CSICon Las Vegas

Dr. James Alcock is Professor of Psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is a Fellow and Member of the Executive Council of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a member of the Editorial Board of The Skeptical Inquirer, In May 2004, CSICOP awarded him its In Praise of Reason Award. In the area of parapsychology and critical thinking, he has authored seven book chapters, and numerous articles, co-edited Psi wars, and published two books, Parapsychology: Science or Magic? and Science and Supernature. He has also co-authored two social psychology textbooks and is currently completing a book manuscript on the psychology of belief. He is an amateur magician and is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

Banachek's specialty is what makes him different than the ordinary magician. They do magic with lions, tigers and beautiful women, Banachek performs magic with information and the human mind. Unarguably Banachek maps the best and the worst of the human brain and all of it's mysterious uncharted territories in between.

Many see Banachek as a human profiler but he is so much more than that. Banachek is so skillful in his observation of the natural world and his examination of psychological influence that many believe him to be psychic. He takes his five known senses to create the illusion of a sixth.

Julia Belluz is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist covering medicine and public health for Vox.com. She was a 2013-14 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. Julia’s writing has appeared in Maclean’s, the British Medical Journal, the Medical Post, the Globe and Mail, the National Post, Slate, the Times (of London), the Economist, and other publications. She founded the blog/column ‘Science-ish’ to examine the evidence behind popular health claims—and won a Gold National Magazine Award and a Canadian Medical Association Award. Outside of reporting, Julia speaks regularly at health care and journalism conferences the world over. She is a fellow and guest lecturer at McMaster University and is co-writing a book about the misuses and abuses of science in policy, clinical practice and journalism. She holds an MSc. from the London School of Economics and a B.A. from Ryerson University’s School of Journalism.

Lindsay Beyerstein is an investigative journalist in Brooklyn, New York. Her reporting has appeared in Slate, The Columbia Journalism Review, Newsweek, Al Jazeera America, The New Republic,and other publications. Her photography has appeared in The Wall Street Journal,the New York Times' City Blog, and other outlets. She is the co-host of Point of Inquiry, a radio show and podcast produced by the Center for Inquiry. She is the lead writer at the Sidney Hillman Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to honoring excellence in socially conscious journalism.

Robyn Blumner joined the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science as Executive Director in February 2014 and a year later she was promoted to President & chief executive officer. In January 2016 she became CEO of the Center for Inquiry. She comes off a 16-year career as a nationally syndicated columnist and editorial writer at the Tampa Bay Times newspaper (formerly the St. Petersburg Times.) Blumner is an expert on civil liberties and civil rights. She has written extensively on church-state separation, free speech and privacy issues as well as economics and the diminishing power of the middle-class. Her columns appeared regularly in newspapers around the country. In 2012, she was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing along with three colleagues. Blumner was executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida from 1989 to 1997, and executive director of the ACLU of Utah from 1987 to 1989. In that role she led efforts to protect abortion rights, student free speech rights and to prevent the adoption of school vouchers, among dozens of public policy battles.

Blumner attended Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, graduating with honors in 1982. Her law degree comes from New York University School of Law where she graduated in 1985 and is a member of the New York State Bar.

One of the most respected scientists in the world and the biggest draw in secularism, Richard Dawkins always generates impressive crowds when visiting North America. Secularism is sweeping America as a movement, and Richard Dawkins is the catalyst who galvanizes it.

From 1995 to 2008 Richard Dawkins was the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is an internationally best-selling author. Among his books are The Ancestor’s Tale, The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, A Devil’s Chaplain, The God Delusion, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Magic of Reality, and An Appetite for Wonder. His most recent book is the second part of his autobiography, A Brief Candle in the Dark. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Society of Literature. His around-the-world speaking tour is the focus of a recent documentary The Unbelievers which also features appearances by Woody Allen, Stephen Colbert, Cameron Diaz, Ian McEwan, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Hawking, Eddie Izzard, Bill Pullman, and Sarah Silverman.

Katie Dyer earned a PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2000. She worked teaching evidence-based medicine in a medical residency program for four years before assuming a faculty position at the California State University, Fresno, where she is currently associate professor and department chair. Dr. Dyer primarily studies parenting practices pertaining to children's sleep, as well as parent education. She has a secondary research interest in the development of curiosity and critical thinking in college students.

Sanal Edamaruku is an Indian author and rationalist. He is the founder-president and editor of Rationalist International, the president of the  Indian Rationalist Association and the author of twenty-five books and other articles. In 2012, he was charged by the Catholic Archdiocese of Mumbai with blasphemy for his role in examining a claimed "miracle" at a local Catholic Church in Mumbai. He moved to Finland to evade his arrest. He is a CSI Fellow.

Mark Edward is a professional mentalist who specializes in magic of the mind. His book "Psychic Blues" cracked open the crystal ball on the psychic business and has been described by Mark Oppenheimer at The New York Times Review of Books: "Mr. Edward is staking his claim to belong to a very special subcategory of magicians and mediums: those who both perform their crafts and debunk them. From Harry Houdini to James (the Amazing) Randi and the duo of Penn and Teller, there is a long tradition of magicians who believe that it is their duty to inculcate skepticism in the audience." Mark is recognized for his television work as both primary consultant and on-air performer most recently in episodes of "Weird or What?," "Brain Games," "Nancy Grace." "ITV This Morning" and "Inside Edition." In addition to working with Inside Edition's Lisa Guerrero in 2012 to expose "Long Island Medium" Theresa Caputo, he recently completed another "Inside Edition" assigment with Guerrero on how psychics can easily convince us they are "reading minds" and be so accurate airing in April, 2016.

Kevin M. Folta is a Professor and the Chairman of the Horticultural Sciences Department at the University of Florida. His laboratory examines how plants sense light signals and how different parts of the light spectrum can affect shelf life and high-value fruit and vegetable traits. His group also uses novel genomics approaches to identify genes related to flavor and disease resistance. A central part of his program is communicating science to non-scientific audiences, and training scientists, farmers, physicians and students how to perform public outreach in scientific or controversial topics. BS/MS Northern Illinois University 1989/1992, Ph.D. University of Illinois at Chicago, 1998.

Kendrick Frazier is Editor of Skeptical Inquirer and a fellow and member of the Executive Council of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is also on the board of the Center for Inquiry. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is author or editor of ten books, including Science Under Siege and five other SI anthologies. He was formerly Editor of Science News.

Affectionately called the Wikipediatrician, Susan Gerbic is the cofounder of Monterey County Skeptics and a self-proclaimed skeptical junkie. Susan is also founder of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) project. You can contact her at SusanGerbic.com.

Stephanie Guttormson joined the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science in March of 2013.

She was the leader of an award winning student group at the Metropolitan State University of Denver that developed widely successful unique events such Food for Freethought and The Pseudoscience Fair.

She holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Linguistics and Theoretical Mathematics from the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

She is the creator of ThinkStephtically, a YouTube channel focused on promoting critical thinking, without mercy. She covers topics ranging from faith healing to organic food.

She appears monthly on the Dogma Debate radio show and the Road to Reason TV show. She also gives talks around the country educating folks about transgender people.

Harriet Hall, MD, is a retired family physician and Air Force flight surgeon who writes about medicine, quackery, alternative medicine, critical thinking, and science. She is one of the editors of the Science-Based Medicine blog and a contributing editor to Skeptical Inquirer and to Skeptic Magazine where she writes the SkepDoc column. She is co-author of the textbook Consumer Health: A Guide To Intelligent Decisions and author of the autobiographical Women Aren’t Supposed to Fly. Her series of 10 free video lectures on science-based medicine vs. alternative medicine can be found on YouTube. Her website is www.skepdoc.info.

Dr. Raymond Edward Hall is a Professor in the Department of Physics at California State University, Fresno, where for more than 15 years he has developed and taught courses in engineering physics, quantum mechanics, particle physics, critical thinking, and the philosophy of science. He holds a PhD in Experimental High Energy Particle Physics from the University of California, Riverside, and he has 16 years experience as a researcher with the D-Zero Collaboration. During his participation in the construction and operation of the D-Zero Detector at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, he was part of the research team that discovered the fundamental particle known as the top quark.

David J. Helfand, a CSI Fellow, has been a faculty member at Columbia University for thirty-nine years, serving half of that time as Chair of the Department of Astronomy. He is the author of nearly 200 scientific publications and has mentored 22 PhD students, but most of his pedagogical efforts have been aimed at teaching science to non-science majors. He instituted the first change in Columbia's Core Curriculum in 50 years by introducing science to all first-year students. In 2005, he joined an effort to create Canada's first independent, non-profit, secular university, Quest University Canada. He was a Visiting Tutor in the University's inaugural semester (Fall 2007) and served as President & Vice-Chancellor from 2008-2015. He is also recent completed a four-year term as President of the American Astronomical Society. His first book, A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age appeared earlier this year. He is a Fellow of CSI.

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, composer, and heliocentrist George Hrab has written and produced six independent CDs and a concert DVD; published two books; recorded hundreds of episodes of an award-winning podcast; and has even performed for President Clinton. He's traveled to four continents promoting critical thinking, science, and skepticism through story and song. George is considered one of the preeminent skeptic/science/atheist/geek-culture music icons currently living in his apartment.

Professor emeritus of psychology, University of Oregon; CSI fellow and a noted critic of parapsychology. Ray is one of the founders of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) – now CSI. He is also the creator of the Skeptic’s Toolbox.

Maria Konnikova is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Confidence Game (Viking/Penguin, 2016) and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (Viking/Penguin, 2013). Her first book, Mastermind, has been translated into eighteen languages. It was nominated for the Agatha Award and the Anthony Award for Best Non-fiction and was a Goodreads People’s Choice Semifinalist for 2013.

Maria is a contributing writer for The New Yorker, where she writes a regular column with a focus on psychology and culture, and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, California Sunday, Pacific Standard, The New Republic, WIRED, Scientific American, and The Smithsonian, among numerous other publications. Maria is a contributing editor for The New Republic, a recipient of the 2015 Harvard Medical School Media Fellowship, and a Schachter Writing Fellow at Columbia University’s Motivation Science Center. She hosts the weekly “Is that BS?” segment for Slate’s popular podcast, “The Gist,” and has been a frequent guest on national television and radio, including Real Time with Bill Maher, Charlie Rose, Morning Edition, Marketplace, and Brian Lehrer. She formerly wrote the “Literally Psyched” column for Scientific American and the popular psychology blog “Artful Choice” for Big Think. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where she studied psychology, creative writing, and government, and received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University.

Lawrence Krauss is director of the Origins Project at ASU and Foundation Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the Physics Department at Arizona State University. He has won numerous international awards for both his research and his efforts to improve the public understanding of science, he is the only physicist to have received the top awards from all 3 US Physics Societies, and is also the author of 9 books including bestsellers The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing. He is a commentator and essayist for newspapers and appears regularly on radio and television and has recently delved into the film world as executive producer and subject of The Unbelievers, a documentary film that discusses science and reason. He also is chair of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and on the board of the Federation of American Scientists. His new book The Greatest Story Ever Told …So Far will be released in the spring of 2017.

Ronald A. Lindsay, JD, PhD, is an author and the former president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. He co-wrote the comments that CFI/CSI submitted to the FDA and FTC regarding the regulation of homeopathic products. His latest book is The Necessity of Secularism (Pitchstone 2014).

Elizabeth Loftus is Distinguished Professor at the University of California - Irvine. She holds faculty positions in the Department of Psychology & Social Behavior; the Department of Criminology, Law & Society, and the School of Law. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University. Since then, she has published 22 books and over 500 scientific articles. Loftus's research has focused on the malleability of human memory. She has been recognized for her research with seven honorary doctorates and election to numerous prestigious societies, including the National Academy of Sciences. She is past president of the Association for Psychological Science, the Western Psychological Association, and the American Psychology-Law Society.

Loftus’s memory research has led to her being called as an expert witness or consultant in hundreds of cases. Some of the more well known cases include the McMartin PreSchool Molestation case, the Hillside Strangler, the Abscam cases, the trial of Oliver North, the trial of the officers accused in the Rodney King beating, the Menendez brothers, the Bosnian War trials in the Hague, the Oklahoma Bombing case, and litigation involving Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, Scooter Libby, and the Duke University Lacrosse players.

Dr. Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).

Dr. Mann received his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Applied Math from the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S. degree in Physics from Yale University, and a Ph.D. in Geology & Geophysics from Yale University. His research involves the use of theoretical models and observational data to better understand Earth's climate system.

Dr. Mann was a Lead Author on the Observed Climate Variability and Change chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Scientific Assessment Report in 2001 and was organizing committee chair for the National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science in 2003. He has received a number of honors and awards including NOAA's outstanding publication award in 2002 and selection by Scientific American as one of the fifty leading visionaries in science and technology in 2002. He contributed, with other IPCC authors, to the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. He was awarded the Hans Oeschger Medal of the European Geosciences Union in 2012 and was awarded the National Conservation Achievement Award for science by the National Wildlife Federation in 2013. He made Bloomberg News' list of fifty most influential people in 2013. In 2014, he was named Highly Cited Researcher by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and received the Friend of the Planet Award from the National Center for Science Education. He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Mann is author of more than 190 peer-reviewed and edited publications, and has published two books including Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change and The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines. He is also a co-founder of the award-winning science website RealClimate.org.

Joe Nickell, is Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI). He is the author of more than twenty investigative books, including Detecting Forgery, Camera Clues, Unsolved History, Real-Life X-Files, Crime Science, The Kentucky Mint Julep, More Real-Life X-Files, and Secrets of the Sideshows.

Paul A. Offit, MD is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a recipient of many awards including the J. Edmund Bradley Prize for Excellence in Pediatrics from the University of Maryland Medical School, the Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development from the Infectious Disease Society of America, and a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Offit has published more than 160 papers in medical and scientific journals in the areas of rotavirus-specific immune responses and vaccine safety. He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC; for this achievement Dr. Offit received the Luigi Mastroianni and William Osler Awards from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the Charles Mérieux Award from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases; and was honored by Bill and Melinda Gates during the launch of their Foundation’s Living Proof Project for global health. In 2009, Dr. Offit received the President’s Certificate for Outstanding Service from the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2011, Dr. Offit received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Biologics Industry Organization (BIO), the David E. Rogers Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges, the Odyssey Award from the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2012, Dr. Offit received the Distinguished Medical Achievement Award from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Drexel Medicine Prize in Translational Medicine fro the Drexel University College of Medicine. In 2013, Dr. Offit received the Maxwell Finland award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, the Distinguished Alumnus award from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and the Innovators in Health Award from the Group Health Foundation. In 2015, Dr. Offit won the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching from the University of Pennsylvania and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2016, Dr. Offit won the Franklin Founder Award from the city of Philadelphia. Dr. Offit was a member of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation and the Foundation for Vaccine Research.

He is also the author of six medical narratives: The Cutter Incident: How America’s First Polio Vaccine Led to Today’s Growing Vaccine Crisis (Yale University Press, 2005), Vaccinated: One Man’s Quest to Defeat the World’s Deadliest Diseases (HarperCollins, 2007), for which he won an award from the American Medical Writers Association, Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure (Columbia University Press, 2008), Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (Basic Books, 2011), which was selected by Kirkus Reviews and Booklist as one of the best non-fiction books of the year, Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine (HarperCollins, 2013), which won the Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking from the Center for Skeptical Inquiry and was selected by National Public Radio as one of the best books of 2013, and Bad Faith: When Religious Belief Undermines Modern Medicine (Basic Books, 2015), selected by the New York Times Book Review as an “Editor’s Choice” book in April 2015.

Massimo Polidoro is a writer and an internationally-recognized “mystery detective”. He began his career as James Randi’s apprentice and is the co-founder and head of the Italian skeptics group CICAP. He graduated in Psychology at the University of Padua and is the first professor of Anomalistic Psychology in Italy, at the University of Milan. As a journalist he writes for many science magazines and is the author of over forty books. He is a TV personality in Italy, a Research Fellow for CSI, and a longtime columnist for its magazine, the Skeptical Inquirer. He is currently working on The “Amazing” Randi biography.

Websites: www.massimopolidoro.com - http://theamazingrandistory.com

Anthony Pratkanis is an experimental social psychologist who studies persuasion and social influence. His research program has investigated such topics as the delayed effects of persuasion, attitudes and memory, groupthink, subliminal persuasion, mass communications, source credibility, persuasion and democracy, economic fraud crimes, and a variety of influence tactics such as the pique technique, phantoms, the projection tactic, the 1-in-5 prize tactic, and altercasting. He is the co-author (with Elliot Aronson) of Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion and (with Doug Shadel) of Weapons of Fraud: A Source Book for Fraud Fighters. Dr. Pratkanis is often called to serve as an expert witness on social influence in court cases, including such high profile trials as the Judas Priest, Publishers Clearing House, and RJR’s Eclipse Tobacco trials. He has also served as a consultant on influence and preventing fraud to such organizations as FINRA, AARP, SEC, and the United States Senate as well as appearing frequently in the mass media including the Oprah Winfrey Show and Dateline NBC. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and an Inner Circle Magic Garage Magician, a Magician Extraordinaire of Ring 216 as well as a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians and of the Society of American Magicians.

James Randi, began his career as a stage magician and escape artist. However, he achieved fame as a professional skeptic, publicly disproving the claims of self-described psychics, mentalists and faith healers, most notably the paranormalist Uri Geller and the TV evangelist Peter Popoff. He has also written numerous books about supernatural frauds. He is one of the founders of The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), - now CSI - and The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF).

Joe Schwarcz is Director of McGill University’s “Office for Science and Society” which is dedicated to demystifying science and separating sense from nonsense. He is well known for his informative and entertaining public lectures on topics ranging from the chemistry of love to the science of aging. Professor Schwarcz has received numerous awards for teaching chemistry and for interpreting science for the public. He is the only non-American ever to win the American Chemical Society’s prestigious Grady-Stack Award for demystifying chemistry. He hosts "The Dr. Joe Show" on Montreal radio, has appeared hundreds of times on television and is the author of 16 best sellers. Also an amateur conjurer, Dr. Joe often spices up his presentations with a little magic.

Dr. Eugenie C. Scott is the former Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, Inc., a not for profit membership organization of scientists, teachers, and others that works to improve the teaching of science as a way of knowing, the teaching of evolution, and the teaching of climate change.

A former college professor, Dr. Scott lectures widely, and is called upon by the press and other media to explain science and evolution to the general public.

Scott is the author of Evolution vs Creationism: An Introduction, co-editor (with Glenn Branch) of Not In Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design Is Wrong For Our Schools, and the author of many articles in science journals. She has served as President of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, and has been honored by both scientists and educators in having been awarded the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the National Science Board Public Service Award, the AIBS Outstanding Service Award, the Geological Society of America Public Service Award, the AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, the California Science Teachers Association Distinguished Service Award, and the National Association of Biology Teachers Honorary Membership award, “the association’s highest honor.” In 2009, Scientific American named her “one of 10 outstanding leaders involved in research, business or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology.” She holds honorary D.Sc. degrees from McGill University, Ohio State University, Mt. Holyoke University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Rutgers University, the University of New Mexico, Colorado College,the University of Missouri, and Chapman University, and was awarded the University Medal from the University of California-San Francisco. Asteroid 249540 Eugeniescott was named for her in 2014.

Kavin Senapathy is a science communicator tackling myths on science, health and food. She is the co-Executive Director of international pro-science, pro-biotech organization March Against Myths, and co-author of The Fear Babe: Shattering Vani Hari’s Glass House, a book discussing popular food misconceptions and why they proliferate in the face of mountains of evidence against them. With a flair for refuting misconceptions popular in the internet’s wild west, she is a regular contributor to Forbes and Grounded Parents, with work appearing in Gawker, Slate, Genetic Literacy Project and more.

Jamy Ian Swiss is a magician, author, and public speaker with more than 25 years of skeptical activism experience. He has appeared internationally for presenters ranging from Fortune 500 companies to the Smithsonian Institution. His U.S. television appearances include PBS Nova, The Today Show, and repeat appearances on The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

He is a founder of the National Capital Area Skeptics, a founder of the New York City Skeptics; has spoken and performed across the U.S. on behalf of the Center For Inquiry; serves as onstage host and co-producer of the annual Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism in New York City; and for the James Randi Educational Foundation, has served as a past Senior Fellow and as a member of the Million Dollar Challenge subcommittee.

Jill Tarter holds the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for that institution. Tarter received her Bachelor of Engineering Physics Degree with Distinction from Cornell University and her Master’s Degree and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. She has spent the majority of her professional career attempting to answer the old human question “Are we alone?” by searching for evidence of technological civilizations beyond Earth. She served as Project Scientist for NASA’s SETI program, the High Resolution Microwave Survey and has conducted numerous observational programs at radio observatories worldwide. She is a Fellow of the AAAS, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Explorers Club, she was named one of the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2004, and one of the Time 25 in Space in 2012, received a TED prize in 2009, two public service awards from NASA, multiple awards for communicating science to the public, and has been honored as a woman in technology. She was the 2014 Jansky Lecturer. In 2015 she became President of the California Academy of Sciences. Asteroid 74824 Tarter (1999 TJ16) has been named in her honor. Since the termination of funding for NASA’s SETI program in 1993, she has served in a leadership role to design and build the Allen Telescope Array and to secure private funding to continue the exploratory science of SETI. Many people are now familiar with her work as portrayed by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact.

Carol Tavris is a social psychologist, writer, and lecturer who has sought to use the contributions of psychological science to dispel some of the harms of pseudoscience and “psychobabble.” Her book with Elliot Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), has become something of a, well, bible in the skeptical movement because it explains why people don’t change their minds, recognize the harms they inflict, or given up useless practices simply because the evidence says they should. The book has been translated into 13 languages and a revised edition was published last year. She is also author of the classic Anger: The misunderstood emotion and The Mismeasure of Woman. Carol has written hundreds of articles, essays, and book reviews on topics in psychological science for a wide array of publications, some of which appear in her collection Psychobabble and Biobunk: Using psychological science to think critically about issues in the news. She currently writes a column, “The Gadfly,” for Skeptic. Carol has given lectures, workshops, and keynote addresses to diverse audiences around the world. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science; her other awards include an honorary doctorate from Simmons College for her work in promoting critical thinking and gender equity; an award from the Center for Inquiry, Independent Investigations Group, for contributions to skepticism and science; the Heritage Publications Award for The Mismeasure of Woman; and the Media Achievement Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

Jim Underdown is the Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles and the founder of the Independent Investigations Group. But in a former life (that’s a figure of speech), Jim sang with Chicago bands Decades and The Jam Knights, and is currently lead singer for the Heathens.

Bertha Vazquez has been teaching middle school science in Miami-Dade County Public Schools for 24 years. She has BA in Biology from the University of Miami and a Master’s in Science Education from Florida International University. A seasoned traveler who has visited all seven continents, she enjoys introducing the world of nature and science to young, eager minds. An educator with National Board Certification, she is the recipient of several national and local honors, including the 2014 Samsung’s $150,000 Solve For Tomorrow Contest and The Charles C. Bartlett National Excellence in Environmental Award in 2009. She was Miami-Dade Science Teacher of the Year in 1997 and 2008 and is currently one of Florida’s 2015 finalists for the most prestigious science award in the country, The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Tamar Wilner is a Dallas-based journalist, researcher, and communications graduate student, specializing in the study of misinformation and science communication. She's a frequent contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review and a consultant on the Fact-Checking Project at the American Press Institute. You can find her at www.tamarwilner.com and on Twitter at @tamarwilner.