International Meeting Brings Scientists, Educators, Students, Policymakers to San Francisco
The largest meeting of the year aimed at a broad audience of scientists, educators, students and policymakers meets in San Francisco from Thursday through Monday, Feb. 15-19. The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) focuses this year on environmental, health and policy issues and trends. The theme is "Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being."
Hundreds of reporters, many from Europe and Japan, will join American print, broadcast and web journalists to cover the far-reaching topics of the meeting.
World's Largest General Science Meeting Starts Thursday
Four days of scientific symposia range in focus from sustaining the global climate to endangered languages and predicting autoimmune disease, and from cancer and evolution to archaeology of the human mind.
Nine UCSF scientists or scholars are presenting papers at this year's AAAS meeting, including a leading researcher in the laboratory of Nobel laureate Stanley Prusiner, MD.
UCSF speakers at AAAS symposia are:
- • Brigitte Bogert, graduate student, physiology: "A Graduate Student's Reflection on Partnership Experiences," in the session on Scientist and Teacher Partnerships: Strengthening Teaching and Learning at All Levels of Education.
- • Esteban Burchard, MD, assistant professor of biopharmaceutical sciences and of medicine: "Genetics of Response to Anti-Asthmatic Drugs in Latino Populations," in the session on Genetic Targeting of Drug Therapies.
- • Lisa Coussens, PhD, associate professor of pathology and an investigator in UCSF's Cancer Research Institute: "Innate and Adaptive Immune Interactions Regulate Epithelial Cancer Development," a discussion of new findings in her lab's research exploring how the immune system can fuel some cancers. She will speak in the session on Healthy Aging: Inflammation and Chronic Diseases.
- • Alicia Lieberman, PhD, professor of psychiatry: "Responses to Danger in Infants and Toddlers: The Moderating Influence of Family Relationships," a discussion of family-centered treatments that can help traumatized children develop the resilience to cope and become healthy. She will speak in the session on Ecologies of Danger and Cultures of Resilience: Children in Extreme Situations.
- • Jean MacCormack, academic coordinator, UCSF-San Francisco Unified School District Science and Health Education Partnership (SEP): "The Heart of the Matter: A Resource Center at the Core of Partnership," in the session on Resource Centers: Establishing Trust, Building Relationships, Sustaining Partnership.
- • Michael Merzenich, PhD, professor of otolaryngology: "Role of Plasticity of the Nervous System in Neural Prosthetics," in the session on Smart Prosthetics: Interfaces to the Nervous System Help Restore Independence.
- • Nancy Padian, PhD, director of UCSF's Women's Global Health Imperative, will describe the new initiative as part of an AAAS seminar series on global health.
- • Jiri Safar, MD, associate adjunct professor of neurology and a senior scientist in UCSF's Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, directed by UCSF Nobel laureate Stanley Prusiner: "Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy: Origin of a Chain of Food Scares," in the session on Food Safety and Health: Whom Can You Trust? Safar will provide an update on efforts to find better ways to improve prevention, presymptomatic diagnosis and effective therapy for patients with the human form of mad cow disease.
- • Rebecca Smith, PhD, academic coordinator, SEP, "Bringing Scientists and Teachers Together to Learn from One Another," in the session on Scientist and Teacher Partnerships: Strengthening Teaching and Learning at All Levels of Education.