2023 Anastasi Lecture: ‘Trying to Make Ourselves Useful’

Join us for a lecture with Baruch Fischhoff, Ph.D., (Carnegie Mellon University) followed by a reception.

Part of society’s return on the investment in our science is the help that we provide in making public policy decisions. The return depends, in part, on the state of our science and our ability to translate it into useful terms. It also depends on policymakers’ interest in what we have to say. After framing the general issues, the talk will include the presenter’s experiences in two domains: climate change (beginning in the Carter administration) and pandemic disease (beginning with H5N1, in the mid-2000s). The talk will conclude with reflections on what these engagements have done for society and for our science.

About the Speaker
Baruch Fischhoff is the Howard Heinz University Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Security and Technology. He is a graduate of Wayne State University, where he earned a B.S. in mathematics and psychology, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he earned a Ph.D. in, psychology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.