PISA is short for 'Public Intellectual Service & Advocacy'. It's a cute name for one of our most important and respected projects here at Future-ish. PISA encourages and supports scientists, designers, and cultural leaders to become more involved in public service and advocacy, from participating in civic panels and writing editorials to serving as subject matter experts in the media and running for public office. And yes, the fact that Pisa, Italy, home to people like Fibonacci, Galileo, Carducci and Fermi has been a city of famous science, design, and culture for centuries works well for us too.
Public intellectuals are individuals with extensive training and expertise in a particular discipline that speak or write publicly about their discipline to an audience outside their own field or industry. In addition, public intellectuals take their commentary beyond their own discipline and endeavor to relate their work to the larger social, economic, and political world around it. Albert Einstein, for example, was often asked to comment on art, politics, and religion in addition to his own work in physics. On rare occasions, public intellectuals are elected and/or are appointed to public office; Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany for example. With PISA, Future-ish encourages and supports scientists, designers, and cultural leaders to follow in Einstein's footsteps. To this end, Future-ish highlights public intellectuals, along with their ideas and activities on our website and other publications, provides networking and PR/Marketing support for public intellectuals, and occasionally organizes special forums and lectures for public intellectuals. Many of these individuals are inducted into Future-ish's PISA Society.
PISA Society is a collection of individuals that Future-ish has identified as public intellectuals who truly shape our future.
Individuals with an asterisk have been elected or appointed to public office.
2010 PISA Society Inductees:
Janine Benyus
Jane Lubchenko*
Oren Lyons*
Wangari Maathai*
David Suzuki
Cameron Sinclair
2009 PISA Society Inductees:
Lisa Randall
Bobby Sanabria
Vandana Shiva
Richard Swett*
2008 PISA Society Inductees:
Katherine Hamnett
Tyrone Hayes
Michio Kaku
Angela Merkel*
2007 PISA Society Inductees:
Maya Angelou
Noam Chomsky
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Jane Goodall