NJIT-Sigma Xi Research Café

Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 4:30 to 6:00 p.m.

Faculty Dining Area, 3rd Floor, NJIT Campus Center

Topic: THE SOCIETAL CONSEQUENCES OF CREATING EXTRAORDINARY LONGEVITY AND THE LOOMING MEDICARE CATASTROPHE: A SYSTEM APPROACH

Presenter: Don Louria, MD, Chair Emeritus, Department of Preventive Medicine, New Jersey School of Medicine, UMDNJ:

The Research Café, sponsored by the NJIT chapter of Sigma Xi, the international research honor society, was inaugurated with a highly successful session on September 29. The Research Café invites you to its second session on October 20. Refreshments will be served, and you can also purchase additional refreshments in the next-door Pub or other Campus Center locations. We suggest that you come to the café a little earlier to enjoy the refreshments.

The speaker, Dr. Donald Louria, will give a talk based on his new book, "Rethink: A Twenty-first Century Approach to Preventing Societal Catastrophes". His overall theme contends that we must move from simplistic linear thinking about complex societal problems at local, national, or international levels and move to a form of broad, holistic, systems thinking. He will apply this systems approach to a study of the repercussions to society of extraordinary aging, the growing reality that humans could extend their average lifespan to 110 or 120 years. A marked increase in longevity should also impact the current contentious debate on health care reform (but thus far it has not). Dr. Louria will suggest what appears to be a novel approach to saving Medicare from an eventual fiscal catastrophe.

Dr. Louria will also talk about the dysfunction in our educational system which does not teach students how to engage in a systems approach to problems. He says, “I think the education system is not preparing students for leading roles in solving complex and important societal problems.”

Dr. Louria is the emeritus Chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at UMDNJ. He has authored 450 articles and written five books.

For information, contact Dr. Jay Kappraff at (973)596-3490 or at kappraff@adm.njit.edu

For more information about the NJIT-Sigma Xi Research Café, including future meetings, visit http://www.njit.edu/v2/professional_society/sigmaxi/sx-ScienceCafe.htm

For information about Sigma Xi, visit http://www.njit.edu/v2/professional_society/sigmaxi/

For information about the NJIT Technology and Society Forum, visit http://tsf.njit.edu

Information and directions to NJIT are also available on the Web at http://www.njit.edu/about/visit/gettingtonjit.php