Kavli Oxford Lecture Award 2024
Kavli Oxford Lecture Award 2024 - Regina E. Dugan
The third Kavli Oxford Lecture Award will be given by Regina E. Dugan, President & CEO of Wellcome Leap Inc, a non-profit that builds and executes bold, unconventional programs, funded at scale, with the aim of increasing the speed and number of breakthroughs in human health.
Regina's talk is entitled "Changing the Business of Breakthroughs"
The abstract is below.
A new worldwide network of scientists and engineers is demonstrating how philanthropy can leverage a highly effective innovation model to solve urgent global problems.
History tends to turn scientific breakthroughs into stories of lone heroes in which individual researchers doggedly pursued a new discovery or charismatic leaders pointed to the horizon and made massive investments at scale.
What these accounts miss, however, is the reality that solutions to complex problems—and the resulting breakthroughs—more often require a network of diverse contributors with the capacity to drive the work toward a common goal. It isn’t only about applying resources; it’s also about creating the structures required to deploy those resources to facilitate such a synchronized effort. What’s needed to achieve more breakthroughs faster are new ways of working that systematically stack the odds in favor of success.
At a time when humanity is in urgent need of action, philanthropy can act quickly, without concern for election cycles or the lengthy process of realigning political will and global economic incentive structures. Indeed, independent philanthropy has the ability—even the duty—to actively hunt for the dramatic advances that current and future generations need.
In this talk, Dr. Regina E. Dugan will describe Wellcome Leap’s work to increase the speed and number of breakthroughs in human health.
[Changing the Business of Breakthroughs, Issues in Science and Technology, Dugan & Gabriel, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 4, Summer 2022.]
*Booking is essential as seating is limited to 190 attendees.
*Due to the nature of the lecture, this session will be in person only.
*The event will start 15:30 sharp, please note that late arrivals cannot be accommodated.
*Open to the University of Oxford staff only.
If you’d like to attend, please email info@kavlinano.ox.ac.uk from your university email address, and we will share the booking link with you.
Read Regina E.Dugan's biography below.
Dr. Regina E. Dugan is an internationally recognized business executive, producer, engineer-artist, taskmaster, and product developer. Dr. Dugan currently serves as President & CEO of Wellcome Leap Inc, a non-profit that builds and executes bold, unconventional programs, funded at scale, with the aim of increasing the speed and number of breakthroughs in human health.
Dr. Dugan has led world-class, global teams, and hundred-million to multi-billion dollar efforts to deliver novel products at Meta, Alphabet, and as the 19th Director, and first woman to lead, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The NYTimes noted that Dr. Dugan is "credited with having a knack for inspiring, and indeed insisting on, creative thinking,” and for her unwavering approach to innovation that advances research and solves practical problems. FORTUNE described her as one of the world’s leading experts on product innovation, “the kind that unhinges old ways of operating, juices competition and creates new growth.” She has been named to the Verge 50 list, Fast Company’s ‘Most Creative People in Business 1000', CNN's ‘Top 10 Thinkers’, and CNBC’s ‘NEXT LIST’. As executive producer, she has received 4 Annie Awards, 1 Emmy, and an OSCAR nomination.
Dr. Dugan earned her PhD from Caltech and was named a Distinguished Alumna in 2017, joining noted honorees such as Carver Mead and Gordon Moore. She earned her BS/MS from VaTech, where she is a member of the Academy of Engineering Excellence, and in 2022, received the University Distinguished Achievement Award.
Dr. Dugan is the co-author of Issues in Science and Technology article, ‘Changing the Business of Breakthroughs,’ and the co-author of Harvard Business Review cover article, ‘Special Forces Innovation,’ a 2013 HBR McKinsey Award finalist. She has spoken at events such as Code Conferences D9 and D11, Washington Post Summit on U.S. Competitiveness, PopTech, and TED. More recently, Dr. Dugan spoke at Philanthropy Asia Summit, Fortune Brainstorm Health, and Abundance 360 Summit.
Dr. Dugan previously served on the boards of Varian Medical Systems, Zynga, and Cruise; she is currently a director on the boards of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Siemens AG. of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Siemens AG.
