The Decade of Behavior Distinguished Lecture Program offers support for major addresses on themes of the Decade of Behavior initiative to showcase research that stretches the boundaries of traditional disciplinary focus and that promotes a cross-disciplinary approach: each year, the program will sponsor addresses at the national/ international conferences of up to five professional scientific societies that have endorsed the initiative. Funding for the Decade of Behavior Distinguished Lecture Program is made possible by a generous grant from the James S. McDonnell Foundation.
Call for Nominations
Read the nomination criteria (.pdf)
View the application (.pdf)
Distinguished Lecture Program recipients for 2005:
Dr. Stephen Schneider
Professor of Biological Sciences, Stanford University
Nominated by the Association of American Geographers
“Stephen H. Schneider is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Environment Science and Policy of the Institute for International Studies, and Professor by Courtesy in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University since September, 1992. He was honored in 1992 with a MacArthur Fellowship for his ability to integrate and interpret the results of global climate research through public lectures, seminars, classroom teaching, environmental assessment committees, media appearances, Congressional testimony, and research collaboration with colleagues. He has served as a consultant to Federal Agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and Bush Jr. administrations. He also received, in 1991, the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology, for furthering public understanding of environmental science and its implications for public policy. Schneider’s current global change research interests include: climatic change; global warming; food/climate and other environmental/science public policy issues; ecological and economic implications of climatic change; integrated assessment of global change; climatic modeling of paleoclimates and of human impacts on climate, e.g., carbon dioxide "greenhouse effect" or environmental consequences of nuclear war. He is also interested in advancing public understanding of science and in improving formal environmental education in primary and secondary schools.”
Learn more about Dr. Schneider.
Dr. Michael McDonald
CEO of Global Health Initiatives, Inc.
Nominated by the National Communication Association
Dr. Michael McDonald is Coordinator of the National Disaster Risk Communication Initiative and President and CEO of Global Health Initiatives, Inc. He is Communications Chairman of the National Capital Region – Emergency Response, CADS Senior Scientist in the School of Engineering at George Washington University, and the Health and Biodefense Coordinator of the Georgetown University Life Sciences and Society Initiative.
Dr. McDonald helped take HealthCentral.com public as its founding chairman. He is past president of Windom Health Enterprises, past chairman of the U.S. Medical Technology Policy Committee (IEEE), and past managing director of Health and Technology for the Koop Foundation. He is also past chairman of Communications and Computer Applications in Public Health, a former Board member of the Harvard Institute of Cybermedicine, and has been a member of several corporate boards.
Dr. McDonald has received several honors including the “Future of Health Technology Award” presented at the MIT Media Labs in September 1998. Dr. McDonald was inducted into the Washington Academy of Medicine in December 2002. He was elected to the Cosmos Club in 1999 on the basis of producing meritorious, original work. His pioneering work spans several fields, including ground-breaking work in risk assessment, consumer-empowered health systems, the general public / health information interface, health information infrastructure, evidence-based medicine repositories, decision support systems, knowledge management process, health-oriented community networking, and the prevention and management of large-scale social crisis. He has published and lectured extensively in these areas.
2004 Distinguished Lectures
- Dr. Jeffrey Sachs - Director, Earth Institute at Columbia University
Read bout Dr. Sachs.
Host: The Centennial Meeting of the Association of American Geographers
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Dr. Janet Norwood - Former U.S. Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Counselor and Senior Fellow, The Conference Board in New York City
The Factory Job Puzzle: Employment, Outsourcing, and Worker Quality
Host: American Educational Research Association - Joseph Stiglitz, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, Columbia University
Read about Dr. Stiglitz.
Host: American Political Science Association
2003 Distinguished Lectures:
- Richard Petty- Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Ohio State University
Understanding the Process of Public Opinion Formation and Changes
Host: American Association for Public Opinion Research
- Bruce McEwen - Alfred E. Mirsky Professor, Rockefeller University Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology
The Neurobiology and Neuroendocrinology of Stress
Host: International Society for Developmental Psychobiology
- Ann Streissguth - Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine
30-Year Perspective on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Research
Host: Neurobehavioral Teratology Society
- Jared Diamond - Professor, Department of Physiology, UCLA School of Medicine
Why Do Societies Make Some Disastrous Decisions?
Host: Society for Personality and Social Psychology
2002 Distinguished Lectures:
- Richard Davidson - Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Emotion, Plasticity, and the Human Brain: An Overview of Modern Brain Research and its Implications for Education
Host: American Educational Research Association
- M. Joycelyn Elders - Professor, University of Arkansas Medical School, Former U.S. Surgeon General
The Challenges of Meeting Healthcare Needs in the New Millennium
Host: American Organization of Nurse Executives
- Daniel Kahneman - Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University
The Evolving Image of the Boundedly Rational Agent
Host: American Political Science Association
- Sir Michael Marmot - Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College of London
Social Inequalities and Health
Host: Gerontological Society of America
- Richard E. Tremblay - Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics, University of Montreal
Development of Physical Aggression during Infancy
Host: World Association for Infant Mental Health
2001 Distinguished Lectures:
- Frans B. M. de Waal - Professor of Primate Behavior, Psychology Department, Emory University
Dominance Style & the First Hints of Democracy in Primates
Host: American Anthropological Association (Biological Anthropology Section)
- Panel Discussion
Reading & Dialects in the Decade of Behavior
Host: Linguistic Society of America
- Lisbeth B. Schorr - Lecturer in Social Medicine, Harvard University
Is a Richer Knowledge Base Within Our Reach?
Host: Society for Public Health Education