Saleem H. Ali is Assistant Professor of Environmental Planning at the University of Vermont's School of Natural Resources and a Research Affiliate at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. He also retains affiliation with MIT's Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies where he taught technical writing for five years. He has held research and teaching positions in eclectic academic and popular settings, including Brown University, the Smithsonian Institution, The Center for Rainforest Studies in Australia and The U.K. House of Commons. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, an M.E.S. in environmental law and policy from Yale University and an Sc.B in chemistry and environmental studies (summa cum laude) from Tufts University.

Robert Barsky is Professor of Comparative Literature, and French and Italian at Vanderbilt University. After graduating from Brandeis University in English and American Literature, he received his doctorate in Comparative Literature from McGill University. He is the author of a number of books about language theory, Convention refugees and literary studies, and has edited a range of books including (most recently) the re-edition of Pannekoek s classic Workers Councils. His book Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent (MIT Press, 1997) has received international acclaim and is hyper-linked to 260 web sites for author-reader interaction. Dr. Barsky has just completed another book about Chomsky, and is currently working on a biography of Zellig Harris.

William H. Calvin is a theoretical neurophysiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, the author of nine books including The Cerebral Code (MIT Press 1996), How Brains Think (Science Masters 1996), and, with the neurosurgeon George A. Ojemann, Conversations with Neil's Brain (Addison-Wesley 1994). His research interests include the recurrent excitatory circuitry of cerebral cortex used for split-second versions of the Darwinian bootstrapping of quality, the four-fold enlargement of the hominid brain during the ice ages, and the brain reorganization for language and planning. He recently returned from a stay at the Rockefeller Foundation's study center in Bellagio, Italy, collaborating with the linguist Derek Bickerton on their forthcoming book about the evolution of syntax, Lingua ex machina: Reconciling Darwin and Chomsky with the Human Brain.

Alan Chartock is Professor of Communications and Political Science at The State University of New York at Albany. He is also the Director of WAMC Public Radio which provides public radio service to the Capital District of New York and the Adirondacks. Dr. Chartock is a frequent TV commentator on public issues and was the host of several radio discussions with Mario Cuomo, the former Governor of New York. His book Me and Mario: Conversations in Candor, documents his experiences in this regard. He has won numerous awards for public service and professional achievement.

Gerald Early is the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Professor Early is also Washington University's Director of African and Afro-American Studies and Director of the American Culture Studies Program. He is the author of several books and popular articles on American culture. His book The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1995.

Carol Houlihan Flynn is Professor of English at Tufts University where she is also the Director of American Studies. Dr. Flynn received her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley, focusing on the life and works Samuel Richardson. She is the author of several books and scholarly articles, including The Body in Swift and Defoe (Cambridge, 1990) and Washed in Blood (a novel, Putnam, 1983). Recently, she has embarked on a project to improve communication between universities and surrounding communities. In this regard, she led the “Somerville Conversations” project in 1995-1996, which was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Toby Huff is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Dr. Huff received his doctorate from The New School for Social Research, focusing on the works of Max Weber. He has been a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton NJ) and the Harvard Center for European Studies. Among his several publications are The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West (Cambridge, paper back, 1995) and Max Weber and the Methodology of the Social Sciences (Transaction Books, 1984).

Margaret Mead (1901 – 1978) was a renowned anthropologist and a social critic who spent most of her career affiliated with Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History. In 1969 she was appointed full professor and head of the social science department in the Liberal Arts College of Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York, where she continued to work till her death in 1978. She also served on various government and international commissions and was a regular columnist for the popular women’s magazine Redbook. Participating in several field expeditions, Mead conducted notable research in New Guinea, Samoa, and Bali. Much of her work was devoted to a study of patterns of child rearing in various cultures.

David Morrison is the Director of Space Science at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Pasadena, California. Dr. Morrison completed his doctorate in physics and astronomy from Harvard as a student of Carl Sagan. He continued to work on projects with Professor Sagan when he moved to Cornell. He is the author of four text books on astronomy and has published over a hundred scholarly articles. Recently Dr. Morrison has been awarded NASA’s distinguished service medal for his work on the potential for asteroid impact on Earth.

James C. Morrison teaches science writing at MIT and at the Division of Continuing Education at Harvard University. He graduated with High Distinction in English from Dartmouth College and subsequently completed his Masters degree in Literature from Columbia University. Journalistic discourse and its impact on public administration is his main research interest and led him to complete a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University. He received the Goldsmith Research Award from Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy in 1993.

Asghar Qadir is Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Quaid-e-Azam University in Pakistan. Dr. Qadir completed his doctorate with Roger Penrose from the University of London and has subsequently held appointments at the University of Texas at Austin, The International Center for Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy) and the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia). The author of more than 100 scholarly articles in mathematics and theoretical physics, Dr. Qadir has also been actively involved in organizing numerous public discussions on the theory of relativity throughout the world and particularly in Asia. His commitment to advancing the cause of education in the developing world and preventing a “brain drain” to developed countries has won him numerous awards. His book Relativity: An Introduction to The Special Theory (World Scientific Books, 1989) has been translated into several languages and is widely read by science students in colleges throughout Asia.

David T. Suzuki: Since 1969 Dr. Suzuki has been a full Professor of Genetics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is currently affiliated with the University’s Sustainable Development Research Institute. He was the recipient of the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship Award as the "Outstanding Canadian Research Scientist under the age of 35" from 1969 to 1972. As a distinguished journalist and broadcaster, he is familiar to television audiences around the world as the host of CBC's "The Nature of Things" and "A Planet for the Taking". Dr. Suzuki is a past recipient of UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for science, the United Nations Environment Program medal and Global 500. He is an officer of the Order of Canada and recipient of 13 honorary degrees in Canada, United States and Australia.