The fast-paced nature of scientific and technological innovation often eclipses the human ability to absorb the repercussions of these rapid changes. Thus, progress often happens faster than our ability to account for its potential environmental, sociological, and psychological impacts. Given the need to critically reflect on the interdependence between discovery and humankind, this year’s symposium will explore the intersections of science and society throughout the past and present. We will bring together scholars from various fields to cast in interdisciplinary eye toward topics ranging from land use changes to bioengineering, from social biases in research to the unintended consequences of the scientific discovery, from data-mining to evidence-based policy. With this broad perspective, we intend to stimulate discussion as what scientific and technological innovation means to humankind as well as how we can best manage and apply the knowledge that we gain from such discoveries. Such critical reflection is necessary if we wish to address the human element within scientific and technological progress. Thus, we expect this symposium to be thought-provoking to scholars working within a wide variety of fields.

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  Keynote speakers:

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Dr. Serge Morand is a research director at the CNRS (Institut des sciences de l' évolution de Montpellier) and an associate researcher at CIRAD (ASTRE), he is based in Thailand at the Faculty of Veterinary Technology at Kasetsart University, and is also a visiting professor at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine at Mahidol University in Bangkok. An ecologist and field parasitologist, he analyses the role of biodiversity in the health and well-being of humans and wildlife. He conducts projects on the impacts of global changes (climate change and land use change) on the linkages between biodiversity conservation, health, and societies in Southeast Asia. 

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Dr. Julie Trottier is a research director at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), France. Over the past 24 years, she has been exploring the political construction of water management, the social and political construction of the scientific discourse and technological choices concerning water and the interactions between these two types of processes. She has directed several research projects on water in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

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Robert D. Holt is a theoretical ecologist and evolutionary biologist, as well as a keen naturalist. After 22 years at the University of Kansas, in 2001 he moved to the University of Florida, where he holds the Arthur R. Marshall, Jr., Chair in Ecological Studies, and the title Eminent Scholar in Biology. He has worked on a wide variety of topics, ranging from food web dynamics to the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases, to habitat fragmentation, to issues such as niche conservatism and evolutionary rescue in rapidly changing environments. He has published >300 papers, including two edited books, and is well-cited. His awards include being named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013, a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in that same year, a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Science in 2017, and receiving an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki in 2017.

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Invited speakers:

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Dr. Anat Ben-David

Sociology, Political Science and Communication, the Open University 

 

Prof. Sheizaf Rafaeli

Director of the Center for Internet Research, University of Haifa

 

Dr. Tony Travis

Sidney M. Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem   

 

Dr. Lonia Friedlander

Lab of Remote Sensing and Planetary Imaging, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

 

Dr. Anat Rosenthal

Health Anthropology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

 

Dr. Uri Roll

Marco and Louise Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology (MDDE), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 

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Dr. Noa Sophie Kohler

Jacques Loeb Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 

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Dr. Alessandra Passariello

Jacques Loeb Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 

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Dr. Agathe Colleony

Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion 

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Ofer Bartal

Software engineer at Google, volunteer at The Public Knowledge Workshop

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Dr. Omri Allouche

Head of research at Gong.io and lecturer at Bar-Ilan University

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Prof. Evyatar Erell

Bona Terra Department of Man in the Desert SIDEER, BIDR, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

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Dr. Edo Bar-Zeev

The Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, The Department of Environmental Hydrology & Microbiology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

 

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This symposium is supported by

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