The symposium was held on Tuesday, May 13, 2003, as part of the dedication of the Keck Center of the National Academies.  The Futures Initiative was created to stimulate new modes of inquiry and break down the conceptual and institutional barriers to interdisciplinary research that could yield significant benefits to science and society.  The National Academies and Keck Foundation believe considerable scientific progress will be achieved by providing a counterbalance to the powerful impulse to isolate research within academic fields, by engaging scientists from different disciplines to focus on new questions on which they can base entirely new research, and by encouraging and rewarding outstanding communication between scientists as well as between the scientific enterprise and the public.

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Moderator

             Marc Kirschner
             Chair, Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School
             Chair, Signaling Initiative Steering Committee

Presentations

             John C. Doyle  
             Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and
                Electrical Engineering
             California Institute of Technology

             Michale S. Fee  
             Associate Professor of Systems Neuroscience, and
             Investigator, McGovern Institute for Brain Research
             Massachusetts Institute of Technology

             Claire J. Tomlin  
             Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
             Stanford University

Question and Answer Session