April 2006

Thursday, April 27, 2006
9:15am

Baruch S. Blumberg
President and Moderator, in the Chair

Induction of New Members

Faraday and Franklin
John Meurig Thomas
Honorary Professor
Cambridge University

Franklin's Vision
Ahmed H. Zewail
Linus Pauling Chair Professor of Chemistry and Physics
California Institute of Technology

Benjamin Franklin and Erasable Writing
Peter Stallybrass
Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities
Co-Director of the Penn Humanities Forum
University of Pennsylvania

Franklin and Einstein
Walter Isaacson
President and CEO
Aspen Institute 

Thursday, April 27, 2006
1:15pm

Conrad Harper
Vice President and Moderator, in the Chair

The Enlightenment On-Line: Opportunities and Complexities
Paul LeClerc
President and Chief Executive Officer
The New York Public Library

Arduous and Delicate Talk: Princess Dashkova, the Academy of Science, and the Taming of Natural Philosophy
Michael D. Gordin
Assistant Professor of History
Princeton University

Portrait Unveiling of Whitfield J. Bell, Jr.
Librarian and Executive Officer Emeritus
American Philosophical Society

Celebratory Concert
La Fenice Ensemble with Randall Scarlata

Friday, April 28. 2006
10:30am

Purnell W. Choppin
Vice President and Moderator, in the Chair

Fragonard and Franklin
Pierre Rosenberg
President-Director Emeritus
Musée du Louvre

Trends in French Science
Édouard Brézin
Président, Académie des Sciences (Institut de France)

Benjamin Franklin and the Edinburgh Enlightenment
Michael Atiyah
President
The Royal Society of Edinburgh

Friday, April 28, 2006
1:15pm

Clyde F. Barker
Vice President and Moderator, in the Chair

Plus and Minus: Franklin's Zero-Sum Way of Thinking
John L. Heilbron
Professor of History, Emeritus
University of California at Berkeley

Franklin and Slavery: The Peculiar Connection
Gary B. Nash
Professor of History Emeritus 
Director, National Center for History in the Schools
University of California at Los Angeles

The Art of the Anniversary: Celebrating Ben at 300
Rosalind Remer
Executive Director
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary

How Do You Fit Benjamin Franklin Into 8,000 Square Feet?
Page Talbott
Associate Director and Chief Curator
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary

Saturday, April 29, 2006
9:15am

Baruch S. Blumberg
President, in the Chair

Symposium: American Empire? The Role of the United States in the World Today

Introduction
Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Moderator
Former Ambassador to the Soviet Union

The Nature of American Hegemony: How to Use It, How to Lose It
William E. Odom
Lieutenant General (Retired), United States Army
Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Yale University

How to Achieve Non-Proliferation Without Force: Solving the Problem of Rogue States
Jennifer Tuchman Matthews
President
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

American in the World Today: Two European Views
Willem Frederik Van Eekelen
Former Minister of Defense, The Netherlands

and

Karl Kaiser
Ralph I. Straus Visiting Professor
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University
Former Director, German Council on Foreign Relations, Bonn-Berlin

The World of the Supreme Court
Stephen Breyer
Associate Justice
Supreme Court of the United States