BIOGRAPHIES OF SPEAKERS
Carlo Avignolo: Carlo Avignolo is presently teaching courses in Ecology at UNITRE – Università delle Tre Età. He received his PhD in Oncology in 2006. and worked at Temple University School of Medicine and at University of Genoa and National Cancer Institute, Genoa, Italy, studying cell cycle and related oncoproteins and non-radioactive labelling of nucleic acids. He is also a retired professor from MIUR (Ministry of Instruction, University and Research) He has been teaching General Sciences at Istituto Arecco SJ, Genova.
Suzanne Bohlson: Suzanne Bohlson (Suzie) is a Professor of Teaching in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). She earned her Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Notre Dame (2001). As the current Director of both the Master of Science in Biotechnology and Biotechnology Management programs, her research interests include immunology and myeloid cell activation. She was raised in an irreligious family of academic scientists and entered the Church in 2007 when beginning her first faculty position at Indiana University School of Medicine- South Bend and the University of Notre Dame.
David Chiang: David Chiang is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. His research is on computational models for learning human languages, particularly how to translate from one language to another. His work on applying formal grammars and machine learning to translation has been recognized with two best paper awards (at ACL 2005 and NAACL HLT 2009). He has received research grants from DARPA, NSF, Google, and Amazon, has served on the executive board of NAACL and the editorial board of Computational Linguistics and JAIR, and is currently on the editorial board of Transactions of the ACL.
Kevin Greenman: Kevin Greenman is a Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering and computation at MIT, where he is an NSF graduate research fellow. His research focuses on using artificial intelligence and physics-based simulations to discover new molecules and materials. Kevin has done internships with Eli Lilly and Microsoft Research. He earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the University of Michigan. He is a co-founder and co-president of the Harvard-MIT chapter of SCS. In August, Kevin will begin an appointment as an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical engineering at the Catholic Institute of Technology in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.
Berta Moritz: Berta M. Moritz has a Ph.D. in Zoology/Biochemistry from the University of Graz, Austria. She worked in R&D for Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices in both industry and academia. Her responsibilities included guiding Marketing Authorization applications for Biologicals in Europe and the US; planning, management, and reporting of clinical trials mainly in Oncology; and Surveillance of Patient Safety. She participated in several EU-funded research projects. She is a member of the Society of Catholic Scientists since 2017. She is interested in the interface of Science and the Christian Faith, and blogs at https://sciencemeetsfaith.wordpress.com/.
Craig Mullen: Craig Mullen serves as the Chief of the Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology Division of the University of Rochester Medical Center. He has joint appointments as Professor in both the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and in the Department of Oncology. He received his Ph.D. from University of Chicago and M.D. from University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. Dr. Mullen’s current research work examines the bone marrow microenvironment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The current goal of the work is to identify the molecular mechanisms by which nonmalignant cells in the marrow microenvironment that provide antiapoptotic support for leukemia cells. Ultimately this may identify new "drug-able" targets that may improve leukemia therapy.
E.J. Neafsey: After spending nine years as a Jesuit, E.J. Neafsey obtained his Ph.D. in Anatomy at UCLA and then joined the faculty in the Anatomy Department of Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine, where he remained for 33 years. He taught Neuroscience to the medical students, was director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program for over 20 years, and did research on a variety of topics, including the brain's role in movement and in autonomic responses during emotion, human emotional responses in subjects with PTSD or schizophrenia, and both the beneficial and toxic effects of alcohol on the brain.
Martin Nowak: Martin A. Nowak is Professor of Mathematics and of Biology at Harvard University. He works on the mathematical description of evolutionary processes, including the evolution of cooperation and human language, as well as the dynamics of virus infections and human cancer. His major scientific contributions and discoveries include: quantifying the dynamics of HBV infection; evolution of virulence under superinfection and coinfection; the role of chromosomal instability in human cancer; quantifying the dynamics of chronic myeloid leukemia; the evolution of drug resistance in targeted cancer therapy; the mechanisms for the evolution of genetic redundancy; five mechanisms for the evolution of cooperation; evolution of eusociality by natural selection; and a mathematical approach for studying the evolution of human language.
Fernanda Psihas: Fernanda Psihas is a Research Associate at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. She works on Fermilab's short-baseline neutrino program and is an expert in the application of AI for particle physics. She received her Ph.D. in physics from Indiana University.
Alexander Pruss: Alexander Pruss is currently Professor of Philosophy and the co-director of graduate studies in philosophy at Baylor University. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from University of British Columbia and his Ph.D. in philosophy from University of Pittsburgh. His best known book is The Principle of Sufficient Reason: A Reassessment (2006). He is also the author of the books, Actuality, Possibility and Worlds (2011), and One Body: An Essay in Christian Sexual Ethics (2012), and a number of academic papers on religion and theology. He maintains his own philosophy blog and contributed to the Prosblogion philosophy of religion blog. He is a Scholar Associate of SCS.
Walter Scheirer: Walter J. Scheirer is the Dennis O. Doughty Collegiate Professor of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. His primary technical research interest within computer science is artificial intelligence. He is a global AI leader, serving as the Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Community on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence and as a board member of the Computer Vision Foundation. Prof. Scheirer is also a cultural critic and historian, commenting on the social context of emerging technologies from the realistic perspective of a technologist, and promoting technology development informed by Catholic Social Teaching that upholds the common good.
Alexander R. Webber: Alex is a Ph.D. student in computer science at the University of Florida with a particular focus on computational linguistics. He holds a bachelor's degree in linguistics and a master's degree in computer science.
Dcn. Gregory K. Webster: Gregory Webster is a permanen deacon in the Archdiocese of Chicago and coordinates his ministerial activities through Brother in the Stole Ministries. With a Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University, Greg has worked as an analytical chemist in the pharmaceutical industry for over three decades, Combining his love for science and theology, he also holds an M.A. in Theology from Holy Apostles College and Seminary, as well as a D.Bioethics degree in Catholic and Research Bioethics from Loyola University of Chicago. Greg serves on the Ethics Committee at Ascension Resurrection Hospital and the Internal Review Board (IRB) at Chamberlain University.