Interdisciplinary Studies

Conversations

July   2004 - January   2005

Starting in the Fall Semester of 2004, some `conversations' were held, in the form of informal gatherings in which the speakers engaged in a one-hour conversation with the audience.

While no prior knowledge about the main topic of a conversation was required from the audience, the meetings were meant to be of interest also for those who do have more specialist knowledge. Therefore, the nature of the conversations would freely and frequently meander between the level of a popular talk and that of in-depth discussions, depending on the interests and backgrounds of those present.

The emphasis was on interactive discussions: the presence of a wall-to-wall blackboard encouraged the exchanges to become as graphic as possible.

September 27,   2004
2:00 pm
Dilworth Room (rear)
Dining Hall

Astronomical Odds

A Policy Framework for
the Cosmic Impact Hazard

Geoffrey Sommer

Policy Studies
Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA 		See also: a
recent presentation.
October 11,   2004
2:00 pm
Dilworth Room (rear)
Dining Hall

Dreaming up a Supercomputer

The Basic Design of
the World's first Petaflops Computer

Junichiro Makino

Astronomy Department
Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan 		See also the
Grape web site, and
the Grape-DR project.
October 25,   2004
2:00 pm
Dilworth Room (rear)
Dining Hall

Anomalous Meteor Sounds

300 Years of History of a
Still Unexplained Phenomenon

Dejan Vinkovic

Astrophysics
IAS, Princeton, NJ 		See also:
www.gefsproject.org
November 1,   2004
2:00 pm
Dilworth Room (rear)
Dining Hall

In Search for Meaning

My Experiments with Truth

Richard D'Souza

Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
Heidelberg, Germany
Back to Interdisciplinary Studies

Back to Institute for Advanced Study