CFI Washington D.C.

Michael Ruse, professor and director of History and Philosophy of Science Program at Florida State University

Barbara Forrest, philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University

Edward Tabash, prominent civil rights lawyer, chairman of the First Amendment Task Force

Patricia Scott Schroeder
Crystal Ballroom
The United States: A Former Global Leader in Science, Apologizes for the 2001–2008 Service Outage!
moderator: Toni Van Pelt

Special Presentation
Crystal Ballroom
National Capital Area Skeptics present
the Phillip J. Klass Award to Paul Kurtz

Philip Kitcher, the John Dewey Professor of Philosophy and James R. Barker Professor of Contemporary Civilization at Columbia University
moderator: Ronald A. Lindsay

Science and Public Policy
Crystal Ballroom
moderator: Stuart Jordan

Dr. John C. Mather, senior astrophysicist in the Observational Cosmology Laboratory at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Drew Shindell, research scientist at NASA

Roger Bonnet, executive director of the International Space Science Institute and professor at Liege University, Belgium

Ren Fujun, executive director of the Chinese Research Institute for the Popularization of Science (CRISP)

Special Presentation: Humanism in India
Cabinet Judiciary Suite
moderator: Paul Kurtz

Innaiah Narisetti, chair of the Center for Inquiry/India and children’s rights advocate

K.Veeramani, leader of Dravida Khazagam in Chennai; editor of Indian Rationalist magazine

Dr Santi Sri Pandit, director of CFI/Pune; professor of international studies at Pune University, India

Skepticism and Science
Crystal Ballroom
moderator: Kendrick Frazier

Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine

Joe Nickell, senior research fellow at CFI; and full-time professional investigator of historical, paranormal, and forensic mysteries, myths, and hoaxes

Richard Wiseman, professor in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the U.K.

Armadeo Sarma, engineer and senior manager at NEC Laboratories, Europe

Panel: Planetary Ethics
Crystal Ballroom
moderator: Ronald A. Lindsay

Stephen Law, philosopher and professor at Heythrop College at the University of London

Tom Beauchamp, professor of philosophy and a senior research scholar at Georgetown University’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics

Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation

Panel: Secularism and Islam
Crystal Ballroom
moderator: Derek Araujo

Ibn Warraq, senior research fellow at the CFI specializing in Koranic criticism

Pervez Hoodbhoy, faculty member at the department of Physics, Quaid-e-Azam University; author

Tarek Fatah, secular Muslim, Canadian political activist, writer, and TV host

Mona Abousenna, co-director of the Center for Inquiry/Egypt

Mourad Wahba, professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Ain Shams in Cairo, Egypt

Concurrent Sessions

Special Feature: Separation of Church and State
Cabinet Judiciary Suite
moderator: Tom Flynn

Edward Tabash, prominent civil rights lawyer, chairman of the First Amendment Task Force

Special Feature: The Future of Skepticism
Old Georgetown Room
moderator: DJ Grothe

Kendrick Frazier, editor of the Skeptical Inquirer; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Benjamin Radford, managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer; author

Panel: Awards Banquet
Crystal Ballroom
moderator: Jim Underdown

Lawrence Krauss, Foundation Professor and director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University.

James Randi, internationally known magician and escape artist who currently devotes his work to investigating and demystifying claims of the paranormal and pseudoscience

Paul Kurtz, founder of the Center for Inquiry/Transnational, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and the Council for Secular Humanism; professor emeritus of philosophy at SUNY Buffalo.

Valeri Kuvakin, CFI/Russia
Mona Abousenna, CFI/Cairo
Floris van den Berg, CFI/Low Countries
Suresh Lalvani, CFI/London
Amardeo Sarma, CFI/Germany
Justin Trottier, CFI/Ontario
Fidel Niang, CFI/Senegal