Robert T. Pennock
Chair of the Program Committee
Sigma Xi President-Elect
Affiliation: Michigan State University
Robert T. Pennock is a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, where he is on the faculty of Lyman Briggs College, the Departments of Philosophy and Computer Science & Engineering, and the Ecology, Evolution and Behavior program.
His research involves questions at the intersection of evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and the scientific character. He is the principal investigator of the Scientific Virtues Project and of the BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. Pennock is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, and a National Associate of the National Academies of Science.
The author of over a hundred articles in philosophy, science, and education, his book Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. His latest book is An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and the Moral Character of Science.