The Patten Lecture Series

Permanent link for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2022/3191

William T. Patten Foundation Homepage

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 64

Nuclear Roulette: Atoms for Peace at the Time of War
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 1/22/2026) Plokhii, Serhii
On February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine, armored vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. Russian occupation of the plant, which would last thirty-five days, had begun. Only the dedication and resolve of Ukrainian personnel, who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days, spared the world a new Chernobyl accident. Meanwhile, a much more dangerous situation developed at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, the largest such facility in Europe. Following an attack there in March 2022, the Russian military remains in control. In this lecture Serhii Plokhii discusses the challenges that the Russian takeover of the nuclear sites present to the world. We must face up to a new reality: there has already been warfare at two nuclear sites, and others are vulnerable. The lecture is based on Plokhii’s books, Chernobyl Roulette (2024) and The Nuclear Age: An Epic Race for Arms, Power and Survival (2025).
Quorum Sensing Across Domains: From Viruses to Bacteria to Eukaryotes
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 3/31/2026) Bassler, Bonnie
Bacteria communicate with one another via the production and detection of secreted signal molecules called autoinducers. This process, called “Quorum Sensing”, allows bacteria to synchronize behavior on a population-wide scale. Behaviors controlled by quorum sensing are unproductive when undertaken by an individual bacterium acting alone but become effective when undertaken in unison by the group. For example, quorum sensing controls virulence factor production and biofilm formation. Eukaryotes harboring quorum-sensing bacteria participate in these chemical conversations by providing the substrates bacteria need to make autoinducers. Quorum-sensing autoinducer information can be hijacked by viruses that infect and kill bacteria. Thus, interactions across the eukaryotic, bacterial, and viral domains all rely on quorum sensing. Quorum-sensing disruption strategies are being developed into new anti-microbials and phage therapies.
Tiny Conspiracies: How Bacteria Talk to Each Other
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 3/30/2026) Bassler, Bonnie
Bacteria are tiny ancient organisms. Harmful bacteria have the capacity to kill humans, animals, and plants, while beneficial bacteria play vital roles in keeping humans, animals, and plants alive. How do bacteria do it? They are so small yet they carry out such big jobs. The answer is that bacteria work in groups: They communicate, count their numbers, and act as collectives. This process is called “Quorum Sensing” and it allows bacteria to synchronize behavior on a population-wide scale. Bacterial behaviors controlled by quorum sensing are ones that are unproductive when undertaken by an individual bacterium acting alone but become effective when undertaken in unison by the group. For example, quorum sensing controls virulence, biofilm formation, and the exchange of DNA. Current biomedical research is focused on development of therapies to interfere with quorum sensing. Such therapies could be used to combat bacterial pathogenicity.
The Russo-Ukrainian War through the Eyes of a Historian
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 1/20/2026) Plokhii, Serhii
Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the start of the largest European conflict since the end of World War II came as a shock to the world at large. Ukrainians have resisted a superior military; the West has united, while Russia has managed to overcome international isolation and continues the war that undermines the foundations of international order. Why did Putin start the war―and why has it unfolded in previously unimaginable ways, including the occupation of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant? The lecture will provide answers to these and other related questions by tracing the origins of the newest European war and explaining the reasons for the return of the Cold War to the very same part of the world where it ended thirty years earlier. The presentation will be based on Plokhii’s book, The Russo-Ukrainian-War: A Return of History (2023).
AI - Pick Two: Fast, Cheap, or Good?
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2024-10-31) Jenkins, Odest Chadwicke
Assuming artificial intelligence is fast, cheap, and good is a mistake that many people make -- often hoping for the best of all worlds. Overestimating the capabilities of AI can lead to unintended or harmful outcomes. Short of a dream AI, there are good options and uses for AI technology. We argue that everyone should really think through the implications of these options, their use of AI, and how AI is being used to shape their lives. Literacy in AI is becoming a need for citizens across our society, as AI is having a pervasive impact with potential for both good and for bad. As the nation is poised to invest billions of dollars that is critically needed to remain the leader in artificial intelligence, we have to create an innovation ecosystem that is not just about technological achievement but also has an intentionality to benefit and uplift everyone in our society. The aim of this talk is to calibrate expectations such that we can make wise and effective choices in the use and development of AI. This talk will provide: 1) an overview of the space of current options in AI and its amazing rate of technological advancement, 2) systemic inequities in AI systems and the biases that can result in the use of AI, and 3) hypotheses about avenues that could lead to future dream AI systems, which have the interpretability and accountability needed to have a positive impact.
Defining the Discipline of Robotics for Excellence and Equity through Humanoid Robotics
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2024-10-29) Jenkins, Odest Chadwicke
Start with a simple question: What is the best degree program for a student to become a roboticist? At the core of the mission of higher education, an undergraduate major defines the intellectual organization for its academic discipline to produce “people and ideas.” In my role leading the robotics undergraduate program at Michigan, we tackled this question through the curricular challenge of how to both: 1) educate people to put ideas of the robotics discipline into practice and 2) endow them with the intellectual lens for creating new ideas that extend the frontiers of the robotics discipline -- where mobility and dexterity through humanoid robots is poised to have a transformative impact on our world. I will present the design, launch, and innovations for the Michigan Robotics Major, our progress toward realizing humanoid mobile manipulation robots, and our Distributed Teaching Collaboratives model for open-source course development. Launched in 2022 as part of our larger Robotics Pathways model, the Michigan robotics major serves to enable successful and sustained career-long participation in robotics, AI, and automation professions. Building on our guiding principle of “Robotics with Respect” -- the Michigan robotics major was designed to define robotics as a true academic discipline with both equity and excellence as our highest scholarly priorities. Our research into advanced perception and planning with the Agility Robotics Digit robot will be presented toward realizing the longstanding vision of taskable autonomous humanoid robots capable of mobile manipulation tasks in common human environments. Our Distributed Teaching Collaboratives uses the "classroom as a catalyst" for building equitable partnerships between Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and R1 Research Universities and broadening pathways to advanced graduate study in robotics and AI.
From Rio de Janeiro (1992) to Paris (2015) to the Future: Why is international cooperation on climate change so difficult to achieve and will it get easier?
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2023-10-26) Oppenheimer, Michael
Just as countries seemed to be turning a corner at Paris, COVID, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the resulting instability in energy markets have drawn attention elsewhere. Meanwhile, at the Glasgow Climate Summit (2021), negotiators had to face yet another politically complex and confounding aspect of the climate issue -- “loss and damage” to the world’s poorest countries due to climate change. Has international cooperation on climate change reached a dead end? Will other concerns continually push it off center stage, delaying a successful global effort to solve the problem and exposing humanity to ever greater climate risk? What have we learned about treaty-making on climate change over the past 30-plus years that should make us either optimistic or pessimistic about international cooperation?
Short Memories, Long Time Frames, Perverse Incentives: How Well Will We Adapt to Climate Change?
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2023-10-24) Oppenheimer, Michael
Humanity is accustomed to highly variable weather but climate, the average weather over the long term (for example, a human lifetime), was quite predictable. In the US, we established institutions like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Flood Insurance Program to cushion the shock of those rare extreme events, like landfall of a category 5 hurricane, a once-per-century flood of a major river system, or a severe multiyear drought, but as far as the climate went, we didn’t need to think ahead because it wasn’t changing. Now, those days are gone and we face a continuously evolving climate for decades to come. The most challenging aspect is that those formerly rare events are becoming commonplace, each having the potential to compound the damage from the last. Are our institutions up to the task of dealing with the increasing frequency of hazardous events? Is human psychology capable of the forward planning required to limit the damages? Can our political system provide adequate incentives to policy makers to think and act ahead?
Overcoming Vetocracy: Democratic Decision-making and the Climate Crisis, Part II
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University], 2023-03-30) Fukuyama, Francis
"Liberal democracies constrain power by imposing legal constraints on the exercise of power. Among developed democracies, the United States has one of the most extensive sets of checks and balances. When combined with the country's current polarization, this institutional setup often leads to what I have termed "vetocracy," in which there are so many veto points that even the simplest forms of collective action become impossible. The US and other liberal democracies will face major challenges in the coming years in making difficult and costly decisions to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. Is there a way of reducing vetocracy without undermining basic principles of liberal democracy? We do not want to imitate China, which stands at the opposite end of the spectrum as a consolidated authoritarian state with virtually no checks on the power of the Communist Party. These lectures will look at institutional measures that democracies might adopt to improve decision-making and implementation."
Overcoming Vetocracy: Democratic Decision-making and the Climate Crisis, Part I
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University], 2023-03-28) Fukuyama, Francis
"Liberal democracies constrain power by imposing legal constraints on the exercise of power. Among developed democracies, the United States has one of the most extensive sets of checks and balances. When combined with the country's current polarization, this institutional setup often leads to what I have termed "vetocracy," in which there are so many veto points that even the simplest forms of collective action become impossible. The U.S. and other liberal democracies will face major challenges in the coming years in making difficult and costly decisions to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. Is there a way of reducing vetocracy without undermining basic principles of liberal democracy? We do not want to imitate China, which stands at the opposite end of the spectrum as a consolidated authoritarian state with virtually no checks on the power of the Communist Party. These lectures will look at institutional measures that democracies might adopt to improve decision-making and implementation."
What I learned since I wrote Learning from the Germans
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University], 2023-02-28) Neiman, Susan
"My most recent book argued that Americans--and other peoples--have much to learn from Germany about historical reckoning. Historically, nations cultivate heroic narratives; failing that, they seek narratives of victimhood. Germany was the first nation to confront its vast crimes during World War II, and acknowledge that it had been neither hero nor victim but perpetrator. This may seem obvious to outside observers, but this process was a long and hard one; in the first four decades after the war, West Germany considered itself the war’s worst victim. Dedicated grassroots work, along with foreign policy considerations, forced far-reaching changes in attitude. In the past two years, however, German historical reckoning has gone awry in many ways. I will discuss this, along with parallels to current developments in the U.S."
Left is not Woke
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University], 2023-03-02) Neiman, Susan
"In the United States as in other countries, many people genuinely concerned to right historical wrongs have woven together an ideology often called “the woke left.” I will argue that this ideology is not, in fact, genuinely leftist, as it challenges many of the crucial ideas that have traditionally been central to all leftwing movements. I will argue for a new understanding of ideas of solidarity, justice and progress that have their roots in the much-maligned Enlightenment, and discuss how those ideas might be applicable today."
Partnership in Practice: Making Conservation Work in Madagascar
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2022-04-14) Richard, Alison
Community-based approaches have gained attention in recent decades as crucial building-blocks for conservation in many regions of the world. But what does it take to make them work? Almost 50 years ago, leaders of a small community in southwest Madagascar joined with academics in Madagascar and the US to launch a partnership with the declared goal of helping people, forests and wildlife in the area flourish together. I trace the gradual development of this partnership from a “bargain struck” between constituencies with very different interests into a broadly shared endeavor. Today, it offers a model for transcending the small scale and limited impact typical of community-based-conservation initiatives, and a glimmer of hope that they can help safeguard the environment in Madagascar and beyond.
Madagascar: Journeys Through Time
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2022-04-12) Richard, Alison
Madagascar has always been a place of change, as even a brief glimpse at its long history makes clear. A widely held view is that human activities alone have driven recent environmental changes, and the island is a poster child for human destructiveness: forest cover has declined sharply, and all the largest-bodied animal species have gone extinct within the past thousand years. Evidence bearing on the decline and disappearance of the island’s giant elephant birds raises many questions about this simple story of human-driven change. A more nuanced understanding of the past is a vital foundation for efforts to ensure the continued survival of the many unique plants and animals to which Madagascar is still home.
Hiding in the Climate Crisis: Honest Hope in Democratic Action
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2021-11-11) Lappé, Frances Moore
It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the simultaneous political, economic, and climate crises upon us, but Frances Moore Lappé digs to their interacting roots so we can be sure that in attacking them our actions matter. Lappé shows us how our peculiarly brutal form of capitalism—enabling Big Money’s corruption of our democracy—has brought on climate catastrophe. Lappé also exposes and uproots our culture’s myths about our own nature that hinder us. Our deepest human needs beyond the physical are for power, meaning, and connection, she argues, and only democracy can fulfill them. Stepping up to meet our historic crises becomes an opportunity to meet our own legitimate needs. Through inspiring stories and startling facts on effective climate actions, Lappé helps us realize our own power to generate a new story as we tackle root causes with exhilarating, courageous action—together.
Diet for a Small Planet: From Choice to Necessity
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2021-11-09) Lappé, Frances Moore
Frances Moore Lappé shares her journey from an awakening that led to the three-million-copy Diet for Small Planet in 1971. Starting with events triggering her to ask, “why hunger?”, she describes how this question led her to a life-long quest probing “the question behind the question.” She identifies both the progress in both understanding and partially realizing holistic solutions to food and hunger as well as shocking, backward motion worsening ecological destruction and human health. The actions she advocated in 1971 as positive choices are now absolute essentials, Lappé explains. Throughout she stresses the “power of ideas” guiding human action—how limiting ideas have trapped us on the wrong path as well as how a new, more holistic “story” is emerging. From courageous actions across the planet, some in surprising places, she identifies a positive remaking of our understanding of human capacities that can inspire our effective action.
FULLNESS: Next
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2020-02-27) Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James
James Timberlake’s lecture, FULLNESS: Next, explores how FULLNESS: The Art of the Whole might be interpreted through unbuilt work, future work, and current research – revealing the art, science, and beauty of architecture in data, fact, and logic, and in the seams of program, life, work, and production.
FULLNESS: The Art of the Whole
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2020-02-25) Kieran, Stephen; Timberlake, James
Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake proceed from the belief that architecture is most resonant, beautiful, and artful when it connects deeply across levels and dimensions in ways that resolve into a new whole—a whole that is expansive, unified, and far greater than the sum of its parts. Their lecture FULLNESS: The Art of the Whole explores how beautiful design arises from the art and science of a deep, query-based research process, and includes many individuals and many (often competing) influences. Central among these influences is an ethical commitment to researching and envisioning anew the ways in which architecture and planning can address some of the most pressing issues of our time: the international crisis of affordable shelter and the role that carbon consumption plays in global warming and the decimation of our physical environment. Using project examples from the past decade, they will discuss the evolution of their creative process over time, the expanding role of communication in their work, and how innovative new modeling and analysis technologies can become tools for dialogue and collaboration.
Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2019-11-05) Perry, Imani
In this lecture, emerging from my book Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation, I will describe how the figure of the patriarch emerged as part and parcel of modernity, the nation-state, the Industrial Revolution, and globalization. Moving from this analysis of the root of patriarchy, I outline how digital media and technology, neoliberalism, and the security state continue to prop up patriarchy. By exploring the past and present of patriarchy in the world we have inherited and are building for the future, I describe how its mechanisms of domination are a necessary precursor to dismantling it.
From Me to We: Searching for the Genetic Roots of Sociality
(Indiana University William T. Patten Foundation, 2019-03-20) Robinson, Gene
Studies of genes and social behavior, aided by new genomic resources, are coming of age. Here, I highlight three of the insights that have emerged from these studies that shed light on the evolution and mechanisms governing social life: 1) Nature builds diverse social brains from common genetic blocks in insects and vertebrates, including those related to metabolism and transcriptional regulation; 2) Changes in the wiring of gene regulatory networks are involved in the evolution of insect societies; and 3) The social brain is addicted to altruism.

Browse

Recent Submissions