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8/19/2009 - Novelist Alan Lightman Appears September 17th
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Eastside Preparatory School is proud to announce the launch of an annual guest speaker program featuring nationally acclaimed scholars called “Visiting Thinkers.” The first featured scholar for Eastside Prep’s inaugural Visiting Thinker Night is author and physicist Dr. Alan Lightman. Dr. Lightman, the author of Einstein’s Dreams, Good Benito, The Diagnosis, Reunion, Ghost, in addition to 7 books on science and several essays and fables, will present his lecture on Thursday, September 17th, from 7:30 – 9:00 p.m. Eastside Preparatory School in the cafeteria. There is no admission fee, but seating is limited. Tickets will be reserved based on the order in which requests are received (tlindsey@eastsideprep.org).
Alan Lightman is a novelist, essayist, physicist, and educator. Currently, he is Adjunct Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1981, Lightman began publishing essays about science, the human side of science, and the "mind of science," beginning with Smithsonian Magazine and moving to Science 82, The New Yorker, and other magazines. Since that time, Lightman's essays, short fiction, and reviews have appeared in The American Scholar, The Atlantic Monthly, Boston Review, Daedalus, Discover, Exploratorium, Granta, Harper's, Harvard Magazine, Inc Technology, Nature, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Science 86, The Sciences, Smithsonian, Story, Technology Review, and World Monitor.
In 1989, Lightman was appointed professor of science and writing, and senior lecturer in physics, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1991 to 1997, he headed the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies at MIT. During this period, he helped create a new Communication Requirement at MIT (first instituted in 2001), which requires all MIT undergraduates to have a course equivalent in writing or speaking each of their four years. In 1995, he was appointed John E. Burchard professor of humanities at MIT, a chair named after the first dean of humanities at MIT (1948 - 1964). In 2001, Lightman cofounded the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT, which accepted its first students in the fall of 2002. In the same year, he resigned his chair to allow more time for his writing and became adjunct professor at MIT.
In 2004, Lightman cofounded the Catalyst Collaborative at MIT, which is a collaboration between MIT and the Underground Railway Theater of Boston. The Catalyst Collaborative aims to convey science and the culture of science through theater. CC@MIT commissions new plays and produces existing plays that involve science or scientists. In 2007, with playwright and director Kate Snodgrass and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., Lightman founded the Kennedy Center American College Theater Award for a play about science. This award is given biannually to the best play involving science written by a college student. The theme for the first award was "global warming." The upcoming theme is "women in science."
As both a distinguished physicist and an accomplished novelist, Lightman is one of only a small number of people who straddle the sciences and the humanities. He was the first professor at MIT to receive a joint appointment in the sciences and the humanities. His essay "In the Name of Love?" was the first article about love and language published in Nature, the prestigious international science journal (October 8, 2001), and his "The First Law of Thermodynamics" was the first short story published in the physics journal Physics Today (May 2005). He has lectured at more than 100 universities nationwide about the similarities and differences in the ways that scientists and artists view the world.
Dr. Lightman will meet with Upper School students to discuss his book, Einstein's Dreams, read by all Eastside Prep Upper School students over the summer. Following an interactive discussion with EPS faculty from 3:30- 4:30pm, Dr. Lightman will present a lecture on the world views of scientists and artists. For more information about the September 17th Visiting Thinker Night, please contact Tori Lindsey at tlindsey@eastsideprep.org.
Opened in September of 2003, Eastside Prep is a co-ed Middle and Upper School located in Kirkland, Wash., near Seattle. It offers a challenging academic program for students in grades 5-12. The school was founded in 2003 by a group of parents who wanted to create a new and innovative educational option on the eastside. Eastside Prep stresses critical thinking, integration of ideas and disciplines, and an ethic of citizenship. The school can be contacted at 425-822-5668, or via their website at www.eastsideprep.org.
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