June 29, 2012 First Annual Behavioral Science Summit

The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University is at the forefront of behavioral science and its application to contemporary issues. We are an idea incubator – a place where ideas are generated, tested, applied to address important problems, and shared with industry, government, and the world at large. Our scholars and scientists, who come for a year as Center Fellows, include 22 Nobel Laureates, 14 Pulitzer Prize winners, 44 winners of MacArthur "Genius Awards," and hundreds of members of the National Academies. They have authored such game-changing books as Freakonomics and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

Our first annual Behavioral Science Summit on the theme of SMS – Social Meets Science, will be held on 29 June 2012 at Stanford University.

The summit will highlight the latest developments in behavioral science, and do so in a conversational and interactive format. We are pleased to announce keynote addresses by two thought-provoking authors who have popularized behavioral science findings – Malcolm Gladwell (author of Blink, Tipping Point and Outliers) and Steven Pinker (author of Blank Slate and The Better Angels of Our Nature). Complementing these two headliners will be interactive, parallel sessions led by 18 experts in fields such as behavioral economics, applied neuroscience, bioinformatics, and big data analytics. We will foster conversation by providing basic information on the topic of each session in advance, have the expert kick off the session with a brief introduction, and then open up discussion between the expert and the Summit participants. Participants will have ample time to quiz, debate, and follow-up interesting points.

Attendance will be limited to 150 audience members, drawn from the upper reaches of academic, corporate, foundation, and government spheres.

Read more about our speakers and sessions.

Entrance to the Summit is by invitation only.