Religion, Science, Health, and Medicine
June
Tuesday June 4 2:00-4:00
How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Healthcare
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) was initially explored as a diagnostic tool. This lecture will show examples of how AI is being used to revolutionize healthcare, from patient monitoring, to image analysis and robotics, and even to disease prediction. How AI will alter the patient experience is an area of hot interest.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Dr Ben deBoisblanc is a Pulmonary/ Critical Care physician and is the Fred Allison Professor of Medicine and Physiology at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He has been a critical care clinical trialist for over 35 years. He was the Director of Critical Care at Charity Hospital during Hurricane Katrina and has spoken extensively about humanism during disasters. His current research is focused on the use of AI in medical imaging.
Wednesday June 5 10:00-12:00
Social Behavior During Disasters
Hollywood has shaped our opinions of how seemingly rational human beings respond irrationally in disaster situations. However, empirical evidence suggests that humans are hardwired to be humanistic under duress. This lecture will use real life examples to demonstrate this point, particularly the human response to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Dr Ben deBoisblanc is a Pulmonary/ Critical Care physician and is the Fred Allison Professor of Medicine and Physiology at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He has been a critical care clinical trialist for over 35 years. He was the Director of Critical Care at Charity Hospital during Hurricane Katrina and has spoken extensively about humanism during disasters. His current research is focused on the use of AI in medical imaging.
Monday June 10 2:00-4:00
A Quantum Century
Long before he became an iconic figure in Breaking Bad, Werner Heisenberg revolutionized physics with the publication of his landmark 1925 paper in Zeitschrift fur Physik. In a flurry of work from 1925-1927 by Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Schrodinger, and Dirac, we suddenly had a mechanistic view of the world that was—probabilistic! This worldview (not endorsed by Albert Einstein who famously quipped “God does not play dice”) has been fantastically successful over the past century; it underpins all of physical science, and forms the basis for most modern technology. The weirdness of quantum mechanics will keep us busy for the next century with quantum computers, quantum sensors, and quantum information. We will review our quantum century, and what it portends for the future.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Alan Dorsey serves as Professor of Physics and Associate CIO for Research at the University of Georgia. Previous to his current role, he served as the Dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA from 2012-2023 and has held faculty positions at the University of Virginia and the University of Florida as well as UGA. He received his undergraduate education at Cornell University, and his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he had the privilege of studying physics under the supervision of Professor Anthony Leggett, 2003 Nobel Laureate in Physics. He has received numerous recognitions for his research and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Friday June 21 10:00-12:00
East Meets West: Five Insights from Five World Religions
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The largest religion in the world is Christianity, yet two thirds of the world’s population is not Christian—over four billion people. Islam is the fastest growing faith in the world. China and India have become not only two of the most influential world economies, but also exporters of religious ideas such as yoga, meditation, and Tai Chi that have captured the imagination of the West. Religious conflicts also become a source of strife and suffering in the world rather than comfort and peace. Drawing from his original writing and research, religious scholar Jeffrey Small will explore the critical topic of interfaith dialogue by highlighting key insights from Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Jeffrey Small, Jr. is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and lay theologian. He is the author of two works of fiction, The Breath of God and The Jericho Deception. He is also the author of an academic textbook on Christian - Buddhist discourse entitled God as the Ground of Being: Tillich and Buddhism in Dialogue. Jeffrey has been a popular religion blogger on the Huffington Post, an adjunct professor at Emory University, and a nationally acclaimed speaker on religion in the 21st century. He has a B.A. from Yale University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a Masters Degree in the Study of Religions from Oxford University in England.
July
Thursday June 25 10:00-12:00
Forces of Nature: Understanding Weather and Climate
Weather is a frequent and common topic of discussion for everyone. People debate and complain about the accuracy of weather forecasts, climate change and a multitude of related matters such as floods, torrential rains, blizzards, heat waves and droughts. There are manifold opinions and sometimes conspiracy theories! Through his lens as a seasoned specialist and distinguished scientist on weather and climate, Dr. Shepherd will explore what shapes the many and varied perspectives on science, especially those that relate to our understanding of weather and climate conditions and change.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Presenter: Dr. J Marshall Shepherd is a leading international weather-climate expert and is a Distinguished Chaired Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Georgia where he also serves as Director of UGA’s Atmospheric Sciences Program. His research focuses are urban climate, hydrometeorological extremes, weather-climate risks and change. In 2023 he was appointed Associate Dean for research, scholarship, and partnerships in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences at UGA. Prior to coming to UGA he served 12 years as a research meteorologist and deputy project leader at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center. President Bush honored him in May, 2004 at the White House with the Presidential Early Career Award for pioneering scientific research in weather and climate science. Dr. Shepherd’s many honors include: President (2013) and Fellow of the American Meteorological Society; recent election (2021) to the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, our nation’s most prestigious scientific organizations for scientific and engineering achievement. He was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.