Anastasi Lecture 2023

2023 Anastasi Lecture

When: Thursday October 19, 2023 at 5:30 p.m. (Eastern Time)
Where: Lincoln Center Campus (McNally Amphitheater in the Gabelli School on 140 West 60th Street) + Online
Speaker: Baruch Fischhoff, Ph.D.

Title: Trying to Make Ourselves Useful 

Abstract: Part of society’s return on the investment in our science is the help that we provide in making public policy decisions. The return depends, in part, on the state of our science and our ability to translate it into useful terms. It also depends on policy makers’ interest in what we have to say. After framing the general issues, the talk will describe my experiences in two domains: climate change (beginning in the later Carter Administration) and pandemic disease (beginning with H5N1, in the mid-2000s). The talk will conclude with reflections on what these engagements have done for society and for our science. 

Baruch Fischhoff is Howard Heinz University Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Security and Technology. He is a graduate of Wayne State University (BS, mathematics, psychology; Samuel Komorita, advisor) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (PhD, psychology; Amos Tversky, Daniel Kahneman, advisors). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.