An international group of experts from diverse disciplines will gather at Southwestern May 23-28 for the biannual meeting of the Academy of Transdisciplinary Learning and Advanced Studies (ATLAS).

The ATLAS was founded in 2000 to support education and research that falls outside the realm of traditional science and engineering disciplines. Its May 23-28 meeting will focus on transdisciplinary sustainable development.

Activities scheduled for the meeting include presentation of the Academy’s 2010 Gold Medal of Honor, which recognizes accomplishment in transdisciplinary education and research and public service. This year’s award is going to Southwestern alumnus Red McCombs, chairman and COO of McCombs Enterprises.

“Red McCombs is a world-class entrepreneur,” said conference organizer Atila Ertas, a mechanical engineering professor at Texas Tech University. “He is a transdisciplinary thinker who has diverse professional experiences in business that spans a broad spectrum, including the automotive industry, communications, sports industry, real estate development, exploration of oil and gas and finally various insurance com­panies.”

McCombs will receive the award at a May 24 luncheon that will be attended by Guy Bailey, president of Texas Tech University, and Juan Sanchez, vice president for research at The University of Texas at Austin.

McCombs will deliver the keynote speech to the conference on Monday, May 24, at 9:30 a.m. Joey King, vice president for innovation at Southwestern, will also speak to conference participants May 24.

Other conference speakers include Pike Powers, an attorney who has helped build Austin and Texas into major technology centers, and Admiral B.R. Inman, who currently is an investor in start-up technology companies.

The conference also will include panelists and speakers from Brazil, England, India, Japan, Taiwan and Turkey. The complete program is available at    http://www.theatlas.org/pdfs/2010.pdf

While they are in Georgetown, conference participants will visit the Texas Life-Sciences Collaboration Center, a partnership between Southwestern University, the City of Georgetown and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce.

The meeting is sponsored by The ATLAS and Southwestern. Co-sponsors include the City of Georgetown, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce, Georgetown Economic Development, the Transdisciplinary Sustainable Energy Lab at Texas Tech University, the Academy of Transdisciplinary Studies at Texas Tech University and the George Kozmetsky Endowment.