Author Joyce Carol Oates participated in this panel discussion as 2010-2011 Avenali Chair in the Humanities at the Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley. Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the national bestsellers We Were the Mulvaneys and Blonde (a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize), and the New York Times bestsellers The Falls and The Gravedigger's Daughter. Oates is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
"Fungi, Genomes, Enzymes and Metabolites"
Scott E. Baker, a scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who is an authority on the biology of fungi.
Energy Biosciences Institute
http://www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org/
"The Ascent of Money"
Niall Ferguson, Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University
Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Harvard historian Niall Ferguson for a discussion of his new book, "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World." In the conversation, drawing on insights from the biological sciences, Ferguson describes the rise and evolution of finance focusing on insurance, banks, and the bond market. Using the
examples of housing and the U.S. China economic relationship, Ferguson demonstrates the way history can inform our understanding of the current financial crisis. He also reflects on the implications of the financial crisis for American global hegemony.
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/iis/Kreisler.html
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/