The Shannon Luminary Lecture Series at Nokia Bell Labs is named in honor of Claude Shannon – the father of information theory and arguably of all communications and networked systems. The series continues the tradition of the renowned Bell Labs General Research Colloquia of the past, but looks firmly towards the future. This lecture series is comprised of speakers who are luminaries in a wide diversity of fields and who will share their perspective on the most important technologies, science, engineering, mathematics – and even more aesthetic matters – that will transform human existence in the next decades.
Each visionary speaker receives the Shannon Luminary Award and an honorarium of $5,000 to be donated to a cause of their choosing.
Lectures in the series are listed here:
Rodney Brooks "The Future of Innovation in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics"
Rodney Brooks is a computer scientist, roboticist, entrepreneur and founder and former Chief Technical Officer of iRobot (makers of Roomba vacuum) and co-Founder of Rethink Robotics. Brooks will present his Shannon Luminary Lecture on December 13, 2018.
Alex "Sandy" Pentland "The future of AI and human society: HumanAI"
Alex "Sandy" Pentland directs the MIT Connection Science and Human Dynamics labs and previously helped create and direct the MIT Media Lab will present his Shannon Luminary Lecture on October 25, 2018.
Alain Aspect "The future of quantum technologies: the second quantum revolution"
Alain Aspect, physicist, distinguished scientist and professor at Ecole Polytechnique and Laboratoire Charles Fabry, with a career of sustained accomplishment in fundamental physics. Aspect's lecture is being rescheduled. Please check back soon for the date.
Ben Ebert "The future of cancer prevention"
Ben Ebert, physician and scientist focusing on the biology of leukemia and genetic mutations that cause cancers, delivered his Shannon Luminary Lecture on May 17th.
Vint Cerf, "The Future of the Internet of Things: Desirable properties of an IoT ecosystem"
We were honored to welcome Vint Cerf, widely known as a“Father of the Internet” and highly celebrated co-designer of TCP/IP protocols and Internet architectures, as a Shannon Luminary lecturer on March 20th. In his lecture, “The Future of the Internet of Things: Desirable properties of an IoT ecosystem”, Cerf discussed the benefits and the potential pitfalls of a massively automated world.
Brian Collins, "The future of design: What we desire"
We were pleased to welcome Brian Collins, a visionary leader in design, as the Shannon Luminary lecturer on January 23rd. In his lecture, “The Future of Design: What We Desire”, Collins described the role of design as a way to bring human benefit to a rapidly changing world.
Stephen Fry, "The future of humanity and technology"
The incomparable Stephen Fry, actor, comedian, journalist, author, tech enthusiast and polymath presented his Shannon Luminary Lecture "The future of humanity and technology" on September 25, 2017.
Stephen Friend gives lecture on "The future of human agency"
Stephen Friend, scientist, physician, entrepreneur, Chairman of Sage Bionetworks and member of the Apple Health team delivered a Shannon Luminary Lecture on May 4th.
Yann LeCun, "Predictive Learning: The Next Frontier in AI"
Yann LeCun is director of Artificial Intelligence Research at Facebook and Silver Professor of Data Science, Computer Science, Neural Science, and Electrical Engineering at New York University. His lecture explores the next steps in deep learning, enabling machines to teach themselves.
Zhenan Bao, "Skin-inspired electronic materials and devices"
Zhenan Bao, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University and Bell Labs alumnus (1995-2004) spoke about development of flexible electronic materials having the ability to mimic human skin in a Shannon Luminary Lecture on December 1, 2016.