NAS and entertainment industry to discuss collaborations at Nov. 19 symposium

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is sponsoring a symposium to bring together professionals from the entertainment industry with top scientists and engineers to discuss collaborations between science and entertainment and explore new projects. Film producers Jerry and Janet Zucker and Patrick Soon-Shiong, chairman and CEO of Abraxis Bioscience Inc., will co-host the event with the Academy. Participants will include directors, producers, script writers, designers, art directors, show runners, and prop masters as well as scientists, health and medical professionals, and engineers. The symposium is part of an initiative called the Science and Entertainment Exchange that was developed by the NAS to facilitate a valuable connection between the two communities. The Exchange is endorsed by the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, and Women in Film.

DETAILS: The symposium will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 19, from noon to 6 p.m. PST in the Creative Artists Agency Building, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles. Reporters must register in advance to attend; this event is not open to the public. For a complete list of speakers and agenda, visit http://www.scienceandentertainmentexchange.org/.

CONTACT: Maureen O'Leary, Director of Public Information, Office of News and Public Information at the National Academies, tel. 202-334-3875 or e-mail moleary@nas.edu

HIGHLIGHTED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

• BONNIE BASSLER, director of graduate studies, department of molecular biology, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.

• RODNEY BROOKS, Panasonic Professor of Robotics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and chief technical officer, iRobot Corp.

• STEVE CHU, director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; professor of physics and professor of molecular and cell biology, University of California, Berkeley; and 1997 Nobel Prize winner in physics

• NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, astrophysicist; and Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City

• V.S. RAMACHANDRAN, director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

• J. CRAIG VENTER, president, J. Craig Venter Institute