Announcement

The Laser Series: Conversations in Art and Science
Winter 2018

LASER // Conversations in Art and Science continues with its winter 2018 presentation featuring Veronika Hubeny, professor of Physics; Marit McArthur, lecturer, UC Davis University Writing Program; and Grant Ballard, chief science officer at Point Blue Conservation Science. 

DATE: Thursday, Feb. 15
TIME: 6-8 p.m.
LOCATION: Music 115

Admission free

Veronika Hubeny is a theoretical physicist, exploring the fundamental underpinnings of our universe. Her research interests lie mainly in areas of string theory and quantum gravity. Hoping to elucidate the underlying nature of spacetime, she is particularly fascinated by `holographic dualities’ which describe higher-dimensional gravitational theory by a lower- dimensional non-gravitational one. Much of her work involves deeper understanding of black holes within this context, and their mysterious links to quantum information theory.

Marit MacArthur analyzes recordings of poetry readings as texts-in-performance, researching the evolution of and trends in performance styles. Such research requires tools that work well on low-quality, noisy audio common in humanities research, including poetry readings, radio plays, and talking books, the datasets for a new collaborative project funded by a NEH Digital Humanities Advancement grant. Working with media historian Mara Mills (NYU), radio historian Neil Verma (Northwestern University), neuroscientist/bioengineer Lee Miller (UC Davis), and software developer Robert Ochshorn, MacArthur is developing and supporting humanistic research on audio archives. She will talk about her initial findings analyzing sample recordings of 100 American poets.

Grant Ballard currently leads several projects investigating and communicating the effects of landscape-scale environmental stressors on ecosystems and human stakeholders in western North America and the Southern Ocean. He is responsible for shaping and growing the organization’s multi-investigator scientific research and conservation programs towards the vision that healthy ecosystems will continue to sustain thriving wildlife and human communities in California and beyond, on land and at sea, for decades to come. He will talk about his research on the Ross Sea ecosystem, the creation of a large Marine Protected Area, and climate-smart conservation.

The Leonardo Art, Science, Evening Rendezvous (LASER) talks at UC Davis are evening presentations that engage the public as participants in conversations with artists, designers, scientists, and technologists making significant contributions to their fields. The evenings are designed to encourage unexpected juxtapositions between seemingly unrelated projects, facilitating the interdisciplinary conversations that engage the challenges of the 21st century.

Co-directed by Professors Timothy Hyde (Art Studio) and Jiayi Young (Design), LASER runs once every quarter for the 2017-2018 academic year. Event generously sponsored by HArCS, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences UC Davis and Leonardo/ISAST. 

For more information, visit the LASER Facebook page.

 

 

View all UCD Arts departments and programs

Melody Chiang

Art
History

Melody Chiang

Art
Studio

Melody Chiang

Cinema and Digital Media

Melody Chiang

Design

Melody Chiang

Music

Melody Chiang

Theatre
and Dance

Melody Chiang

Performance Studies

Melody Chiang

Mondavi
Center

Melody Chiang

ARTS ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP

Melody Chiang

Home:
UC Davis Arts