EFTA00583634.pdf

COLLEGE Of Asa LIBERAL ARTS &SCIENCES ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY www.origins.asu. edu Lawrence M. Krauss Director, ASU Origins Project Foundation Professor School of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Department Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative and Beyond Center February 19, 2010 Jeffrey Epstein Florida Science Foundation Ste 1404, 250 South Australian Avenue West Palm Beach, FL 33401-5016 Dear Jeffrey: Thanks very much for your important input into our Origins of Human Uniqueness conference, and for your conversations with me and Martin Nowak about the possibility of applying techniques from physics, notably minimization and action integrals to calculations in evolutionary dynamics. As you know, issues of the origin and evolution of life are central to the goals of the Origins Project at ASU, which aims to explore questions ranging from the origin of the universe, to the origins of consciousness and culture. As a part of this we are organizing several workshops in which we are bringing in the most active and brightest researchers from a wide variety of areas to explore forefront questions in science. We feel your participation in these workshops is vital to their success. I am writing with two specific requests. First we would very much like you to serve on our Origins External Scientific Advisory Board. As you can see from the names listed on following page, the board currently contains 5 Nobel Laureates, The President of the Royal Society, as well as several important science entrepreneurs. The list has been carefully chosen to provide the necessary expertise to help guide us as we build our program, and we feel you could play an essential role. Second, we feel your physical presence at the Institute here will assist us tremendously as we build our programs. Over the next year we will be running an Origins of Life program, including a workshop exploring current ideas regarding how inorganic chemistry became biochemistry, and how the templates that later would form the basis of an RNA world, and then a DNA world arose. Participants will include Nobel Laureate Sidney Altman of Yale University. In addition, we have asked Martin Nowak to help us coordinate a workshop in Evolutionary Dynamics. Both Martin and Sidney have indicated their desire to have you involved directly in the program. Given the transdisciplinary nature of our initiative we want to get people to think outside the box. This involves integrating ideas from interested individuals whose expertise may outside the specific areas of study. Your provocative and thoughtful suggestions have already stimulated activity, and with a physical presence at the discussions, you would be able to have the kind of impact that we all feel could be so important to the success of the initiative. If your schedule allows it, we would like to request that you consider a regular series of visits timed to coincide with the workshops, as well as several during the planning phases. We hope you will be able to accept both of our invitations, and we look forward to welcoming you to Tempe and the Origins Project. Sincerely, Lawrence M. Krauss P.O. BOX 871404 'fa TEMPE. AZ 85287-1404 Exec. Asst. Jessie EFTA00583634  COLLEGE of Tel: P.O. BOX 871404 TEMPE. AZ 85287-1404 Ail LIBERAL ARTS &SCIENCES ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY EFTA00583635  COLLEGE (.1 Asa LIBERAL ARTS &SCIENCES ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY www.origins.asu. edu Lawrence M. Krauss Director, ASU Origins Project Foundation Professor School ofEarth and Space Exploration and Physics Department Co-Director, Cosmology Initiative and Beyond Center ORIGINS EXTERNAL SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD • John Mather* • Mariette Di Christina Senior, Astrophysicist Editor-in-Chief Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Scientific American • Baruch Blumberg* • Lee Hartwell* Distinguished Scientist President & Director Fox Chase Cancer Center Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center • Neil Shubin • J. Craig Venter Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor Founder, Chairman, and President University of Chicago J. Craig Venter Institute • Richard Dawkins • Mary Smart Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Smart Family Foundation Science University of Oxford • Douglas Envin Curator of Paleozoic Invertebrates * Nobel Laureate Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History • Wendy Freedman Director Carnegie Institute • Frank Wilczek* Frederick W. Gluck Professor of Theoretical Physics, U.C. Santa Barbara Massachusetts Institute of Technology • David Gross* Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics Director, Kavli Institute For Theoretical Physics • Lord Martin Rees President, Royal Society Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics and Master of Trinity College University of Cambridge • Stephen Hawking Lucasian Professor of Mathematics University of Cambridge • Steven Pinker Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor Harvard University • Elon Musk CEO and CTO of SpaceX Chairman of SolarCity CEO of Tesla Motors P.O. BOX 871404 TeMI TEMPE. AZ 85287-1404 Exec. Asst. Jessica EFTA00583636