Karen E. Burke
Dr. Karen E. Burke is a dermatologist and research scientist. She received her M.D. from New York University Medical College and her Ph.D. in biophysics from Cornell University, Ithaca. She fulfilled her residency in dermatology at the NYU Medical Center, and completed two N.I.H. Postdoctoral fellowships: one with the Department of Biochemistry, Cornell University Medical College, and the other with the Department of Cellular Immunology, Rockefeller University. She is in private practice in New York City, where she also serves as an Attending Physician in the Department of Medicine, Cabrini Medical Center.

Dr. Burke has written numerous articles and three books and has presented her research at medical conferences around the world. She is known for her research on the prevention and reversal of aging of the skin as well the prevention and treatment of skin cancer. Her primary research demonstrates the efficacy of topical and oral antioxidants in reversing photoaging of the skin and in prevention of skin cancer. Dr. Burke has also studied breast cancer and has published research papers on numerous subjects, including fat structure and metabolism and the effects of topical retinoic acid and collagen implantation in treating skin damage.

She has been a consultant to many corporations, including Ethicon (New Jersey) and L'Oréal/Helena Rubinstein (Paris, France). She has been a consultant and contributor to many publications, including the Ergo Press (Paris), and the New World Journal (New York) and Diplomatic World Bulletin (New York), for both of which she acted as Medical and Science Editor. She wrote the popular "Health Update" column for the latter publication. She also serves on the editorial board of Cutis.

Dr. Burke is a member of many organizations including the American Academy of Dermatology; the Skin Cancer Foundation; the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery; the Society for Investigative Dermatology; the Women's Dermatologic Society; the International Society of Dermatology; the French Society of Aesthetic Surgery and Dermatologic Surgery; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the Women's Forum of the United Nations, and the American Medical Association. She is also founder and president of the Karen E. Burke Research Foundation and of Longévité, Limited. She serves on the Board of the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and is a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Virginia W. Cornish
Virginia W. Cornish did her undergraduate studies at Columbia University. In addition to being active in many undergraduate groups, Virginia did research in Professor Ronald Breslow's laboratory aimed at identifying the receptor for a new class of anticancer compounds being developed in the laboratory. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Biochemistry in 1991. She then moved west to do research with Professor Pete Schultz in the Chemistry Department at the University of California at Berkeley. In Professor Schultz's laboratory she helped develop a new methodology for incorporating synthetic amino acids into proteins using the protein biosynthetic machinery. At Berkeley she was a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow and a recipient of fellowships from the American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

In 1996, she became an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biology Department at M.I.T. under the guidance of Professor Bob Sauer. At M.I.T. she initiated an independent project which is the basis of her laboratory's research at Columbia. Virginia joined the Columbia faculty in 1999. Her laboratory is using a combination of synthetic chemistry and molecular genetics to develop a cell-based assay for screening large collections of compounds simultaneously based on function. She is the recipient of a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Burroughs-Wellcome Fund New Investigator Award in the Toxological Sciences, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, and a National Science Foundation Career Award. In addition to her research and teaching, Virginia enjoys spending time with her husband Don and taking a drawing class at the Art Student's League in midtown Manhattan.

Peter B. Corr, Senior Vice President, Science & Technology, Pfizer Inc (Retired)
Dr. Peter B. Corr served as Senior Vice President for Science and Technology at Pfizer Inc from 2002 to 2006. Before assuming that role, Dr. Corr served as Executive Vice President, Pfizer Global Research & Development; and President, Worldwide Development. Prior to joining Pfizer in 2000, he was President of Pharmaceutical Research and Development at Warner Lambert/Parke Davis until the merger with Pfizer. Earlier, he served as Senior Vice President, Discovery Research, at Monsanto/Searle.

Dr. Corr, who received his doctorate from Georgetown University School of Medicine, spent 18 years as a researcher in molecular biology and pharmacology at Washington University in St. Louis. When he left the university, Dr. Corr was Professor, Department of Medicine (Cardiology) and Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Biology. His research has been published in more than 160 scientific manuscripts.

Dr. Corr is the recipient of numerous awards, including membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honorary Society, an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association, and a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health. He received the Washington University School of Medicine Teacher of the Year Award and, in 1990, the Washington University Distinguished Faculty Award. In 2004, Dr. Corr was named a William Pitt Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge.

Robin L. Davisson
Robin L. Davisson, professor of molecular physiology, joined the faculty of Cornell University on July 1, 2006. Dr. Davisson had been a member of the faculty of The University of Iowa since 1998, where she taught neuroscience, cardiovascular physiology and genomics to medical, dental and graduate students. In addition to her traditional health sciences instructional activities, Professor Davisson created an innovative, widely recognized course at Iowa, "Survival Skills for a Research Career," focusing on the full spectrum of communication, grant-writing and other skills required for a successful career in science. Recently she received the 2005 Outstanding Mentor Award (Biological and Life Sciences) from the University of Iowa Graduate College for her exemplary mentoring of undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students in the areas of research, teaching and career development.

Professor Davisson's research focuses on the basic mechanisms of function, control and signaling in the cardiovascular system in health and disease. Her investigations employ the interdisciplinary approach of "functional genomics," a new endeavor at the interface of classical physiology and molecular genetics. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying hypertension, heart failure and the pregnancy-induced cardiovascular syndrome pre-eclampsia are the main focuses of her research efforts. She has published numerous original research and review articles and book chapters, and has given invited presentations throughout the United States as well as in South America, Europe and Asia.

Her research has been funded by competitive grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association and private industry for more than two decades. In addition, her research has earned multiple prestigious awards, including the Harry Goldblatt Award in Cardiovascular Research from the American Heart Association and the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award from the American Physiological Society. She has also won awards from the American Society of Hypertension, the International Society of Hypertension, and the International Congress of Physiological Sciences.

Professor Davisson has been actively involved in service to national and international organizations and journals. She has served on programming and steering committees for the American Physiological Society, serves on the leadership and the programming committees of the American Heart Association High Blood Pressure Research Council, and performs grant peer-reviewer for a number of grants agencies including NIH and AHA. She also serves on the editorial boards of Hypertension, Physiological Genomics, and the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative.

Professor Davisson earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Iowa in 1988 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a master's degree in psychology (1991) and her doctorate in pharmacology (1994), also from the University of Iowa. While a graduate student, she won a Norwegian Marshall Fund Award for Graduate Study Abroad. She completed a four-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Iowa Cardiovascular Research Center and the Center for Hypertension Genomics before joining the UI faculty as an assistant professor of anatomy and cell biology. She was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2004 at Iowa, and then to full professor with tenure at Cornell in 2006.

Brian Ferguson
Brian Ferguson is a professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University-Newark. He received his B.A. through Ph.D. at Columbia University; his doctoral research investigated long-term socio-cultural change in Puerto Rico. Beginning as a graduate student, he has spent a quarter century studying war and today is internationally recognized as a leading authority on tribal warfare. He has written articles on many aspects of war, appearing in publications from New York Newsday to Scientific American to Foreign Affairs. His 1995 book, Yanomami Warfare, has been widely accepted as the solid core within the recent controversy over scientific research among the Yanomami. Dr. Ferguson also studies the cultural history of policing and crime in New York City.

In 1992, Dr. Ferguson organized the Columbia Graduate Anthropology Alumni Association, the first such organization in American anthropology. During his eight years as its president, the organization became a catalytic center for innovative projects and perspectives. In 1999 he created the Working Group on Political Violence, War and Peace at the Center for Global Change and Governance. He is developing plans for a series of international conferences with the United Nations University on ethnic violence, civil war, and genocide. He was co-vice chair of the Anthropology Section of the NYAS from 1993 to 1994, and co-chair from 1995 to 1996.

Jay Furman
Mr. Jay Furman is a developer and owner of real estate located in thirty-nine states and Puerto Rico. He has significant interests in more than 150 shopping centers, office buildings, hotels and industrial/storage facilities. In addition, Mr. Furman is the president of RD Management LLC and oversees the operations of all its affiliates. Following his graduation from New York University Law School, he obtained a Master’s of Philosophy in economics from the Columbia University. He has developed or acquired over 125 properties during the period from 1993 through mid-2006, and currently has over 20 properties under development.

Mr. Furman is a Trustee of New York University (Chairman of the Real Estate Committee), New York University School of Law (Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee), Educational Alliance, Jewish Home & Hospital of Manhattan, Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Child Study Center at the New York University Medical Center. Mr. Furman oversaw the development and construction of Furman Hall, a $100 million facility, which doubled the academic capacity of the Law School. Furman Hall was completed ahead of schedule with considerable construction budget savings realized.

Mr. Furman also is on the Board of Directors of the Great Neck Arts Center and was instrumental in creating and programming their Cinematheque Independent Filmmakers series, which he has endowed since 1997; is the founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, UJA of New York (Chairman of the Real Estate Committee) and founder of the Furman Academic Scholarship at the New York University School of Law and is on the National Advisory Board of Futures for Children.

Brian Greene
Dr. Brian Greene (born February 9, 1963) is a physicist and one of the world's foremost string theorists. Since 2003 he has been a professor at Columbia University. Born in New York City, Greene was a prodigy in mathematics. At the age of five, he could multiply 30-digit numbers. His skill in mathematics was such that by the time he was twelve years old, he was being privately tutored in mathematics by a Columbia University professor because he had surpassed the high-school math level. He entered Harvard in 1980 to major in physics, and with his bachelor's degree, Greene went to Oxford University in England, as a Rhodes Scholar.

His book The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (1999) is a popularization of superstring theory and M-theory. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction, and winner of The Aventis Prizes for Science Books in 2000. The book talks about and opens an argument on how Calabi-Yau manifolds, as the multi-dimensional (11D, 16D, 26D) points, may comprise our space-time. The Elegant Universe was later made into a PBS television special with Dr. Greene as the narrator. His second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos (2004), is about space, time, and the nature of the universe. Aspects covered in this book include non-local particle entanglement as it relates to special relativity and basic explanations of string theory. It is an examination of the very nature of matter and reality, covering such topics as spacetime and cosmology, origins and unification, and including an exploration into reality and the imagination. Brian Greene also dabbles in acting; he helped John Lithgow with scientific dialogue for the television series Third Rock from the Sun, and he had a cameo role in the film Frequency.

William A. Haseltine
William A. Haseltine PhD is Chairman of Haseltine Global Health, LLC, a virtual pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing new and more efficient means to develop new life saving drugs and medical devices. He is also President of the Haseltine Foundation for Medical Sciences and the Arts, a foundation that supports access to high quality health for the poor and middle class of developing countries and that also fosters a dialog between sciences and the arts. He is an Adjunct Professor at The Scripps Institute for Medical Research.

William Haseltine has an active career in both Science and Business. He was a professor at Harvard Medical School from 1976-1993 where he was the chair of two academic research departments. He is well known for his pioneering work on cancer and HIV/AIDS. He is the Founder of Human Genome Sciences, Inc and served as the Chairman and CEO of the Company until 2004.He is also the founder of seven other successful biotechnology companies. He serves as an advisor to CMEA, a venture capital company, and to several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Haseltine is active in public service. He is Co-Chair of the President’s Council of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a member of the Advisory Board of the Global Coalition on HIV/AIDS, a member of the Board of One World Health, a member of the CEO Council of the New York Academy of Science, and Chair of the Berkeley Center of Synthetic Biology. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Brookings Institution, a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission, and a member of the Chairman’s Circle of the Asia Society.

He resides in Washington DC and New York City.

Steven Hochberg
Steven Hochberg is the Managing Partner of Ascent Biomedical Ventures, a New York based seed and early stage investor in biomedical technology companies including medical devices and drugs. Since 1992, Steve has also been an active founder in such early-stage medical technology companies. Companies co-founded by Steve include Biomerix Corporation, Eminent Research Systems Inc. (acquired by PPD, Inc. in 2003), Clinsights, Inc. (acquired by PPD, Inc. in 2003), Med-E-Systems/AHT Corporation (initial public offering in 1996), and Physicians' Online (acquired by Mediconsult in 1999). Steve is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Biomerix Corporation and Crosstrees Medical, Inc.  Currently, Steve is a member of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Continuum Health Partners, one of the largest non-profit hospital systems in New York City. Steve is also a member of Harvard University’s President’s Advisory Committee for the development of Allston, a 300+ acre campus across the river from the main campus which is intended to be developed by Harvard over the next 50 years.

Earlier in his career, Steve was an investment banker with Alex Brown & Sons and a strategy consultant with Bain & Company in the technology and healthcare areas.

Steve holds a B.S. from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Morton Hyman
Mr. Morton Hyman is Founder and Principal of MPH Enterprises, LLC, a private equity investment company. He is retired from Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc., owners and operators of one of the world’s largest fleets of ocean-going vessels engaged in the transportation of bulk commodities in the domestic and international markets, having served as President from 1971 through 1999; President and Chief Executive Officer 1999 and Chairman of the Board of Directors from 2000 to 2003. During this time, Mr. Hyman also held the position of Vice Chairman for Discount Bank and Trust Co. Ltd., one of the largest privately owned Swiss banks.

Mr. Hyman has an extensive history of civic activities, most notably Chairman, Board of Trustees, Continuum Health Partners, Inc., nonprofit hospital system in New York City that comprises five historically distinguished hospitals: Beth Israel Medical Center, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Long Island College Hospital and The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. He also serves as a Member of the Board of Overseers at The Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and is a Fellow and Member of the Board of Trustees of The New York Academy of Medicine.

Mr. Hyman is an alumnus of Cornell Law School. He is the recipient of the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, New York Medical College, Trustee of the Year, 2001 – Modern Healthcare 2002 Leadership in Business Award, New York Business Group on Health, 2002 Healthcare Leadership Award – United Hospital Fund, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, May, 2000.

Maren Imhoff
Maren Imhoff is vice president for Development at Rockefeller University. She heads a 30-member staff charged with raising over $50 million annually in support of biomedical research programs at Rockefeller University. She has been with Rockefeller since 1984, heading the University's Development Program since December 1990. Prior to Rockefeller, Ms. Imhoff worked at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Ms. Imhoff received a B.A. in history from Dickinson College, Pennsylvania in 1977. She went to study religion and philosophy at Andover Newton Theological School, Massachusetts, before moving to New York in 1980. She is a 1996 graduate of "Leadership New York," a highly selective civic leadership program sponsored by the Coro Foundation and The New York City Partnership. She currently serves on the National Alumni Council of the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., and is a member of the American Advisory Board of Humanity in Action, an international human rights leadership organization.

Ms. Imhoff does pro bono fund-raising consulting for several non-profit organizations, including the Children's Youth Orchestra and Comprehensive Development, Inc., the social service arm of the Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day School, a highly innovative public school in New York City.

Madeleine Jacobs
Madeleine Jacobs is executive director and chief executive officer of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society, with more than 158,000 members worldwide. ACS publishes 33 scientific journals through its Publications Division and numerous scientific literature and patent databases through the Chemical Abstracts Service Division. ACS also runs the Petroleum Research Fund, which distributes $18-23 million a year in peer-reviewed research grants, making it one of the largest private philanthropies devoted to chemical research.

Jacobs received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry at George Washington University (with honors and distinction) in 1968 (Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year). She completed course work for a master's degree in organic chemistry at the University of Maryland in 1969. Jacobs received an honorary Doctor of Science from George Washington University in 2003.

Prior to becoming ACS executive director and CEO in January 2004, Jacobs served for eight and a half years as editor-in-chief of Chemical & Engineering News magazine, the weekly newsmagazine of the chemical world published by ACS, and two years as managing editor. She has held other senior management positions in scientific and educational organizations, including the National Institutes of Health (1972-74), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (1974-79), and the Smithsonian Institution (1979-93), where she served as the director of Public Affairs at the world's largest museum complex.

Among her numerous awards and named lectureships are the Smithsonian Institution Secretary's Gold Medal for Exceptional Service (1993), the New York Academy of Sciences Women's History Month Award (2001), the 75th Canadian Society for Chemistry Conference Lecturer (2002), the ACS Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences (2003), and the American Crystallographic Association Public Service Award (2004). A much-honored science journalist, she has also received more than three dozen awards for outstanding science writing from national organizations. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is on the Board of Directors of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.

Jacobs' professional interests include trends in the chemical industry, the public image of chemistry, employment trends, minority representation, and gender equality of scientists. She has given speeches on these topics for more than 30 years and is a sought-after speaker.

Abraham M. Lackman
Abraham M. Lackman, the sixth president of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, assumed that position on November 1, 2002. As President, Mr. Lackman is responsible for leading and coordinating the state and federal public policy advocacy of over 100 college presidents of New York State's private, non-profit, independent institutions of higher education and for carrying out the policy directives of the Commission's Board of Trustees.

Since January 1995, Mr. Lackman had been secretary of the New York State Senate Finance Committee, where his responsibilities included evaluation of the fiscal and budgetary implications of all major state legislation. Concurrently, he was a special advisor to the Senate's Majority Leader, Joseph L. Bruno. In the preceding year he served as budget director of the City of New York under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. For ten years, 1984-93, he had been the Senate Finance Committee's Director of Fiscal Studies. Earlier, he was for four years a legislative analyst for the Committee.

Mr. Lackman has recently been appointed by Governor Pataki to serve as a member of the Public Authority Governance Advisory Committee. In addition, he is a board member of the Albany County Airport Authority, Northeast Health Systems and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). He serves as the fiscal advisor to the NYC Sergeants Benevolent Association. He has been a board member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the New York State Deferred Compensation Board and has served on the Advisory Committee for the Staten Island Charter Commission.

In the field of higher education, Mr. Lackman has been a guest lecturer at Albany Law School as well as New York University's School of Law, and an adjunct instructor in economics in the MBA program at the Graduate School of Business of the State University of New York at Albany (UAlbany). He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at New York University and a master's degree in economics at UAlbany, where he completed course work for a doctorate in economics.

Bruce McEwen
Bruce McEwen is the Alfred E. Mirsky Professor of Neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University. He received his A.B. Summa Cum Laude in chemistry from Oberlin Collge, Ohio, and a Ph.D. in cell biology from Rockefeller University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Neurobiology in Goteborg, Sweden in 1964-65, Dr. McEwen taught briefly in the Department of Zoology at the University of Minnesota. His long association with Rockefeller University began in 1966 when he joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He was named professor and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology in 1981. From 1985-91 and in 1993-94, he served as associate dean for Graduate and Postgraduate Studies, and was dean from 1991-93. He was named the Mirsky Professor in 1999.

His many memberships include the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association of Biological Chemists, American Society for Neurochemistry, Endocrine Society, International Brain Research Organization, International Society for Neurochemistry, International Society of Neuroendocrinology, International Society for Psychoneuroendocrinology, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi.

John F. Niblack, Ph.D.
John F. Niblack retired from Pfizer Inc in September 2002, where he was vice chairman of the Board of Directors of the company, and president, Pfizer Global Research and Development.

As president of Pfizer's Global Research and Development division, and its principal scientific officer, Dr. Niblack managed the largest pharmaceutical research force in the world industry, with 12,000 researchers operating on a research budget of over $5 billion. Pfizer Global R&D is the largest, privately-funded biomedical research organization in the world, with activities spanning research across almost every area of medical need, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, mental illness, infectious disease, and metabolic disorders.

Dr. Niblack earned a B.S. degree in chemistry from Oklahoma State University in l960, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biochemistry from the University of Illinois in l968.

Eric A. Rose
Dr. Rose is an international authority in the surgical management of heart failure. From 1982 to 1992, he led the Columbia Presbyterian heart transplantation program, during which time it became the most active program in the United States. Dr. Rose pioneered heart transplantation in children, performing the first successful pediatric heart transplant in 1984. He has investigated many alternatives to heart transplantation, including cross species transplantation and man-made heart pumps. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 scientific publications.

As principal investigator of the Randomized Evaluation of Mechanical Assistance for the Treatment of Congestive Heart Failure (REMATCH) clinical trial, Dr. Rose led 129-patient, 22-center study proving the survival and quality of life benefit of ventricular assist devices (LVADs) for the long–term treatment of terminal heart failure.

Dr. Rose holds numerous academic and hospital posts, including chairman of the department of surgery and Morris and Rose Milstein/Johnson & Johnson Professor of Surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He serves as Director of Surgical Services and Surgeon-in-Chief at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is also the Associate Dean of Translational Research.

Dr. Rose received his bachelor's degree from Columbia College and his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His postgraduate training was in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.

He is certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and is a member of many professional societies, including the American College of Surgeons, the Society Thoracic Surgery, the American Surgical Association, the American Heart Association and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.

Jeffrey D. Sachs
Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University.

He is also special advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on a group of poverty reduction initiatives called the Millennium Development Goals, and director of the UN Millennium Project. Sachs is internationally renowned for advising governments in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Asia and Africa on economic reforms and for his work with international agencies to promote poverty reduction, disease control, and debt reduction of poor countries.

He was recently named among the 100 most influential leaders in the world by Time Magazine. He is author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books. Sachs was recently elected into the Institute of Medicine and is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as director of the Center for International Development. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University.

Michael Schmertzler
Michael Schmertzler received a B.A. from Yale College in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, History, and City Planning. After attending the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, he earned his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.

Since 2001, Mr. Schmertzler has been a Managing Director of Aries Advisors, LLC. A sub-advisor to Credit Suisse First Boston Equity Partners, L.P., a private equity fund with original committed capital of approximately $3 billion. He is the chair of the Investment Committee of that fund, with investments involving a range of industries including biotechnology, medical devices, computer systems, transportation products, and machined automotive components.

From 1997 to 2001, Mr. Schmertzler was co-head of United States and Canadian Private Equity at Credit Suisse First Boston. In prior years, Mr. Schmertzler held various management positions with Morgan Stanley and its affiliates, and at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb.

Mr. Schmertzler is currently a Trustee and Treasurer of the National Outdoor Leadership School. He is a director of board observer for companies including Cytokinetics, Naturon Pharmaceuticals, PTC Therapeutics, Segway, and Sunesis. He also has been an Adjunct Professor in the Yale University School of Management since 1998.

John E. Sexton
John Edward Sexton, the fifteenth President of New York University, also is the Benjamin Butler Professor of Law and NYU Law School's Dean Emeritus, having served as Dean for 14 years. He joined the Law School's faculty in 1981, was named the School's Dean in 1988, and was designated the University's President in 2001.

President Sexton is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of both the Association of American University Presidents (where he is a member of the Executive Committee) and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (2003-2006) and Chair of the Federal Reserve Systems Council of Chairs (2006). He served as a Board Member for the National Association of Securities Dealers (1996-1998), and was Founding Chair of the Board of NASD Dispute Resolution (2000-2002). He is Vice Chair of the Board for the New York Academy of Sciences, and the Treasurer of the Commission of Independent Colleges and Universities of NY. He also serves on the Boards of the Institute of International Education and the Association for a Better New York. While Dean of the Law School he was President of the Association of American Law Schools.

President Sexton received a B.A. in History (1963) from Fordham College; an M.A. in Comparative Religion (1965) and a Ph.D. in History of American Religion (1978) Fordham University; and a J.D. magna cum laude (1979) from Harvard Law School.

He is an author of the Friedenthal, Miller, Sexton, Hershkoff Civil Procedure: Cases and Materials. He also is the author of Redefining the Supreme Court's Role: A Theory of Managing the Federal Court System (a treatment of the Supreme Court's case selection process) in addition to several other books, numerous chapters, articles and Supreme Court briefs.

He holds honorary degrees from Fordham University, Saint Francis College; Saint John's University, Syracuse University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. The student editors of NYU's Annual Survey of American Law dedicated their Volume 60 in his honor. He was named by Emory University the "Outstanding High School Debate Coach of the Last 50 Years" for work he did from 1960-1975. He has been the honoree at the Harvard Law Review Annual Banquet, and has been named "Alumnus of the Year" both at Fordham and at his high school, Brooklyn Prep.

Before coming to NYU, President Sexton served as Law Clerk to Chief Justice Warren Burger of the United States Supreme Court (1980-1981), and to Judges David Bazelon and Harold Leventhal of the United States Court of Appeals (1979-1980). For ten years (1983-1993), he served as Special Master Supervising Pretrial Proceedings in the Love Canal Litigation. From 1966 - 1975, he was a Professor of Religion at Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, where he was Department Chair from 1970-1975.

Frank Wilczek
Professor Frank Wilczek is considered one of the world's most eminent theoretical physicists. He is known, among other things, for the discovery of asymptotic freedom, the development of quantum chromodynamics, the invention of axions, and the discovery and exploitation of new forms of quantum statistics (anyons). When only 21 years old and a graduate student at Princeton University, in work with David Gross he defined the properties of color gluons, which hold atomic nuclei together.

Professor Wilczek received his B.S. degree from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. He taught at Princeton from 1974-81. During the period 1981–88, he was the Chancellor Robert Huttenback Professor of Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the first permanent member of the National Science Foundation's Institute for Theoretical Physics. In the fall of 2000, he moved from the Institute for Advanced Study, where he was the J.R. Oppenheimer Professor, to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics. Since 2002, he has been an Adjunct Professor in the Centro de Estudios Científicos of Valdivia, Chile.

Professor Wilczek has been a Sloan Foundation Fellow (1975-77) and a MacArthur Foundation Fellow (1982-87). He has received UNESCO's Dirac Medal, the American Physical Society's Sakurai Prize, the Michelson Prize from Case Western University, and the Lorentz Medal of the Netherlands Academy for his contributions to the development of theoretical physics. In 2004 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, and in 2005 the King Faisal Prize. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Netherlands Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Trustee of the University of Chicago. He contributes regularly to Physics Today and to Nature, explaining topics at the frontiers of physics to wider scientific audiences. He received the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society for these activities. Two of his pieces have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing (2003, 2005). Together with his wife Betsy Devine, he wrote a beautiful book, Longing for the Harmonies (W.W. Norton).

Deborah Wiley
Deborah E. Wiley is a sixth-generation descendent of the founder of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. She currently serves as the company's Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, and was a member of its Board of Directors from 1979 through 1998.

She holds leadership positions in a number of industry organizations, such as Chairman of the National Book Foundation, Chairman of the Association of American Publishers' International and International Copyright Protection Committees, and Board member of the Book Industry Study Group. Deborah also serves as Chairman of The Wiley Foundation, which awards the annual Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences. She serves on the Department of Commerce Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITAC), is a member of the Board of Governors of the New York Academy of Sciences, and is a member of the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women Advisory Board.

Active in philanthropy for educational and cultural institutions, Deborah has been a trustee for the Caedmon School, Pine Manor College, the Aloha Foundation, and Colgate University.