Panelists
Dr. Steven A. Benner is a biological chemist, a Distinguished Fellow at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution and The Westheimer Institute of Science & Technology, and co-founder of synthetic biology, paleogenetics, and evolutionary bioinformatics. The ultimate goal of the Benner Lab's program in synthetic biology is to develop chemical systems capable of self-reproduction and Darwinian-like evolution. From a chemical perspective, this work will also show how chemical reactivity is distributed in "structure space", an understanding key to combinatorial chemistry and the origin of life. He received his BS and MS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, and his PhD in Chemistry from Harvard University under the supervision of Nobel Laureate R.B. Woodward (1959) and Frank Westheimer.
Professor Stuart A. Kauffman, a theoretical biologist, is a professor at the University of Calgary with a joint appointment between biological sciences, physics and astronomy, and an iCORE Chair. He is also Director of the Institute for Biocomplexity & Informatics, a MacArthur Fellow, and founder of The Bios Group. His primary research has focused on the origin of life and molecular organization. He is best known for arguing that the complexity of biological systems and organisms might result as much from self-organization and far-from-equilibrium dynamics as from Darwinian natural selection. He is the author of The Origins of Order, Investigations and At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization.
Professor Antonio Lazcano is a biologist and Distinguished Professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City and president of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life. His research focuses on the study of the deepest branches of the tree of life, with special interest in the last common ancestor of extant life forms and the origin and development of metabolic pathways. He has received several major awards for his contributions to science, scientific journalism and teaching, including the Gold Medal for Biological Research granted by the University of Puebla. He is the author of several books, including: The Miraculous Bacteria, a collection of scientific essays; The Spark of Life for the layperson on the heterotrophic theory of the emergence of life; and The Origin of Life, a best-seller with more than a half-million copies sold.
Professor Robert Shapiro, an organic and bioorganic chemist, is Professor Emeritus & Senior Research Scientist at New York University. His research has centered on the chemistry of nucleic acids and the role (if any) of nucleic acids in the origin of life. Prof. Shapiro is author or coauthor of over 110 publications, primarily in the area of DNA chemistry. He has written a number of books for the general public including Origins, a Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth. He earned a BS in Chemistry, summa cum laude (1956) from the City College of New York, a MA degree in Organic Chemistry from Harvard (1957), and a PhD in Organic Chemistry from Harvard under the supervision of Nobel Laureate R.B. Woodward (1959), and did postdoctoral training in DNA chemistry at Cambridge with Nobel Laureate Lord Todd (1959-1960). Prof. Shapiro has held a Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and has been awarded (with physicist Paul Davies) the Trotter Prize in Complexity, Information and Inference for 2004.
Moderator
Dr. Christopher P. McKay is a planetary scientist with the Space Science Division of NASA Ames Research Center. His research focuses on the chemical and physical evolution of the solar system and the origin of life, and is involved in the planning of Mars missions including human settlements. Dr. McKay is one of the world's leading researchers studying Titan. He is currently working on models of Titan's thick atmosphere in support of the joint NASA/ESA mission to the Saturn system. He is also involved with polar research, travelling to the Antarctic dry valleys and the Siberian Arctic to conduct research in these Mars-like environments. Dr. McKay received his PhD in AstroGeophysics from the University of Colorado in 1982 and has been a research scientist with the NASA Ames Research Center since that time.