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Lyceum Society: Fruit Flies to Humans: Evolutionarily Conserved Mechanisms of Decision-Making

June 1, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

Fruit Flies to Humans: Evolutionarily Conserved Mechanisms of Decision-Making

This talk will focus on common behavioral principles that have been observed in decision-making strategies in a variety of settings across various animals and humans. These behavioral observations have spurred theoretical work that has provided scientists and economists with an understanding of the algorithms that could give rise to this behavior. In the core of this talk, Dr. Rajagopalan will walk the audience through how these algorithms and computations have been mapped on to regions and elements in the brain with his own work on decision-making on fruit flies and rats serving as examples for how this scientific process leads to insight into the brain as well how these insights can lead to breakthroughs in mental health care and AI decision-making algorithms.

Speaker

Adithya Rajagopalan is a neuroscientist studying the algorithms governing decision-making. Currently a Leon Levy Scholar in the Constantinople lab at NYU, his work focuses on understanding how complex cognitive representations necessary for decision-making arise.

He graduated from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune, India in 2017. He then earned his PhD in Neuroscience in 2023 from Glenn Turner’s lab at the HHMI Janelia Research Campus. Here he used Drosophila melanogaster to study decision-making at the level of behavior, circuits and theory, leveraging the model system’s genetic tools to expand theories explaining decision-making under uncertainty.

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About the Series

The Lyceum Society is a collegial venue promoting fellowship, education, and discussion among retired members of The New York Academy of Sciences. Learn more and explore other events hosted by the Lyceum Society.

Lyceum Society: Two Views of Evolution: In Space and On Earth

May 4, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

Two Views of Evolution: In Space and On Earth

Part One: The wonder of the original creation and history of the universe—the physics of it—will be presented by Stuart Kurtz. This will include some radical new discoveries that show we may be on the verge of a scientific/physics revolution not seen since Einstein.

Part Two: Bill Rosser will address some dimensions of evolution on Earth, specifically (1) three rules of biological evolution; (2) a non-evolutionary example, which is the creation of language—unique to humans—which is fundamental to linguistic anthropology; and (3) the continuing growth of appreciation of our magnificent universe and which, for many in science and beyond, has developed a strong spiritual source for developing broader awareness, guiding behavior, and/or the imagining of our collective future. Example: the Deeptime Network organization.

Discussion will follow. The insights gained from our session will be used to pursue explorable topics for a newly forming, informal special-interest group, with focuses such as “Survival and the Evolution of Creative Potential, Resilience, and Antifragility,” “Resourcefully Countering Accelerating AI,” and “Linguistic Anthropology and The Wide World of Mathematical Linguistics.”

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Lyceum Society: Evolution and the Rise of Creative Potential

April 6, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

Our April Program has four parts. The overall moderator is our president, Clif Hotvedt.

1. REVIEW OF PROGRAM GROWTH FOR THE PAST 12 MONTHS, AND PLANNING FOR NEXT SEASON

We will introduce our resourceful Lyceum Planning Team: Chairman, Phil Apruzzese, Bill Rosser (VP), Stuart Kurtz, Uldis Blukis, and Herb Klitzner. Each person on this team has given numerous talks to Lyceum over the years. In addition, together, the team has developed new concepts for talks, such as our successful periodic “Making of a Scientist” series and our annual “Nobel Prize Winners” sensitive profiles.

2. EVOLUTION AND THE RISE OF CREATIVE POTENTIAL

We will discuss and develop our scheduled May 4 Talk on the topic of Evolution of Creativity, Resilience, and “Anti-Fragility,” producing unusual individuals of different kinds to truly rescue society in times of crisis, when conventional tools fail in the face of a new challenge. Bill Rosser will organize and lead the discussion. Bill is our Lyceum VP and was a senior executive at Gartner Group, the leading market research firm in emerging computer technologies.

As part of our discussion, to help us understand this process of rescue, Stuart Kurtz, world-traveled chemical engineer and interpreter of the science endeavor will share with us an important example from the History of Science – the growing “Nitrogen Fertilization Shortage” from the late 1800s to 1913 just before the opening of WW 1.

In addition, Jean Smith, a planner at the Science Discussion Network of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock, in Manhasset, Long Island, will describe her unique experience in resourcefully applying scientifically based deeply creative techniques to first understand and then solve a serious infection that had been diagnosed as untreatable. As part of her process of evolving a successful treatment for herself, she created a Facebook group of eventually 8,000 people whose conditions resembled her own, along one dimension or another, helping them to move forward in their own lives.

3. OTHER NEW PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

We will also examine three other pivotal subject area clusters, listed below. To explore possibilities, we will sample one specific topic to focus on next season from each of the three clusters:

BioMed/Pharma/Physical Therapy (PT).
AI, Math, Values, Human Development, Psychology, the Science of Aesthetics, and the Designing of Future AI-Customized Tools.
History of Science, and the Connectedness of Science and Culture.

4. OPEN DISCUSSION

At the last part of our meeting, we will open up the discussion to the audience for further comments and suggestions. Please join us with your ideas in this special future-oriented program discussion.

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Lyceum Society: Biological Rhythms, the Secret Language of your Vital Signs

March 2, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

Biological Rhythms, the Secret Language of your Vital Signs

Daniel Forger

From the firing of neurons in a fraction of a second to the monthly cycle of ovulation to a seasonal shift in sleep patterns, the human body runs on rhythms—all more knowable now than ever, thanks to wearables. Making sense, and making use, of these signals is something else, and this is precisely what Daniel Forger explains in his book Biological Rhythms, which will be the focus of our discussion. Sorting through a plethora of data gathered over the past decade, this practical, user-friendly book gives readers the tools for reading and interpreting the rhythms that regulate physiological processes as varied and critical as sleep, brain activity, heart rate, hormone secretion, metabolism, and temperature. Once translated, the language of biological rhythms can be used to improve health and productivity, by athletes, travelers, and shift workers, sufferers of fatigue or sleep disorders, or those wishing to lose weight, monitor infection, or time fertility, in short, anyone with an interest in reading and understanding the body’s vital signs.

Speaker

Daniel B. Forger is Robert W. and Lynn H. Browne Professor of Science, Professor of Mathematics, and Research Professor of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He directs the Michigan Center for Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics and is the CSO of Arcascope. Hundreds of thousands of people have used his apps and algorithms for scoring sleep and circadian rhythms, predicting mood and fatigue, and analyzing time series data. Dr. Forger was also active in the Junior Academy of the NY Academy of Sciences when he attended Stuyvesant High School.

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Lyceum Society: Alchemy, AI and Snow’s Two Cultures in Historical Perspective

February 2, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

Alchemy, AI and Snow’s Two Cultures in Historical Perspective

Farzad Mahootian

I will explore the imaginal space between four themes: alchemy, Jung, the history of science, and AI. The talk will interweave these themes in ways that reflect my mind since early adulthood. I am recently energized by support from NYU’s IT office and library in my efforts to render my mode of investigation consistent with its subject matter, as I consider chemists and historians of chemistry. Chemists have benefited greatly by integrating computational tools to exponentially expand chemical space. By contrast, historians of chemistry and alchemy have been somewhat less enthusiastic about applying computational methods to their domain. This is not a question of technophobia exclusively, it’s a cultural issue. I believe that AI can efface some of the structural barriers between C.P. Snow’s “two cultures.”

Speaker

Farzad Mahootian has been a Clinical Associate Professor of Global Liberal Studies at New York University since 2010. He has an interdisciplinary background (PhD Philosophy, Fordham; MS Chemistry, Georgetown). His research focuses on interactions between philosophy, science and society within the mythological imagination. His interests include process philosophy, coupled systems, artificial intelligence, and premodern sciences. Recent publications include “Jung and Whitehead: An Interplay of Psychological and Philosophical Perspectives,” “Kant, Cassirer, and the Idea of Chemical Element.”

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Lyceum Society: FDA & New Drug Approvals

January 5, 2026 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

New Drug Approvals in 2025: How did the FDA fare?

2025 has been a tumultuous year in Washington. Notwithstanding DOGE layoffs and the government shutdown, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 41 drugs and biologicals this year. While some will likely be blockbusters with sales above a billion dollars a year by 2030, some of the rest might be considered bespoke biologicals—exquisitely-targeted drugs for smaller populations (e.g., hereditary angioedema, which affects about 1/50,000 people across all ethnicities). But, when there are fewer potential patients, the research and development cost has to be spread across patients receiving the therapy. When data is available, we’ll talk about cost and, with drug price controversy embedded in the ongoing health insurance crisis, who should or can or might pay, and how much.

Speaker

Clif Hotvedt‘s diverse scientific background reflects his experience in the pharmaceutical industry, as a medical writer in the regulatory and clinical affairs departments of Ives Laboratories and at leading public relations firms including Robert Marston & Associates, Manning Selvage & Lee, and Ketchum, where he served as vice president and global director of medical & scientific affairs. For 46 years, he has counseled companies on over 100 small molecule drugs, biologicals and devices for indications including cardiovascular disease, rheumatology, metabolic disease, dermatology, central nervous system disease, vaccines, infectious disease, and cancer.

A New Mexico State University graduate in secondary education and journalism, Clif continues to use his teaching background to develop and present courses on the FDA approval process, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and biostatistics among other topics for coworkers and clients. Clif is a member of the Lyceum Society and has been a frequent presenter at our meetings. His previous topics have included: “The FDA Drug Approval Process”(November 2015); “How the new PCSK9 Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs work” (May 2016); “How to read a Drug Label” (April 2017); “Biosimilars: the New ‘Generics’?(June 2018); “The Human Microbiome” (May 2019); “Drug Pricing” (June 2020); “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Health Care” (October 2020); “Drug Pricing Revisited” (November 2020); and “The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022” (December 2022).

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Lyceum Society: Data Center Boom: High Cost/Benefit

December 1, 2025 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

AI Data Center Boom: High Cost/Benefit, Locally & Environmentally

Tech companies are racing to expand data center capacity to win the competition for commercial dominance, most prominently through the AI path. This surge has been encouraged by the current business and political environment including new federal industrial policies, abundant capital, disregulation, and hype of AI.

Business tactics prioritizing immediate business interests over the public interest may include:

Bending/breaking some constraints, including legal ones
Building fast before anyone can react
Minimizing disclosure of critical data center features
Obfuscation of site ownership via complex LLCs, trusts, etc.
Externalizing environmental costs, GHG emissions, e-waste generation

I will present brief summaries of findings from technical journals, newspapers, and magazines. Informative YouTube video segments will be included to elicit group discussion.

Speaker

Philip W. Apruzzese (BE Chem. E., MS Technology Mgmt., CHMM) graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ. He was employed in the pharmaceutical industry (Squibb, Beecham, Schering-Plough) for nearly 40 years, holding manufacturing operations, project, research pilot plant startup, and environmental compliance management positions. From 2010 to 2019 he was employed part-time as a Chem Eng/Environmental, health and safety consultant in addition to working seasonally as a Level C Official for USA Cycling racing events.

Since relocating to the Seattle area he has begun volunteer work with several non-profit community cycling/Recycling resources and advocacy organizations. Additionally he volunteers online with the Summit Old Guard, an organization for retired business and professional men.

In April, 2015, he spoke on Tour de France cycling performance enhancements – Post Lance/Post Drugs and in 2019 he presented on The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of lithium ion batteries. In 2021 he presented on The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis. In April 2025 he spoke along with Stuart Kurtz on Becoming a Chemical Engineer: Two Stories.

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Lyceum Society: Lithium Processing

November 3, 2025 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

Lithium Processing: Challenges for Refining and Recycling

In the late twentieth century, lithium changed from a metal of limited economic importance to an essential component of the modern economy. The distribution of lithium resources on Earth and the technology for its recovery have implications for geopolitics, the economy, and the environment. Join us as we explore the connections between the properties of this unique metal, the challenges in its extraction and recycling, and its role in the modern world.

Speaker

Dr. Mark Kobrak received his BA degree in Chemistry and Integrated Science from Northwestern University, and his PhD in Chemistry from University of Chicago. He joined the faculty of Brooklyn College in 2001, serving as Chair from 2009-2011 and again from 2020-2023. His work centers on the physical chemistry of ionic liquids, a class of salts that are molten at room temperature. Recent efforts have included the development of novel metal extraction technologies. He has received multiple fellowships supporting research work at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and was a visiting researcher at University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2017.

As a faculty member, Kobrak has pursued an eclectic collection of projects. Examples include establishing the department’s industrial internship program, co-authoring a science education article on the physics of solar sails, and serving as a scientific consultant on a film featuring Paracelsian alchemy. He has also revised the laboratory curricula of five different undergraduate courses and written a 480 page free textbook to help students transition from general to organic chemistry.

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Lyceum Society: Mental Health, Neuroscience & AI

October 6, 2025 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

Mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder, depression, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are difficult to diagnose and treat. Symptoms overlap across these categories, mood data is hard to capture reliably, and treatments often involve trial and error with significant side effects. While diagnostic frameworks such as the DSM-5 provide a shared language for clinicians and insurers, they offer limited insight into the underlying causes of psychiatric illness or personalized strategies for intervention. To advance, psychiatry needs more precise measures of nervous system function and better ways to integrate neurobiological data with patients’ lived experience and bio-psycho-social history. The integration of multiple levels of description is essential for distinguishing root causes and identifying effective points of intervention. Marjorie Xie will describe how the field of computational psychiatry is beginning to close this descriptive gap by leveraging behavioral tasks, behavioral and physiological data, and computational models. She will conclude with an example from my current research on the science of mood in relation to attention.

Speaker

Marjorie Xie is a neuroscientist whose research bridges the brain, AI, and mental health. Her upcoming work is guided by two goals: (1) to advance mental health care by empowering clinicians and patients with scientifically grounded, clinically actionable tools, and (2) to accelerate the discovery of new treatments. From 2023–2025, she was an AI & Society Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State University and the New York Academy of Sciences, conducting research at the Center for Computational Psychiatry at Mount Sinai (Radulescu and Gu Labs) on the relationship between mood and attention. She previously interned at the Basis Research Institute, developing AI tools for studying collaborative intelligence in animals. Marjorie earned her PhD in Neurobiology and Behavior at Columbia University (Litwin-Kumar Lab), where she developed a computational theory of the cerebellum, a brain region involved in motor control and sensory processing. Earlier, she studied sensory processing and communication in fruit flies at Stanford (Clandinin Lab) and Princeton (Murthy Lab). She received her BA from Princeton, designing an independent major in neuroscience with additional studies in philosophy, literature, and history.

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Lyceum Society: Media and De-Civilization

September 8, 2025 | 11:30 AM – 2:30 PM ET

Presented by the Lyceum Society

To attend, click the “Register” button at the time of the presentation. It will take you directly to the Zoom call.

Welcome and Introductions: 11:30 AM to 11:45 AM

Main Presentation: 11:45 AM to 2:30 PM

Are Today’s Media De-Civilizing Us?

Bill Rosser

While internet communications have brought us immense benefits in convenience, power, and access, there are accompanying threats to what we might consider civilized life. This Lyceum Society presentation and discussion is meant to review a few of these threats and their possible consequences. Its purpose is to identify issues and consider how serious they may be, and what we might do to ameliorate the possible negative impacts. Issues include (1) normalizing the use of threatening language; (2) facilitating the power of extremist groups; (3) reducing socialization in favor of solitary activities; and (4) enabling misinformation and scams. All of them could lead to a more “decivilized” environment.

This review is not meant to contradict the possible cultural benefits also offered by advancing technology, such as increased cognitive abilities and more information availability.

Bill Rosser will lead the discussion after presenting a short article he published on these topics on substack.com. The article will be distributed to the Lyceum mailing list. Others may request a copy by email to the Lyceum secretary at mark.edelman@outlook.com.

Speaker

Bill Rosser retired from Gartner, Inc., a worldwide top-ranked advisory firm providing guidance to corporations regarding their use of information technology. As a Gartner VP and Distinguished Analyst, he spent 29 years writing, speaking and advising clients about effective use of IT. He studied Basic Engineering at Princeton University, and after work in telecommunications in San Francisco, returned to Harvard Business School and graduated with Distinction in 1962. In 1969 he formed his own start-up in data processing based on the new electronic cash registers, and after a merger, worked in strategic planning for Perkin-Elmer and Exxon Enterprises prior to Gartner. Today Bill is active as an architectural walking tour guide (Grand Central Terminal and the NoHo Historic District) and is a founding member of Reform Elections Now, promoting vital improvements in the election processes such as ranked choice voting. He has spoken to the Lyceum Society on various topics and has chaired our discussions of timely issues.

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