Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2023 – April 2024
Thursday, September 21, 2023, 6:00-8:30pm at Rice Cohen House - John Mangum, Ph.D., Executive Director/CEO, Houston Symphony Orchestra.
Margaret Alkek Williams Chair
Title: "How a Season Happens at the Houston Symphony”
John Mangum leads the Houston Symphony in delivering its full complement of concert, fundraising, community engagement, education, and media activities. The Symphony’s balance sheet has improved by $50 million during Mangum’s tenure through a combination of endowment fundraising and retirement of pension liabilities and other debt. The Symphony was one of the only performing arts organizations in the world to deliver a full season of programming to in-person and at-home audiences during the pandemic, when its programming reached 1.1 million people in all 50 states and 40 countries and received the ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Broadcast Media Award for concert music. He worked closely with city leaders and medical partners to implement health and safety protocols that offered a blueprint to orchestras around the country as they charted their own way back to live performance. In recognition of these efforts, Mangum received the ArtsBridge Award from Houston Methodist Hospital and was named one of the city’s 50 most admired CEOs for 2021 by the Houston Business Journal. Mangum holds a Ph.D. in history with a concentration in musicology, in addition to master’s and bachelor’s degrees in history, from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Thursday, October 19, 2023, 6:00-8:30pm at Rice Cohen House - Geoff Winningham, Lynette S. Autrey Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Art, Rice University.
Title: “A Trail of Marvels: Mexico and the Days of the Dead”
Geoff Winningham holds the Lynette S. Autrey Chair in the Humanities at Rice University, where he teaches photography and photography bookmaking in the Art Department. He is widely recognized for his documentary photography, filmmaking, and journalism, over a career that spans more than 50 years. He will present an illustrated narrative of his travels in Mexico since 1984, photographing, tracing the origins, and seeking a deeper understanding of the most important of all Mexican celebrations, el Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead.
“Geoff Winningham’s photographs are not simply images. They invite us into the movements of the dance, urging us to put on our own masks, to lose ourselves in the violence and the truth of the ceremony.” J.M.G. LeClézio, Nobel Laureate from In the Eye of the Sun: Mexican Fiestas.
Thursday, November 16, 2023, 6:00-8:30pm at Rice Cohen House - Timothy Stout, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., Sid W. Richardson Professor and Margarett Root Brown Chair,
Director, Cullen Eye Institute, Chair, Department of Ophthalmology at Baylor College of Medicine.
Title: “How Gene Therapy is Changing the Way We Approach Medicine”
A graduate of Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Stout holds MD, MBA, and PhD (in molecular genetics) degrees. Dr. Stout brings experience from both the research and clinical sides of medicine. His research interests include human gene and cell-based therapy for proliferative and inherited ocular disease, retinal disease genotype-phenotype correlation, and ocular disease gene mapping and discovery. His efforts contributed to the first approved and successful gene therapy drug in the United States and the development of 18 additional clinical trials for other retinal diseases.
Thursday, January 18, 2024, 6:00-8:30pm at Rice Cohen House - Dr. Douglas Brinkley, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University.
Title: “US Middle East foreign policy from Truman to Biden”
Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He works in many capacities in the world of public history, including on boards, museums, colleges, and historical societies. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master”. The New-York Historical Society has chosen Brinkley as their official U.S. Presidential Historian. His recent book Cronkite won the Sperber Prize while The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He has received a Grammy Award for Presidential Suite and seven honorary doctorates in American Studies. His two-volume annotated The Nixon Tapes recently won the Arthur S. Link – Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations, and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress.
Thursday, February 15, 2024, 6:00-8:30pm at Rice Cohen House - Helga Aurisch, Ph.D., Curator of European Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Title: “Loot, Theft, Return, and Repatriation”
Helga Kessler Aurisch received her B.A. from Smith College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the University of Freiburg, Germany. She started her career at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and joined the staff of the MFAH in 2004. Since then, she has organized, curated, and co-curated numerous exhibitions of nineteenth century French and German art. She has published widely and lectures frequently on nineteenth and early twentieth century European art and culture. She has written the collection catalogue of the Edith A. and Percy S. Straus Collection and is currently writing a new catalogue of the John A. and Audrey Jones Beck Collection.
Thursday, March 21, 2024, 6:00-8:30pm at Rice Cohen House - Ruth Simmons, Ph.D.,
Title: "Coming Home"
Dr. Simmons is President Emerita of Prairie View A&M University, Brown University, and Smith College. She completed her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. Her many honors include a Fulbright Fellowship to France, a Danforth Fellowship, the Foreign Policy Association Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Centennial Medal from Harvard University, and the Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence. Dr. Simmons is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2012, she was named a ‘chevalier’ of the French Legion of Honor by the President of France. She will deliver the 2023 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, the highest honor the federal government bestows for intellectual achievement in the humanities.
Thursday, April 18, 2024, 6:00-8:30pm at Rice Cohen House - Anthony Pinn, Ph.D., Agnes Cullen Arnold Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Professor of Religion, and founding director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning.
Title: “W. E. B. Du Bois and the Dilemma of Racialized Life”
Anthony Pinn, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Professor of Religion and founding director of the Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning at Rice. Pinn is also a Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa, and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University Divinity School. His research includes African American Religious Thought, Contemporary Humanism, Religion and Popular Culture, and Religion in the Arts. He is the author/editor of over 30 books, including Interplay of Things: Religion, Art, and Presence Together (2021), and the novel The New Disciples (2015).
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2022 – April 2023
Thursday, September 15, 2022, 6:00-8:30pm in person at Rice Cohen House - Frank M.K. Liu and Adam Williams, Post Houston & Lovett Development (both Rice alumni).
Title: "POST Houston: an 'Only in Houston' Development Story”
Liu is the founder and president of Lovett Homes. He and architect Adam Williams collaborated with OMA (Rem Koolhaas’s architecture firm) recently to develop the Barbara Jordan Post Office into POST Houston, an “architecturally marvelous cultural center in Houston’s downtown."
https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/post-htx.appspot.com/o/files%2F1660249207632Hemisphere%20-%20August%202022.pdf?alt=media&token=dba34b17-a379-4ddd-85cf-d478c813ec26
Thursday, October 13, 2022, 6:00-8:30pm in person at Rice Cohen House - Lisa Balabanlilar, Chair, Department of Transnational Asian Studies, Rice University.
Title: "The Emperor Jahangir: Power and Kingship in Mughal India; Research and Teaching in the New Department of Transnational Asian Studies at Rice"
Dr. Balabanlillar will speak about her recent book, a biography, as well as Rice’s new Department of Transnational Asian Studies, which she chairs. She also is Director, Chao Center for Asian Studies.
Thursday, November 17, 2022, 6:00-8:30pm in person at Rice Cohen House - Dr. Daniel Cohan, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University.
Title: "Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future."
Dr. Cohan will speak on his new book, Confronting Climate Gridlock, a problem he calls “ever more urgent and…personal.”
Thursday, January 19, 2023, 6:00-8:30pm in person at Rice Cohen House - Charles Renfro, Partner, Architect, Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rice alumnus.
Title: "The Future Rice Media Center: Sarofim Hall"
Charles Renfro, a Baytown native and Rice architecture grad, is bringing his “extraordinary artistic vision and unique understanding of our campus culture and history to shape the design” of a new addition to Rice Campus, Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall. https://news.rice.edu/news/2021/rices-new-arts-building-will-be-sarofim-hall-designed-internationally-acclaimed-firm
Thursday, February 16, 2023, 6:00-8:30pm in person at Rice Cohen House - Dr. Reginald DesRoches, President, Rice University.
Title: "Rice University and the Future of Higher Education"
Dr. DesRoches became the eighth president of Rice University on July 1, 2022, after having served as the university’s provost. He also serves as a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and professor of mechanical engineering. As president, DesRoches is the chief executive officer of the university and its 7,500 students, seven schools and more than 700 faculty. He previously served as Rice's Howard Hughes Provost and William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering. https://president.rice.edu/about
Thursday, March 16, 2023, 6:00-8:30pm in person at Rice Cohen House - Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Title: “How Houston Has Become A Leading City For Latin American Art” Mari Carmen Ramírez is Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and director of the International Center for Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Time magazine has called Ramírez one of the most influential Hispanics in America. As the first director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Ramírez is responsible for some of the most celebrated initiatives to come out of the museum and has helped elevate 20th century Latin American art.
Thursday, April 20, 2023, 6:00-8:30pm in person at Rice Cohen House - Judge Lina Hidalgo, Harris County Judge
Title: “Leading Harris County" Judge Lina Hidalgo is the head of Harris County’s governing body. She is the first woman to be elected County Judge and only the second to be elected to the Commissioners Court. As the main governing body of Harris County, the Commissioners Court plays a critical role that is part administrative, part legislative, and part judicial. By state law, the County Judge is also the county’s director of emergency management, leading the Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management (HCOHSEM). In addition to her formal duties, Judge Hidalgo plays an important advocacy role for the County.
Thursday, May 11, 2023, 6:00pm Field Trip: Alison Weaver, Founding Executive Director, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice U, Topic: Rice University's Moody Center for the Arts
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2021 – April 2022
Thursday, September 16, 2021, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Professor Dan Wallach, Computer Science Department, Rice. Title: "Adventures in Electronic Voting Security”
Wallach is a national figure in election security. see https://www.cs.rice.edu/~dwallach/
Special guest: Pre-Meeting Concert: Maria Lin, Violinist.
Thursday, October 21, 2021, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Dr. Peter Hotez. (live Zoom at 6pm) Baylor College of Medicine. Title: "Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science"
Hotez needs no introduction.
Thursday, November 18, 2021, 6:30-8:30pm In Person & via Virtual ZOOM - Professor Neal Lane, Baker Institute. Title: “The Perils of Complacency: America at a Tipping Point in Science and Engineering.” Lane is a former director of the National Science Foundation and Science Advisor to President Clinton, as well as Provost of Rice. He has a nice wikipedia page, and also has a white paper on the subject of his talk on his Baker Institute website: https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/perils-complacency-america-tipping-point-science-engineering/
Thursday, January 20, 2022, 6:30-8:30pm - Jan 20 meeting has been postponed until May, details to follow. Jan Odegard, Executive Director, The Ion., Title: “The Ion and its role in 21st Century Houston”
Thursday, February 17, 2022, 6:30-8:30pm - Scott Solomon, Professor, Biosciences Rice University, Title: “Appreciating the little things: the many roles of insects in human affairs”
Thursday, March 17, 2022, 6:30-8:30pm - Former Secretary of State James Baker III, Title: “Global Challenges”
Thursday, April 21, 2022, 6:30-8:30pm - Matthew Dirst, Artistic Director, Ars Lyrica, and Professor of Music, Moores School of Music, University of Houston, Title: “Innovation and Elaboration in the Baroque: The Harpsichord and its Music”
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2020 – April 2021
Thursday, September 17, 2020, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Dr. Jamie McCarthy, Executive Vice President and Chief Physician Executive for Memorial Hermann; Dr. Bela Patel, Vice Dean of Healthcare Quality and the Division Director for Critical Care Medicine at the McGovern Medical School in the University of Texas Health Science Center; Special Guest: Paul English, Piano. Title: “COVID in Houston - Where We’ve Been and Where We are Headed”
Thursday, October 15, 2020, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Reverend Betty Conrad Adam; Dr. April DeConick, Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Chair of the Department of Religion at Rice University; Jeffrey J. Kripal, Associate Dean of the Humanities, J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought; Moderator will be Dean Dalton; Special Guest: Sam Dusinberre, Trumpet. Title: “Can the Humanities Stand in An Age of Technology and Science?”
Thursday, November 19, 2020, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Dr. Anne Leek, Associate Principal Oboe, Houston Symphony Orchestra; Emily Bordeaux, Musicologist, Musicians of the Houston Symphony Orchestra; Special Guest: Lia Rodi, Multi Media Artist, Title: “Music in Times of Crisis”
Thursday, January 21, 2021, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Ted Loch-Temzelides, Ph.D., George and Cynthia Mitchell Professor in Sustainable Development at the Department of Economics and a Rice faculty scholar at the Baker Institute, Special Guest: Dr. Tali Morgulis, Associate Professor of Piano, Moores School of Music, Title: “Ecology and Economics for Pandemic Prevention”
Thursday, February 25, 2021, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Moderator: Judge Edward M. Emmett, Fellow in Energy and Transportation Policy, Center for Energy Studies, Rice University. Panel: Kristine Klavers, Energy Executive, Laura Goldberg Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Communications Center for Houston’s Future, Rachel A. Meidl, LP.D., CHMM, fellow in energy and environment at Rice University's Baker Institute, Special Guest: Dr. Matthew Dirst, Harpsichord Professor and Coordinator of Musicology, Moores School of Music, University of Houston, Title: "How are Industrial Cities planning to address the Energy Transition"
Thursday, March 18, 2021, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Dr. Ellinor Haglund, Professor of Chemistry University of Hawaii; Special Guest: Julia Fox, Soprano; Keith Weber, Piano. Title: "A small contribution to a large problem: molecular details of proteins controlling obesity"
Thursday, April 15, 2021, 6:30-8:30pm via Virtual ZOOM - Logan Browning, Ph.D., Professor in the Practice of English and Humanities, Rice University, Melissa Kean, Ph. D., Retired as Rice University's Centennial Historian, Special Guest: Barrett Sills, Cello, Title: "Other Duties as Assigned: Collecting, Preserving, Sharing (And Not Sharing) Rice University History"
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2019 – April 2020
Thursday, September 19, 2019 - This meeting was cancelled due to weather and re-scheduled for October 3rd.
Thursday, October 03, 2019 - John B. Boles, William P. Hobby Professor in the Department of History at Rice, Randal L. Hall, Editor of the Journal of Southern History and Professor in the Department of History at Rice, Kate Sayen Kirkland, author of Captain James A. Baker of Houston, 1857–1941. Title: "Town, Gown, and the Roots of the Houston Philosophical Society”
Thursday, October 17, 2019 - Anthony Brandt, Professor of Composition and Theory at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Evans Hankey, co-leader of the Apple Design Team; Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple. Title: “Inventing Tomorrow: A Duet of Technology and Art”
Thursday, November 21, 2019 - Bill White, Mayor of Houston 2003-2009; Chairman of Lazard Houston. Title: “Effective Urban Leadership—Effective Styles for Houston, Past and Future”
Thursday, January 16, 2020 - David Alexander, OBE; Director, Rice Space Institute; Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Kirsten Siebach, Assistant Professor in the Rice University Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences; Member, Science and Operations Teams for the Mars Exploration Rovers and the Mars Science Laboratory. Title: Leading Houston: From Earth to the Moon and Mars
Thursday, February 20, 2020 - John Mangum, Executive Director and CEO of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Title "The Show Must Go On: Leading Houston's Arts Organizations into the Future."
Please note that our March and April meetings were cancelled due to COVID-19 We hope to resume in September 2020. Stay safe!
Thursday, March 19, 2020 - James A. Baker III, Honorary Chair, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy; United States Secretary of State, 1989-1992; United States Secretary of the Treasury, 1985-1988. Title: “The Bakers--Generations of Houston Leadership”
Thursday, April 16, 2020 - David A. Leebron, President, Rice University. Title: “The ION Technology Center and Houston’s Future: A Conversation”
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2018 – April 2019
Thursday, September 20, 2018 - Dr. Matthias Henze, the Isla Carroll and Perry E. Turner Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at Rice University: “Mind the Gap: What Jewish Writings between the Old and New Testament Show us about Jesus.”
Thursday, October 18, 2018 - Michael Cosmopoulos, Chair of Greek Studies and Professor of Archaeology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Missouri-St. Louis: “Digging Homer—the Archaeological Discoveries at Iklaina and the Creation of Greek Epic Poetry.”
Thursday, November 15, 2018 - David Furlow, Executive Editor, Texas Supreme Court Historical Society Journal, and Lisa Pennington, Executive Committee, General Society of Mayflower Descendants: “Thanksgiving Special: Did Women’s Work (Dairying) Save Plymouth Colony?”
Thursday, January 17, 2019 - Dr. Robert Webb, Ed Rachel Chair in High Energy Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M: “Searching for Dark Matter: What Is It and How Do We Find It?”
Thursday, February 21, 2019 - Dr. Eric Boerwinkle, Dean of UTHealth School of Public Health: “Choose Your Parents Wisely: Your Genes, Your Health, But Not Your Blueprint.”
Thursday, March 21, 2019 - Charles “Chip” Place, Managing Director of Capital Programs for the Houston Parks Board: “Bayou Greenways and Beyond: The Vision for Expanding Houston’s Public Realm.”
Thursday, April 18, 2019 - Linda Broocks, Co-Founder, UT Law School Center for Women in the Law; Linda Geffin, former Chief of Special Prosecutions Unit, Harris County Attorney's Office; and Catherine French, founder of the Elijah Rising anti-trafficking group: “Confronting the Tragedy of Human Trafficking in Houston.”
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2017 – April 2018
Thursday, September 21, 2017 - William F. Stutts, “Law Reform and Economic Development: Examples from the Financial Sector”
Thursday, October 19, 2017 - Alison Weaver, “The Moody Center for the Arts”
Thursday, November 16, 2017 - Sonja Bruzauskas, Robert Nelson, and Ava Leavell Haymon, “The Creative Process”
Thursday, January 18, 2018 - David S. Buck, “Population Health and the Difficult Patient: 'I’m too sick for the hospital’”
Thursday, February 15, 2018 - Dan Cohan, “Solving the Climate Challenge”
Thursday, March 15, 2018 - Benedicte Valentiner, “Blair House: A Special Kind of Diplomacy: A Virtual Tour through the President’s Guest House”
Thursday, April 19, 2018 - Joseph Campana, “Bringing History to Life: A Reading and Lecture on the Poet’s Relationship to the Iconic Past"
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2016 – April 2017
Thursday, September 15, 2016 - Howard Thames, PhD- "Our Language Family"
Thursday, October 20, 2016 - Neil Frank, PhD- Climate Change
Thursday, November 17, 2016 - William (Billy) Cohn, MD - Open Heart Surgery
Thursday, January 19, 2017 - Donna Passmore & Jan Smulcer - Values Thru History
Thursday, February 16, 2017 - Judge Ken Wise - Texas History
Thursday, March 16, 2017 - Aimee Mobley Turney - League of Women Voters
Thursday, April 20, 2017 - Dr. james Kroll - Native Grasses?
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2015 – April 2016
Thursday, September 17, 2015 - Carl Caldwell - Bolshevism, National Socialism and the New Politics of World War One
Thursday, October 15, 2015 - Bill Fulton - Houston gentrification issues and city planning
Thursday, November 19, 2015 - David Eagleman - Incognito: the secret lives of the Brain
Thursday, January 21, 2016 - Jim Gast - History of the Astrodome
Thursday, February 18, 2016 - Joy Horak Brown - Affordable housing in Houston; how New Hope Housing is succeeding in working with the community
Thursday, March 17, 2016 - Moshe Vardi - If machines are capable of doing any work, what will humans do?
Thursday, April 7, 2016 - David Alexander, Director of the Rice Space Institute - "Space Exploration in the 21st Century"
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2014 – April 2015
Thursday, September 18, 2014 - Linda Geffin - Human trafficking
Thursday, October 16, 2014 - Alejandro Pena - Fracking
Thursday, November 20, 2014 - Gordon Dee Smith - NCA Surveillance
Thursday, January 15, 2015 - Sonja Brazauskas - Music in Houston
Thursday, February 19, 2015 - Dr. Jim Allison - Cancer and the Immune System
Thursday, March 19, 2015 - Dr Peter J. Rossky - The new Dean at Rice U
Thursday, April 16, 2015 - Dr. Paul Schultz , The Brain, The Mind and Dementia
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2013 – April 2014
Thursday, September 19, 2013 - Emilee Whitehurst, Executive Director of Rothko Chapel - “Rothko Chapel in the Twenty-First Century”
Thursday, October 17, 2013 - Dr. David Capes, Thomas Nelson Professor of Biblical Languages,Houston Baptist University -
“Twenty-First Century Translating the Bible”
Thursday, November 21, 2013 - Rebecca Richards-Kordum and Maria Oden, Rice University Engineering - “Learning to Swim: Engaging Undergraduate
Students in Global Health Technology Innovation.”
Thursday, January 16, 2014 - Dean Sarah Whiting, Rice University - “An Architect Looks at Houston”
Thursday, February 20, 2014 - Carl Cunningham, former Houston Post Fine Arts Critic - “The Centennial History of the Houston Symphony Orchestra”
Thursday, March 20, 2014 - Phillip Fraisinett, Esq. Partner, Thompson & Horton - “The Texas Public School Funding Suit”
Thursday, April 17, 2014 - Bob Eury, President Downtown Houston - “The State of Downtown Houston in the Twenty-first Century”
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2012 – April 2013
Thursday, September 20, 2012 - Donna Rybiski, Senior Partner, Houston Center for Houston’s Future - “Scenarios 2040: A Peek at Possible Futures ”
Kelly Frels, Senior Partner, Houston Bracewell & Giuliani LLP & Board Member, Houston Center for Houston’s Future
Thursday, October 18, 2012 - Dr. Matthew McClung and the Shepherd School Percussion Ensemble - "An American in the African Jungle - A Percussion
Experience"
Thursday, November 15, 2012 - Kathleen Boyd, Director, Rice Centinnial Rice University - “Rice University's Centennial Celebration-More Than Just a Party”
Thursday, January 17, 2013 - Dean Ned Thomas, Dean of Engineering Rice University - “Rice Engineering 1912-2112”
Thursday, February 21, 2013 - Prof. Jim Pomerantz, Department of Psychology Rice University - “The Meaning of Visual Illusions: Things are not what they
seem to be!“
Thursday, March 21, 2013 - Cady Coleman, NASA Astronaut - “Six Months of Science aboard the International Space Station: Just One Small Step ”
Thursday, April 18, 2013 - Judge Mark Davidson, 11th District Court - Retired - “Great Characters in Texas History”
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2011 – April 2012
Thursday, September 15, 2011 - Warren Sneed, Director of the Jazz Studies Program at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston - “The
Evolution of Jazz as an American Art Form”
Thursday, October 20, 2011 - Prof. Michael White, Professor, Ronald Nelson Smith Chair in Classics and Religious Studies; Director, Institute for the Study of
Antiquity & Christian Origins University of Texas at Austin- "NASA Technology Explores the World of the Bible"
Thursday, November 17, 2011 - Prof. Allen Matusow, W. G. Twyman Professor of History Associate Director for Academic Programs, James A. Baker III
Institute forPublic Policy Rice University - “Did Reagan Win the Cold War?”
Thursday, January 19, 2012 - Prof. Mahmoud El Gamal, Professor of Economics and Statistics Chair of Islamic Economics, Finance and Management
Department of Economics Rice University - “Middle East: The Seeds of Revolution”
Thursday, February 16, 2012 - Prof. David Oshinsky, Professor; Jack S. Blanton Chair in History; Distinguished Teaching Professor at University of Texas Austin
- “Delayed Justice: Tracking the Infamous ‘Mississippi Burning’ Murders that Changed the Civil Rights Movement in America“
Thursday, March 15, 2012 - Prof. Alex Byrd, Associate Professor of History Director, Undergraduate Program Rice University - “School Desegregation in the
Urban South: Was it Worth It (and is it still)?”
Thursday, April 19, 2012 - Rick Lowe, Rick Lowe is the founder of Project Row Houses, an arts and cultural community located in a historically significant and
culturally charged neighborhood in Houston, Texas.- “Project Row Houses: Past, Present, and Future"
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2010 – April 2011
Thursday, September 21, 2010 - David W. Leebron, President, Rice University - “The Higher Education Landscape Today”
Thursday, October 21, 2010 - Dr. Alexander J. B. Zehnder, Scientific Director, Alberta Water Research Institute - "Canadian Tar Sands, National Energy
Security and Striving for Sustainability: Is There an Incompatibility?"
Thursday, November 18, 2010 - Wayne X. Shandera, MD, General Medical Division, Baylor College of Medicine - “How Current Global Infectious Disease
Outbreaks Affect Houston”
Thursday, January 20, 2011 - Emily Ballew Neff, Curator of American Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - “Art Matters: The Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston”
Thursday, February 17, 2011 - The Honorable Ed Emmett, Harris County Judge - “The Global Consequences of Local Government Decisions - Intended and
Unintended“
Thursday, March 17, 2011 - Mark C. Hanson, Executive Director and CEO, Houston Symphony - “Houston Symphony: Innovation, Ambition, and Strength”
Thursday, April 16, 2015 - Gov. William P. Hobby, Radoslav A. Tsanoff Professor of Public Policy, Rice University - “A Political Atlas of Texas”
Houston Philosophical Society Speaker Roster
September 2009 – April 2010
Thursday, September 17, 2009 - Mr. Anthony Freud, Artistic Director, Houston Grand Opera - “Houston Opera: Building Bridges to the Future”
Thursday, October 15, 2009 - Dr. Larry S. Faulkner - “The Houston Endowment: The Future of Philanthropy in Houston”
Thursday, November 19, 2009 - Dr. Stephen Klineberg, Rice University Professor Sociology - “The Changing Face of Houston: Tracking the Economic and
Demographic Transformations Through 28 Years of Houston Surveys”
Thursday, January 21, 2010 - Hon. Lee Rosenthal, U.S. District Judge Southern District of Texas - “Rules and Reform”
Thursday, February 18, 2010 - Dr. Roland Glowinski, University of Houston Prof. Math. & Mech. Eng’g - “New Research in Medical Applications of Mathematics”
Thursday, March 18, 2010 - Dr. Edward P. Djerejian, Founding Director, Baker Institute - “Danger and Opportunity: An American Ambassador’s Journey
Through the Middle East”
Thursday, April 15, 2010 - Paul W. Hobby, Chairman & CEO, Alpheus Communications - "The Age of Innovation in Monetary Policy 2008 2010...what have we
learned?"