Save the Date - Jan. 9, 2025

Join Museum President Tim Ritchie and special guests Danielle Allen and David Kaiser for a vital evening of community dialogue on how science and democracy can and must work together to accelerate public learning, fight against misinformation, and bring communities together.

Featuring an introduction from Brian Bergstein, deputy managing editor for the Ideas section in The Boston Globe.

Check back for more information.

Featured Guests

Danielle Allen

Danielle Allen is a professor of political philosophy, public policy, and ethics at Harvard University. She is Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation, Director of the Democratic Knowledge Project, and James Bryant Conant University Professor, one of Harvard’s highest honors. She is also Founder and President of Partners In Democracy. At Partners In Democracy, she advocates for democracy renovation to create greater voice and access in our democracy, and drive progress towards a new social contract that serves and includes us all. Her many books include the widely acclaimed Our Declaration: a reading of the Declaration of Independence in defense of equality; Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.; Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus; and Justice by Means of Democracy.

Brian Bergstein

Brian Bergstein is The Boston Globe’s deputy managing editor for the Ideas section in Globe Opinion and a member of the Globe's editorial board.

He previously was executive editor of MIT Technology Review, where he helped lead the overall editorial coverage. The publication was twice nominated for the National Magazine Award in general excellence during his tenure. He also oversaw big editorial packages such as 10 Breakthrough Technologies, 35 Innovators Under 35, and 50 Smartest Companies. In 2017 he conceived and edited a special issue on artificial intelligence.

In 2017 and 2018 he served as the founding editor of NEO.LIFE, a biotechnology publication begun by one of the founders of Wired. In 2019 he edited the anthology book “Neo.Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species.”

Bergstein began his reporting career with internships at the Herald-Leader of Lexington, Ky., and the Jerusalem bureau of Reuters in 1994. After graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, he became a reporter for The Associated Press in Chicago and Springfield, Ill. He went on to several other roles at the AP, including national news editor, Silicon Valley correspondent, telecom beat writer, national technology correspondent, and technology and media editor. 

He was a 2004-05 Knight Fellow in Science and Technology Journalism at MIT.

David Kaiser

David Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also recently served as inaugural Associate Dean for MIT’s new multidisciplinary efforts in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing. Kaiser completed PhDs in theoretical physics and in the history of science at Harvard University. He is the author of several award-winning books about modern physics, including How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival (2011), which was named “Book of the Year” by Physics World magazine. His latest book, Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (2020), was honored with book-of-the-year accolades from both Physics Today and Physics World magazines and was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. Kaiser directs a research group in MIT’s Center for Theoretical Physics that focuses on black holes and the big bang, and he has also collaborated with Nobel laureate Anton Zeilinger to design and conduct novel tests of quantum entanglement. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Kaiser has received MIT’s highest honors for excellence in teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate-student levels. A frequent contributor to National Public Radio and PBS NOVA television documentaries, his work has also been featured in ScienceNature, the New York Times, and the New Yorker magazine. During 2023-24, Kaiser served as an advisor to a working group of the US National Academy of Sciences regarding how to safely, effectively, and ethically incorporate techniques from generative artificial intelligence within the natural sciences.