Thomas G. Bullen Ph.D., CFC, Memorial Lecture Series in Science and Technology
Victor A. Stanionis, Ph.D., professor emeritus of Physics, founded the Scientific and Technological Lecture Series at Iona in 1989 and has directed it since then. In 1989, he established the Science and Technology Lecture Series with a grant from East River Savings Bank. Its purpose was to instill a measure of scientific awareness in Iona’s science, liberal arts, business students, and in the general public so that they may confront scientific issues as informed citizens. A secondary purpose of the series was to bring them into contact with scientists who have achieved at the highest levels in their fields.
Br. Thomas G. Bullen, Ph.D.
About 10 years later, the series was renamed to honor Br. Thomas G. Bullen, Ph.D., who was a legend in the Science departments at Iona University, and it became known as the Thomas G. Bullen, Ph.D., CFC, Memorial Lecture Series in Science and Technology. Over the years other sponsors such as Riverbank of America and Arc Engineering Networks funded the series. Presently the series is sponsored in part by Dr. & Mrs. Francis G. Belardi `69, other science alumni, and faculty.
Digital Distraction: Living in the Age of the Internet
Dr. David Greenfield
May 4, 2023
Director and Founder of Series
Victor A. Stanionis, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Physics
vstanionis@iona.edu
(914) 633-2276
Present Sponsors
Dr. Francis G. Belardi ‘69
Dr. Victor A. Stanionis ‘60
Dr. Joseph Tamagna ‘60
Past Sponsors
Josephine Lawrence Hopkins Foundation
River Bank of America
East River Savings Bank
Arc Engineering
Dr. Rosalyn S. Yalow
1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,
Solomon A. Bereson
Distinguished Professor-At-Large
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Emeritus Distinguished Professor-At-Large
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Radiation and Society
Tuesday, October 10, 1989
Dr. William Gutsch Jr.
Chairman, American Museum
Hayden Planetarium
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Tuesday, December 5, 1989
Dr. Barry Commoner
Director, Center for Biology of Natural Systems and Professor Emeritus Earth and Environmental Science
Queens College, CUNY
Making Peace with the Planet
Tuesday, March 6, 1990
Dr. Arno Penzias
1978 Nobel Prize in Physics
Vice President, Bell Laboratories
Thinking About Information
Thursday, May 3, 1990
Dr. Jeremy Bernstein
Professor of Physics
Stevens Institute of Technology
Distinguishing Great Science from Crank Science
Thursday, November 1, 1990
Dr. Christian de Duve
1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus
The Rockefeller University
President of the International Institute of Cellular and Molecular Pathology
Blueprint for a Cell – The Nature and Origin of Life
Tuesday, November 20, 1990
Dr. James D. Watson
1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Director, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
The Era of Gene Cloning
Thursday , February 28, 1991
Dr. John M. Chowning
Director, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
Stanford University
Music from Machines
Tuesday, April 9, 1991
Dr. Arthur W. Galston
Eaton Professor of Botany Emeritus
Yale University
Biospheres and the Feeding of Humans in Enclosed Systems
Thursday, October 3, 1991
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot
IBM Fellow in Physics
Abraham Robinson Professor of Mathematics
Yale University
Fractals: For the Pleasure of the Eye and the Pleasure of the Mind
Thursday, December 5, 1991
Prof. David P. Billington
Professor of Civil Engineering
Princeton University
A New Tradition: Art in Engineering
Thursday, February 27, 1992
Dr. Sheldon Lee Glashow
1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
Higgens Professor of Physics, Mellon Professor of Science
Harvard University
Will Physics Ever End?
Thursday, April 9, 1992
Dr. Peter Brancazio
Professor of Physics
Queens College, CUNY
Just a Second! Discoveries from the Science of Sports
Tuesday, October 6, 1992
Prof. Freeman Dyson
Professor of Physics
Institute for Advanced Studies
Princeton University
The Scientist as Rebel
Thursday, December 10, 1992
Dr. Leon Cooper
1972 Nobel Prize in Physics
Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Science
Director, Center for Neural Science
Brown University
Some Thoughts on the Nature and Future of Science
Thursday, April 1, 1993
Dr. Lotfi Zadeh
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science
University of California at Berkeley
Intelligent Systems and Soft Computing
Thursday, April 29, 1993
Dr. Sidney Altman
1989 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Sterling Professor of Biology
Yale University
Understanding Life in the Laboratory
Tuesday, November 30, 1993
Dr. John Paulos
Professor of Mathematics
Presidential Scholar
Temple University
Innumeracy and Beyond
Thursday, December 9, 1993
Dr. Melvin Schwartz
1988 Nobel Prize in Physics
Professor of Physics
Columbia University
Associate Director
Accelerator Lab
BrookHaven National Laboratory
Symmetry Principles and the Laws of Physics
Tuesday, February 8, 1994
Dr. Gertrude Elion
1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Burroughs Wellcome Company
The Challenges of Pharmaceutical Research
Thursday, March 3, 1994
Dr. Henry Heimlich
President, Heimlich Institute
The Heimlich Maneuver for Drowning Victims: The Controversy
Thursday, May 5, 1994
Dr. Nicolaas Bloembergen
1981 Nobel Prize in Physics
Professor Emeritus of Physics
Harvard University
Lasers in Our Daily Lives
Tuesday, December 6, 1994
Dr. John G. Truxal
Distinguished Teaching Professor of Engineering
SUNY at Stony Brook
Impacts of the Digital Revolution’
Thursday, April 6, 1995
Dr. Fredrick T. Zugibe
Chief Medical Examiner
Rockland County, New York
Is the Turin Shroud a Product of the Middle Ages?
Thursday, May 4, 1995
Dr. Roald Hoffmann
1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
John A. Newman Professor of Physical Science
Cornell University
Chemistry Imagined
Thursday, November 2, 1995
Dr. Henry Petroski
Alexsandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering
Professor of History, Chairman, Department of
Environmental and Civil Engineering
Duke University
To Engineer Is Human
Thursday, November 30, 1995
Col. Richard Satava, MD, FACS
Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Researcher at US Army
Medical Research and Material Command and ARPA
Surgery in the 21st Century
Thursday, March 7, 1996
Dr. Mary Virginia Orna, O.S.U.
Professor of Chemistry
1984 Catalyst Award
1989 CASE New York State Professor of the Year
College of New Rochelle
Doing Chemistry at the Art/Archeology Interface
Thursday, May 2. 1996
Dr. Thomas Eisner
Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Chemical Ecology
Cornell University
Insect Love
Thursday, November 7, 1996
Dr. Bruce N. Ames
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of California, Berkeley
Understanding the Causes of Aging and Cancer
Thursday, December 5, 1996
Dr. Russell Alan Hulse
1993 Nobel Prize in Physics
Research Physicist and
Head, Computer Modeling Group
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
An Astronomical Detective Story: The Discovery of the Binary Pulsar
Thursday, February 20, 1997
Amory B. Lovins
MacArthur Fellow
Vice President, CFO, Director of Research
Rocky Mountain Institute
Reinventing the Wheels
Tuesday, April 29, 1997
Dr. David M. Lee
1996 Nobel Prize in Physics
James Gilbert White Professor of Physical Sciences
Cornell University
The Superfluidity of Liquid Helium Three
Thursday, October 2, 1997
Dr. Arthur Kornberg
1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Professor of Biochemistry
Stanford University
Science and Medicine at the Millennium
Thursday, November 13, 1997
Dr. Eric F. Wieschaus
1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology
Princeton University
How Embryos Develop: What Can We Learn by Studying Genes in Flies?
Thursday, March 12, 1998
Dr. Wallace Broecker
1996 National Medal of Science
Geochemist
Columbia University
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Oceanic Circulation: The Achilles Heel of Climate?
Thursday, April 30, 1998
Dr. Dudley Herschbach
1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science
Harvard University
The Thirteenth Labor of Hercules?
Thursday, October 29, 1998
Dr. Frederick Seitz
1973 National Medal of Science
President Emeritus
Rockefeller University,
Past President of U.S, National Academy of Sciences
A Review of Environmental Issues Including Global Warming
Tuesday, November 10, 1998
Edward Yourdon
Computer Scientist
Chairman, Cutter Consortium
The Current Status of Y2K
Tuesday, March 30, 1999
Lt. Col. Pamela A. Melroy
NASA Astronaut
Space Shuttle Pilot
The International Space Station
Tuesday, April 27, 1999
Dr. Ramin Asgary
Physician
Representing Doctors Without Borders
1999 Nobel Peace Prize
Doctors Without Borders
Thursday, March 23, 2000
Dr. Ronald Breslow
1991 National Medal of Science
Samuel Latham Mitchell Professor of Chemistry
Columbia University
Chemistry Is a Treat, and That Is No Trick
Tuesday, October 31, 2000
Dr. John Weisburger
Director Emeritus
American Health Foundation
How to Grow Old in Perfect Health: The Latest Research in Preventive Medicine
Thursday, November 30, 2000
Dr. Bruce Alberts
President
U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Science in the 21st Century
Thursday, February 22, 2001
Dr. Peter Dodson
Professor of Anatomy and Professor of Geology
University of Pennsylvania
Dinosaur Studies on Four Continents
Thursday, March 29, 2001
Dr. Raymond Damadian
MRI Inventor
National Medal of Technology Recipient
Fonar Corporation
MRI: Its Origins, Development, and Implementation
Thursday, December 6, 2001
Dan Bricklin
Developer of VisiCalc, the First Electronic Spreadsheet
VisiCalc
Trellix Corporation
Ups and Downs of the Software Industry: Development of VisiCalc, The First Electronic Spreadsheet
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Dr. Richard L. Garwin
Philip D. Reed Senior Fellow for Science and Technology
Council on Foreign Relations
IBM Fellow Emeritus
Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons in the Twenty-First Century
Thursday, May 2, 2002
Carl Rausch
Founder and Vice Chairman of Biopure Corporation
Alternative to Blood – The Gift of Life
Tuesday, April 25, 2003
J. Douglas Field
Senior Vice President of Development
Operations and Marketing
Segway Corporation
Engineering from the Right Side of the Brain – The Integration of Ideation and Execution for Real-World Innovation
Thursday, May 1, 2003
Dr. Pedro A. Sanchez
2003 MacArthur Fellow
2002 World Food Prize Recipient
Director of Tropical Agriculture and Research Scholar
Columbia University
Ending Hunger in Africa: It Can Be Done!
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Ms. Sharon Terry, MA
President and CEO,
Genetic Alliance
From Here to the Genome and Back Again: Personal Stories, Genetics, and Populations
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Dr. James W. Hansen
Research Scientist
International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI)
The Earth Institute of Columbia University
Seasonal Climate Prediction: An Under-Exploited Weapon in Our Arsenal Against Hunger and Poverty
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Dr. Marco Leona
David H. Koch Scientist in Charge
Department of Scientific Research
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A Closer Look at Art: Scientific Research in an Art Museum
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Dr. Evelyn Keller
MacArthur Fellow
Professor of History and Philosophy of Science in the Program in Science
Technology and Society
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Innate Confusions: Nature, Nurture and All of That
Tuesday, May 3, 2005
Dr. William F. Ruddiman
Professor Emeritus
Environmental Science at the University of Virginia
Plows. Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of the Climate
Thursday, November 19, 2005
Dr. Margaret Livingstone
Professor of Neurobiology
Harvard Medical School
What Art Can Tell Us about the Brain
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Dr. Kerry Emanuel
Professor of Atmospheric Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Hurricanes and Climate
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Dr. Peter D. Lax
2005 Abel Prize in Mathematics
Professor Emeritus of Mathematics
New York University
The Paradox of Education
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Guy Consolmagno, SJ, Ph.D.
Chair of the Division for Planetary Sciences
American Astronomical Society
Curator, Vatican Meteorite Collection
What Ever Happened to Pluto?
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Dr. Henry C. Lee
Forensic Scientist
Chief Emeritus, Connecticut State Police
Lessons Learned from High Profile Cases
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Dr. Richard S. Lindzen
Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Analysis of Global Warming
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Dr. Michael Oppenheimer
Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs
Princeton University
Global Warming, Sea Level Rise, and the Future of the Earth’s Ice Sheets
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Dr. Michio Kaku
Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in Theoretical Physics
City University of New York Graduate Center
Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration in the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Tufts University
The Science of Chocolate
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Dr. Gerald Dugan
Professor of Physics
Cornell University
Very Large Particle Accelerators: The World’s Largest Scientific Instruments: What Are They and What Science Can They Do?
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Dr. James Trefil
Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics
George Mason University
Science Education for Everyone: A Story in Three Heresies
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Dr. David A. Sinclair
Professor of Pathology
Co-Director Paul F. Glenn Laboratories
for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging
Harvard Medical School
Harvard University
The Pathways that Govern the Pace of Aging: The Promise of New Medicines
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Dr. Martin Chalfie
2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Chemistry
Columbia University
GFP: Lighting Up Life
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Dr. John M. Butler
NIST Fellow and Group Leader of Applied Genetics
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Beyond CSI: Exciting Applications of Forensic DNA
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Dr. Heidi B. Hammel
Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director of Research
Space Science Institute
Boulder, Colorado
Cosmic Collisions
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Dr. Louis A. Bloomfield
Professor of Physics
University of Virginia
How Things Work: Physics in Everyday Life
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Dr. Edward J. Calabrese
Professor of Toxicology
University of Massachusetts
Historical Blunders: How EPA Got the Dose Response Half Right
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Dr. Stephen F. Badylak
Deputy Director- McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Director – McGowan Center for Preclinical Studies
University of Pittsburgh
A Regenerative Medicine Approach to Tissue and Organ Reconstruction
Thursday, October 19, 2010
Dr. Carl Safina
MacArthur Fellow
President, Blue Ocean Institute
Caught in the Same Net: The Ocean and Us
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Dr. David A. Ferrucci
IBM Fellow
Principal Investigator for Watson/Jeopardy! Project
Building Watson: An Overview of the DeepQA Project
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Dr. Sylvester J. (Jim) Gates
John S. Toll Professor of Physics
University of Maryland
On the Universality of Creativity in the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Dr. Ivar Giaever
Nobel Laureate in Physics
Professor Emeritus
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
The Strange Case of Global Warming
Thursday, April 29, 2012
Dr. Michael Tuts
Professor of Physics
Operations Program Manager - U.S. Team ATLAS Project
Columbia University
The Higgs Boson: Have We Discovered the God Particle?
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Dr. Sean Solomon
Director of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
William B. Ransford Professor of Earth and Planetary Science
Columbia University
The Surprising Innermost Planets: The MESSENGER Spacecraft Mission to Mercury
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Dr. W. Ian Lipkin
John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and Professor of Neurology and Pathology
Columbia University
Small Game Hunting
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Dr. William Wright
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Head of the Division of Reproductive Biology
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Johns Hopkins University
Eating Your Broccoli and Other Issues in Public Health
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Dr. Chris Rorres
Emeritus Professor of Mathematics
Drexel University
Lecturer in Epidemiology
University of Pennsylvania
Archimedes and the Theory of Everything
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Dr. Phaedon Avouris
IBM Fellow
Manager: Nanometer Scale Science & Technology
IBM Research Division T.J. Watson Research Center
Nanotechnology: What Is It and What Are Its Implications?
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Dr. Caleb Scharf
Director of Astrobiology
Columbia University
Gravity’s Engines: Black Holes and You
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Dr. John R. Christy
Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science
Director of the Earth System Science Center
University of Alabama
Climate Change from a Data Perspective
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Dr. Joel E. Cohen
MacArthur Fellow
Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of Populations
Head of the Laboratory of Populations Rockefeller University
and Columbia University
Population and Mathematics
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Dr. Paul E. Olsen
Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor of Geological Sciences
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Lamont/Doherty Earth Observatory
Columbia University
Comparative Anatomy of Mass Extinctions
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Dr. Martin J. Blaser
"100 Most Influential People in the World" - TIME - April, 2015
Muriel G. and George W Singer Professor of Translational Medicine Director,
NYU Human Microbiome Program Professor of Microbiology New York University School of Medicine
Missing Microbes
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Dr. Mario Livio
Astrophysicist
Space Telescope Science Institute
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Brilliant Blunders
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Dr. Willie E. May
Analytical Chemist
U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology
Director, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
NIST: Who we are, What we do, and Why you should care.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Dr. Nir Barzilai
Professor, Department of Medicine (Endocrinology)
Professor, Department of Genetics
Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair in Aging Research
Director, Institute for Aging Research
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
How to Die Young at a VERY Old Age
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Dr. Michael Mumma
Founding Director
NASA Goddard Center for Astrobiology
NASA Senior Scientist in the Solar System Exploration Division
Seeking Life on Mars
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Dr. Bennett Leventhal
Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Deputy Director of the UCSF STAR Center for Autism Spectrum and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of California San Francisco
The Study of Autism: A Parable about Science and Society
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Dr. Helen Fisher
Iona University Rudin-Driscoll Visiting Professor
Senior Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute, Indiana University
Member of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies in the Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University
Chief Scientific Advisor to Match.com
LUST, ROMANCE, ATTACHMENT
The Drive to Love, Who We Choose and the Future of Love in the Digital Age
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Dr. Scott Weaver
Director of the University of Texas Medical Branch
Director, Institute for Human Infections and Immunity
Scientific Director of the Galveston National Laboratory
John Sealy Distinguished University Chair in Human Infections and Immunity
Zika Virus: Evolution, Transmission Cycles and Emergence Mechanisms
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Dr. Joseph Nagyvary
Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry
Texas A&M University
Stradivari’s Secrets: Myths, and Facts, and Some Alternative Facts
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Dr. Harold E. Weaver Jr.
Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy
Principal Professional Staff (JHU-APL)
New Horizons Project Scientist
The Johns Hopkins University
The Exploration of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt by New Horizons
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
Dr. Robert Novak, CFC
Professor of Physics
Iona University
The Astronomical Search for Aliens on Mars
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Dr. Rainer Weiss
2017 Nobel Laureate in Physics
MIT Professor Emeritus of Physics
Probing the Universe with Gravitational Waves
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Dr. Leonard P. Guarente
MIT Novartis Professor of Biology
Director of the Glenn Center for Aging Research at MIT
Affiliate of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
Adding Life to Our Years
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Dr. Amber Straughn
Associate Director Astrophysics Science Division
Goddard Space Flight Center
Astrophysicist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
James Webb Telescope Project Science Team
Infant Galaxies to Alien Atmospheres:
NASA’s James Webb Telescope
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Dr. Rush Holt
Chief Executive Officer
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Executive Publisher of the Science Family of Journals
Accessible Science: Using the Shrewdest Maneuver
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Dr. Gerta Keller
Professor of Paleontology and Geology
Geosciences Department
Princeton University
Dinosaur Wars: Extinction by Asteroid or Volcanism?
Are We the Dinosaurs of the 6th Mass Extinction?
Thursday, April 4, 2019