On November 1st at 5:30 pm in the Frank Porter Graham Student Union Auditorium, the Program for Public Discourse will host a debate on nuclear energy for the culmination of UNC's Research Week. This event is co-sponsored with The Steamboat Institute.

Steven Koonin was confirmed by the Senate in May 2009 as undersecretary for science at the U.S. Department of Energy, serving in that position until November 2011. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, he was BP's chief scientist, where he was a strong advocate for research into renewable energies and alternate fuel sources. He now teaches at New York University Stern.

Roger Pielke, Jr. has been on the faculty of the University of Colorado since 2001, where he teaches and writes on a diverse range of policy and governance issues related to science, innovation, and sports. Roger holds degrees in mathematics, public policy and political science, all from the University of Colorado. In 2006, Roger received the Eduard Brückner Prize in Munich, Germany in 2006 for outstanding achievement in interdisciplinary climate research.

J. Christoper Clemens is provost and chief academic Officer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is also the Jaroslav Folda Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy.