Janna Levin, critically acclaimed author and professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University, will present “Black Holes Sing” at 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 17, in the Life Sciences Complex Auditorium, Room 001. The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available for $3.50 in the Booth Garage.
Levin’s lecture is presented by the Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture in the Sciences and Humanities, the Department of Physics in The College of Arts and Sciences, and Syracuse Symposium 2009: Light.
Levin’s scientific research concerns the early universe, chaos theory and black holes. Her first novel, “A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines” (Knopf, 2006), won the PEN/Bingham Fellowship for Writers and was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway award. She is the author of the popular science book, “How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space” (Phoenix, 2003).
Levin holds a bachelor’s degree in physics and astronomy from Barnard College of Columbia University and a Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has worked at the Center for Particle Astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Cambridge University in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. She was also the first scientist-in-residence at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing at Oxford, with an award from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts. She has written for many artists and appeared on several radio and television programs.
Kameshwar C. Wali, distinguished research professor emeritus in the Department of Physics, is internationally recognized for his scholarship in the symmetry properties of fundamental particles and their interactions, and for his work on the physics of music.
The Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture in the Sciences and Humanities was established by Wali’s daughters, Alaka, Achala and Monona, as an expression of their admiration and gratitude for his vision, leadership and dedication to SU and the community. Friends wishing to make a gift to the Kameshwar C. Wali Lecture in the Sciences and Humanities Endowed Fund can contact: Mary Lerner, Office of Advancement, The College of Arts and Sciences, (315) 443-8575, mlerner@syr.edu.
The Syracuse Symposium™ is a semester-long intellectual and artistic festival celebrating interdisciplinary thinking, imagining and creating. The symposium is organized and presented for The College of Arts and Sciences by the SU Humanities Center. The 2009 event features 13 lectures and keynote addresses, three performances and three exhibitions.
