Annual Reviews Conversations

Dr. John B. Fenn talks with colleague Dr. Samy El-Shall about his life and career in science.

Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, Merck's former Chairman and CEO, talks about his life and career with Dr. Andrew R. Marks, professor at the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at the Columbia University College of Physicians and surgeons. Dr. Vagelos went from waiting on Merck employees at his father's luncheonette in New Jersey to joining the pharmaceutical company, where he revolutionized the drug discovery process. With his team, he developed the first statin, a molecule that reduces cholesterol, and a drug that kills the river blindness parasite with a single tablet.

Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus of Social Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), talks about his life and career with Nancy Rosenblum, Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government at Harvard University and Associate Editor of the Annual Review of Political Science. Growing up in a "family of lefties" during World War II, Professor Walzer began writing about politics as a child, and for the rest of his career, he toed the line between professorship and militancy. For over 30 years, he has co-edited Dissent, a magazine about politics and culture founded in 1954. He wrote 27 books and over 300 articles, about topics ranging from Just War Theory to religion, and civil society. This interview was recorded on March 12, 2012.

The Annual Review of Clinical Psychology presents Aaron T. Beck, President Emeritus of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and his daughter Judith S. Beck, President of the Beck Institute and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. In this interview, they talk about his life and career, and how he went from having no interest in psychiatry to creating Cognitive Behavior Therapy. This method, initially developed for patients with depression and anxiety, challenges the subject to question his own negative beliefs, which act as prisms and cause distortions in the way events are perceived. Later, research showed that Cognitive Behavior Therapy was also effective in the treatment of schizophrenia. In the future, Aaron T. Beck says, psychotherapy must be firmly rooted in scientific evidence.

The Annual Review of Anthropology presents Irven DeVore, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Harvard University, in conversation with Peter Ellison, Co-Editor of this journal and Professor of Anthropology and Human Evolutionary Biology, also at Harvard University. Dr. DeVore talks about his life and career, describing how he went from social anthropology to studying and filming baboons and other primates in Africa, to observing the Bushmen of the Kalahari and the Pygmies. Dr. DeVore was one of the first to incorporate sociobiological theory into his work, a decision that would prove as fundamental as it was challenging. In his own words, he would have to "turn [his] back on everything [he'd] understood until that point in anthropology."

Dr. Philip Benfey, Professor of Biology, Director of the Duke Center for Systems Biology and contributing author of the 2012 Annual Review of Plant Biology, talks about his article Control of Arabidopsis Root Development. In this lecture, he discusses the cellular and genetic mechanisms that underlie root formation in Arabidopsis thaliana, from embryonic roots to lateral roots. He also describes how the roots react to environmental stress, such as high salinity. Finally, he explains how molecular genetics, genomics, and systems biology made it possible to control root development.

Dr. Nevin Scrimshaw, Institute Professor Emeritus of Nutrition and Food Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about his life and career with his former student Cutberto Garza, director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University. Dr. Scrimshaw discusses how he discovered a compound, potassium iodate, that allowed Central American salt to be iodized, thereby preventing goiter, a swelling of the thyroid, in children. He also explains how he helped fight protein, vitamin A, and iron deficiencies in other parts of the developing world. Dr. Scrimshaw created the Institute of Nutrition in Central America and Panama and he founded the World Hunger Programme at the United Nations University, the International Nutrition Foundation, the Protein Advisory Group at the World Health Organization and UNICEF. He was also instrumental in identifying and explaining the link between nutrition and infection. Sadly, Dr. Scrimshaw passed away on February 8, 2013. We were honored to capture this conversation on video in August, 2012.

Paul Bloom, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University and contributing author of the 2012 Annual Review of Psychology, talks about his article "Religion, Morality, Evolution." How did religion evolve? What effect does religion have on our moral beliefs and moral actions? These questions are related, as some scholars propose that religion has evolved to enhance altruistic behavior toward members of one's group. But, Bloom argues, while religion has powerfully good moral effects and powerfully bad moral effects, these are due to aspects of religion that are shared by other human practices. There is surprisingly little evidence for a moral effect of specifically religious beliefs.

Donald E. Ingber, Founding Director of the Wyss Institute, Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, talks about his article "Mechanobiology and Developmental Control," which he wrote with Tadanori Mammoto and Akiko Mammoto for the 2013 Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. He discusses the role of physical and mechanical forces in the control of cell development and disease, which he says is as important as chemicals and genes.

Kathryn L. Mills, of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University College of London (UCL), talks about her article "Is Adolescence a Sensitive Period for Sociocultural Processing?" which she wrote with Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, also of UCL, for the 2014 Annual Review of Psychology.

In this lecture, Ms. Mills argues that "studies about adolescence should include measures of social influence" as social context drives many of the decisions made by adolescents. She describes how the structure and function of the social brain continue to develop during the second decade of life, and explains these changes must be taken into account.