Prof. Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist known for his work in quantum gravity. Born in Italy he has worked in the United States, France and Canada. He has founded the Quantum Gravity group at Aix-Marseille University. He is also a member of the Institute Universitaire de France, honorary professor of the Beijing Normal University, Honoris Causa Laureate of the Universidad de San Martin, Buenos Aires, and a member of the Académie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences. In 1995 he has been awarded the Xanthopoulos Award for “the best relativist worldwide under forty”.

Prof. Rovelli has written several global best sellers among which are Seven Brief Lesson on Physics, which was translated in 44 languages, The Order of Time, and the recent Helgoland on quantum theory. He has been included by the Foreign Policy magazine in the 2019 list of the 100 most influential global thinkers.

Geshe Tenzin Namdak first worked as an environmental researcher having graduated in hydrology from Van Hall Larenstein University, The Netherlands. He started studying Buddhism at Maitreya Institute in 1993 and took ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama before engaging in his formal studies in Buddhist philosophy and psychology at Sera Jey Monastic University, South India, in 1997. He completed the entire twenty-year Geshe program at Sera Jey in 2017 and the traditional one year Vajrayana study program at Gyume Tantric College in January 2019, the first Westerner to do so. Because of his deep interest and background in science and as a member of Sera Jey’s Education Department he spoke on and organized various dialogues and conferences on contemporary science and ancient contemplative wisdom of the mind and its philosophy.

Currently, he is the resident teacher at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, London, and teaches worldwide.

Prof. John Dunne (PhD 1999, Harvard University) is the Distinguished Chair in Contemplative Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he serves as Core Faculty for the Center for Healthy Minds and as the chair of the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures. John Dunne’s work focuses on Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice, especially in dialog with Cognitive Science and Psychology. His publications appear in venues ranging across both the Humanities and the Sciences, and they include works on Buddhist philosophy, contemplative practices and their empirical examination and interpretation within scientific contexts.

John Dunne speaks in both academic and public contexts, and he occasionally teaches for Buddhist communities. His broader engagements include being a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, where he was previously a member of the Board of Directors, and serving as an academic advisor to the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Dr. Michel Bitbol is Emeritus Directeur de Recherche at the CNRS, in Paris, France. He is presently based at the Archives Husserl, a center of research in Phenomenology. He received successively his M.D., his Ph.D. in physics, and his “Habilitation” in philosophy in Paris.

He worked as a research scientist in biophysics from 1978 to 1990. From 1990 onwards, he turned to the philosophy of physics. He edited texts by Erwin Schrödinger and developed a neo-kantian philosophy of quantum mechanics. In 1997 he received an award from the Académie des sciences morales et politiques for his work in the philosophy of quantum mechanics.

Later on, he studied the relations between the philosophy of physics and the philosophy of mind, working in close collaboration with Francisco Varela. He then learnt some Sanskrit and published a book (De l’intérieur du monde, 2010) in which he draws a parallel between Buddhist dependent arising and non-supervenient relations, in quantum physics and the theory of knowledge. He recently developed a conception of consciousness inspired from an epistemology of first-person knowledge, together with a phenomenological critique of naturalist theories of consciousness (La conscience a-t-elle une origine? 2014). More recently, he engaged a debate with the philosophical movement called “speculative realism”, and published a book about it (Maintenant la finitude, 2019).

Dr. Marco Colnaghi is a researcher with a PhD in Mathematical Biology and Complexity Sciences from the University College London (UCL), where he currently carries out theoretical research on the evolution of life. He is the author of several scientific publications in evolutionary biology and complexity sciences.

After completing his BSc in Physics, his interest in complexity sciences brought him to London, where he finished a MSc in Complex Systems Modelling at King’s College London and a MRes in Mathematical Biology and Complexity Sciences at UCL.

A long-time meditation practitioner, throughout the years Marco explored contemplative practices from the Christian, Buddhist and Hindu traditions. He strongly believes that the wisdom of contemplative traditions can have a transformative impact on our individual and collective well-being, as well as on our scientific understanding of consciousness and evolution.

Dr. John Realpe was the first Scientific Research volunteer at Science & Wisdom LIVE (2021-2022), in which role he conducted research about our themes and wrote blogs for our website. John is currently taking a break from his volunteer role, but hopes to return in the future. John is a professional academic himself, with a PhD in Physics from the Polytechnique University of Turin, Italy. His research is focused on the intersection of complex systems, quantum AI, cognitive science and evolutionary biology, and he also worked at NASA and at the University of Manchester. Besides his academic work, John is interested in how science and contemplative practices can work together to further dialogue on important issues and deeply supports the spirit of Science & Wisdom LIVE in trying to make this happen.

Scott Snibbe is the Executive Director of A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment, a nonprofit organization and popular podcast dedicated to teaching secular forms of analytical meditation. Snibbe is a longtime student of Tibetan Buddhism whose teachers include Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, Choden Rinpoche, Ven. Rene Feusi, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Inspired by his teachers, he leads meditations that infuse the pure lineage of the great Buddhist masters with science, humour, and the realities of the modern world.

In addition to his work teaching meditation, Snibbe is a digital artist who has created bestselling art and music apps and interactive art installations. He has collaborated with musicians and filmmakers including Björk, James Cameron, and Philip Glass and his interactive art has been collected by both science and art museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

His book, A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment, is coming out in December 2023.