Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Research Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard University, is a preeminent biological theorist. He earned B.S. and M.A.degrees in biology from the University of Alabama, and a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University. He joined the Harvard faculty in 1956 and distinguished himself over the next four decades as professor of zoology, curator in entomology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, and researcher. His accomplishments include pioneering work on chemical communication in the 1950s to 1970s, featuring a first comprehensive account of pheromones in ants, and (with William H. Bossert) a first evolutionary analysis of the physical and chemical properties of pheromones; the creation (with Robert H. MacArthur) of the theory of island biogeography, a basic part of modern ecology and conservation biology; the creation of the discipline of sociobiology, in 1975; the first modern syntheses of knowledge of social insects (1971) and (with Bert Hs¼lldobler) of ants in particular, in 1990. He also edited the volume Biodiversity, which in 1988 introduced the term and launched worldwide attention to the subject. In 1984, with Biophilia, he introduced the concept of a genetically based tendency to affiliate and bond with parts of the natural world. His The Diversity of Life (1992), which brought together knowledge of the magnitude of biodiversity and the threats to it, had a major public impact. Today he continues entomological and environmental research at the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Two of his 21 books have been awarded Pulitzer prizes: On Human Nature (1978) and The Ants (1990, co-authored with Bert Hs¼lldobler). Wilson's book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975) extended neo-Darwinism into the study of social behavior. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (1998) draws together the sciences, humanities, and the arts into a broad study of human knowledge. His book, The Future of Life (2002), offers a plan for saving Earth's biological heritage. His most recent book is a monograph including 337 species new to science, Pheidole in the New World: A Hyperdiverse Ant Genus (Harvard, 2003). In addition to his books, Dr. Wilson has written over 400 articles, most for scientific journals. Wilson has received some 75 awards in international recognition for his contributions to science and humanity, including the U.S. National Medal of Science (1976), Japan's International Prize for Biology (1993), the Crafoord Prize from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1990), the French Prix du Institut de la Vie (1990), Germany's Terrestrial Ecology Prize (1987), Saudi Arabia's King Faisal International Prize for Science (2000), and the Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society (1999). For his conservation work he has received the Audubon Medal of the National Audubon Society and the Gold Medal of the World Wide Fund for Nature. He is also the recipient of 27 honorary doctoral degrees from North America and Europe.

Daniel Janzen is Dimaura Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Technical Advisor to the Area de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica.

While initially focused on tropical animal-plant relationships, from the early 1980's to the present Janzen has focused on inventory of tropical caterpillars, their parasites, and their microbial biodiversity, and on the conservation of tropical biodiversity through its non-damaging development (see http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu). His 395 publications encapsulate much of this information and its associated relevance for tropical science administration and conservation biology. He and his biologist wife, Winnie Hallwachs, are among the primary architects of the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica (www.acguanacaste.ac.cr), which was decreed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in1999. Janzen received the first Crafoord Prize in biology by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences (1984), and the Kyoto Prize in Basic Biology (1997), and the John Scott Award of the City of Philadelphia for activities good for humankind. A member of the US National Academy of Sciences, his activities have had a positive influence on society's awareness of the relevance and potential of conservation of tropical wildland biodiversity for global understanding, national sustainable development, and individual quality of life, both inside and outside of the tropics. His current focus is caterpillars, the combination of conservation and biodiversity development, and facilitating global bioliteracy through the emergence of the ability of all people to be able to identify any organism anywhere anytime.

Peter Raven is Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden and one of the world's leading botanists and advocates of conservation and biodiversity. In addition, Dr. Raven is past President and Chairman of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest organization of professional scientists in the world. He is also Chairman of the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, and Chair of the Division of Earth and Life Studies of the National Research Council, which includes biology, chemistry, and geology.

For three decades, Dr. Raven has headed the Missouri Botanical Garden, an institution he nurtured to a world-class center for botanical research, education, and horticulture display. Under Dr. Raven's leadership, the Missouri Botanical Garden has become a leader in botanical research in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, with strong programs in North America as well. The Garden's education program in the St. Louis region reaches more than 100,000 students each year and provides professional development for teachers. The splendid horticultural displays attract more than 750,000 visitors to the Garden annually, including tourists to St. Louis from around the United States and the world. He is also the Engelmann Professor of Botany at Washington University in St. Louis.

Described by TIME magazine as a "Hero for the Planet," Dr. Raven champions research around the world to preserve endangered plants and is a leading advocate for conservation and a sustainable environment. In recognition of his work in science and conservation, Dr. Raven is the recipient of numerous other prizes and awards, including the prestigious International Prize for Biology from the government of Japan; Environmental Prize of the Institute de la Vie; Volvo Environment Prize; the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and the Sasakawa Environment Prize. He has held Guggenheim and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowships.

Dr. Raven received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1960 after completing his undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley. He has received honorary degrees from universities in this country and throughout the world.

Cristián Samper holds a PhD in Biology, Harvard University (1992), M.A. in Biology, Harvard University (1989) and a BSc, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia (1987). He is the Director (2003 to date) National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Previously he served as Deputy Director and Acting Director (2001-2003) at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama. He also has served at the Chairman, Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, (1999-2001) for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Also served as Chief Science Advisor for the Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Colombia (1995 to 2001) and Founder and Director General (1995 to 2001) of Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos “Alexander von Humboldt”, Colombia. He was the Director, Environment Division (1992 to 1995) of the Fundación para la Educación Superior (FES), Colombia and research director of the La Planada Nature Reserve (1989 to 1991).

Dr. Samper serves on the boards of World Conservation Monitoring Centre – UNEP, Chairman, Scientific Advisory Council (2001 to date), Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union, Vicechair (2001 to 2004), Global Environment Facility (GEF), Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (2002 to 2005), Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Panel (2001-2005), and World Resources Institute, Global Council (1995 to date).

Dr. Samper has received the following Awards and Honors – 2003, Hans-Kupczyk Professor, University of Ulm, Germany; 2001, National Medal for the Environment, Republic of Colombia; 1999, Honorary Member, Colombian Association of Herbaria; Honorary Member of the Botanical Garden Association of Colombia; 1995, “José Celestino Mutis” National Ecology Prize, Colombia; 1993, Young Executive of the Year, Cámara Junior de Colombia; 1992, Derek Bok prize for excellence in teaching, Harvard University. Dr. Samper holds dual citizenship of Colombia and USA. He is fluent in Spanish and English, and speaks some French and Portuguese.

Terry Erwin was born on December 1, 1940, in California’s wine country at St. Helena. His father was a "tin-knocker" and race car driver in the California circuit and his mother a government clerk. Terry spent his youth trout fishing in the High Sierra with his maternal grandfather. As a teenager, with prodding from his father, he began building hot cars and was a founding member and later President of the California Conquistadores, a hot rod club in the Bay Area. He put himself through college by working the Atomic Submarines at Mare Island Naval Base where he was a helper in the "Asbestos" department. At this time, he made a decision that following in his father’s foot steps was not a good idea and became a serious student under the guidance of the Coleopterist J. Gordon Edwards, at San Jose State College. With Gordon’s enthusiasm and guidance, Terry solved the intractable taxonomy of the North American Bombardier Beetles and went on to write his dissertation on the world fauna under the mentorship of George E. Ball at the University of Alberta, Canada, finishing in 1969.

Having decided that he wanted to work under the three greatest (living) carabidologists, the first being Prof. Ball, Terry obtained postdoctoral fellowships at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard with Philip J. Darlington Jr. and at Lund University, Sweden with Carl H. Lindroth. However, a position opened at the (then) United States National Museum in the Department of Entomology upon the retirement of Oscar Cartwright. With the support of WBFC members Paul Spangler (Coleopterist) and
Karl Krombien (Chairman of Entomology), Terry was able to accept the position AND within two months took a year-long sabbatical to Sweden. He returned in 1971, to take up the reins as the second Coleopterist with the Department. While in Sweden, the chairmanship of the Department changed to WBFC member Paul D. Hurd, who saw on his desk a proposal left by Terry with Dr. Krombien to obtain funding for studies of the California carabid beetles. Hurd, having learned of monies for studies in Central America, crossed out the "California" and wrote in "Panama". To Terry’s great surprise, he arrived home from Sweden to find out he was on the next plane to the Canal Zone. That was the beginning of a lifetime career on studies of biodiversity in neotropical forests.

With the publication of a small paper (1 1/2 pages) in 1981 on the beetle fauna of a Panamanian tree species, Terry created a cottage industry in canopy studies and in trying to estimate the number of species on the planet. He had hypothesized in that paper that there were perhaps were as many as 30,000,000 species rather than the number described at the time of 1 million - an order of magnitude difference. A lot of people got excited, especially those in the Conservation business because, if true, we were losing a lot more species than previously thought.

Terry continues his studies of biodiversity in the western Amazon Basin, at present in Ecuador, and does taxonomic studies of Carabid beetles.

Diane I. Hillmann, National Science Digital Library Project at Cornell, Cornell Information Science. B.S., 1971, Syracuse University (Major: TV/Radio) and M.L.S., 1976, Syracuse University School of Information Studies. I began my library career as a summer employee of the Syracuse University Audio Archives in 1969 (cataloging 78 rpm sound recordings). After that summer I worked in support staff positions at SU Library, MIT Libraries and Boston College Library (in the areas of cataloging, government documents, circulation, acquisitions, and serials) while finishing my M.L.S. In 1977 I took a professional position at Cornell Law Library as Assistant Cataloger, and in 1979 I became Head of Technical Services at the Law Library. In June of 1995 I took a newly created position at Cornell as Authorities Librarian and head of the Technical Services Support Unit, where I supervised authority control and catalog management staff, coordinated NACO (Name Authorities Cooperative Project) activities across campus, and provided support for technical services operations in the areas of training, documentation, and data import/export. In the summer of 2000, I began working with the National Science Digital Library Project (a joint Library-Computer Science Dept. NSF-funded grant project). I was Project Manager for the initial release in Dec. 2002, and am currently a co-PI, working primarily with metadata and automation planning.

I have been active in professional organizations since I came to Cornell. I planned and presented programs for the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) every year for my entire 18 years as a law librarian. From 1989/90-1992/93 I was the AALL liaison to ALA/MARBI, and from 1996/97- 1999/2000 I served as one of the 9 regular voting MARBI members, representing the Library Information Technology Association (LITA). In 1995 I attended the first Dublin Core meeting, and have participated actively in the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative since then. I am currently editor of "Using Dublin Core" <http://dublincore.org/documents/usageguide/>, a member of the Dublin Core Usage Board (the DC equivalent of MARBI) and the Dublin Core Advisory Board (part of the “governance structure” for the DCMI). In addition, I manage the AskDCMI service for the DCMI < http://askdcmi.askvrd.org/>. In June 2004 ALA Editions will publish a book I conceived and co-edited, “Metadata in Practice,” which brings together more than a decade of experience in digital projects.

Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and co-founder of the Internet Archive, has been working to provide universal access to all human knowledge for more than fifteen years. Since the mid-1980s, Kahle has focused on developing technologies for information discovery and digital libraries. In 1989 Kahle invented the Internet’s first publishing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server) system and in 1989, founded WAIS Inc., a pioneering electronic publishing company that was sold to America Online in 1995. In 1996, Kahle founded the Internet Archive, the largest publicly accessible, privately funded digital archive in the world. At the same time, he co-founded Alexa Internet in April 1996, which was sold to Amazon.com in 1999. Alexa's services are bundled into more than 80% of Web browsers.

Kahle earned a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1982. As a student, he studied artificial intelligence with Marvin Minsky and W. Daniel Hillis. In 1983, Kahle helped start Thinking Machines, a parallel supercomputer maker, serving there as lead engineer for six years. He is profiled in Digerati: Encounters with the Cyber Elite (HardWired, 1996). He was selected as a member of the Upside 100 in 1997, Micro Times 100 in 1996 and 1997, and Computer Week 100 in 1995.

John Kunze is a senior development architect in the California Digital Library's preservation program. His current focus is the creation of long-term durable digital references (ARKs) to information objects, backed up by standards for kernel metadata and permanence ratings, and by search systems that make them discoverable. Recently he has worked at the University of California San Francisco and at the National Library of Medicine.

John's background is in computer science and information systems. He designed, implemented, and ran UC Berkeley's first campus-wide information system, which was an early rival of the World Wide Web. The system also demonstrated the first interoperation of the Z39.50 library search and retrieval protocol. John also made major contributions to the URL standard and the Dublin Core metadata standards. In an even earlier life he wrote Unix software that is included in standard Linux and Apple systems.

Lúcia Lohmann is a plant systematist, who earned her doctoral degree in “Ecology, evolution and systematics” from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and her bachelor’s degree in “Biology” from the University of São Paulo, in Brazil. Her primary interests are to understand the patterns of plant diversification, especially those of neotropical plants. She is currently working on the systematics, biogeography, ecology, evolution and conservation of the most diverse group of Neotropical lianas (Bignonieae, Bignoniaceae). Lianas account for a third of leaf biomasss of tropical forests, contribute between 20-25% of the floristic diversity of neotropical forests, and are important source of food for many animals. Yet they have been little studied, and little is known concerning their taxonomy, distribution, ecology and evolution.

During the past ten years she has conducted extensive field work throughout Latin America, has contributed numerous treatments of the Bignoniaceae for floras, check-lists and field guides, and was one of the authors of the only fully illustrated field guide of Central Amazonian plants (“The Flora of the Ducke Reserve”). Recently, she has reconstructed the evolutionary history of the Bignonieae, and has used this information to propose a new classification that allows for an easier identification of taxa.

Among other things, she is currently working on a book on phylogenetic systematics that will be published in Portuguese and aims to give a general introduction on the topic to Brazilian graduate students and systematists. Her work has received recognition from different institutions, including the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (Cooley Award). Apart from her scientific interest, she has also been active in conservation and public outreach. She has given several talks to the general public including interviews on the National Public Radio, the Family Circle Easy Gardening magazine, and the popular Brazilian magazine “Veja”. She is currently working at the Department of Conservation and Sustainable Development at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Erick Mata holds a Ph.D., in Computer Science and a a M.Sc., Computer Science from the University of Oregon. He also obtained and B.Sc. Computer Science from the University of Costa Rica.

His career at the National Biodiversity Institute initiated as the Information Management Coordinator. He was in charge of coordinating all biodiversity informatics projects that INBio has been conducting. These projects include the development of Atta, a comprehensive information management system that supports INBio’s biodiversity inventory process as well as INBio’s information processing and delivering activities, the use of multimedia technology to develop CD-ROMs for children as an integral component of INBio’s bioliteracy programs, the implementation of ECOMAPAS, a project that focuses on ecological data collection and 1:50,000 scale mapping of the distribution of ecosystems and their vegetation of Costa. Mr. Mata has had active participation as a bioinformatics expert in national and international biodiversity informatics initiatives, for example the Biodiversity Clearing House Mechanism, SIMEBIO (Sistema Mesoamericano de Información sobre Biodiversidad), IABIN, GBIF, Biosafety Clearing House Mechanism, and ABI (Association for Biodiversity Information). Besides, he is an Associate Professor at the Costa Rica Institute of Technology, where he has been the Director of the Computer Science Graduate Program and instructor of courses such as: Multimedia Systems, Automata Theory, Object-Oriented Systems, and Algorithmics. His research areas include: genetic algorithms, biodiversity informatics, object oriented systems, and algorithmic graph theory. He was also member of the ad-hoc committee that created the National Academy of Sciences of Costa Rica (1992).

He has vast experience in capacity building activities such as institutional networking, training and planning. He is a recognized biodiversity informatics authority both, in Costa Rica and internationally. Dr. Mata is currently the Director of Bioinformatics of the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) and Chair of the Outreach and Capacity Building Scientific Subcommittee of GBIF.

Frederic Christian Thompson holds a Ph.D. (1969) in Entomology from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as a B.Sc. in Entomology (1966) from that institution. From1974-present, Research Entomologist, USDA, Washington, D.C.. 1989-present, Adjunct Professor of Entomology, University of Maryland, College Park. 1998-present, Adjunct Professor of Biology, George Washington University. 1974-present, Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C..

Research: Systematics of flower flies (Diptera: Syrphidae). Also provide expertise on other families of agricultural concern (Anthomyiidae, Asilidae, Braulidae, Phoridae, and Pipunculidae)and other groups important for biological control (Pipunculidae, Conopidae). Current research projects include: Flower flies of Costa Rica; Nearctic flower flies; and Genera of flower flies. Responsible for curation of many Diptera families. Generic identifications for most groups, species identifications for Syrphidae. Seeks new and improved methods of disseminating BioSystematic Information. Serves as editor of the Biosystematic Database of World Diptera. Served 10 years on the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature and on the editorial committee for the current edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Provides advice on all matter of zoological nomenclature.

Warren L. Wagner is the Curator of Pacific Botany, Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History. MacBryde Chair, National Tropical Botanical, 2004-2005. National Tropical Botanical Garden Robert Allerton Award for Excellence in Tropical Botany, 1995. International Association for Plant Taxonomy Engler Medal in Silver. New York Botanical Garden Henry Allan Gleason Award, 1992.

Dr. Wagner's research focuses on systematics of various angiosperm groups, especially describing and understanding the plant diversity of Pacific oceanic islands. Morphological and molecular sequence data are used to investigate the phylogeny, biogeography and evolution of Pacific lineages to understand colonization and diversification of unique insular adaptations. A significant problem is pinpointing precise relationships of divergent insular groups to continental lineages, often necessitating study of large widespread genera or even entire plant families. Islands are naturally divided into discrete units that are less complex than continents making them convenient models for study; yet island ecosystems are among the most endangered globally. Adequate knowledge of the species that inhabit tropical ecosystems is essential to understanding and managing these complex biotic systems. Dr. Wagner is
developing methods to increase the rate of synthesis and dissemination of information through Internet informatics resources.

Stuart Weibel has worked at Online Computer Library Center Office of Research since 1985. OCLC is a non-profit membership collaborative serving 45,000 libraries in 75 countries. He has played a leadership role in the development of digital library technologies and electronic publishing and was a founding member of the International World Wide Web Conference Committee. He is a Member of the W3C Advisory Board, a regular contributor to international digital library conference committees in the US, Europe, and Asia, and a frequent grant evaluation panelist for the National Science Foundation.

Weibel was the convener and leader of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative from 1994 until 2003. DCMI is the dominant metadata standard on the Web, having grown from an invitational workshop to an international conference series and metadata initiative that attracts to its email lists subscriptions of 2000 people from 50 countries. DCMI has become a global community with translations of its primary specifications in 24 languages, and formally adopted by 7 governments and a number supranational agencies. Weibel has been a contributor to several Internet Engineering Task Force activities, including as co-author of the Dublin Core specification, the Uniform Resource Name activity, and, most recently, coauthor of the Internet draft for the Info URI scheme.

Before coming to OCLC, Weibel was a professor and chair of the Biology Department at Ohio Dominican College, and earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the Ohio State University.

Canadian expatriate John Clute was born in Toronto in 1940 and moved to London England in 1968, married Judith Clute in 1964, and moved to London in 1968. Novelist, writer, poet, editor, and foremost critic and reviewer, there is not much in SF that John hasn't been involved in. He has won 3 Hugo Awards for Best Non-Fiction Work for The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (with co-editor Peter Nicholls) in 1994, Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia in 1996 and The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (with co editor John Grant) in 1998. He also won a World Fantasy Award in1998 for The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. John writes a monthly column called Excessive Candour for the online magazine Science Fiction Weekly. He is a trustee of both the Telluride Institute in Colorado and The Science Fiction Foundation in England. His critical works and novel reviews are just too numerous to mention but the ISFDb has a detailed bibliography of many of his works. Johns latest works are The Book of End Times and Tesseracts 8 (with co-editor Canada’s Jane Dorsey). His novel, Appleseed, was a New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

Dan Collins is an associate professor of Intermedia at Arizona State University where he teaches courses in studio art, art theory, and visualization and prototyping. Professor Collins is founding Co-Director of the PRISM lab, an interdisciplinary 3D modeling and rapid prototyping facility, and coordinator of the foundation program in basic art instruction (artCore) at ASU. He served as interim director of the Institute for Studies in the Arts at ASU in 2000-2001.

Collins studied studio art and art history at the University of California at Davis where he received a Bachelor's degree in 1974. He received an MA in Art Education from Stanford University in 1975, and an MFA in "New Forms" and Sculpture from UCLA in1984. He is currently a doctoral candidate in educational media and computers at Arizona State University.

He was awarded a Fulbright to Malaysia for Research and Teaching in 1987 and ASU's Herberger College Award for Research and Creative Activity in 2000. As part of the PRISM team, he has received numerous grants for his work in visualization, interface design, and rapid prototyping. He is part of an ongoing initiative focusing on 3D digital libraries funded by the NSF (http://3dk.asu.edu).

His essays and reviews in the areas of art, education, and technology have appeared in Leonardo, New Art Examiner, Computer Graphics, and the Journal of Social Theory in Art Education among others. He has co-edited two collections of essays on contemporary art: The Simulated Presence (1993) and The Eighth Day: The Transgenic Art of Eduardo Kac (2003), both of which were published by the Institute for Studies in the Arts at ASU.

His work in digital sculpture, closed-circuit video, and installation has been exhibited at the Boston Cyberarts Festival, the Basel Art Fair, SIGGRAPH, the San Francisco Exploratorium and in numerous one person shows in galleries in Arizona, California, and New York. A major retrospective of his studio work is currently on display at the Tucson Museum of Art through February 29, 2004 (http://www.tucsonarts.com)

Nana Naisbitt is the founder and President of the Pinhead Institute, a Colorado charitable non-profit and a Smithsonian Affiliate based in Telluride Colorado. Pinhead builds bio-literacy locally and globally. Naisbitt specializes in interpreting science and technology for a lay audience. She wrote High Tech High Touch (Broadway Books, 1999) with her father John Naisbitt, which was translated into twelve languages. She is currently under contract with the Smithsonian Press to write a book about modern conservation and has been named a “Smithsonian Research Collaborator” for her writings on natural history. She has appeared on the Leher News Hour, the BBC World Service, and NPR among other broadcasters, and has spoken at venues throughout the world including the Smithsonian Institution, California Academy of Sciences, Peking University, 92nd Street Y, the National University in Taiwan, and the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

In June of 2000, Naisbitt wrote “Will low tech replace high tech?” for TIME magazine’s five part series, “Visions 21,” which included articles by leaders and scholars Stephen J. Gould, Raymond Kurzweil, Bill Gates, and Freeman Dyson. In 1999, Fast Company selected her as one of 21 “thought leaders offering compelling ideas for the 21st century” along with Bob Pittman, Craig Venter, and others.

She partnered with the California Academy of Sciences to produce a public forum, in February 2002, to help frame the scientific, ethical, and philosophical debates surrounding emerging genetic technologies. Naisbitt designed the program and moderated it with panelists Dr. Rodney Brooks, Dr. Nina Jablonski, Dr. Robert Lanza, and Dr. Thomas Okarma. In May 2000, she designed and moderated a forum, entitled “Human Genome Human Being,” in Beijing, China, in cooperation with Peking University and the Link Foundation.

Naisbitt was an artist in residence and corporate consultant from 1997-1998 for Doblin Group, a fifty person consulting firm in Chicago, staffed with anthropologists, sociologists, and industrial designers. There she developed conceptual artifacts for communicating the firm’s unique research methods to potential and existing clients. She also encapsulated book-length briefs into simple artifacts. Clients included Shell Oil Company and Motorola. Prior to working with Doblin Group, she was as freelance consultant for visualizing corporate communications and business theories in art and storytelling. Clients included Kellogg, Leo Burnett, and Spiegel. She has 20 years experience in organizing programs and events.

Amy Poinsett is Vice President of Pinhead Institute, where she brings her professional experience in information technology, financial analysis, and business operations to bear, along with her personal passion for natural history and art.

A graduate of University of Denver with a bachelor’s degree in business and graduate studies in information technology, Poinsett has a wide range of technical, research, and management experience from Seattle to the Cayman Islands, in large corporations and small companies. Prior to joining Pinhead Institute, she was a mortgage loan officer at Mesa National Bank in Telluride. Poinsett moved to Telluride two years ago with her husband, Mark Goldfogel, an information technology and computer consultant.

At WRQ, Inc. in Seattle, Washington, she identified consulting opportunities and developed and delivered service offerings and training programs worldwide. Poinsett managed a team of technical support engineers and created an extensive website of product and troubleshooting information for technical staff. At MGMA/CRAHCA in Denver, Colorado, she coordinated design and development of financial analysis software. Poinsett is an active volunteer for local nonprofits, including Pinhead Institute, Bear Creek Land Stewardship Program, Telluride Dance Academy, KOTO Radio, and Second Chance Humane Society. She is a PADI certified Dive Master and an avid hiker, skier and naturalist.

John Lifton studied architecture at University College London, and at the age of 24 became the youngest licensed architect in Britain. In 1968 he was one of the founders of the International Computer Arts Society, and exhibited in the landmark Cybernetic Serendipity exhibition at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London (later shown in Washington DC and San Francisco). The following year, with a group of associates that included painter and writer Pamela Zoline, now his wife, he was a founder of the London New Arts Lab and the Institute for Research in Art and Technology, a base for experimental performance and mixed media work, where he helped set up the first free computer facility specifically for artists. Lifton's computer interactive environments were exhibited throughout the UK and Europe during this period, and used in electronic music performance. His work Green Music, in which music is generated algorithmically in real-time from the natural electricity in plants, was shown at the Edinburgh Festival in 1975, Muzicki Biennale Zagreb in 1977, and, installed in the conservatory in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, appeared in the 1976 movie The Secret Life of Plants.

From 1974 to 1977 he taught graduate students at the Royal College of Art in London, in both the departments of Environmental Media and Design Research. During this period he carried out a research project on computer simulation of cognition in the early stages of architectural design for the Science Research Council of the UK. In 1977 Lifton moved to Telluride, Colorado as Director of Planning for the Telluride Ski Area, and headed the design team for the Telluride Mountain Village. Since 1982 he has been working in private design practice and land development in the Telluride and Aspen regions. Lifton has been actively involved in the Telluride Institute since its founding in 1985, including creation of the Composer-to-Composer program. He is currently working, as both cartographer and editor, on The Atlas of the San Miguel Watershed, which the Institute will publish this year. Lifton continues to compose music, and is currently working on his second opera.