Tuesday, July 19th 6pm

In a meeting of great minds, tonight at the Telluride Conference Center in Mountain Village two distinguished, outspoken women will discuss the future of science and technology in the United States and abroad, the role of basic scientific research in our nation’s economy, science education, and women in science at a Pinhead Town Talk.

Entitled, “Perspectives in Science and Public Policy,” held at 6:00 – 7:15 pm July 19th, Mildred S. Dresselhaus, MIT Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering, and Director of the Office of Science in the Department of Energy during the Clinton administration will be interviewed by Nina Jablonski, California Academy of Sciences Curator and Irvine Chair of Anthropology, Stanford University Consulting Professor, and Pinhead Institute Advisor and Faculty member.

Dresselhaus is in town participating in a Telluride Science Research Center workshop on nanotechnology with 65 international scientists and Jablonski is in Telluride to write a book about the biological and social aspects of human skin color, based on the extensive research.

Neither woman is afraid to speak her mind. Four years ago, Dresselhaus, at her nomination hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for the position of Director of the Office of Science in the DOE, warned the Committee against overreacting to perceived espionage threats when she said, "The defense labs must have contact with the rest of the world." At the same hearing, counter to what the Senators wanted to hear, she patiently explained that one cannot set a schedule for basic discoveries. Taking the position at the DOE, Dresselhaus explained why, "Science has been so good to me, and I thought that maybe this is the time in my life when I should serve science and the country."

Jablonski is a rare big-picture-thinking evolutionary biologist who is not afraid to take on touchy subjects that make most of her colleagues nervous. Through discoveries she has made in her research, Jablonski boldly proclaims that categories of race as we typically understand them, are false concepts. Her research and writings have appeared in such publications as Scientific American, National Geographic Discover, and New Scientist, as well as widely popularized on television, through several television documentaries.

Jablonski, who gave a Pinhead Town Talk last week on the role human stature has played in Evolution, is keenly interested in exploring the biological basis of human evolution, particularly those areas where fossil records are limited or non-existent: the evolution of human communication, bipedalism, and conflict resolution, to name a few.

Discussing science and public policy, Dresselhaus and Jablonski will touch on their experiences in the male dominated sphere of science. No stranger to living in a “man’s world,” in 2004, Dresselhaus became the first woman to win the eminent Founders Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers since the award was founded in 1954 for her “leadership across many fields of science and engineering through research and education, and for exceptional and unique contributions to the profession.”

Dresselhaus is a highly decorated scientist: in 1999 she received the Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service from the American Physics Society "for being a compassionate mentor and lifelong friend to young scientists; for setting high standards as researchers, teachers and citizens; and for promoting international ties in science;" she earned the President's National Medal of Science in 1990; in 1973, she was appointed to The Abby Rockefeller Mauze chair at MIT, endowed in support of the scholarship of women in science and engineering, an honor she held for a dozen years.

Having risen rapidly in the field of physics and engineering as a young woman in the 1950s and 60s, Dresselhaus became a dedicated leader in promoting opportunities for women in science and engineering. She received a Carnegie Foundation grant in 1973 to encourage women's study of traditionally male dominated fields, such as physics.

Jablonski has been on the faculty of University of Hong Kong, The University of Western Australia, and Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal. She is a senior scientist on the “Biotic Survey of the Gaoligongshan, a Biodiversity Hotspot in Western Yunnan, China” and conducts research with the Leaky family in Tanzania, Africa. In April of this year, Jablonski received one of twelve prestigious Fletcher Fellowships, a new annual award akin to the Guggenheim Fellowship, for her research. The Fellowships, carrying a cash prize of $50,000 each, were established and endowed by Alphonse Fletcher, Jr., President and CEO of Fletcher Asset Management, with a gift of $50 million in order to benefit "institutions and individuals working to improve race relations and to close the class divide between African-Americans who have benefited from the civil rights movement and those who have not." Since 2001, Jablonski has served as a Pinhead Institute Advisor and visiting Scholar in the Schools Pinhead program.

For more information call Pinhead Institute at 970-728-0713 or visit www.pinheadinstitute.com. Admission is free of charge and there is a cash bar.

Pinhead Institute
July 18 2005
For more information contact
Nana Naisbitt 970-708-0004