THE PUBLIC GOOD: Knowledge as the Foundation for a Democratic Society
Sunday Morning, April 29, 2007

Science, Health, and an Aging Society

Click here for audio of complete panel (56 min.) Click speaker names for individual audio.

Introduction:		Peter Nicholas (2 min.) is Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Boston Scientific Corporation. Previously, he served as General Manager of the Medical Products Division of Millipore Corporation and held a variety of positions, both domestically and internationally, at Eli Lilly. He is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at Duke University and a member of the Board’s Executive Committee. He is a member of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and serves on the boards of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, CEOs for Charter Schools, and the Boys & Girls Club of Boston. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and serves as Cochair of its Trust.
Chair:		Harvey V. Fineberg (6 min.) is President of the Institute of Medicine. From 1997– 2001 he served as Provost of Harvard University, following thirteen years as Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. He has devoted most of his academic career to the fields of health policy and medical decision making. His research has focused on the process of policy development and implementation, assessment of medical technology, evaluation and use of vaccines, and dissemination of medical innovations. Co-author of Clinical Decision Analysis, Innovators in Physician Education, and The Epidemic that Never Was, he was honored with the Joseph W. Mountin Prize from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Panelists:		John Bongaarts (17 min.) is Vice President and Distinguished Scholar of the Popu-lation Council, where he has been employed since 1973. His research has focused on a variety of population issues, including the determinants of fertility, population-environment relationships, the demographic impact of the AIDS epidemic, and population-policy options in the developing world. He served as Chairman of the Panel on Population Projections of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, and the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. His extensive publications include articles in Scientific American and Science, and he coedited Beyond 6 Billion: Forecasting the World’s Population.
		Lisa Berkman (19 min.) is Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health and Chair of the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. She is an epidemiologist whose work focuses on understanding social determinants of health and aging. Berkman’s research concentrates on identifying the role of social networks, and social and economic policies that increase premature mortality and disability. In her most recent work she is studying the impact of work, especially flexible work policies, and the health of older workers. She is the past President of the Society for Epidemiologic Research, current Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Institute of Aging, and a member of the Institute of Medicine.
		John W. Rowe (18 min.) is Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. From 2000–2006, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Aetna, Inc. He was President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai-NYU Health from 1998–2000, and President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City from 1988–1998. A gerontologist, he is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a former member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Connecticut and the Marine Biology Laboratory, he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Back to Public Good Program page