Robert Langer is a scientific co-founder of Moderna and one of the founding researchers behind the pharmaceutical company’s COVID-19 vaccine. One of eleven Institute Professors at MIT and founder and director of The Langer Lab, Robert Langer has been awarded 34 honorary degrees, founded and co-founded 41 companies and authored more than 1,250 articles in high-profile journals. He has nearly 1,30..

Dr. Penny Heaton is CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute (Gates MRI). The mission of Gates MRI is to develop products to fight malaria, tuberculosis and diarrheal diseases and improve outcomes in maternal and newborn health—major causes of mortality, poverty and inequality in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). The Institute shares what they learn with their partners t..

Bioengineer James Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering & Science and Professor of Biological Engineering at MIT. His Covid-19 research projects include developing a face mask that could detect whether the person wearing it has the coronavirus. One of the founders of the emerging field of synthetic biology, Collins has made multiple breakthroughs in biotechnology and biomedicine,..

An economist whose research focuses on college access and success, Bridget Terry Long is the 12th Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Saris Professor of Education and Economics. She is a Faculty Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a member of the National Academy of Education. Ms. Long earned her A.B. in Economics from Princeton University and ..

Before joining the Institute in May 2020, David Cole served as the executive director of the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware. Prior to his tenure at Hagley, Cole held positions as a vice president of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as the director of strategic initiatives for the Harvard Art Museums. Cole has been a Henry Luce Foun..

Ellen Stofan, PH.D., is Under Secretary for Science and Research at the Smithsonian Institution and first woman Director of the National Air and Space Museum. Her focus is the Smithsonian’s scientific initiatives, prioritizing biodiversity, global health, climate change, species conservation, astrophysics, and search for life outside Earth’s solar system. ..

Darío Gil, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President and Director of Research at IBM where he leads, along with his 3,000 researchers, the technology roadmap directing innovation strategies in areas including hybrid cloud, AI, semiconductors, quantum computing, and exploratory science. He is also responsible for IBM’s intellectual property strategy and business and is a globally recognized leader of the ..

Ken Savin, Ph.D., is the Senior Program Director of In-Space Production at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, (CASIS). Dr. Savin received his doctorate from the University of Utah and spent nearly two decades at Eli Lilly and Co. with roles in management and research in Drug Disposition, Lead Generation, Isotopic Chemistry, Acquisitions and Assessment, Process Chemistry, and Route..

Robert Langer is the David H. Koch Institute Professor at MIT and is the co-founder of Moderna. He is America’s most-honored scientist, receiving more than 220 major awards. He holds more than 1,400 granted or pending patents and is one of the world’s most highly cited researchers with an h-index of 294 with currently over 353,000 citations. ..

Dr. Doris Taylor is an American scientist, a dynamic innovator, an entrepreneur, and a global thought leader in regenerative medicine. For nearly a decade she was the Director of Regenerative Medicine Research and Cell and Organ Biotechnology at the Texas Heart Institute (THI) in Houston. At THI Dr. Taylor led a team who are recognized for creating the huge breakthroughs in science and technology ..

Paul Stamets is an industry leader in fungi in medicinal use and production. He is the recognized leader in bringing Psilocybin to be an acceptable application in the medical world. Based on this research, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has described psilocybin as a breakthrough medicine. In addition, research by Paul and his team has led to innovative mycological solutions, including using..

David R. Liu is the Richard Merkin Professor, Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare, and Mice - Chair of the Faculty at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT; Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences & Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University; and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. His major research interest..

Fabien Cousteau is the first grandson of famed oceanographic explorer Jacques Cousteau and spent his early years aboard his famous grandfather's ships, Calypso and Alcyone. He learned to scuba dive by age 4 and is well known for his study of sharks. He's also known for working with local communities and children worldwide to help restore local water ecosystems . He continues to pursue these initia..

John Donoghue is the H.M. Wriston Professor of Neuroscience and Engineering at Brown University. He is known for translational research in human brain computer interfaces to restore movement for people with paralysis, known as BrainGate. He is also known for fundamental research to explain how networks of cortical neurons compute actions from plans. In April 2021, BrainGate became the first techno..

For more than 30 years, Dr. Swarup has led a team of scientists and engineers in developing ways to improve supply options of the world's energy resources, as well as advance carbon capture technology, biofuels, and alternative energy. ExxonMobil is a leader in carbon capture systems, leading several carbon dioxide injection projects over the past three decades and is also researching and deve..

Scott Adzick, MD, is Surgeon-in-Chief of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the founder and director of the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment. A true innovator in the field of fetal medicine since its inception, Dr. Adzick has dedicated his career to the pursuit of groundbreaking prenatal treatment for debilitating birth defects. He shows and describes cutting edge surgica..

Sandra Fenwick (CEO, Boston Children's Hospital), Madeline Bell (CEO, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) and Carolyn Miles (CEO, Save the Children) discuss the current status of children's health and what the future holds. The panel, moderated by Paula Apsell (Senior Executive Producer, NOVA), addresses investments in medical research as well as in communities, and speaks to social determina..

Dr. Ken Anderson is one of the foremost experts on the cancer of multiple myeloma. He opens his talk with two tenets on which he bases his work: to undertake research in service of improving patients' experience of diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, and to take care of patients like family. Research is necessary to advance the treatment of any disease. Medical research requires its own kind of c..

Dr. Olufunmilayo I. Olopade is a force to be reckoned with in healthcare and oncology. She starts by sharing her optimism that, with the pace and scope of current breakthroughs, cancer will become a manageable, chronic disease before too long. The study and application of genomics are allowing the speed of progress to continue to accelerate. What's more, we will have better tools available to us t..

Lee Rainie of the Pew Research Center comes on the Imagine Solutions stage to talk about the essential nature of truth and trust. These are core components of a healthy society, the potency of which has been diminished in recent times. Why is truth struggling so significantly? Dark digital corners are having a damaging effect, spreading false information immediately and extensively. We live in a w..