Rodger W. Bybee

Executive Director (Emeritus), Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), USA

"Science and Technology Education: Grand Challenges and Significant Innovations"

Dr. Bybee served as executive director of BSCS from 1999-2007. He also served as both chair of the science forum and chair of the science expert group for PISA 2006. In addition, he worked on the TIMSS 1999 science lesson video study.

His major areas of work have included scientific literacy, scientific inquiry, design and development of school science curricula, the role of policy in science education, and work on international assessments, in particular PISA.

He recently retired from BSCS but continues consulting and publishing on policies, programs, and practices for science education at local, national, and international levels.

Dr. Bybee received the Ph.D. from New York University and the M.A. and B.A. degrees from the University of Northern Colorado.
 

Mark Treadwell

"Whatever!"

Mark Treadwell is an independent consultant. He has/will presented keynote addresses to numerous national and international conferences including the “International Confederation of Principals” (2007), “21st Century Learning Conference in Hong Kong” (2008),  “Irish Principals Association” (2007), “Australasian Distance Education conference” (2009), “International Thinking Conference” (2009), “NSW Secondary Principals conference” (2009). Mark was chosen as the ACEL Australian Travelling scholar for 2008. Mark is also a director of Dataview, a software development company working on creating 21st Century Online Learning Environments. His recently released books include “Whatever!: School v2.0” and “Whatever Next!: The Conceptual Curriculum”. The third text in this series; “Whatever! Were We Thinking?” will be released in April 2010 as a free download. These are available for download or purchase from http://www.schoolv2.net    Mark’s notes and resources are available online at http://www.i-learnt.com and http://www.teachers.work.co.nz .
 

Peter Okebukola

A professor of science education with specialised training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Peter Okebukola is the winner of the 1993 UNESCO Prize for the Communication of Science. He has won several international gold medals in science and computer education. His research efforts have resulted in over 130 internationally published works and more than 150 national and international conference presentations. He is currently the Chairman of Governing Council of three universities - Crawford University, Osun State University and the University of Education, Ikere-Ekiti. He is the President of the UNESCO Global University Network for Innovation GUNI-Africa. He is the immediate past Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission. He has been awarded a number of honorary D.Sc degrees and he is a recipient of the National Honour of the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic. He was President of the Science Teachers Association of Nigeria and Africa Representative on the ICASE Executive Committee. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST).
 

Mart Saarma

“New Strategies for the Treatment of Neurodegenerative Diseases”

Mart Saarma is the Academy Professor and Director of the Centre of Excellence in Molecular and Integrated Neuroscience at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki, Finland. He has studied neurotrophic factors and their receptors in the development and in neurodegenerative diseases. His group has discovered several GDNF family receptors and demonstrated that RET receptor tyrosine kinase is the signalling receptor for GDNF. Recently his group has discovered a new neurotrophic factor CDNF and shown that this protein very efficiently protects and repairs dopamine neurons in animal models of Parkinson’s disease.