Teachers from Francis Parker School pose with Dr. Jeffrey Bada (SIO), who presented a seminar in October, 2005, entitled "Searching for Evidence of Life on Mars in the Coming Decade"

Historical Background

In the Spring of 1998, a group of educators and scientists gathered on the campus of Point Loma Nazarene University to discuss how ongoing interactions could best be fostered between San Diego County science teachers and leading research scientists in Southern California. The participants at that meeting were:  Jim Ballantine (Morse HS), Shauna Brammer (La Jolla HS), Walter Desmond (Lincoln HS), Chuck Downing (PLNU), Danine Ezell (San Diego Unified), Bart Hays (Helix Charter HS), Christie Hoover (Monte Vista HS), Paul Loozen (San Diego Unified), Jim Patzold (Clairemont HS), Leonard Thomas (Madison HS), Mala Wingered (Bell Jr. HS), Bob Van Zant (San Diego Unified) and Moselio Schaechter (Adjunct Professor at SDSU and Chair Emeritus, Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology, Tufts University). Their ideas, along with subsequent input and support from Patricia Winter, President of the San Diego Science Alliance, were instrumental in creation of the Perspectives on Science Lecture/Dinner Series, which was inaugurated during the 1998-1999 academic year.  
       By the end of the 2007-08 program, Perspectives on Science will have brought San Diego teachers together with 77 scientists representing 18 different Southern California academic institutions and biotech companies.  The speakers to date have included two Nobel Laureates from the Salk Insitute;  namely, Francis Crick, who discussed the mechanism of vision in 1999 and Sydney Brenner, who in 2003, provided an “eye-witness” account of the early discoveries leading to the development of the “Central Dogma” of molecular biology.   Twenty-one of the speakers are members of the US National Academy of Sciences and six of them are Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators.   Complete information about the speakers from 1998 through 2007 is shown below.
 

2006-2007 POS Program 
Roger Tsien, UC San Diego;   Mitchell Reff, Biogen-Idec Corporation;   Carolyn Kelly, UCSD School of Medicine;  Fred Bercovitch, CRES and the Zoological Society of San Diego;  Erica Ollman-Saphire, The Scripps Research Institute;  Donna Blackman, Scripps Institute of Oceanography;  Thomas Albright, The Salk Institute;  Ram Ramanathan, Scripps Institute of Oceanography. 

2005-2006 POS Program
Jeffrey Bada,  Scripps Institute of Oceanography;   Tom Demere,  San Diego Natural History Museum;  Esther Rubin, CRES and The Zoological Society of San Diego;   Julian Schroeder, UCSD;   Lisa Tauxe, Scripps Institute of Oceanography;   Victor Nizet, UCSD School of Medicine ;  Lisa Stowers, The Scripps Research Institute ;  Nathaniel Landau, The Salk Institute

2004-2005 POS Program
Evan Snyder, The Burnham Institute;  Wendy Havran, The Scripps Research Institute; Katerina Semendeferi, UCSD;  Roger Sabbadini , San Diego State University;  Wolfgang Berger, Scripps Institute of Oceanography;  Gerald Kooyman, Scripps Institute of Oceanography;  Oliver Ryder, CRES and UCSD;   Eduardo Macagno, UCSD

2003-2004 POS Program
Ethan Bier, UCSD;  Milton Saier, UCSD;  Tracey Brown, Cal State San Marcos;  Ronald Evans, The Salk Institute;  Peter Vogt, The Scripps Research Institute;  Steven Briggs, Diversa Corporation;  Steven Hedrick, UCSD;  Alan Dixson, Director of CRES and The Zoological Society of San Diego

2002-2003 POS Program
Maarten Chrispeels, UCSD;  Russell Doolittle, UCSD;  Judith Zyskind, SDSU and Elitra Pharmaceuticals;  Charles Keeling, Scripps Institute of Oceanography;  Allison Alberts, CRES and the Zoological Society of San Diego;  Sydney Brenner, The Salk Institute;  Fred Gage, The Salk Institute;  Richard Ogden, Agouron/Pfizer

2001-2002 POS Program
Moselio Schaechter, Tufts University (emeritus) and SDSU;  Immo Scheffler, UCSD;  Larry Goldstein, UCSD;  Gerald Joyce, The Scripps Research Institute;  Barbara Durrant, CRES and the Zoological Society of San Diego;  Paul Dayton, Scripps Institute of Oceanography; Michael Latz, Scripps Institute of Oceanography;  Charles Cantor, CSO, Sequenom, Inc.

2000-2001 POS Program
Francisco Ayala, UC Irvine;  Walter Eckhart, The Salk Institute;  Jeffrey Graham, Scripps Institute of Oceanography;  Paul Zorner, The Dow Chemical Company;  Joan Stiles, UCSD; Nathan Zvailfer, UCSD;  Shirley Strum, UCSD;  Donald Mosier, The Scripps Research Institute

1999-2000 POS Program
Francis Crick, The Salk Institute;  Ann Bowles, Hubbs/Sea World Institute;  Christopher Wills, UCSD;  Joshua Fierer, UCSD School of Medicine;  Kurt Benirschke, CRES and the Zoological Society of San Diego;  Ann Feeney, The Scripps Research Institute;  James McGaugh, U. C. Irvine

1998-1999 POS Program
Gerald Joyce, The Scripps Research Institute;  Milton Saier, UCSD;  Roger Beachy, The Scripps Research Institute and Monsanto;  Helen Ranney, Alliance Pharmaceuticals; Flossie Wong-Stahl, UCSD;  Inder Verma, The Salk Institute;  Janis Jackson, The Scripps Research Institute;  Kurt Benirschke, CRES and Zoological Society of San Diego