Harvard Ideas Symposium

Dimitar Sasselov is the Phillips Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. He explores stars and planets, and how life emerged on Earth, by specializing in the modes of interaction between light and matter, and the uses of remote sensing. Sasselov and his group do research in experimental photochemistry (in the wet lab), astrophysical observations (as co-investigator in the NASA Kepler & TESS missions), and theory. Sasselov is the founding director of the Harvard Origins of Life Initiative, a cross-disciplinary institute that joins biologists, chemists, and astronomers in searching for the starting points of life on Earth (and possibly elsewhere).

Christine M. Korsgaard (PhD, Harvard University, 1981) is a leading moral philosopher whose work focuses on practical reason, agency, personal identity, and human–animal relations. She is the author of five influential books that explore the foundations of moral obligation and ethical life. The Sources of Normativity (1996), based on her Tanner Lectures, examines how modern philosophers have understood the basis of moral duties and presents her own account. Creating the Kingdom of Ends (1996) collects her essays on Kantian ethics. The Constitution of Agency (2008) and Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009) develop her theory of how moral responsibility arises from the nature of agency. In Fellow Creatures, she offers a Kantian account of our obligations to other animals. Korsgaard also co-edited Reclaiming the History of Ethics: Essays for John Rawls (1997).

Peter Girguis is a Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and Co-Director of the Harvard Microbial Sciences Initiative. He earned his B.Sc. from UCLA and his Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara, and was a David Packard Postdoctoral Fellow at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. He joined Harvard in 2005 and is also an adjunct scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering group. Professor Girguis has received numerous honors for his scientific and teaching contributions, including being named a Distinguished Lecturer by the National Science Foundation, a Merck Co. Innovative Research Awardee, and a recipient of the Lindbergh Foundation Award for Science and Sustainability. He has also received the Lowell Thomas Award for advances in marine science and technology and the Petra Shattuck Award for Distinguished Teaching. He is currently a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator for his work on marine symbioses and has authored or co-authored approximately 140 publications.

Chris Dede is a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was for 22 years the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies. He previously served as Chair of HGSE’s Teaching and Learning Department and has been recognized for both scholarship and teaching, including being honored by Harvard as an outstanding teacher and named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, the Online Learning Consortium, and the Immersive Learning Research Network. Dede is a Co-Principal Investigator and Associate Director for Research of the NSF-funded National Artificial Intelligence Institute in Adult Learning and Online Education. He also co-founded the Silver Lining for Learning initiative to support innovation in education worldwide. His recent books explore how digital, immersive, and AI-enabled technologies are transforming education and lifelong learning, including Teacher Learning in the Digital Age, Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Realities in Education, and The 60-Year Curriculum: New Models for Lifelong Learning in the Digital Economy.

Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as Director of the Democratic Knowledge Project - Learn at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A scholar of political philosophy, ethics, and public policy, she is also a democracy advocate and contributing columnist for The Atlantic. Allen is the recipient of the 2020 Library of Congress Kluge Prize. From 2015 to 2023, she served as Director of Harvard’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led the development of the nation’s first Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience. From 2020 to 2022, she also ran for governor of Massachusetts, becoming the first Black woman to run for statewide office in the Commonwealth.

Christopher T. Bavitz is the WilmerHale Clinical Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Experiential and Clinical Education at Harvard Law School. He also serves as Managing Director of Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic and as Faculty Co-Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Bavitz teaches courses including Counseling and Legal Strategy in the Digital Age and Music and Digital Media, and his practice focuses on intellectual property and media law, particularly in the areas of music, entertainment, and technology. He oversees many of the Cyberlaw Clinic’s projects involving copyright, free expression, startup advising, and the use of technology to expand access to justice, and he serves as the HLS Dean’s Designate to Harvard’s Innovation Lab.

His research at the Berkman Klein Center examines intermediary liability, online content takedown regimes, and the regulatory, ethical, and governance challenges raised by algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Rebecca Tushnet is a professor of law at Harvard Law School. After clerking for Chief Judge Edward R. Becker of the Third Circuit and Associate Justice David H. Souter on the Supreme Court, she practiced intellectual property law at Debevoise & Plimpton before beginning teaching. Her publications include “Worth a Thousand Words: The Images of Copyright Law” (Harvard L. Rev. 2012); “Gone in 60 Milliseconds: Trademark Law and Cognitive Science” (Texas L. Rev. 2008); and “Copy This Essay: How Fair Use Doctrine Harms Free Speech and How Copying Serves It” (Yale L.J. 2004). Her work currently focuses on copyright, trademark, and false advertising law. Her blog, at Tushnet.BlogSpot.com, has been on the ABA’s Blawg 100 list of top legal blogs for the past three years. Professor Tushnet helped found the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and promoting fanworks, and currently volunteers on its legal committee. She is also an expert on the law of engagement rings.