SUNY New Paltz’s Distinguished Speaker Series has announced that world-renowned conceptual physicist, Janna Levin, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College, Columbia University will speak on “The Third Culture,” on Thursday, Nov. 10, 7:30 p.m., at Lecture Center 100 on the New Paltz campus. For over half a century, there has been a chasm between the arts and the sciences — creating a gulf that has hindered the growth of both sides. Levin’s work as an award-winning author of literary fiction, a Fellow at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing at Oxford University and as an assistant professor at Barnard College exemplifies a growing movement deemed “The Third Culture.”
In this talk, Professor Levin will discuss the crossover between the arts and the sciences and the increasing importance of the scientific imagination in achieving the intellectual goals of a liberal arts education.
“Janna Levin has made significant contributions as a theoretical physicist in the fields of cosmology and black holes,” said Amy Forestell, assistant professor in New Paltz’s Department of Physics. “She has done much to involve the general public in the world of science. Dr. Levin has spoken at many world-class venues and we are very fortunate to have her as the fall 2011 Distinguished Speaker. As a woman with combined work in both astrophysics and the arts she is helping to break stereotypes about scientists and will inspire more young girls to enter the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.”
Levin’s research focuses on theories of the early universe, chaos and black holes. Recently, her group has sonified predictions for the gravitational waves from black hole pairs, rendering the songs of colliding black holes. Her research topics include the shape of space, science’s longstanding question of whether the universe is finite or infinite, the cosmology of multiple dimensions and string cosmology.
For further information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.newpaltz.edu/speakerseries/ or call 257-3880/3972.
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