Issacson speaks at Newman for Bernard Herman Memorial Lecture

Isidore Newman School distinguished alumni Walter Issacson returned to his alma mater this week as featured speaker at the tenth annual Bernard Herman Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, April 17.

Walter Issacson speaks at his alma mater, Isidore Newman School at the 10th annual Bernard Herman Memorial Lecture. (Photo by Alan Smason)

Issacson, who recently returned to the city to become a professor at Tulane University, spoke on a number of the subjects of his recent biographies, most notably those of Apple founder Steven Jobs, founding father Benjamin Franklin, physicist Albert Einstein and Renaissance painter, sculpter and inventor Leonardo di Vinci.

Issacson spoke before a nearly-full auditorium of Newman students on the connectivity of team-building and the importance of listening to others in finding ways to invent items to advance science and benefit mankind.

“Over and over again you see that ability to apply intelligence in a collaborative effort and to team,” Issacson stated. 

Issacson, the former head of CNN and editor of Time Magazine, most recently left his position as CEO at the Aspen Institute in order to join the faculty at Tulane.

Issacson said that the intersection of the humanities and science is where visionaries like Jobs excelled in eventually making products like the iPhone and iPod that were user friendly and enhanced life through the application of science.

“Whenever Steve launched a product on stage on a big screen behind him,” Issacson noted, “the last slide would always be a street sign intersection – the intersection of the liberal arts and the sciences. If you stand at that intersection, that’s where creativity occurs.”

Issacson also spoke with awe of Di Vinci’s ability to see patterns across nature in which his passion would help be “a fundamental part of turning intelligence into creativity.” Many of the patterns he predicted were proven right in the 20th century, he added.

Following a brief question and answer period, Issacson retired from the auditorium in order to preside over his class at Tulane.