Annual Reviews Conversations

Julie K. Pfeiffer of the Department of Microbiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, introduces her article for the 2014 Annual Review of Virology, titled "Viruses and the Microbiota."

Jean-François Laliberté of Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut Armand-Frappier, introduces his article for the 2014 Annual Review of Virology, titled "Viral Manipulation of Plant Host Membranes."

Terry Hartig, of the University of Uppsala; Richard Mitchell, of the University of Glasgow and the Centre for Research on Environment, Society, and Health; Sjerp de Vries, of the Alterra Institute and the University of Wageningen; and Howard Frumkin, of the University of Washington in Seattle, talk about their article "Nature and Health," which they wrote for the 2014 Annual Review of Public Health. They discuss the current state of research on the impact that contact with nature has on individual and population health.

Benjamin Schneider, Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Eller College of Management of the University of Arizona and Senior Research Fellow at CEB-Valtera, and Lyman Porter, Full Professor Emeritus at the Paul Merage School of Business of the University of California, Irvine, talk about their life and career with Frederick Morgeson, Eli Broad Professor of Management at the Eli Broad College of Business of the University of Michigan. They discuss their beginnings as researchers in the field of organizational science and how their friendship developed since the 1960s. Addressing young scholars, they give their recommendations for a successful career.

Herman Aguinis, John F. Mee Chair of Management at the Kelley School of Business of Indiana University, Bloomington, and Robert J. Vandenberg, Robert O. Arnold Professor of Business at the Terry College of Business of the University of Georgia, talk about their article "An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure: Improving Research Quality Before Data Collection," which they wrote for the first volume of the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. In this lecture, they discuss the various steps that researchers in organizational science can take to ensure that their work is of high quality and makes a lasting impact.

Robert E. Ployhart, Bank of America Professor of Business Administration and Moore Research Fellow at the Darla Moore School of Business of the University of South Carolina, talks about his article "The Fascinating Psychological Microfoundations of Strategy and Competitive Advantage," which he wrote with Donald Hale, Jr., also of the Darla Moore School of Business, for the first volume of the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. In this lecture, he discusses how psychological research can provide new insights into understanding how firms perform and gain a competitive advantage. However, Dr. Ployhart argues that to achieve such understanding will require psychologists to adopt a broader perspective and integrate their scholarship with research in strategic management.

Jane Dutton, Robert L. Kahn, distinguished University Professor of Business Administration and Psychology at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, talks to Anna Rascouët-Paz about her article "Compassion at Work," written with Kristina Workman and Ashley Hardin, also of the University of Michigan, for the first volume of the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. She discusses the mechanisms and benefits of compassion within organizations.

Niko Geldner, Assistant Professor of Plant Cell Biology at the University of Lausanne, talks about his article "The Endodermis," which he wrote for the 2013 Annual Review of Plant Biology. The need for multicellular organisms to protect their inner extracellular space led the organisms to develop a diffusion barrier that can remain as selective as the hydrophobic plasma membrane of cells. In animal biology, this barrier is known as the polarized epithelium, which absorbs nutrients but keeps pathogens and excess away. In this lecture, Dr. Geldner discusses the endodermis, the plant variant of the polarized epithelium. Located on the plants' roots, it has been a feature of ferns and angiosperms for approximately 400 million years.

The Annual Review of Physiology presents an interview with Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini. Dr. Moses Chao interviewed her in September of 2008. Of Dr. Levi-Montalcini, Dr. Chao says: There are very few proven theories that exist in biology. One that has stood the test of time is the neurotrophic theory. It explains why only half of the neurons produced early in development are needed to form a functional nervous system. The explanation came from the discovery of nerve growth factors (NGFs), which help nourish neurons, guide their axons to their proper connections, and prevent cell death. Rita Levi-Montalcini, who formulated this idea, celebrated her 100th birthday on April 22, 2009 in Rome. I had the opportunity to interview her at the European Brain Research Institute (EBRI) in September 2008, which forms the basis of this interview.

Robert A. Dahl, the foremost living theorist of democracy, is the emeritus Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1940 and where he spent virtually his entire academic career. After five years working for the government—as a management analyst at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, then as an economist in the Office of Price Administration and the War Production Board, and finally as a member of the Army—he returned to Yale in 1946. With colleagues Charles Lindblom, Robert Lane, and others, he helped build the first modern department of political science, a department that asked major substantive questions while using the best social science techniques available at the time.

In this interview, conducted on March 30, 2008 by Margaret Levi for the Annual Review of Political Science, Dahl grounds his motivation for studying democracy not only in his academic encounters but also in his experiences growing up in Alaska, attending public schools there, and working with longshore workers as a boy. He does not want to replicate the utopian visions of classical philosophers. His commitment is to the development of an empirical model of democracy that guides scholars in their efforts to determine the extent of democratization throughout the world as well as in the United States. Normatively, he is committed to a democracy that recognizes the rights and voice of all who have a legitimate claim to citizenship.