Speakers 2012
Daniel Wolpert
THE MIND’S PUPPET MASTER You’d think ‘why do we have a brain’ is the kind of question philosophers would ask themselves. Scientists, after all, are invariably more interested in the ‘how’ of things. Not Daniel Wolpert. As a neuroscientist, brains are his thing. And the question of why we have a brain has occupied much Read More…
Dava Newman
THE ROCKET SCIENTIST Women may be from Venus but if we ever hope to see men on Mars, we’ll need Dava Newman’s help. Because it turns out that building a space suit that allows astronauts more than limited mobility is, in fact, rocket science. Fortunately, Dava is a rocket scientist – or, more accurately, Professor Read More…
David Christian
The ‘Universal’ Historian He’s invented a whole new field of study and it’s one that Bill Gates calls his “absolute favourite course of all time”. Think history. Think physics. Think chemistry. Think evolution. Think galaxies and stars. Think dinosaurs. Think DNA. Now imagine a field of knowledge that coherently mashes up all of these; a Read More…
David Gensler
THE ARCHITECT OF SCALE There’s very little David Gensler doesn’t know about building stuff. As CEO of Gensler, amongst the largest American architecture, design and urban planning firms, David is part of the team that handles over 3000 projects annually –including commercial buildings, retail centres, airports, education facilities and entertainment complexes. The firm is also Read More…
Efraim Halevy
THE SUPERSPY There are probably dozens of lessons to be learnt from Efraim Halevy’s life and career but the first is an age-old one: not to judge from appearances. Because nothing in this man’s refined, quiet manner prepares you for the fact that till a decade ago he commanded one of the most elite intelligence Read More…
Erica Jong
THE HARDBALL WRITER The hardest part in writing about Erica Jong is to not make it all about sex. As the woman who coined the legendary term ‘zipless fuck’ to describe the ideal sexual experience, she has talked, written, described, been interviewed and lectured on the subject for decades. And yet sex, while being at Read More…
FAWZIA KOOFI
THE UNSTOPPABLE AFGHAN Fawzia Koofi isn’t supposed to be alive. She’s certainly not supposed to be running for Afghan President. Actually, she wasn’t even supposed to survive being born. When her mother – one of her father’s seven wives – found she was pregnant again, she spent the next nine months praying fervently for a Read More…
G. Sundarrajan
THE ANTI-NUCLEAR ENGINEER There are millions of software engineers in India. However, few of them have been at the forefront of a grassroots movement that has found national support, and that has highlighted the common indifference of public administrators to the demands of local populations. G.Sundarrajan’s opposition to the Koodankulam nuclear plant is the culmination Read More…
Ganesan Srinivasan
THE STARGAZER One night, the pre-Socratic philosopher Thales of Miletus was so busy gazing at the stars that he fell into a well. This popular philosophical tale might well romanticise astronomy but for one of its most committed – and renowned – practitioners, the romanticism sits alongside an understanding of some of the most complex Read More…
