Redevelopment of Norris University Center’s East Lawn to begin this summer
April 5, 2024
Several Northwestern University professors and alumni will inspire audiences with their expertise at this year’s seventh annual Chicago Ideas Week (CIW), one of the largest ideas festivals in the world. They will address topics ranging from scientific breakthroughs to the changing nature of relationships in modern society.
CIW, running October 16-22 in downtown Chicago, features more than 250 speakers and events and reaches an audience of nearly 30,000 people each year. Event topics run the gamut from medical science and engineering to theater and fashion design.
Northwestern students, faculty and staff qualify for discounted tickets to Chicago Ideas Week. A Northwestern net ID and password are required to access the discount code.
Northwestern scholars highlight the following presentations:
Breakthroughs: advancing the way we live
How might a scientific breakthrough in molecular cloning affect what you eat for lunch?
Moran Cerf, associate professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management, and Nour Kteily, assistant professor of management and organizations at Kellogg, will explore how breakthroughs in one field transfer to another. For example, gene splicing has revolutionized medicine but also produced vegetables that stay fresh for weeks rather than days. This event illustrates how similar advancements are changing the way we live, even if we don’t know it yet.
Columbia University biochemistry and molecular biophysics professor Sam Sternberg co-presents.
- Tuesday, Oct. 17, 4 to 5:30 p.m.
Venue SIX10, 610 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago - Tickets available online
Sex, love and friendship: This is how we do it now
As we continuously redefine human relationships, let’s examine our new paradigm.
Eli Finkel, professor of social psychology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of management and organizations at Kellogg, addresses the changing nature of relationships, from the free love revolution of the 1960s to the “swipe right” phenomenon associated with modern online dating. Finkel, author of “The All-or-Nothing Marriage,” examines the new norms for dating, friendship and marriage as we attempt to fulfill the basic need for human companionship.
Comedian Dave Holmes and Georgetown University professor of linguistics Deborah Tannen co-present.
- Tuesday, Oct. 17, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Venue SIX10, 610 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago - Tickets available online
The following Northwestern University alumni also will present at Chicago Ideas Week:
- Jeffrey Bergstrand ’74
Is China the new world superpower?
Thursday, Oct. 19, 8 to 9:15 a.m.
Morningstar, 22 W. Washington St., Chicago - Brian Hill ’15
In conversation: social entrepreneurship
Tuesday, Oct. 17, 8:30 to 9:45 a.m.
Morningstar, 22 W. Washington St., Chicago - Anne Libera ’86
Collaborative creativity and the evolution of an idea
Monday, Oct. 16, 4 to 5:30 p.m.
Venue SIX10, 610 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago - Phyllis Locket ’93
Can a city work like a startup?
Tuesday, Oct. 17, 12 to 1:15 p.m.
Morningstar, 22 W. Washington St., Chicago
View the full event lineup on the Chicago Ideas website.
