Category: Announcements

ALICE DREGER, Ph.D., author of Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science, will give the Pauline Newman ’47 Distinguished Lecture on April 7, 2016 (5 p.m., Taylor Hall 102).

Alice Dreger is an historian of science and social justice advocate. She argues passionately the need to use historic and scientific evidence to create a more
just world. Much of her academic and advocacy work has focused on improving  the lives of people born with norm-challenging bodies. More recently, she has been exploring the role of academics and journalists in sustaining American democracy, and the absolute need for use of scientific and historic evidence in sustaining both democracy and social justice. Her 2015 book calls “on American academics to step up, defend academic freedom,
and be responsible to truth and democracy, both.”

Pauline Newman graduated from Vassar in 1947 and then went on to earn an MS from Columbia, a Ph.D. in Applied Physical Chemistry from Yale and an LL.B. from NYU. Her early career involved research, patent law, and policy work. Since 1984 Judge Pauline Newman has served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Her distinguished career as a jurist has included authoring many important opinions in the field of intellectual property and
patent law, and more broadly, she has been involved in many decisions that have bridged issues of importance for the practice and application of science
and technology, for government, business and academia.

In anticipation of author Michael Chorost’s visit to Vassar February 23 – 25, 2016 as part of the College’s Creative Arts Across the Discipoines (CAAD) initiative – Sonic Cyborg program, the Asprey CCAS Engaging Science Book Club will read and discuss Chorost’s book Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human by Michael Chorost. The inform discussions will be held Wednesday Feb 10th from 3-4pm and Thursday Feb 18th from 4-5pm (check back soon for location!)  The Engaging Science Book Club of the Asprey Center has purchased copies of Chorost’s book. They are available, free of charge, in the Physics and Astronomy Department office (SP 103 – Please ask for Christine Anzalone).

Chorost became a cyborg on October 1, 2001, the day his new ear was booted up. Born hard of hearing in 1964, he went completely deaf in his thirties. Rather than live in silence, he chose to have a computer surgically embedded in his skull to artificially restore his hearing.

The Asprey Center collaborated with the Department of Earth Science and Geography on a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on October 3, 2015. The purpose of the trip was to investigate properties of earth materials through the lens of art and archeology. After meeting up at  the Temple of Dendur to look at the carvings of papyrus and lotus plants into the buff, yellow sandstone from which the Temple was constructed, thirty students and two faculty members dispersed in small groups to examine art and artifacts from the Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, MIddle American and Near Eastern galleries.  Which types of rock were most commonly used to make large sculptures? Which minerals are most commonly used to make jewelry? Which minerals are most commonly used to make pigments used to decorate walls or statues? We addressed these questions and learned that people of ancient cultures in their resourcefulness used readily available materials for everyday tools as well as adornments .

Funded partially by grants from the Asprey Center for Collaborative Approaches to Science, more than a dozen Vassar computer science majors participated in the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing October 14th – October 16th, 2015 in Houston, Texas. Co-founded by Dr. Anita Borg and Dr. Telle Whitney in 1994 and inspired by the legacy of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the Institute’s Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women In Computing Conference is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. It is the largest technical conference for women in computing and results in collaborative proposals, networking and mentoring for junior women and increased visibility for the contributions of women in computing. Conference presenters are leaders in their respective fields, representing industry, academia and government. Top researchers present their work while special sessions focus on the role of women in today’s technology fields. According to computer science major Carly Bloomfeld (’17), the conference was a great experience. A major aspect of it was the job fair with representatives from hundreds of different tech companies doing interviews on-site. A lot of students who attend the conference get jobs and internships from the job fair. There are also a lot of lectures on a wide range of topics such as how to get involved in open-source programming and how virtual reality technology can be used for social good. The conference was a great opportunity for job searching, networking, and simply learning about technology.”