Seven experts served as masters for the APEX program:

• Matthew Albert, PhD, MD, director of research at National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris and head of a lab at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

• David Goldman, executive director of the National Center for New Plays at Stanford University. Goldman is the founder and vice president of the National New Play Network.

• Janette Turner Hospital, a novelist and teacher who has written seven novels, including "Oyster" (W.W. Norton & Company, 1999) and "Charades" (Bantam, 1990).

• Michael T. Lotze, MD, director of translational research in the University of Pittsburgh's Molecular Medicine Institute and a surgery, molecular genetics and biochemistry professor.

• Alan Morrison, a Stanford University Law School professor who has argued 18 cases before the Supreme Court.

• Holly Rushmeier, PhD, a Yale University computer science professor who has also worked as a research staff member at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.

• Philip Scheffler, a former executive editor of "60 Minutes" who has won numerous awards, including a Peabody and an Emmy.

--Z. STAMBOR