a New York Times Magazine ARTICLE; and he has appeared on dozens of television shows ranging from the BBC’s Horizon and PBS’s Closer to Truth to Oprah and Larry King Live. He has given over 200 interviews and talks, including invited presentations at Harvard (medical), Stanford (medical and statistics), Cambridge (physics), and Princeton (psychology), for industries including GOOGLE and Johnson & Johnson, and for government organizations including the US Navy and DARPA. In 2010, he spent a month lecturing in India as the National Visiting Professor of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, a program in the Indian government’s Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Dave Sherman Biography

Dave Sherman, DM is President of Dave Sherman & Co and Associate Partner, Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting. He helps executives formulate and execute breakthrough strategies that combine stakeholder-based insights with industry and company specific sources of advantage. He has been instrumental in developing Blu Skye’s approach to industry-level sustainability initiatives for the dairy and magazine industries.In 2004 Dave partnered with Jib Ellison to start Wal-Mart on its sustainability journey. He was a founding partner of Sustainable Value Partners and a Vice President at A.T. Kearney where he led an Asia-based practice. Clients include: Wal-Mart, Bunge, Cathay Pacific, Philips Electronics, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Staples and Waste Management. He earned his doctorate in management at the Weatherhead School of Management where he researched social entrepreneurship. He also holds an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.

John St. Augustine Biography

John St. Augustine is a best-selling author of Living An Uncommon Life and Every Moment Matters and a U.S. national radio show host of the program Power Thoughts.He has been a speaker for TED, Windstar, Fortune 500 companies, and The History Channel. His radio shows have been broadcast on WGN, SiriusXM, Overnight America, Coast to Coast AM and Oprah Radio. John St. Augustine is an award winning radio host, sought after speaker and author who has inspired thousands with his platform performances, and has been honored as one of “200 Visionaries for the Planet.”

Amit Goswami Biography

Amit Goswami, PhD is professor emeritus in the theoretical physics department of the University of Oregon, where he has served since 1968. He is a pioneer in the new paradigm of science called “science within consciousness.”

Best known for his role in the film What the Bleep Do We Know!?, Goswami is also an accomplished author. His highly successful academic textbook Quantum Mechanicsis used in universities throughout the world, and his many popular books exploring the relationship between quantum physics and consciousness, including The Self-Aware Universe, Physics of the Soul, and Creative Evolution, have been widely read.

Goswami’s ideas about physics, evolution, and consciousness are featured in the 2009 documentary “The Quantum Activist”.

Jairon G. Cuesta Biography

Jairon G. Cuesta is an anthropologist working as a counselor and adviser in Oslo, Norway. He has done ethnographic field work in the Galapagos Islands, and has been doing research in psychology for the past 35 years.

Michael Laitman Biography

Michael Laitman is a global thinker dedicated to generating a transformational shift in society through a new global education, which he views as the key to solving the most pressing issues of our time.

His vision for solving the global crisis at all levels, including education, climate change, hunger, and all social and economic problems, involves implementing a new, comprehensive global and integral education program.

The combination of his academic background in hard sciences, humanities, and his research in the field of education make him a prominent global thinker and a sought-after speaker.

Dr. Laitman is Professor of Ontology and the Theory of Knowledge, and PhD in Philosophy and Kabbalah, titles awarded by the Moscow Institute of Philosophy at the Russian Academy of Sciences, and has an MSc in Medical Cybernetics, awarded by the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University.