“When I look at astronauts … buzzing around SPECIAL “[Space debris] models don’t scaffolding … I want to know who provided 2018 GALA INSERT predict the future, they ... predict the the worker’s comp.” p7 Celebrate the Extraordinary! most likely future.” p14 THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF CIENCES SMAGAZINE • FALL 2018 BEYOND 2030: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FOR THE A look at the sustainability challenges of future human space exploration WWW.NYAS.ORG BOARD OF GOVERNORS CHAIR SECRETARY Beth Jacobs, Managing Lowell Robinson,a highly INTERNATIONAL Paul Stoffels, Vice Chair of Paul Horn, Former Senior Larry Smith, The New York Partner of Excellentia regarded executive with BOARD OF GOVERNORS the Executive Committee Vice Provost for Research, Academy of Sciences Global Partners thirty years of senior global Seth F. Berkley, Chief and Chief Scientific Officer, New York University strategic, financial, M&A, Executive Officer, The Johnson & Johnson GOVERNORS John E. Kelly III, SVP, Senior Vice Dean for operational, turnaround and Global Alliance for Vaccines Ellen de Brabander, Senior Solutions Portfolio and CHAIRS EMERITI Strategic Initiatives and governance experience at and Immunization Vice President Research Research, IBM John E. Sexton, Former Entrepreneurship, NYU both Fortune 100 consumer and Development Global Seema Kumar, Vice Stefan Catsicas, Chief Tech- President, New York Polytechnic School of products retail and diversi- Functions, Governance & President of Innovation, nology Officer Nestlé S.A. University Engineering fied financial services Compliance, PepsiCo Global Health and Science Gerald Chan, Co-Founder, Torsten N. Wiesel, Kathe Sackler, Founder VICE-CHAIR Jacqueline Corbelli, Policy Communication for Morningside Group Nobel Laureate & former and President, The Acorn Thomas Pompidou, Chairman, CEO and Johnson & Johnson Alice P. Gast, President, Secretary-General, Human Foundation for the Arts Founder and Partner at Co-Founder, BrightLine Pablo Legorreta, Founder Imperial College, London Frontier Science Program Marker, LLC & Sciences Mikael Dolsten, President, and CEO, Royalty Pharma S. “Kris” Gopalakrishnan, Organization; President Mortimer D. A. Sackler, TREASURER Worldwide Research and David K.A. Mordecai, Chairman, Axilor Ventures/ Emeritus, The Rockefeller Member of the Board, Donna Milrod, Former Development; Senior Vice Co-Managing Member, Co-founder Infosys University Purdue Pharma Managing Director and President, Pfizer Inc Numerati® Partners, LLC, Toni Hoover, Director Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor Peter Thorén, Executive Head of DTCC Solutions, MaryEllen Elia, New York RiskEcon® Lab for Decision Strategy Planning and Emeritus, The State Univer- Vice President, Access Chairman of the Board of State Commissioner of Metrics, Courant Institute Management and COO for sity of New York (SUNY) DTCC Deriv/SERV LLC and for Mathematical Sciences Industries Education and President of the Global Health Program, HONORARY Chairman of the Omgeo NYU, and Co-Founder, Risk Grace Wang, Senior Vice the University of the State of The Bill and Melinda Gates LIFE GOVERNORS Board of Managers Economics, Inc. Chancellor for Research and New York (USNY) Foundation Karen E. Burke, Dermatolo- Economic Development for PRESIDENT Elaine Fuchs, Rebecca C. Gregory A. Petsko, Johan Rockström, Executive gist and Research Scientist the State University of New Ellis Rubinstein, President Lancefield Professor in Professor of Neurology at Director of the Stockholm York (SUNY) and Interim John F. Niblack, , Former and CEO, The New York Mammalian Cell Biology Weill Cornell Medicine in Resilience Centre, Chairman President for SUNY President, Pfizer Global Academy of Sciences and Development, The New York City, and Tauber of the EAT Advisory Board Polytechnic Institute Research & Development Rockefeller University; In- Professor of Biochemistry vestigator, Howard Hughes and Chemistry, Emeritus, Michael Zigman, President Medical Institute at Brandeis University in and CEO, NYC FIRST Waltham, Massachusetts PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL* Peter Agre, Nobel Laureate; Martin Chalfie, Nobel S. “Kris” Gopalakrishnan, Ferid Murad, Nobel Laure- Ismail Serageldin, Emeritus Rainer Weiss, Nobel Lau- Univ. Prof. and Director, Laureate; University Profes- Chairman, Axilor Ventures/ ate; Director, IMM Center for Librarian of the Bibliotheca reate; Professor of Physics, Johns Hopkins Malaria Re- sor of Biological Sciences, Co-founder Infosys Cell Signaling, The University Alexandrina and member of Emeritus, Massachusetts search Inst., Dept. Molecular Columbia University Paul Greengard, Nobel Lau- of Texas at Houston the Board of Trustees of the Institute of Technology Microbiology and Immunol- Steven Chu, Nobel Laureate; reate; Prof. of Molecular and John F. Niblack, Former Pres- library of Alexandria George Whitesides, Wood- ogy, Bloomberg School of William R. Kenan, Jr. Prof. of Cellular Neuroscience, The ident, Pfizer Global Research Phillip A. Sharp, Nobel ford L. and Ann A. Flowers Public Health Physics, Prof. of Molecular Rockefeller University and Development; Honorary Laureate; Director, The Mc- University Professor, Harvard Richard Axel, Nobel and Cellular Physiology, Glenda Greenwald, Presi- Life Governor, The New York Govern Institute, MIT Center University Laureate; University Stanford University; Former dent, Aspen Brain Institute Academy of Sciences for Cancer Research Torsten N. Wiesel, Nobel Professor, Columbia Univ.; U.S. Secretary of Energy David Gross, Nobel Laure- Paul Nurse, Nobel Laureate; K. Barry Sharpless, Nobel Laureate; Chairman Emeri- Investigator, HHMI Aaron J. Ciechanover, Nobel ate; Chancellor’s Chair Pro- Former President, The Rocke- Laureate; The Sharpless tus, The New York Academy David Baltimore, Nobel Laureate; Distinguished Re- fessor of Theoretical Physics, feller University; Former Lab, The Scripps Research of Sciences; Former Secretary Laureate; President Emeritus, search Professor, Tumor and Kavli Institute for Theoretical President, The Royal Society, Institute, La Jolla, CA General, Human Frontier Caltech Vascular Biology Research Physics, UCSB London; Chief Executive, Feike Sijbesma, CEO/Chair- Science Program Organiza- Center, Faculty of Medicine, The Francis Crick Institute tion; President Emeritus, Etienne-Emile Baulieu, William A. Haseltine, Chair- man of the Managing Board, Technion-Israel Inst. of Tech., The Rockefeller Univ. Former President, French man and President, ACCESS Yoshinori Ohsumi, Nobel Royal DSM Haifa, Israel Academy of Sciences Health International, Inc. Laureate; Professor, Institute Paul Stoffels, Chief Scientific Frank Wilczek, Nobel Kenneth L. Davis, President of Innovative Research, Tokyo Laureate; Herman Feshbach Paul Berg, Nobel Laureate; Hon. Jerry MacArthur Officer, Johnson and and CEO of the Mount Institute of Technology (IIR) Professor of Physics, Professor Emeritus, Dept. Hultin, Senior Presidential Johnson; member of the Sinai Health System in Massachusetts Institute of Biochemistry, Stanford Fellow, New York University; John O’Keefe, Nobel Laure- Johnson and Johnson New York City of Technology University President Emeritus, Polytech- ate; Wellcome Trust Principal Executive Committee and Len Blavatnik, Chairman, Peter Doherty, Nobel Lau- nic Institute of NYU; former Research Fellow and Prof. Management Committee; Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, Access Industries, Inc. reate; Researcher, St. Jude Under Secretary of the Navy of Cognitive Neuroscience, Worldwide Co-Chairman, Secretary General, Human Children's Research Hospital, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, Pharmaceuticals Group Frontier Science Program Or- Irina Bokova, Former Direc- Eric Kandel, Nobel Laureate; Memphis, Tennessee; Univ. University College London ganization; Former Secretary tor General, United Nations Prof., Physiology and Cell Jack W. Szostak, Nobel of Melbourne, Australia General, European Research Educational, Scientific Biology, Columbia University Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Laureate; Investigator, Mikael Dolsten, President, Nobel Laureate; President, Howard Hughes Medical Council; Former President, and Cultural Organization Mehmood Khan, Vice Chair- Worldwide Research and The Royal Society Institute; Professor of Genet- Deutsche Forschungs- (UNESCO) man and Chief Scientific Development; Senior ics, Harvard Medical School; gemeinschaft, Germany Sydney Brenner, Nobel Officer of Global Research Richard Roberts, Nobel Lau- Vice-President, Pfizer Inc Professor of Chemistry and Andrew Witty, Chancellor, Laureate; Distinguished Prof., and Development, PepsiCo reate; Chief Scientific Officer, Chemical Biology, Harvard University of Nottingham Salk Inst. Jan Eliasson, Former Deputy New England Biolabs Roger Kornberg, Nobel Lau- University; Alex. A. Rich UK; Former Chief Executive Secretary-General to the James E. Rothman, Nobel Michael S. Brown, Nobel reate; Professor of Medicine, Distinguished Investigator, Officer, GlaxoSmithKline United Nations Laureate; Yale University Laureate; Prof. of Molecular Stanford University Medical Department of Molecular Edmond H. Fischer, Nobel School of Medicine, Fergus F. Michael W. Young, Nobel Genetics, Univ. of Texas School Biology, Massachusetts Laureate; Professor Emeritus, Wallace Professor of Cell Biol- Laureate; Richard and Jeanne Southwestern Medical Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Former General Hospital Department of Biochemistry, ogy and Professor of Chem- Fisher Professor/Vice Pres- Center Science Advisor to the Prime University of Washington istry; Chairman, Department Diana Taylor, Vice-Chair, ident for Academic Affairs,