2016 Grand Challenges Conference

Opening Remarks & Panel 1

Opening Remarks:
Peter C. Froehlich, MBA, Director, Scholarly Publishing Purdue University Libraries
Laurel Weldon, PhD., Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Purdue University, Director Purdue Policy Research Institute (PPRI)

A panel discussion on "Innovative Models for Research on Grand Challenges: Interdisciplinarity, Communication, Impact" with Arden Bement, former Director of Purdue's Global Policy Research Institute, Chief Global Affairs Officer Emeritus, and the David A. Ross Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Nuclear Engineering; Barbara Kline Pope, Executive Director for Communications at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and Executive Director of the National Academies Press; and Nicholas Haan, Track Chair for Global Grand Challenges, Managing Director of Global Solutions Program, and faculty member at Singularity University. The moderator was Tomàs Dìaz de la Rubia, Chief Scientist and Executive Director of Purdue's Discovery Park.

Panel 2

A panel discussion on "Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Grand Challenge Research" with Robin Clair, Professor of Communication; Rosalee Clawson, Department Head and Professor of Political Science; Mangala Subramaniam, Associate Professor of Sociology; Kartik Ariyur, limited term lecturer in Mechanical Engineering; and Shannon McMullen, Associate Professor of Visual and Performing Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies. The moderator was James Mullins, Dean of Libraries and the Esther Ellis Norton Professor at Purdue.

Featured Speakers

A talk on "Driving Impact through Scientific Communications" with Barbara Kline Pope, executive director for communications at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and executive director of the National Academies Press, and Dietram Scheufele, the John E. Ross Professor in Science Communication and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in the Morgridge Institute for Research.

New Directions in Grand Challenges Research

A presentation on "2016-19 Breaking Through: New Directions in Grand Challenges Research" with information on the grant and a Q&A session. Led by Peter C. Froehlich, MBA, Director, Scholarly Publishing Purdue University Libraries and Laurel Weldon, PhD., Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Purdue University, Director Purdue Policy Research Institute (PPRI).

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Roland Fryer

Economics of Incentives: What Drives Individuals and Organizations to Make Decisions?
Dr. Roland Fryer, Robert M. Beren Professor of Economics at Harvard University, Fryer is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, founder and faculty director of the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard, and a former junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows. Fryer also is the 2015 winner of the John Bates Clark Medal for being the most promising economist in America under the age of 40.