Gerald L. CurtisBurgess Professor of Political Science, Director, Toyota Research Program, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Gerald L. Curtis, PhD, Burgess Professor of Political Science, Director, Toyota Research Program, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia UniversityGerald L. Curtis, PhD, is Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University and senior fellow at the Tokyo Foundation. Professor Curtis is the author of numerous books and articles written in both English and Japanese including Seiji to Sanma—Nihon to Kurashite 45 nen (Politics and Saury: 45 Years Living with Japan), The Logic of Japanese Politics, The Japanese Way of Politics, Election Campaigning Japanese Style. He divides his time between Columbia University and Tokyo where he is active as a columnist, speaker and writer.Professor Curtis has held appointments at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House, London; the College de France, Paris; the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore; and in Tokyo at Keio, Tokyo, and Waseda University, the Research Institute for Economy, Trade and Industry, the Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies, and the International Institute for Economic Studies.
Professor Curtis is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors including the Chunichi Shimbun Special Achievement Award and the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. In 2001 he was awarded the distinguished Japan Foundation Award in a ceremony held in the presence of the Crown Prince and Princess and followed by an audience with the Emperor. In 2004 Professor Curtis was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star by the Emperor of Japan, one of the highest honors bestowed by the Japanese government. Professor Curtis is a member of the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the board of directors of the US-Japan Foundation. Professor Curtis received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1969 and he has been on the Columbia University faculty since 1968.
Hugh Patrick R. D. Calkins Professor of International Business Emeritus, Director, Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School
Hugh Patrick, PhD, is Director of the Center on Japanese Economy and Business at Columbia Business School, Co-Director of Columbia’s APEC Study Center, and R.D. Calkins Professor of International Business Emeritus. He joined the Columbia faculty in 1984 after some years as Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center at Yale University.
He completed his B.A. at Yale University in 1951, earned M.A. degrees in Japanese Studies (1955) and Economics (1957) and the Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Michigan in 1960. He has been a visiting professor at Hitotsubashi University, University of Tokyo and University of Bombay. Professor Patrick has been awarded Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships and the Ohira Prize. His professional publications include sixteen books and some sixty articles and essays. Professor Patrick is actively involved in professional and public service. He served as one of the four American members of the binational Japan United States Economic Relations Group appointed by President Carter and Prime Minister Ohira, 1979-1981. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Japan Society for seven three-year terms. In November 1994 the Government of Japan awarded him the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star (kun nitou zuihoushou). He was awarded an honorary doctorate of Social Sciences by Lingnan University, Hong Kong in 2000. He also received an Eagle on the World award by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York in 2010.
M. Katherine Shear Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University School of Social Work
M. Katherine Shear, M.D., is Marion E. Kenworthy Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University School of Social Work and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. Her main scholarly focus is in the area of complicated grief. She is overall PI of an NIMH-funded multisite grant “Optimizing Treatment Of Complicated Grief” and PI of an NIMH grant “Complicated Grief Treatment in Older Adults”. She has an ongoing collaboration with colleagues from the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry Kodaira, National Institute of Mental Health, Ichikawa, Japan. She has published extensively on topics related to assessment and treatment strategies for anxiety disorders and depression, and on attachment, loss and grief. She serves as a member of the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and advisor to the DSM5 workgroup on anxiety disorders. She is a member of the WHO ICD11 workgroup on mood and anxiety disorders.
Irwin Redlener Director, National Center for Disaster Preparedness Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Irwin Redlener, M.D., is Professor of Clinical Public Health and Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Dr. Redlener speaks and writes extensively on disaster preparedness policies, pandemic influenza, the threat of terrorism in the U.S., the impact and consequences of major natural disasters and related issues. He is the author of Americans At Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared For Megadisasters and What We Can Do Now, published in August 2006 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Dr. Redlener, a pediatrician, has worked extensively in the Gulf Region following hurricane Katrina where he helped establish ongoing medical and public health programs. He also organized medical response teams in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 and following Hurricane Andrew in south Florida. He has also worked internationally on various projects in Honduras, Guatemala, Ethiopia and Sudan.
Dr. Redlener is also president and co-founder of the Children’s Health Fund and has expertise in health care systems, crisis response and public policy with respect to access to health care for underserved populations, particularly children. He was recently appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the newly authorized National Commission on Children and Disasters.
David Brenner Higgins Professor of Radiation Biophysics
David Brenner, PhD, is the Director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University, which was founded in 1918 by a student of Marie Curie. He focuses on understanding the effects of ionizing radiation on living systems. He divides his research time between the effects of high doses of ionizing radiation (radiation therapy) and the effects of low doses of radiation (relating to medical, environmental, occupational and accidental exposures).
In medical imaging, he has focused on the risk / benefit balance of computed tomography (CT). In radiotherapy, he has focused on optimizing treatments for different tumor types, to maximize tumor killing and minimize serious side effects, including second cancers. In the context of very low dose radiation exposures, he researches into appropriate ways to estimate cancer risks at very low doses, both in terms of risks to individuals and also in terms of population risks.
Dr. Brenner is also a member of the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University; Director of the Center for Radiological Research (CRR); Director of the Columbia University Radiological Research Accelerator Facility (RARAF); Member of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP).
