Turning 2000: A Millennial Weekend
at C.W. Post, October 15, 16 and 17

Brookville, NY - A distinguished slate of speakers is confirmed for "Turning 2000," an all-encompassing conference on the new millennium to be hosted by Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus in October 1999.

Planned lectures, presentations and discussions will revolve around issues of critical importance to New Yorkers with the coming of the next millennium. They include: the environment, the economy, politics, technology, American pluralism and social equity, literature and the arts, health and aging, ethics, culture, spiritual life, and education.

To Visit the Turning 2000 Millennial Weekend Home Page click here.

Confirmed speakers and guest artists include:

  • Oliver Sacks, M.D., a world-renowned neurologist, humanist and bestselling author of astonishing patient case histories, including Awakenings (which was made into a movie starring Robin Williams) and The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.
  • Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard University, one of the nation's foremost experts on human evolution and author of Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown.
  • Harold Bloom, A major literary and cultural critic, and author of The Book of J, The Western Canon, Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human, and Omens of Millennium. Dr. Bloom is the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale.
  • Anna Deavere Smith, award-winning playwright and head of Harvard University's Institute of the Arts and Civic Dialogue, a combination think-tank and artists' colony dedicated to fostering contact among artists, academics and social activists.
  • Dr. Danny Hillis, inventor, scientist, computer designer and co-founder of Thinking Machines Corporation, a company that revolutionized high performance computing with its massively parallel supercomputing technology. He is vice president of research and development for Walt Disney Imagineering and an adjunct professor of media laboratory at MIT.
  • Dr. David Orr, environmental educator and director of the Adam Joseph Lewis Environmental Studies Center. He is the author of "Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect" and "Ecological Literacy."
  • Drs. Timothy P. Tully and Jerry C.P. Yin, neurobiologists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who are currently conducting research in long-term memory disorders including Alzheimer's disease and other dementias and learning dysfunctions.
  • Gerald Q. Maguire, Gerald Q. Maguire, Jr., a professor of teleinformatics at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH ) in Sweden and international consultant to numerous computer firms.
  • Erik Parens, Associate for Philosophical Studies at The Hastings Center, an interdisciplinary research institute that addresses fundamental ethical issues in the areas of health, medicine and the environment. Dr. Parens conducts research in the advances of new genetics, including human cloning and behavioral genetics.
  • Toshio Kuroda, senior fellow and director of the Population Research Institute at Nihon University (Japan) and recipient of a United Nations Population Award in 1997.
  • Monsignor Tom Hartman, television personality, co-host of "The God Squad" and director of radio and television for Long Island TeLIcare.
  • William Heyen, poet in residence at SUNY Brockport, is known regionally as "the most important Long Island poet since Whitman." His award-winning poetry books include works on the Holocaust, Gulf War, ecology and a visionary collection of poems about his Long Island childhood.
  • Sofie Van Lier, a composer and soprano who has toured Holland, Belgium, France, Germany and the U.S., will perform "Songs from the Heart of Humanity" with pianist Cheryl Tschanz, an associate professor at Colby College, Maine.
  • Jean Craighead George is a well-known writer of children's books. She is the author of more than 80 books, including Julie of the Wolves, which won the prestigious Newbery Medal.
  • The Thunder Bird Sisters, a group of musicians, singers and writers, who are blood members of the Shinnecock Nation and reside on the Shinnecock reservation near Southampton LI.
  • Long Island Poetry Repertory Theatre, under the direction of Susan Melchior, will present "Voices from the Interior," a dramatic reading of contemporary Long Island poetry.
  • Dr. Maurice Cohen, M.D., gynecologist at the Women's Health Gynecology - Menopausal Medicine, ProHEALTH Care Associates, LLP, Lake Success, NY
  • Anthony J. Tortolani, M.D., board certified in thoracic surgery, is director of Cardiothoracic Surgery of the Weiler Campus and Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University Hospital of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center.
  • Marc L. Citron, M.D., clinical professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and principal investigator of 1,600 patient studies in breast cancer
  • Alex Keller, M.D., a plastic surgeon and a Clinical Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at New York University Medical Center
  • Deborah J. Glick, New York State Assemblywoman for the 66th District, and member of several state committees, including Social Services and Children and Families
  • Carl S. Young, president of the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, based in Albany.
  • Thomas R. Suozzi, Mayor of the City of Glen Cove, whose energy and environmental efforts are recognized nationwide and throughout New York State. Through Suozzi's efforts, the City of Glen Cove is one of only 16 communities in the nation to receive $1.4 million in funding for the redevelopment of the waterfront.

The conference will also spotlight interactive presentations by academic departments, outside businesses, research laboratories and health centers. Theatrical and dance performances will be featured. Other speakers will include experts from Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus.

"The conference is an opportunity to meditate on fundamental human issues: who we are, where we have been, and where we may be going," said Dr. John Stevenson, a C.W. Post professor of mathematics and coordinator of the Turning 2000 committee. "We will use the material and intellectual resources of our university and our community, believing we can bring fresh insight at the dawn of this new millennium."

The conference will offer lectures and workshops for the general public as well as elementary, secondary and college students. Schools interested in participating should call Kay Bromberg at (516) 299-2508. Friday's events are sponsored by KeySpan Energy.

The conference is scheduled for October 15, 16 and 17, 1999 on the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, Northern Boulevard (Route 25A), Brookville, New York (ext. 41N off the LIE). For more information call Kay Bromberg at (516) 299-2508 or email kbrombrg@reliant.liunet.edu.

To Visit the Turning 2000 Millennial Weekend Home Page click here.

For more information call the C.W. Post Public Relations Office at (516) 299-2333 or e-mail pr@cwpost.liu.edu or send mail to: Long Island University, C.W. Post Campus, 720 Northern Blvd., Brookville, New York 11548-1300.

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