Distinguished Prof., U Maryland College Park & Johns Hopkins School of Public Health; Chairman Emeritus, Canon U.S. Life Sciences; Founder, CosmosID Inc. Dr. Colwell served as 11th Director, National Science Foundation and Co-chair, National Science and Technology Council and elected member of United States National Academy of Sciences, Royal Swedish Academy, Stockholm, Royal Society Canada, Royal Irish and American Academy Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society. Dr. Colwell received the Stockholm Water Prize, bestowed by the King of Sweden; Singapore Water Prize; National Medal of Science, awarded by President of the United States, and Order of Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, bestowed by Emperor of Japan. B.S., M.S., Purdue; Ph.D., U Washington.

Nicholas Dirks is President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Academy of Sciences, which numbers over 20,000 Members in 100+ countries. The mission of the Academy is to drive innovative solutions to society's challenges by advancing scientific research, education, and policy.
Dirks is an internationally renowned historian, anthropologist, and specialist on India. He is also an important leader and accomplished administrator in higher education. He has taught at Caltech, the University of Michigan, and Columbia University, where he was also Executive Vice President and Dean of the Faculty between 2004 and 2012. In 2012 he was named the 10th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and served in that role until 2017. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Pradeep K. Khosla is the eighth Chancellor of UC San Diego; as UC San Diego's chief executive officer, he leads a campus with more than 30,000 students, six undergraduate colleges, five academic divisions, and five graduate and professional schools. UC San Diego is an academic and research powerhouse, with faculty, researchers, and staff attracting more than $1 billion annually in research funding and is one of 10 campuses in the world-renowned University of California system. While at UC San Diego, Khosla has initiated and led the first comprehensive strategic planning process to unify the campus. An internationally renowned electrical and computer engineer, Khosla previously served as Dean of the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Steven E. Koonin is a University Professor at New York University. He was the founding director of NYU's Center for Urban Science and Progress 2012-18, which focuses on big data for big cities. Koonin served as Undersecretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy 2009-11 and was BP's Chief Scientist 2004-09. During 1975-2006 he was a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech and the institute's Provost 1995-2004. His memberships include the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Koonin holds a B.S. in Physics from Caltech and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from MIT. He has authored of more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers and supervised some 30 PhD theses.

Thomas Mason is the President & CEO of Triad National Security, LLC and serves as the Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He was the Sr. Vice President for Global Laboratory Operations at Battelle. He had responsibility for governance & strategy across the six National Laboratories that Battelle manages or co-manages. Prior to Battelle, Thom worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for 19 yrs, including 10 yrs as the Laboratory Director. He moved to ORNL from the University of Toronto where he was a faculty member in the Dept. of Physics and previously worked as a Sr. Scientist at Ris� National Laboratory and a Postdoc at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Thom has a Ph.D. in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics from McMaster University and a BSc in Physics from Dalhousie University.

Eric Mazur is Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Harvard University and Past President of the Optical Society. He is a prominent physicist known for his contributions in nanophotonics, an internationally recognized educational innovator, and a successful entrepreneur. Mazur has received many awards for his work in physics and in education. In 2014, he became the inaugural recipient of the Minerva Prize for Advancements in Higher Education. Mazur holds numerous patents and has founded several successful companies. He serves as consultant in the electronics and telecommunications industry.

Hank McKinnell is Co-founder of the Infectious Disease Institute, an organization dedicated to fighting infectious diseases in Africa by strengthening academic medical centers and building healthcare capacity through research, training, prevention, care, and treatment. Hank joined Pfizer Inc. in 1971 in Tokyo and over the years held positions of increasing responsibility around the world including serving as Chairman and CEO. Hank is currently the Chairman of Moody's Corporation and is a Director of several life science companies. Hank holds a Bachelor's Degree in business from the University of B.C., and M.B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Recipient Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

President, National Academy of Sciences; former President and Editor-in-Chief of Science journals, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Marcia McNutt (B.A. in physics, Colorado College; Ph.D. in Earth sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) is a geophysicist and the 22nd president of the National Academy of Sciences. From 2013 to 2016, she was editor-in-chief of Science journals. McNutt was director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 2009 to 2013, during which time USGS responded to a number of major disasters, including the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. For her work to help contain that spill, McNutt was awarded the U.S. Coast Guard's Meritorious Service Medal. McNutt is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, UK, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Meyerson serves as IBM's Chief Innovation Officer Emeritus. Joining IBM in 1980, Dr. Meyerson invented Silicon-Germanium technology, founding IBM's highly successful Mixed Signal business. As an executive, he has led IBM's global semiconductor development, strategic alliances for the Systems and Technology Group, becoming IBM's Chief Innovation Officer in 2010. His team leads the definition and integration of corporate-wide technical and business strategic initiatives. Dr. Meyerson is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the IEEE, and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. Most recently, Dr. Meyerson was honored with the 2015 National Medal for Public Service by the government of Singapore for his many years of service and impact as a technical advisor to the nation.

Dr. Herbert Hugh Thompson is a Managing Partner at Crosspoint Capital Partners, Program Committee Chairman of RSA Conference and an Adjunct Professor in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University. Dr. Thompson is a world-renowned expert in information security. He has co-authored three books on the topic including, How to Break Software Security: Effective Techniques for Security Testing (with Dr. James Whittaker, published by Addison-Wesley, 2003), and The Software Vulnerability Guide (with Scott Chase, published by Charles River 2005). He is also the co-author (with Bob Sullivan of NBC News) of a business/psychology book from Penguin titled "The Plateau Effect". In 2006 he was named one of the "Top 5 Most Influential Thinkers in IT Security" by SC Magazine.

Deborah Wince-Smith is the President & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, the Nation's premiere competitiveness leadership organization, representing U.S. CEOs, university presidents, and labor leaders. She leads national & international initiatives that assess competitiveness challenges, convene leaders who can envision and implement solutions, and organize action to enhance U.S. competitiveness. For most of her career, she has worked on a wide range of science, technology, innovation, & competitiveness issues advising top-level government policy-makers & business leaders. She serves on the boards of several public & private organizations. She is the President of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils, and a member of Japan's Science and Technology in Society forum Council.

Dr. Thomas Zacharia serves as Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and CEO of UT-Battelle, LLC, where he is responsible for managing a diverse portfolio of science and energy R&D spanning fundamental research in physics, biology, and chemistry through programs in climate change; energy generation, distribution, and end use; and national security. Operating responsibilities include a nuclear reactor, a high-power proton accelerator, classified activities, and a complex array of research facilities and construction projects. Before being named Director, he was a senior administrator at ORNL. Previously serving as Executive Vice President of R&D at Qatar Foundation, he contributed to QF's mission by advancing the organization's research initiatives.

Elias Zerhouni, M.D., was the President, Global Research & Development, and a member of the Executive Committee for Sanofi. Dr. Zerhouni's academic career was spent at the renowned Johns Hopkins University and Hospital. He was Director of the National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2008. In November, 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Zerhouni as one of the first presidential U.S. science envoys. He holds a number of prominent positions on several Boards, including most recently the Lasker Foundation and Transcelerate BioPharma Inc. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, received the prestigious Legion of Honor medal from the French National Order in 2008, and elected as a member of the French Academy of Medicine.

Jerome Friedman received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. In 1960, he was hired at MIT as an assistant professor and was promoted to Professor in 1967. At MIT, he has served as Director of the Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Head of the Physics Department. In 1991, he was appointed as Institute Professor. He is an experimental particle physicist whose research has included studies of particle structure and interactions with high energy electrons, neutrinos, and hadrons. He received, jointly with Henry Kendall and Richard Taylor, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 and the W.H.K. Panofsky Prize in 1989 for the experimental discovery of quarks. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.