Annual Reviews Conversations

Marc Van Montagu, President of the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) and former Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Ghent, talks about his life and career with Joanne Chory, Professor of Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Dr. Van Montagu recounts how he went from studying chemistry to discovering the gene transfer mechanism from Agrobacterium to plants, which opened the door to gene engineering and the creation of transgenic plants. Through the EFB and the Institute of Plant Biotechnology Outreach, of which he is the founder and chairman, Dr. Montagu is now dedicated to educating the general public and informing political leaders about the necessity of using science and plant engineering to prepare a sustainable future for the planet and its growing population.

Dr. Thomas P. Tomich, Director and W.K. Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at the University of California, Davis, and Committee Member of the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, talks about his article "Agroecology: A Review from a Global-Change Perspective," which he co-wrote with another 15 authors from a variety of disciplines. In this lecture, Dr. Tomich discusses the agricultural challenges brought on by a world population that could surpass nine billion individuals by 2050, as well as water scarcity, climate change, pests, nitrogen prices, and geopolitical factors. An important question will be how to feed nine billion people and do it in a sustainable way. He stresses the importance of approaching agroecology from an scientific perspective, integrated across disciplines, from economic and social sciences to entomology and genomics.

Dr. Roger Guillemin, Distinguished Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Laureate of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, talks about his life and career with Dr. Greg Lemke, Françoise Gilot-Salk Professor at the Salk Institute, for the 2013 Annual Review of Physiology. Dr. Guillemin discusses his childhood and high school education in Dijon, France, and how he and his friends preferred to go underground at the end of their first year of medicine rather than be shipped to Munich to build weapons for the German army. After the war, Dr. Guillemin practiced medicine, then decided follow Hans Selye to his laboratory in Montreal. There he began the research in endocrinology that led him to make discoveries and lay the foundations of the study of brain hormones, eventually winning the Nobel Prize.

Dr. Andreas Acrivos, Albert Einstein Professor of Science and Engineering, Emeritus, at the Levich Institute located at the City College of New York, talks about his life and career with his former student Dr. Eric S.G. Shaqfeh, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering of Stanford University. Born in Greece to an affluent family, his life took a definitive turn during the German occupation of Greece in the second World War. He moved to the United States to study Chemical Engineering, with the plan of returning to his native country to build an industry. Instead, he became an integral part of American academics and was instrumental in developing the Chemical Engineering programs at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and City College of New York. Always pushing his research beyond the formal training he received, he sought to attract the most talented and ambitious students, and served as an example to many young Greeks who chose to follow in his footsteps.

Karen Strier, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Editorial Committee Member of the Annual Review of Anthropology, talks to Anna Rascouët-Paz about her work with the northern muriqui monkeys of Brazil.

Karen Strier, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and Editorial Committee Member of the Annual Review of Anthropology, talks to Anna Rascouët-Paz about her work with the northern muriqui monkeys of Brazil.

Dr. Katherine Belov, Professor of Comparative Genomics at the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Sydney and contributing author of the 2012 Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, talks about her article "A Comparative Genomics Approach to Understanding Transmissible Cancer in Tasmanian Devils," which she co-wrote with Dr. Janine E. Deakin, ARC Future Fellow at the Research School of Biology at the Australian National University. In this lecture, Prof. Belov discusses the origins of the Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD), a transmissible cancer that has already caused the disappearance of 85 percent of the species and could lead to its extinction in the wild within 25 years. She explains what is known of the tumor based on its genomics, why it is transmitted between animals without causing immune recognition in the devils, and what are the conservation efforts to save the species from extinction.

The Annual Review of Resource Economics presents Dr. Richard E. Just in conversation with economist Dr. Arnold Harberger. Dr. Harberger is Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago and is currently a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Harberger has had an incredible impact on the field of public finance, especially in taxation and exchange policy, in both academic and policy circles. What sets his work apart is an emphasis on elucidating major issues of practical importance with understandable simplicity and transparency while at the same time tackling the general equilibrium dimensions of policy issues of importance at the national level. In this interview, Dr. Harberger talks about his career as well as about his views on theories in economics.

Dr. Robert Solow, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, talks about his life and career with Dr. Peter Berck, SJ Hall Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. In this conversation, Dr. Solow discusses growing up in an immigrant family in 1930s Brooklyn, being introduced to literature and ideas at James Madison High School, attending Harvard University on scholarship, and receiving the 1987 Nobel Prize in Economics Laureate.

In this episode, Dr. Donald B. McCormick, Callaway Prof. Emeritus of Biochemistry at the School of Medicine of Emory University in Atlanta, talks about his life and career with Dr. Al Merrill, Professor and Smithgall Chair in Molecular Cell Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Dr. Barbara Bowman, Associate Director for Science at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion in Atlanta and Associate Editor of the Annual Review of Nutrition. Dr. McCormick describes the path from his childhood in Oak Ridge, TN, to becoming an eminent authority on vitamins.