Dr. Jonathan Wells / Dr. John Murray

      Dr. Jonathan Wells holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in theology from Yale University. He is the author of numerous articles in scientific and scholarly journals, and three books: Charles Hodge's Critique of Darwinism (Edwin Mellen Press, 1988), Icons of Evolution (Regnery Publishing, 2000), and The Politically Incorrect Guide^tm to Darwinism and Intelligent Design (Regnery Publishing, 2006). He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, Washington, where he lives with his family.

      Dr. John Murray, Ph.D. has his B.A. (1965) from John Carroll University (Major: Psychology; Minor: Sociology, Philosophy), his M.A. (1968) from The Catholic University of America (Counseling and Clinical Psychology) and his Ph.D. (1970) from The Catholic University of America (Counseling, Clinical and Developmental Psychology) He is currently a Professor of Developmental Psychology and the former Associate Vice Provost for Research and Director of the School of Family Studies and Human Services at Kansas State University. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and recent President of its Division of Child Youth and Family Services.
      Dr. Murray's interest in television and society is reflected in nearly 30 years of research, teaching and public policy concerning children, youth and families. In the late 1960's and early 70's, Dr. Murray served as Research Coordinator for the Surgeon General's Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health resulting in the first Surgeon General's report on television violence in 1972. Subsequently, he taught in the School of Behavioral Sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney where he conducted research on the effects of the introduction of television in the Australian "outback." His concern about the impact of television has continued during appointments at the University of Michigan, the Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development, and Kansas State University.
      Over the years, Dr. Murray has produced 10 books and more than 80 articles on children's television, including the 1980 reference book, Television and Youth: 25 Years of Research and Controversy, the 1992 Amercian Psychological Association Review, Big World, Small Screen: The Role of Television in American Society, and a 1994 overview of television violence research published in the Hofstra Law Review, as well as an encyclopedia entry on Media Effects in the new American Psychological Association Encyclopedia of Psychology (Oxford University Press, 2000). His continuing research on TV and children is focused on neuro-imaging of children's brain activations while watching televised violence. Finally, in addition to his interests in media and children, Dr. Murray has published two recent books on the role of public policy training in graduate education in the human services: Applied Developmental Science: Graduate Training for Diverse Disciplines and Educational Settings (Ablex, 1996), and Social Change, Public Policy and Community Collaborations: Training Human Development Professionals for the 21st Century (Kluwer, 2000). Dr. Murray is married and has two children.