John P Sullins
Associate Professor, Sonoma State University, California;
Teaches: Philosophy and Robotics, CyberEthics, Philosophy of Science and Technology and Logic
Dr. Jean-Pierre Bizzari
Global Head of Oncology, Celgene
The World Technology Summit & Awards, presented by the World Technology Network in association with TIME, Fortune, CNN, Technology Review, Science, and Kurzweil Technologies, among others, at the TIME Conference Center has been called a gathering of "the people creating the 21st Century" -- the most innovative people in the world in science and technology and related fields. The conference theme this year is "SURVIVE 2012, PREPARE FOR 2021." Speakers ranging from Ray "Singularity" Kurzweil to Dan "Back of the Napkin" Roam to James "The Information" Gleick to Susan "President of the ACLU" Herman to Art "Scenarios" Kleiner take on the toughest issues facing us today so we can figure out how to navigate to tomorrow. An assortment of on-stage "demos" by Finalists from this year's World Technology Awards ensures that the audience has its finger on the pulse of current technological innovation. Culminating in the World Technology Awards gala ceremony from the United Nations Delegate's Dining Room, the overall experience is a concentrated peek at the future.
Bio
Dr. Jean-Pierre Bizzari
Jean-Pierre Bizzari is a Doctor of Medicine, graduate of the Nice Medical School and a specialist in oncology. Since October 2008, he has served as Senior Vice President for Clinical Development Oncology at Celgene, and is based in the USA.
Between 1993 and 2008 he held the same position successively at Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, Aventis, Sanofi-Synthélabo, and Sanofi-Aventis, also in the USA. He was responsible for the clinical development of drugs such as Taxotere or Eloxatin. After working as an assistant in the medical oncology department at La Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, Dr Bizzari became head of the oncology department at Servier.
Since 2005 he has been a member of the international scientific committee of the French National Cancer Research Institute.
Dr. Anita Goel
As Chairman and CEO of Nanobiosym® and Nanobiosym® Diagnostics, Dr. Goel is focused on delivering new game-changing technologies to address the greatest unmet needs in global health, energy, and the environment.
A Harvard-MIT-trained Physicist-Physician, Dr. Anita Goel is a globally recognized leader in the emerging field of nanobiophysics—a new science at the convergence of physics, nanotechnology, and biomedicine. Nanobiophysics integrates these three fields to reveal new scientific solutions to the world's most pressing challenges.
Her pioneering contributions to nanotechnology and nanobiophysics have been recognized globally by prestigious honors and awards including multiple awards from US Government agencies such as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) and US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).
She established Nanobiosym® Diagnostics to commercialize the Gene-RADAR® technology platform to empower people worldwide with portable, rapid and accurate information about their own health. Employing the latest advances in nanotechnology, Gene-RADAR® is a fully portable, chip-based diagnostic that can recognize any disease with a genetic fingerprint from a single drop of blood or saliva without the need for lab infrastructure, trained health care personnel, electricity or running water.
Jeffrey Kluger
Jeffrey Kluger is a senior editor for TIME. He joined TIME as a contributor in 1996, and was named a senior editor in 1998. He has written a number of cover stories, including reports on the connection between sex and health, the Mars Pathfinder landing, the loss of the shuttle Columbia and the collision aboard the Mir space station.
In 2002, Mr. Kluger, along with two other colleagues won First Place in the Overseas Press Club of America's Whitman Bassow Award for best reporting in any medium on international environmental issues for their "Global Warming" cover package (April 9, 2001).
Prior to joining TIME, he was a staff writer for Discover magazine, where he wrote the Light Elements humor column. He was also a writer and editor for New York Times Business World Magazine, Family Circle and Science Digest.
Mr. Kluger is the co-author, along with astronaut Jim Lovell, of Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, which served as the basis of the "Apollo 13" movie released in 1995. He later wrote Journey Beyond Selene, a book about the unmanned exploration of the solar system, and is currently writing a book for Putnam about Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine.
Alfred E. Mann
Alfred E. Mann has been one of our (WTN) directors since April 1999, our Chairman of the Board since December 2001 and our Chief Executive Officer since October 2003. Mr. Mann has founded and largely funded 17 companies in his career. Nine were acquired at an overall total of almost $8 billion, and two companies became public.
In 1993, Mr. Mann founded and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MiniMed Inc. until August 2001 when it was acquired by Medtronic, Inc. Medtronic MiniMed develops, manufactures and distributes microinfusion systems and continuous glucose monitoring systems that have revolutionized the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. Mr. Mann founded and funded Medical Research Group (MRG), a developer of an artificial pancreas. MRG was also acquired by Medtronic in 2001.
Mr. Mann also founded and served as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Bionics Corporation from its founding in 1993 until it was acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation in 2004. Advanced Bionics developed neurostimulation devices for various neural deficits, including cochlear stimulators.
Previously, Mr. Mann founded and was Chairman of the Board and CEO of Pacesetter Systems, Inc., which developed, manufactured and distributed cardiac pacemakers, from 1972 until 1985 when it was acquired by Siemens, AG.
From 1985 to September 1992, Mr. Mann continued to serve as Chairman and CEO of the successor company, Siemens-Pacesetter, Inc., Pacesetter is now the Cardiac Rhythm Management unit of St. Jude Medical. Prior to 1972, he was President of Spectrolab, an electro-optical and aerospace systems company, and Heliotek, a semiconductor and electro-optical components manufacturer.
Mr. Mann founded these companies in 1956 and 1960, respectively, sold them to Textron Inc. in 1960 and continued to lead them until 1972, when he left for Pacesetter. They are now part of the Boeing Company.
Mr. Mann founded and endowed, and from 1985 until 2006 served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Alfred Mann Foundation, a nonprofit research organization devoted to development of advanced medical products in a variety of fields. Mr. Mann is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Alfred Mann Institutes at the University of Southern California, Purdue University, and The Technion Institute (Israel), all of these medical research foundations founded and endowed principally by Mr. Mann. He also serves as a Trustee for the University of Southern California, as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Keck USC School of Medicine, and as the Chairman of the Southern California Biomedical Council, a nonprofit association dedicated to the fostering of the bio-medical industry in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. Alfred Mann also serves as a Director of the Nevada Cancer Institute.
Mr. Mann holds B.A. and M.S. degrees in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles and honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Southern California, The Johns Hopkins University, Western University and the Technion Institute (Israel). Mr. Mann is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
John P. Sullins
Dr. Sullins, (Ph.D., Binghamton University (SUNY), 2002) is an associate professor at Sonoma State University in California where he teaches Philosophy and Robotics, CyberEthics, Philosophy of Science and Technology and Logic.
His research interests are computer ethics and the philosophical implications of technologies such as Robotics, AI and Artificial Life. His recent publications have focused on artificial agents and their impact on society as well as the ethical design of successful autonomous information technologies including the ethics of the use of robotic weapons systems.
John P. Sullins, professor of philosophy and robotics at Sonoma State University, speculates on the country's immorality when it comes to healthcare. Sullins describes a crowd at a recent Republican presidential debate that cheered the hypothetical death of a man without insurance. "It feels like a scarce resource and that brings out the lowest common denominator in human behavior," argues Sullins.
According to the Census Bureau, the number of people without health long term insurance last year increased to almost 50 million, up from 49 million in 2009.
