Jul 29, 2024
Solving science denial is a priority for you as well? Alan McGowan, selected as 2019’s Top Science and Technical Expert by the International Association of Top Professionals, also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who that same year. Now a Lecturer at The New School, he served first as chair of the Science, Technology, and Society Program (now called the Interdisciplinary Science Program) then as chair of the Environmental Studies Program. After graduating Yale University with an engineering degree, and a two-year stint at American Electric Power, a public utility, Mr. McGowan left to pursue graduate work in physics, then taught science and mathematics at private schools for ten years, winning the Teacher Recognition Award from the American Association of Physics Teachers in 1968. Following that, after serving for five years as Scientific Administrator of the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, an interdisciplinary environmental research, and training program at Washington University in St. Louis, he became president of the Scientists’ Institute for Public Information (SIPI), which under his leadership became a major bridge between the scientific and journalist communities. In episode 471 of the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, we find out why Alan decided to go to Yale, what we can do to solve science denial, initiatives that we can take to reduce climate change, why nuclear power is part of our energy transition, why we are hearing so much scientific racism in this political election, what is the connection between mental health and social media usage, whether we should control and/or regulate Artificial Intelligence, and why college students should know who Franz Boas is. Enjoy!