Leebron, Klineberg and Hotez to speak at TAMEST conference

President David Leebron is one of six leaders of major universities in Texas who will serve as panelists for a discussion of the evolution in Texas higher education over the next 20 years at the annual conference of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) in San Antonio Jan. 10-12.

Leebron will be joined by the presidents of the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at El Paso, the chancellors of the Texas Tech University System and the Texas A&M University System and the deputy chancellor of the University of Texas System. Larry Faulkner, president emeritus of the University of Texas at Austin, will moderate the panel.

The panel discussion, scheduled for 12:15-2 p.m. Jan. 11, will be recorded and posted on YouTube the following week.

Stephen Klineberg, professor of sociology and founding director of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, will present a keynote address titled “Prophetic State: Texas on the Cusp of a Changing America” at 12:10 p.m. Jan. 12.

Peter Hotez, a fellow in disease and poverty at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, will moderate a panel discussion titled “Neglected Infections Emerging in the Epoch of the Antropoene” at 10:45 a.m. Jan. 12.

TAMEST, a nonprofit organization founded in 2004, promotes broader recognition of the state’s top achievers in medicine, engineering and science and builds a stronger identity for Texas as an important destination and center of achievement in these fields. The organization’s more than 270 members are the Texas-based members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and the state’s nine Nobel laureates.

For the 2017 conference, TAMEST is gathering Texas’ top minds to find solutions for the state’s growing population, dynamic economy and changing climate as they focus on what kind of place Texas will be 100 years from now and how the state can be smarter, cleaner and more innovative as it builds a sustainable future.

For more info about the event, visit http://tamest.org/events/2017-annual-conference.