Global Panel

Sol Katz

Solomon Katz is director of the Krogman Center for Child Growth and Development at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and is professor of Physical Anthropology and a senior fellow at the Wharton School Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics within the University of Pennsylvania. His scientific work spans a number of disciplines including over 200 books, chapters, publications, reviews and abstracts in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry, neuroendocrinology, epidemiology, nutrition, child growth, development and health, anthropology and food studies and the interface between science and religion.

Within the American Anthropological Association he served as founder and Chairman of the Task Force on the African Famine for the American Anthropological Association (AAA) which produced a series of books and monographs, symposia and reports on food security in Africa. Currently he serves as Chair of the Task Force on World Food Problems for the AAA that addresses contemporary global food resources and security. Katz was also the Series Editor of "Food and Nutrition in History and Anthropology" Gordon and Breach Publishers is Editor-in-Chief of the "Encyclopedia of Food and Culture" published by Scribners (Gale) in 2003 which was awarded six major national and international awards and prizes including the Dartmouth Medal (US) and the Emerald Award (UK) in 2004 for the best reference publication of 2003. He is also Co-Chairing an upcoming symposium on the “Scientific, Spiritual, and Moral Challenges in Solving the World Food Crisis" to be held next summer at Silver Bay on Lake George, NY (July 27-Aug. 3, 2013).

Katz has also served as Chairman of the Task Force to revise and update the UNESCO Statement on the Biology of Race and organized its approval by the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, a member organization of UNESCO, which still considers the revised statement to be a hallmark of their achievements. In addition, Dr. Katz has also worked in the field of science and religion for over 35 years, serving as president of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS), the Center for Advanced Studies in Religion and Science, and founding president of the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science.  He is co-chair the Joint Publications Board of Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science; was a founding member of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is also an elected member of the International Society of Science and Religion and an elected Trustee of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions.