The United States remains the world’s pacesetter in science. The origins of many of its breakthroughs may surprise you, however. A sizable number of pioneering scientists were “outsiders,” emerging from undergraduate institutions of only modest scientific renown.

That outsider’s status, the University of Wisconsin’s J. Rogers Hollingsworth says, fosters an entrepreneurial spirit that feeds creativity. A professor emeritus of history and sociology Wisconsin, he discusses his analysis of the institutions and scientists associated with major discoveries of the past century.

Hollingsworth is currently a visiting scholar at the BioCircuits Institute at the University of California, San Diego and is a former senior scholar with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The event is co-presented by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.