Feb. 28, 2014  – The sixth Utah Symposium in Science and Literature, to be held at the University of Utah March 5-7, will examine how people in different disciplines look at how humans make decisions and use knowledge to illuminate the human condition.

Bee biologist Thomas Seeley will kick off the event Wednesday evening with the keynote address, “Three pounds of bees and three pounds of brain: Lessons for collective intelligence.”

On Thursday, March 6, Radio West will broadcast live a panel with Seeley and other featured speakers, including behavioral economist Dan Ariely, novelist Chang-Rae Lee and choreographer and dancer Jodi Lomask.

In addition, probability theorists, ethicists and child psychologists will round out the three-day program adding to discussions about the choices we make, why we make them and how we could make them better.

The symposium is free and open to the public. The full schedule of events is available online. For further information, contact Melissa Johanson in the U’s Office of the Vice President for Research at 801-581-7236.

MORE ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University; Ariely is also author of The Honest Truth about Dishonesty, Predictably Irrational, and The Upside of Irrationality.

Chang-rae Lee, novelist and creative writing teacher at Princeton University; Lee has published five novels exploring the outsider’s relationship to culture and identity. He won the Pen/Hemingway Award for fiction, among others.

Jody Lomask, choreographer, dancer, founder and artistic director of the San Francisco dance company Capacitor. She has created works for NASA, TED, SFO and the Salvadorian Olympic Gymnastics team, among others.

Thomas Seeley, bee biologist and professor in the department of neurology and behavior at Cornell University where he studies “swarm intelligence.” Seeley is author of Honeybee Democracy and The Wisdom of the Hive.