before we start i want to tell you about that joseph mclaughlin lecture series and i would like to tell you a little bit about joseph mclaughlin, the world-renowned epidemiologist who received his doctorate from the university of minnesota in 1981 at the cancer institute and 1994 was the cofounder of the international epidemiology institute where he served as president and was also an adjunct professor at johns hopkins university. he was a cancer epidemiologist and believed in the rigorous application of the scientific method and was occasionally known to the node in the state of the field of science. they occasionally fall prey to the bias correlation can be the causality to resist that impul impulse. that's not the only reason we are honoring joe tonight. he was a generous sponsor group for two decades but he also had the broad accomplished intellect which so many of us aspire and failed to reach. the economics and genetics and it was particularly interested in the correlation between geography and achievement or civilization questions like why is silicon valley, why did hollywood bec