Speaker biographies

Daniel Botkin is the president of the Center for the Study of the Environment, a nonprofit corporation that provides independent, science-based analyses of complex environmental issues. He is also an emeritus professor in the department of ecology, evolution, and marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The New York Times has called Mr. Botkin “one of the world’s leading environmental researchers” who has “done much to popularize the concept of using yet maintaining the world’s natural resources.” He is a pioneer in the study of ecosystems and the wilderness, having directed research on wilderness and natural parks in many parts of the world, including the Serengeti Plains of Africa, the forests of Siberia, and Isle Royale National Park. His most influential book is Discordant Harmonies: A New Ecology for the 21st Century (Oxford University Press, 1992). His forthcoming book, titled Tomorrow’s Energy: Fact and Fiction, is about solving the global energy supply problem. He has published op-ed pieces in numerous major newspapers and he has written over 150 scientific papers on issues concerning global warming, biological diversity, and energy.

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is a senior fellow at AEI and was a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Mr. Gingrich is a member of the Terrorism Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations and the U.S. Commission on National Security, an advisory board member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and a member of the Defense Policy Board. Mr. Gingrich also served as cochair, along with former Senate majority leader George Mitchell, of the Task Force on United Nations Reform created by Congress in December 2004. He is also an editorial board member of the journal Biosecurity and Bioterrorism and a contributor to Fox News Channel. He writes a weekly newsletter for Human Events and is a regular contributor to the Church Report. Mr. Gingrich is the author of seventeen books, including Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less: A Handbook for Slashing Gas Prices and Solving Our Energy Crisis (Regnery, 2008) and the New York Times bestsellers Real Change: From the World that Fails to the World that Works (Regnery, 2008), Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America (Regnery, 2005), and Rediscovering God in America (Thomas Nelson, 2006). Mr. Gingrich is the chairman of the Gingrich Group, founder of the Center for Health Transformation, and general chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future.

Robert W. Hahn is a senior fellow at AEI and founder and executive director of AEI’s Reg-Markets Center, which continues the AEI-Brookings Joint Center’s mission of examining cutting-edge issues in law, economics, regulation, and antitrust. Previously, he worked for the Council of Economic Advisers and served on the faculties of Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University. He frequently contributes to leading scholarly journals and general-interest periodicals, including the American Economic Review, the Yale Law Journal, Science, and the New York Times. Mr. Hahn is the author of Reviving Regulatory Reform: A Global Perspective (AEI Press, 2000) and several other books. In addition, Mr. Hahn is cofounder of the Community Preparatory School, an inner-city middle school in Providence, R.I., that provides opportunities for disadvantaged youth to achieve their full potential.

Peter Passell is a senior fellow at the Milken Institute in California and editor of the Milken Institute Review, the institute’s quarterly economic magazine. Mr. Passell joined Milken after eight years as an economics columnist for the New York Times. His research interests include international finance and trade, economic history, and the economics of crime. He previously served on the New York Times editorial board and was an assistant professor at Columbia University’s graduate department of economics. Mr. Passell has written for both technical and nontechnical publications, including the Washington Post, The New Republic, The Nation, the American Economic Review, and the Journal of Political Economy.

Irwin Stelzer is a senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economic Policy. He is also the U.S. economic and political columnist for London’s Sunday Times and Australia’s Courier Mail, a contributing editor of The Weekly Standard, a member of the publication committee of The Public Interest, and a member of the board of the Regulatory Policy Institute. Prior to joining Hudson in 1998, he was a resident scholar and the director of regulatory policy studies at AEI. Mr. Stelzer founded National Economic Research Associates, Inc. in 1961 and served as its president until a few years after its sale in 1983 to Marsh & McLennan Companies. He also has served as a managing director of Rothschild Inc. and a director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Center at Harvard University.

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