Integrity of Creation Conference

Global Health on a Warming Planet

March 24-25, 2026

Duquesne University | Power Center

This eleventh conference will focus on Global Health on a Warming Planet, emphasizing the relationship between health and climate. The interdisciplinary conference invites participants from different disciplines to engage in civil discourse on a different topic each year. The format of the conference includes workshops, presentations, and posters.

The conference series was commissioned by former President Charles J. Dougherty as an endowed academic event. Current University President, Ken Gormley, continues to inspire excellence in support of the Spiritan mission as the conference series develops.

The conference has three goals:

Provide a scholarly opportunity to engage established and emerging research on the conference topic
Foster interdisciplinary discourse on each topic, such as science, health, philosophy, religion, and policy
Enlighten public awareness and discussion of the conference topic

Conference Information

Speakers

Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, DSc (hon)

Prof. Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc (hon) FAAP FASTMH is Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, and Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine. He is also University Professor of Biology at Baylor University. Dr. Hotez is a vaccine scientist, biochemist, and pediatrician who has led or co-led the development of vaccines for parasitic infections-hookworm, schistosomiasis, Chagas disease-currently in clinical trials, and several coronavirus vaccines, including two low-cost COVID vaccines for global health so far administered to 100 million children and adults in India and Indonesia. He is also an ardent vaccine advocate and science explainer who combats antiscience and antisemitism in America, and globally.

Prof. Hotez has authored four single-authored books with Johns Hopkins University Press, including Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism, Preventing the Next Pandemic, and The Deadly Rise of Anti-science ,and in 2025 will co-author Science Under Siege(Public Affairs)with the climate scientist, Michael Mann. Dr. Hotez obtained his B.A. (phi beta kappa) from Yale University, M.D. from Weill Cornell Medical College, and Ph.D. from Rockefeller University. He obtained his pediatric residency and fellowship training from Massachusetts General Hospital and Yale School of Medicine.

Prof. Hotez is the author of more than 700 scientific papers, and he is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received numerous awards. They include the Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award from AAAS, the Scientific Achievement Award from the AMA, the David E Rogers Award from the AAMC, the Science and Society Award from Sigma Xi, the Porter Prize in public health from the University of Pittsburgh, Winslow Medal from Yale School of Public Health, Mendel Medal in science and religion from Villanova University, Milton Popkin Award from the ADL Southwest, and LBJ Moral Courage Award from the Holocaust Museum Houston. He was named TIME MagazineHealth100 in 2024.

He has three honorary Doctor of Science degrees. Prof. Hotez served as US Science Envoy for the Middle East and North Africa in 2015-16, and he appears frequently on national media to explain biomedicine and pandemics.

Presentation: TBA
Date and Time: March 24, 2026 at 6 p.m - 7:30 p.m.
Abstract: TBA

Conference Schedule

TBA

IOC Proceeding Books

Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Fostering Well-being as a UN Sustainable Development Goal. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Resilience in Ecology, and Health. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 2023.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Strands of Sustainability. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Toward a Healthy Planet. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021.
Magill, G., L. Prybil. Governance Ethics in Healthcare Organizations, Routledge, 2020, Paperback, 2021.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. The Global Sustainability Crisis. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020.
Magill, G., J. Benedict, eds. Cascading Challenges in the Global Water Crisis. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019. Paperback, 2021.
Magill, G., J. Potter, eds. Integral Ecology. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2018. Paperback, 2021.
Magill. G., Aramesh, K., eds. The Urgency of Climate Change. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017.