Speakers

  • Thomas Sisk, Ph.D.

    Position/Organization:

    Professor of ecology, Northern Arizona University

    Thomas D. Sisk is Olajos-Goslow Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at NAU, where he applies scientific findings to immediate problems in land use and wildlife management.

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  • Julian Smith

    Position/Organization:

    Freelance writer; Generalist; Contributor, Archaeology, New Scientist, and an outright dizzying array of additional publications

    ulian Smith is an award-winning writer specializing in travel and science. His articles and photographs have appeared in Smithsonian, Wired, Outside, National Geographic Traveler, New Scientist, the Los

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  • Emily Sohn

    Position/Organization:

    Contributor, Discovery.com; Freelance writer; Expert, writing for kids

    Emily Sohn is a freelance journalist and contributing writer for Discovery News, based in Minneapolis. Stories have appeared in U.S. News & World Report, The Los Angeles Times, Health, Backpacker, Science News, Eating Well and more. For five years, she worked as the primary writer for Science News for Kids and has written dozens of science-themed books for young people, including a number of graphic novels.

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    Moderating:

  • Abe Streep

    Position/Organization:

    Senior Editor, Outside

    Abe Streep is a senior editor at Outside, where he oversees travel and media coverage. He has also written for Popular Science, Mother Jones, and the New York Times. In the past year, he has written about the Deep Horizon oil spill, profiled M. Sanjayan, the lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy, and chronicled his attempt to give up caffeine.

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  • Elizabeth Svoboda

    Position/Organization:

    Freelance

    Elizabeth Svoboda is a freelance writer based in the Bay Area. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Scientific American, Psychology Today, and the New York Times. She is a contributing editor at Popular Science and a contributing writer at Fast Company, where she has covered telemedicine, overseas stem cell transplants, and Craig Venter's biofuel project, among other science topics.

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  • Katie Szrom

    Position/Organization:

    Instructor, Northern Arizona University

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  • Gary Taubes

    Position/Organization:

    Contributing Correspondent, Science; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Independent Investigator in Health Policy Research, University of California Berkeley School of Public Health

    Gary Taubes is a contributing correspondent for the journal Science and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Independent Investigator in Health Policy Research at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health. He is the author of Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It (Knopf 2010) and Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control and Disease (Knopf 2007).

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  • Kristina Thayer, Ph.D.

    Position/Organization:

    Director, Office of Health Assessment and Translation, National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

    Kristina Thayer's office conducts evaluations of environmental chemicals and mixtures to determine whether they cause adverse health effects

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  • Tyghe Trimble

    Position/Organization:

    Senior Editor, Men's Journal

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  • Miguel Vasquez, Ph.D.

    Position/Organization:

    Professor of anthropology, Northern Arizona University

    Miguel Vasquez is married to a Mayan woman from Guatemala who had to leave Guatemala because her political activism made it too difficult for her to stay. "For a long time, I've had a global perspective on things," he says. He is a distant relative of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a conquistador who led the major expedition of conquest in the Southwest.

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