Speaker Biographies
October 21, 2005
John Calvert, J.D. received a B.A. in geology from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1962 and a law degree in 1968 following two years of service in the U.S. Army. He practiced law for thirty-two years with Lathrop & Gage L.C., a large Midwestern firm. In 2001, he departed Lathrop & Gage to co-manage Intelligent Design Network, Inc., a non profit organization that seeks institutional objectivity in origins science. He now focuses on constitutionally appropriate ways to teach origins science in public schools. Since then he has advised school teachers, school administrators, state and local boards of education, state legislative bodies, and public officials. In May 2005, he presented twenty-three expert witnesses during hearings before the Kansas State Board of Education regarding proposed changes to the Kansas Science Standards. He is the author of a number of legal opinions, memoranda, and articles about teaching origins that have been furnished to a variety of public school entities.
George Coyne obtained his Ph.D. in astronomy from Georgetown University in 1962 and the licentiate in theology from Woodstock College (Maryland) in 1966. In addition, he has received honorary Ph.D. degrees from St. Peter's University, Loyola University, and the University of Padua (Italy). He has been associated with astronomy programs at the University of Arizona (Tucson) since 1966, serving in the administration of the astronomical observatories between 1976 and 1980. Since 1978 he has been the director of the Vatican Observatory, which has a research branch at the University of Arizona. His research interests have ranged from the study of the lunar surface to the birth of stars, and he pioneered a special technique, “polarimetry,” as a powerful tool in astronomical research. Currently he is studying cataclysmic variable stars, the interstellar dust in the Magellanic Clouds, and the detection of protoplanetary disks. Parallel to his scientific research, he has developed an interest in the history and philosophy of science and in the relationship between science and religion.
Barbara Forrest received her Ph.D. in philosophy at Tulane University in 1988 and has taught philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University since 1981. She is on the National Advisory Council of Americans United for Separation of Church and the State Board of Directors of the National Center for Science Education. Professor Forrest was awarded a "Friend of Darwin" Award by the NCSE in 1998. She is the coauthor with Paul R. Gross of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design (Oxford University Press) and coauthor with Steven Gey and Matthew Brauer of an upcoming article in the Washington University Law Quarterly, "Is It Science Yet? Intelligent Design Creationism and the Constitution." Professor Forrest has lectured extensively on the links between creationism and intelligent design. She served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area (PA) School District, a case now in progress involving intelligent design in Dover High School.
Steven G. Gey is the David and Deborah Fonvielle and Donald and Janet Hinkle Professor of Law at the Florida State University College of Law. He received his law degree in 1982 from Columbia University, where he was the articles editor of the Columbia Law Review. Before joining the faculty of the College of Law, he was associated with the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison in New York. Professor Gey teaches courses on constitutional law, federal court jurisdiction, and civil rights and liberties. He is the author of a casebook on religion and the state and has published articles on several First Amendment topics, including free speech, free association, the Establishment Clause, and free exercise issues. Professor Gey's honors include a University Teaching Award, several awards as Professor of the Year at the College of Law, and the Thurgood Marshall Award (for pro bono representation of death row inmates) by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
Lawrence M. Krauss is the Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics and a professor of astronomy at Case Western Reserve University. At Case Western School of Medicine, he directs the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics and the Office of Science, Public Policy, and Biotechnology. Professor Krauss is the author of seven popular books including international bestseller The Physics of Star Trek, the award-winning Atom, as well as his newest book, Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions from Plato to String Theory and Beyond. He appears as a regular commentator on television and radio programs and as an essayist for newspapers such as the New York Times. Professor Krauss is a highly regarded leader in the fields of cosmology and astrophysics and is the author of over 200 papers and winner of numerous international awards. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been particularly active in leading the effort by scientists to defend science in public schools. His essay on evolution and intelligent design from the New York Times in May in helped spur the recent controversy that has involved the Catholic Church.
Kenneth R. Miller is a professor of biology at Brown University. He did his undergraduate work at Brown, graduating in 1970. He earned his Ph.D. in 1974 at the University of Colorado and spent six years teaching at Harvard University before returning to Brown. He is a cell biologist and chairs the Education Committee of the American Society for Cell Biology. He serves as an advisor on life sciences to the NewsHour, a daily PBS television program on news and public affairs. His research on cell membranes has produced more than fifty scientific papers and reviews in leading journals, including CELL, Nature, Natural History, and Scientific American. Miller is the coauthor, with Joseph S. Levine, of three high school and college biology textbooks used by millions of students nationwide. He has written a number of articles defending the scientific integrity of evolution, responded to the challenge of intelligent design, and debated a number of anti-evolutionists over the years. He has received five major teaching awards and in 2005 was presented with the Presidential Citation of the American Institute for Biological Sciences for distinguished contributions to the biological sciences. His recent book, Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution, addresses the scientific status of evolutionary theory and its relationship to religious views of nature.
Paul A. Nelson received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1998, where he specialized in the philosophy of biology and evolutionary theory. He is currently a fellow of the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute and adjunct professor in the Master of Arts Program in Science & Religion, Biola University. He has published articles in such journals as Biology & Philosophy, Zygon, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, and Touchstone, as well as chapters in the anthologies Mere Creation (Intervarsity Press), Signs of Intelligence (Brazos Press), Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics (MIT Press), and Darwin, Design, and Public Education (Michigan State University Press). His forthcoming monograph, On Common Descent, critically evaluates the theory of common descent. Mr. Nelson’s research interests include the relationship between development biology and the history of life, intelligent design, and the interaction of theology and science. He is a member of the Society for Developmental Biology and the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology.
Mark Ryland is the vice president and director of the Discovery Institute in Washington, D.C. His wide-ranging interests include law and public policy, technology, software, network architecture, technology standardization, science and philosophy, and the philosophy of nature. He received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of San Diego in 1983 and his law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law at U.C. Berkeley in 1986. At Berkeley, he was a research assistant to Phillip Johnson (author of Darwin on Trial) and a cofounder and articles editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He clerked for Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1986 to 1988.
Richard Thompson is the cofounder, president, and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan dedicated to the defense and promotion of religious freedom, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life. Mr. Thompson spent twenty-four years at the executive level of law enforcement. He served as a prosecuting attorney in Oakland County, Michigan for eight years. During that time his office handled over 47,000 felony cases with a conviction rate of 98 percent, a record unparalleled by any prosecutor in the state. He gained national attention for his prosecution of Jack Kevorkian. He served on the Governor’s Advisory Council on Criminal Justice and on the Michigan Commission on Death and Dying, dealing with the issue of physician assisted suicide. Among his many national and state awards are the Family, Faith, and Freedom Award from the Family Research Council and the Defender of Life Award from the American Center for Law and Justice.
Jon Entine is an adjunct fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a scholar-in-residence at Miami University in Ohio. He is the author of numerous articles and commentaries on business ethics that have appeared in a wide variety of journals and anthologies. He is also the author of Pension Fund Politics: The Dangers of Social Investing (editor, AEI Press 2005) and Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture (forthcoming, AEI Press). Before launching his writing career, Mr. Entine was a network television news writer and producer from 1975 to 1994, winning more than twenty awards, including two Emmys, for specials on reform movements in China and the former Soviet Union. As senior producer of documentaries at NBC News, he produced and co-wrote with Tom Brokaw “Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction” (Best International Sports Film, 1989), which provided the inspiration for his book Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About It (Public Affairs, 2000).
Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and executive editor of Education Next. His books include Common Sense School Reform; Revolution at the Margins; Spinning Wheels, Leaving No Child Behind?; Urban School Reform: Lessons from San Diego; and, most recently, The Best of Intentions: How Philanthropy is Reshaping the Landscape of K-12 Education. His work on the topics of educational politics, accountability, charter schooling, teacher quality, and educational administration has appeared in publications like Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Educational Leadership, Journal of Teacher Education, Educational Policy, Urban Affairs Review, National Review, Education Week, and American School Board Journal. A former high school social studies teacher in Louisiana, Mr. Hess holds a M.Ed. in teaching and curriculum and an M.A. and Ph.D. in government from Harvard University.
Michael Novak currently holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, where he is the director of social and political studies. A theologian, author, and former U.S. ambassador, Mr. Novak has written some twenty-five influential books in the philosophy and theology of culture, including Belief and Unbelief (1994), The Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics (1996), and his newest book, The Universal Hunger for Liberty (2004). His essays and reviews have been published in The New Republic, Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, and National Review, as well as Theological Studies, the Yale Law Journal, the Public Interest, the Review of Politics, and many other journals here and overseas. He serves on editorial boards of several publications and organizations here and abroad. Mr. Novak was twice appointed as the ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission.
Sally Satel is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the staff psychiatrist at the Oasis Clinic in Washington, D.C. She serves on the advisory committee of the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Dr. Satel earned a B.S. from Cornell University, an M.S. from the University of Chicago, and an M.D. from Brown University. After completing her residency at Yale University School of Medicine, Dr. Satel was an assistant professor of psychiatry from 1988 to 1993. From 1993 to 1994 she was a policy fellow with the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. She has written widely in academic journals on topics in psychiatry and medicine and has published articles on cultural aspects of medicine and science in the numerous magazines and journals. Dr. Satel is author of Drug Treatment: The Case for Coercion (AEI Press, 1999), PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine (Basic Books, 2001), and coauthor, with Christina Hoff Sommers, of One Nation Under Therapy (St. Martin’s Press, 2005).
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