Dr. Sally Augustin has been exploring humans relationships with their physical world for 25 years, since her first job after finishing her MBA - a serendipitous assignment in retail management. She has focused throughout her career on the influences of colors, ceiling heights, textures, furniture arrangements, and other 'real stuff' on attitudes and behaviors. Sally is a practicing environmental psychologist and a principal at Design With Science. She consults with individuals and multi-national organizations that are interested in using physical experience to achieve personal or organizational objectives.

As the editor of Research Design Connection, Sally has written widely on science-based design for an international audience of professionals and laypeople interested in the psychology of the corporal world. She has been interviewed on National Public Radio and VoiceAmerica radio programs. Sally is a graduate of Wellesley College (BA), Northwestern University (MBA), and Claremont Graduate University (PhD). Dr. Augustin is the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and Doing Design Research: A Realistic Guide for Architects ad Interior Designers (Wiley, 2011).

Since childhood, Julijpnas has been working in the field of amusement park development. In 2004, he became a managing director of an amusement park in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and ran it for three years. As an architect and engineer but also interested in the perspectives of art and philosophy, he became fascinated by what he calls the bodily-perceived aesthetics of 'gravitational theatre'.

Since then, this topic has been at the core of his creative life, from artistic work to scholarly articles. Most recently, this interest has matured into the unique topic of Gravitational Aesthetics, at the heart of his PhD research, in which 'gravitational theatre' is performed. His work has been exhibited internationally and received many awards, including the Award of Distinction in Interactive Art, Prix Ars Electronica 2010, one the most prestigious awards in media arts. In his leisure time, Julijonas explores - through making, experimenting, and writing - experimental aesthetics of technologies and complex dialogues of art/design/technologies/philosophy/science and gives lectures on these topics. He lives and works in London and Vilnius, Lithuiania.

Steve Vogt is an Astronomer and Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UCO/Lick Observatory of the University of California at Santa Cruz.
His duties involve teaching, instrumentation development for ground-based telescopes, and various research projects involving high dispersion astronomical spectroscopy. He is the developer of both the Hamilton spectrometer at Lick Observatory, the HIRES spectrometer of Keck Observatory, and the MTHR spectrometer concept for the Thirty Meter Telescope.

His principal research focus in recent years has been the discovery of extra-solar planets, construction of an Automated 2.4-m Exoplanet Finder Telescope, and instrumentation development for the Thirty-Meter Telescope project.

Vi Hart is a recreational mathemusician who has shared the beauty and joy of mathematics with millions of viewers worldwide over YouTube. She is a composer, artist, and mathematician whose work has been displayed, published, and performed internationally. Vi thinks math is awesome, and is constantly looking for creative ways to share her passion.

Professor Dr. Hugo de Garis has lived in seven countries, and currently resides in China. He has now retired as Director of the Artificial Brain Lab in Xiamen University, China, and spends his time studying intensively pure math and mathematical physics to write books on such themes as Topological Quantum Computing and Femtotechnology, as well as on a dozen other techno/social themes. Dr. de Garis's first two books (www.amazon.com) look at the political consequences of future technologies. In his first book, he predicts that the rise of massively intelligent machines this century will cause a global civil war killing billions of people. In his second book he predicts the creation of a democratic world state by about mid century.

She collaborates with her husband Richard Lang in an ongoing project to collect plastic that is washing ashore on Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. They focus their attention on just 1000 yards of tide line. Their work has been featured in over 40 exhibitions in art galleries and museums; educational and science centers including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Cafe Museo and Artist Windows, the United Nations World Environment Day, the Cummings Gallery at Stanford University, and the University of San Francisco.

Their work is widely collected nationally and internationally and is on display at the US Embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia until 2014. Cavallo Point Lodge in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area has fine art prints of their work in each of its 155 rooms.
In 2008 the PBS Newshour presented their work in a television segment on plastic pollution. They were cited as co-authors in a report from the University of Tokyo about concentrations of pollutants in plastic pellets published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2009. Their project has been supported by the Feigenbaum Nii Foundation and the Open Circle Foundation. In 2009 they recieved the Arts And Healing Network Award. One Plastic Beach, a documentary about their work premiered in 2011 at the Geography of Hope Film Festival.

Selby Lang has a BA in art from Pitzer College and MA in interdisciplinary arts from San Francisco State University. She is the Communications Director for Electric Works, a gallery and fine art press in San Francisco. To support her innovative video productions Selby Lang was awarded a Career Grant by the Marin Fund for Artists in 2006. As a recipient of the Marin Arts Council New Work Fund for her project Recycle Ryoan-ji, she presented in 2007 a re-creation of a Japanese sand garden at the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza. Over 6,000 white plastic

(Rusty) Schweickart is a retired business and government executive who, until recently served as Chairman of the B612 Foundation, a non-profit private foundation that champions the development of a spaceflight concept to protect Earth from future asteroid impacts. Among these targets is Apophis, the near-Earth asteroid that is scheduled to pass very close to our planet on April 13, 2029.

Schweickart is founder and past president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), the international professional society of astronauts and cosmonauts. The Association's first book, The Home Planet, with a preface by Schweickart, was published simultaneously in 10 nations in 1988 and was an immediate international best seller.

Schweickart is also the Chairman of the ASE Committee on NEOs (near-Earth objects) and has led a 5 year effort to bring the issue of protecting the Earth from the devastation of asteroid impacts to the international community and world leaders. The ASE NEO Committee and its international Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation completed its report Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response in September 2008. In February 2009 this report was formally introduced in the United Nations and is today the basis for ongoing deliberations, leading to a General Assembly approved decision-making system to address the challenge of threatening NEOs.

A former US Air Force fighter pilot, Schweickart joined NASA in 1963 and served as lunar module pilot for Apollo 9, March 3-13, 1969, logging 241 hours in space. This was the third manned flight of the Apollo series and the first manned flight of the lunar module. The mission earned him the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and an Emmy Award for transmitting the first live TV pictures from space.

Schweickart later served as backup commander for the first Skylab where his work in overcoming initial solar shield problems earned him NASA's Exceptional Service Medal before moving to NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

Following NASA, Schweickart joined the staff of Governor Jerry Brown of California, where he served as Commissioner of Energy for the State of California. In the corporate world, Schweickart held senior positions with several high-tech satellite and communications companies, retiring in 1998 as president and CEO of ALOHA Networks, Inc.

Schweickart received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He and his wife Nancy Ramsey live in Sonoma, CA. He has seven children and eleven grandchildren.

After beginning his working life as a janitor, Allan J. Hamilton went on to attend Harvard Medical School and become the Chief of Neurosurgery and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center. He holds professorships in Neurosurgery, Psychology, Radiation Oncology, and Computer and Electrical Engineering. He has been selected by his surgical peers as 'One of the Best Doctors in America' for the last twelve consecutive years. Dr. Hamilton is also a medical script consultant for the ABC television shows 'Grey's Anatomy' and 'Private Practice.'

His first book, The Scalpel and the Soul: Encounters with Surgery, the Supernatural, and the Healing Power of Hope won the Silver Nautilus Award in 2009 for "books that change the world." The prize has been awarded in the past to Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His second book on the spiritual connection between humans and animals will be published in September 2011.

Dr. Hamilton is also a renowned horse trainer and holds equine clinics in the US and Europe. He lives with his family on a ranch outside of Tucson, Arizona where he raises Lipizzan horses and all natural, pasture-raised, grass-fed Angus beef cattle.

Ami Ronnberg, M.A., is curator of ARAS, the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, one of the world's most comprehensive resources on art, myths and symbols. She is editor-in-chief for A Book of Images: Reflections on Symbols, published by Taschen in 2010. Previously, she also managed two volumes of An Encyclopedia of Archetypal Symbolism published by Shambhala as part of the ARAS publication project. She lectures widely on art and symbolism both nationally and internationally. She has taught astrology as a symbolic system to candidates at the C.G. Jung Institute in New York. Ms. Ronnberg is a member of the editorial board of Coniunctio, a Swedish Jungian journal.

As a founding member of the Art and Psyche group she works to bring the artistic and therapeutic communities together. A second international conference called Art and Psyche in the City, is being scheduled to take place in New York in 2012. This conference will also integrate the arts in the city in its program.

Taj Hamad is Secretary General of the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO). Mr. Hamad has also served as Secretary of the Executive Committee of DPI-NGOs at the United Nations, Executive Director of the Interreligious Leadership Seminar, Executive Director for the Interdenominational Christians for Unity and Social Action, and was the Organizing Chair for the Summit of World Muslim Leaders conferences held in the Middle East. He also serves as Chair of the Middle East Alliance for World Peace. In his work with NGOs and projects related to world peace, security, women, youth and sustainable development, Mr. Hamad has traveled extensively worldwide, especially throughout Africa and Middle East. For his efforts, Mr. Hamad has received many honors, including being awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technical Institute of Biblical Studies in 1990. He is co-editor of the books Culture of Responsibility and the Role of NGOs, Islam and the Future of World Peace, and State of the Muslim World Today.

Peter Baumann was born on Jan. 29th 1953 in Berlin, Germany. After joining the musical group Tangerine Dream in 1971, he toured with the band worldwide and recorded multiple Gold records until 1981. Mr. Baumann moved to New York in 1982 and founded the record company, Private Music. He served as CEO of Private Music until 1994 when the company was sold to RCA.
Peter has been happily married for 27 years and is father to three grown children. He resides in San Francisco, California and serves as director of several privately held real estate and natural resource companies. For many years, Mr. Baumann has focused on the exploration of well-being and quality of life from a philosophical, conceptual and experiential perspective. He serves on the board of CIIS and is a Fellow at the Mind & Life Institute. His new book, EGO: The Fall of the Twin Towers and the Rise of an Enlightened Humanity, reflects his years of meaningful observation and applied wisdom.

Nick Fortugno is a game designer and entrepreneur of digital and real-world games based in New York City, and a founder of Playmatics, a NYC game development company. For the past ten years, Fortugno has been a designer, writer and project manager on dozens of commercial and serious games, and served as lead designer on the downloadable blockbuster Diner Dash and the award-winning serious game Ayiti: The Cost of Life. Nick teaches game design and interactive narrative design at Parsons The New School of Design, and has participated in the construction of the school's game design curriculum. Nick is also a co-founder of the Come Out and Play street games festival hosted in New York City and Amsterdam since 2006, and co-creator of the Big Urban Game for Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2003. Nick's most recent writing about games can be found in the anthology Well-Played 1.0: Video Game, Value, and Meaning, published by ETC-Press.

Jeff Hancock is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Communication and Information Science, and co-Director of Cognitive Science at Cornell University. His work is concerned with how social media affect the way we think, talk and love, with a particular emphasis on trust and deception.
His research is supported by funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, and his work on lying online has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, NPR, BBC and ABC News and the CBC documentary The Truth About Lying. Dr. Hancock earned his PhD in cognitive psychology at Dalhousie University, Canada, and joined Cornell in 2002.

Jay Finch is founder and CEO of Common Equity, a financial technology firm focused on building community capital markets.
Prior to launching the firm, he was a former Goldman Sachs banker, and helped build two private wealth management businesses with an average $2.5 billion under management. He also has extensive public service experience from working at the World Bank, Congressional initiatives, and non-profit leadership roles. Lastly, although he graduated without a major from Villanova University, he was a visiting undergraduate student in Economics at Harvard College, and full scholarship student at the University of Cambridge in economics as well.

Karl Schroeder is one of Canada's leading science fiction and fantasy authors. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, and divides his time between writing science fiction and consulting in foresight studies (chiefly concerning the future of technology). He is the author of nine novels, as well as the influential "foresight scenario fiction," Crisis in Zefra (2005) and its 2011 followup, "Crisis in Urlia," which were written for the Canadian army. In addition to his fiction works, Mr. Schroeder has published The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction, written with Cory Doctorow (MacMillan, August, 2000). He is currently completing his Master's degree in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCAD University in Toronto.

Mr. Schroeder's novels present technology as a realm of experimental philosophy, where previously theoretical constructs are given flesh. His current concern is the notion that "technology is legislation" and that because of this fact, humanity will not gain control of its own political or evolutionary destiny until we learn to anticipate and control the effects that new technologies have upon society; and his current favourite slogan is that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from Nature."