Last Updated: 11/16/2011*

Lynn A. Dugle
Vice President
Raytheon Company,
President
Intelligence and Information Systems

The biennial Festival of Thinkers Conference in Abu Dhabi plays host to a hand-picked audience of graduate students from 83 universities around the world. Hosted by the Higher Colleges of Technology, the international participants join their Emirati counterparts to debate and discuss issues that they will have to grapple with as future leaders.

This year, Lynn A. Dugle, president of Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business, spoke to attendees about the impact that global population growth is having on economic and social systems and how already scarce natural resources will be put under unprecedented pressure as some 2.4 billion people join the global population by 2050. In prepared remarks, she said:

Food demand is projected to grow by at least 70% over the next four decades.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that almost four billion people will live in areas of high water stress within the next two decades.
Today, nearly one out of seven people live without safe or reliable access to clean water or sanitation facilities.

Dugle wrapped up her remarks by telling the audience how proud Raytheon is to operate one of the largest environmental data stores in the world; a system that contains more than four petabytes of data. To put that into context, that's enough earth science data to fill 80 million four-drawer filing cabinets! And, everyday, an additional four terabytes of data is added. That's the equivalent of downloading 1.3 million songs onto your iPod on a daily basis. All that information is shared with scientists and researchers around the globe who work on the interconnected challenges of population growth, climate change and the looming scarcity of natural resources.

In addition to her speech, Dugle participated in a panel on "Women in Leadership" moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times, along with panelists Marye Anne Fox, chancellor of the University of California-San Diego; Camilla Hall, Gulf correspondent for the Financial Times; Diane Latiker, founder of Kids Off The Block, an organization that supports at-risk youth; and archeologist Kathleen Martinez-Berry.

Dugle later participated in a discussion with two Nobel Laureates, Dr. Robert Mtonga and Betty Williams, on the topic of the environment and earth sciences. Both were Nobel Peace Prize recipients.