Chicago Science Field Trips

When: Thursday, November 14, 2024
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM CT
Where: Lutkin Memorial Hall, 700 University Place, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Cost: Free and open to the public.
Contact: CIERA Astrophysics (847) 491-8646
[email protected]
Group: CIERA - Annual Public Lecture Series
Category: Lectures & Meetings

### Description:

Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) Presents: THE CIERA 16th ANNUAL PUBLIC LECTURE
-- Free and open to the public.
-- All are welcome! Content tailored to a general audience.
-- Meet Northwestern astronomers after the lecture.
-- Campus parking lots are free and unrestricted in the evenings.
Stephon Alexander
Talk Title: The Jazz of Physics

About this Talk:
More than fifty years ago, John Coltrane drew the twelve musical notes in a circle and connected them by straight lines, forming a five-pointed star. Inspired by Einstein, Coltrane put physics and geometry at the core of his music.
Physicist and jazz musician Stephon Alexander follows suit, using jazz to answer physics' most vexing questions about the past and future of the universe. Inspired by his book, The Jazz of Physics, Alexander follows the great minds that first drew the links between music and physics - a list including Pythagoras, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, and Rakim — revealing that the ancient poetic idea of the "Music of the Spheres," taken seriously, clarifies confounding issues in physics.
About the Presenter:
Stephon Alexander is an award winning theoretical physicist of international repute, author, and jazz musician whose work is at the interface between cosmology, particle physics, quantum gravity, AI and music technology. His expertise lays in constructing new theories of the early universe and elementary particle physics that has predictions for the universe at present, such as dark energy and dark matter. He also combines mathematics and tools from theoretical physics into machine learning, the geometry and cognition of musical perception, signal processing and computational algorithms.
Alexander is a Professor of Physics at Brown University, and a past President of the National Society of Black Physicists and is currently the CEO and Founder of the non-profit SoundPlusScience Inc. Alexander was also the Executive Director of the Harlem Gallery of Science. He had previous appointments at Stanford University, Imperial College, Penn State, Dartmouth College and Haverford College. Alexander is a specialist in the field of string theory and cosmology, where the physics of superstrings are applied to address longstanding questions in cosmology. In 2001, he co-invented the model of cosmic inflation based on string theory.
In his critically acclaimed book, The Jazz of Physics, Alexander revisits the ancient interconnection between music, astrophysics and the laws of motion. He explores new ways music, in particular jazz music, mirrors modern physics, such as quantum mechanics, general relativity, and the physics of the early universe. He also discusses ways that innovations in physics have been and can be inspired from "improvisational logic" exemplified in Jazz performance and practice. Alexander is also a touring jazz musician.
For those unable to make it to Evanston, the lecture will be livestreamed.
The Lecture is made possible with support from The Alumnae of Northwestern University

They have also added a jazz performance before the lecture at 7pm. I've updated the event time to include the performance.

ISC is partnering with a terrific group of other area science organizations for some great science and socializing. Join us with AWIS (Association of Women in Science), the Chicago Council on Science and Technology, Chientist, and ChiTownBio for an evening of networking, socializing, and science. Come meet like-minded people and learn something new!

Building a Circular Economy using Biology
Monday, November 18, 2024
6:00pm - 8:30pm (doors open at 6pm; program at 6:30)
Half Sour, 755 S Clark St, Chicago 60605 (map)
FREE; food & drink available for purchase
Registration on Eventbrite not required, but greatly appreciated

Marilene Pavan of LanzaTech Inc., a carbon recycling technology company, will speak on Re-imagining Manufacturing to Replace Fossil Sources: Building a Circular Economy using Biology.

LanzaTech enhances sustainability by converting waste carbon from industrial emissions into valuable products like sustainable fuels and consumer goods, thus reducing dependence on virgin fossil carbon. Their biorecycling technology, operational commercially since 2018, leverages gas fermentation with bacteria to transform emissions from sources such as steel mills and landfills into useful chemicals, promoting a circular economy. By enabling industrial partners to capture and process carbon-rich gases, LanzaTech's model plays a critical role in addressing the climate crisis and meeting the urgent need for carbon recycling and utilization technologies.