William and Myrtle Harris Distinguished Lectureship in Science and Civilization

The William and Myrtle Harris Distinguished Lectures in Science and Civilization started in 1996, thanks to the endowment established by William Harris, a BS '49 and MS '50 Caltech alumnus in Mechanical Engineering, and his wife, an alumna of Occidental College and Stanford. The Harris Lectures enable the history and philosophy of science program to bring to campus distinguished scientists, historians, philosophers, and other analysts of science to address concerns of mutual interest—especially their ethical implications—across the intellectual spectrum. Below is a list of all Harris Lecturers to date, including, when available, a link to the podcast or video of the lecture.

Click here to see upcoming events in this series.

Past Events

Donors Myrtle and William Harris, BS '49, MS '50

DATE	TITLE	SPEAKER	AFFILIATION
02/17/2023	From Fukushima to Hiroshima: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives on Eight Decades of Living with Nuclear Technology [Video]	Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent ¹ Soraya Boudia ² Kyoko Sato ³ Joseph E. Shepherd ⁴	¹ Professor of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (Emeritus), Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University ² Professor of Science, Technology and Society, Paris Cité University ³ Associate Director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Stanford University ⁴ C. L. "Kelly" Johnson Professor of Aeronautics and Mechanical Engineering, Caltech
05/05/2022	Engineering Fidelity: Early Radio and the Trautonium in Berlin in the 1920s and '30s [Video]	Myles W. Jackson	Albers-Schönberg Professor in the History of Science, Institute for Advanced Study
05/25/2021	Fighting the First Wave [Video]	Peter Baldwin	Global Distinguished Professor, NYU; Professor of History, UCLA
04/14/2021	Rich Rocks, the Climate Crisis, and the Tech Imperium [Video]	Sophia Kalantzakos	Visiting Fellow in the Research Institute for the History of Science and Technology (2020-2021), Caltech; Global Distinguished Professor in Environmental Studies and Public Policy, New York University
11/12/2020	Ideal and Illusion: The Rise and Fall of Nikola Tesla [Video]	W. Bernard Carlson	Joseph L. Vaughan Professor of Humanities; Chair, Engineering and Society Department; Professor of History, University of Virginia
2/27/2020	Lies and Truth in the History of Science [Video]	Alberto A. Martínez	Associate Professor, Department of History, The University of Texas at Austin
5/20/2019	Leonardo da Vinci: History of the Earth and the Fate of Man	Paolo Galluzzi	Moore Distinguished Scholar, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Caltech; Historian of Science, Director of the Galileo Museum, Florence, Italy
12/7/2018	The Anatomy of Artificial Intelligence	Kate Crawford	Co-Founder and Co-Director of the AI Now Institute at NYU; Distinguished Research Professor at New York University; Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research New York
5/17/2018	Science vs. Intuition: Why Scientific Ideas Elude the Human Mind [Video]	Andrew Shtulman	Cognitive Science; Psychology, Occidental College
5/18/2017	Containment Film Screening, Intro and Q&A with film creators [Video]	Peter Galison ¹ Robb Moss ²	¹ Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University ² Chair, Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University
4/13/2016	Empirical Research on Research and the Reproducibility Crisis [Video]	John P.A. Ioannidis	C.F. Rehnborg Professor in Disease Prevention, Professor of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University
5/21/2015	Alan Turing: An Individual of the Twentieth Century [Video]	Andrew Hodges	Senior Research Fellow and Fellow and Tutor in Mathematics at Wadham College, University of Oxford
2/4/2015	The Knowledge Society as a Practical Utopia and its Hidden Impact on Higher Education [Video]	Liviu Matei	Provost and Pro-Rector; Professor in the Department of Public Policy, Central European University
4/30/2014	Cars and Civilization [Paper]	Jesse H. Ausubel ¹ Nebojsa Nakicenovic ²	¹ Rockefeller University ² Vienna University of Technology and International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
5/21/2013	Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts	Andrew Robinson	Author
5/21/2012	Big Science, 19th Century Style: Terrestrial Physics and the British Quest for the South Magnetic Pole	Edward J. Larson	University Professor and Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law, Pepperdine University
3/1/2012	Archaeologies of Performance: Ritual Movement through Greek Sacred Space	Joan Breton Connelly	Professor of Classics, Art History; Director, NYU; Yeronisos Island Excavations, Cyprus, New York University
3/8/2011	The Apples of our Eyes: Art, Intellectual Property and American Fruits	Daniel J. Kevles	Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Yale University
11/12/2010	Walther Rathenau's Dilemma: Modernity and the Human Soul	Shulamit Volkov	Professor of Modern History, Tel Aviv University
2/26/2010	Manufacturing Memories	Elizabeth Loftus	Distinguished Professor of Social Ecology, Professor of Law and Cognitive Science, UC Irvine
12/4/2009	Did Darwin Write the Origin of Species Backwards?	Elliott Sober	Hans Reichenbach Professor and William Vilas Research Professor, Department of Philosophy University of Wisconsin, Madison
5/18/2009	The Religious Rise of Civilizations	Scott Atran	Director, National Center for Scientific Research, Paris
3/6/2009	From Professor to Crusader: Galileo Transformed by His Telescope	John S. Heilbron	Professor Emeritus of History and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus at UC Berkeley
5/5/2008	Commemorating Darwin: 1809, 1859, 2009	Janet Browne	Aramont Professor of History of Science, Harvard University
11/13/2007	The Threat to the Planet: Dark and Bright Sides of Global Warming	James Hansen	NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York City
5/14/2007	Robert Hooke in the Round: Ingenious Scientist, Newton's Nemesis and a Most Disastrous Clerk	Lisa Jardine	Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary, University of London
4/18/2007	Watson, Crick and the Mushroom Cloud	Soraya de Chadarevian	Department of History and Center for Society and Ethics at UCLA
2/1/2006	Oppenheimer's Legacy: Science and Government in the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons	Martin J. Sherwin	Professor of History, Tufts University
3/3/2005	Is There a Neurophysiological Challenge to Freedom and Responsibility of Human Action?	Julian Nida-Rumelin	Professor of Philosophy at the University of Munich
4/21/2004	Science, Arms, The State: J. Robert Oppenheimer and the 20th Century	Daniel J. Kevles	Professor of History, Yale
4/2/2004	Human Dissection and Vivisection: Science, Religion and Politics in Early Greece	Heinrich von Staden	Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton
4/17/2003	Physics, Philosophy and the Foundations of Geometry: Einstein and the Logical Empiricists	Michael Friedman	Frederick P. Rhemus Family Professor of Humanities at Stanford University
3/17/2003	Creativity and the Brain	Oliver Sacks	Author
4/4/2002	Galileothek@: Information Technology and Research in the Humanities	Paolo Galluzzi	Director, Institute and Museum of History of Science, Professor of Science, University of Florence
2/28/2002	Einstein and the German Question	Fritz Stern	University Professor Emeritus, Columbia University
10/22/2001	Faustus and Friends: The Renaissnace Magus in Context	Anthony T. Grafton	Henry Putnam University Professor at Princeton University
1/11/2001	The Body as Product in the Biotechnology Age	Dorothy Nelkin	University Professor, Department of Sociology and School of Law New York University
12/1/2000	Poincare's Maps and Einstein's Clocks	Peter Galison	Professor of Science and Physics, Harvard University
4/20/2000	On Violence	Richard Rhodes	Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb
1/21/2000	From Virtual Pets to Digital Dolls: Reflections on Relational Artifacts	Sherry Turkle	Professor of the Sociology of Science, MIT
10/22/1999	The Scopes Trial in History and Legend	Edward J. Larson	Professor of History and Law, University of Georgia School of Law
11/6/1998	Biomedical Research: Public Investments and Public Expectations	Harold Varmus	Director, National Institute of Health
5/21/1998	Genetic Analysis of Breast and Ovarian Cancer	Mary-Claire King	American Cancer Society, Professor of Genetics and Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle
1/22/1998	Counting Sheep: Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Human Cloning	Alexander M. Capron	Professor of Law and Medicine; Co-Director Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics, University of Southern California
11/6/1997	Einstein in His Cultural Context	Gerald Holton	Professor of Physics and History of Science, Em, Harvard University
4/18/1997	Debate in the Republic of Science: Michael Polanyi and P.M.S. Blackett on Science and Its Social Ends	Mary Jo Nye	Horning Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History, Oregon State University
2/6/1997	Plagues and People: The Battle Against Infectious Disease	John Michael Bishop	Professor of Microbiology and Immunology: Director Hooper Foundation and Karl Friedrich Meyer Labs; UC, San Francisco
10/11/1996	Science after Modernity	Stephen E. Toulmin	Henry Luce Professor of the Center for Multiethnic and Transitional Studies, University of Southern California
5/9/1996	Epidemic Disease and Basic Reseach: Lessons from the Case of AIDS	Robert C. Gallo	Professor and Director of Human Virology, University of Maryland at Baltimore