LASER Talks in San Francisco

Chaired by Tami Spector and Piero Scaruffi

EVENT INFO

When: 12^th April 2023, at 12pm PST, Find your timezone here

Where: Online, register via ZOOM

PROGRAM

- Margaret Geller (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) on "Mapping the Universe"
- Roxana Marachi (San Jose State Univ) on "How Surveillance Capitalism Ate Education for Lunch "
- Piero Scaruffi (Cultural Historian) on "What's in a Transformer: Why ChatGPT works so well"

SPEAKERS BIOS

Margaret Geller is senior scientist at the Center for Astrophysics of Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and an astronomy professor at Harvard University. She studies the large-scale spatial distribution of galaxies and its origin. She is best known for maps of the nearby universe, for studies of the structure and evolution of systems of galaxies, and for combining redshift surveys with weak lensing maps to measure the mass distribution in the universe. Geller has also made two award-winning films about her work: Where the Galaxies Are and So Many Galaxies...So Little Time. The graphics from these films have been displayed in science museums around the world. Geller was an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley and she received her PH.D. in physics in 1975 from Princeton University. Geller is at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. She has received a number of honors including a MacArthur Fellowship (1990-1995), the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1990), the Hogg Lectureship of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (1993), the Klopsteg Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers (1996), the Magellanic Premium of teh American Philosophical Society (2008), the NAS Watson Medal (2010), the AAS Russell Lecture (2010), the APS Lilienfeld Prize (2013), and the Schwarzschild Medal of the Astronomische Gesellschaft. She has received 7 honorary degrees. Geller is committed to public education in science and she has had a long-term fascination with the relationship between art and science.

Roxana Marachi is a Professor of Education at San José State University where she teaches courses in the Department of Teacher Education and the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. Dr. Marachi’s research publications have focused on evaluations of policies and programs related to school violence prevention, high-stakes testing, privatization, and the technologization of teaching and learning. Her current interests are focused on strategies for the prevention of data harms and on bridging research-to-practice gaps in the integration of emerging technologies in education. Marachi is a fellow of the National Education Policy Center, served as education chair of the CA/HI State NAACP from 2019 to 2021, and has been active in local, state, and national efforts to strengthen and protect public education.

Piero Scaruffi is a cultural historian who has lectured in three continents and published several books on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. He was the founding director of the Olivetti A.I. Center in the 1980s. He is the author of "Thinking about Thought" (2006), "A History of Silicon Valley" (2011) and "Intelligence is not Artificial" (2013). He has also written extensively about music, cinema and literature.

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SPONSORS:

The Leonardo/ISAST LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building to over 50 cities around the world. To learn more about how our LASER Hosts and to visit a LASER near you please visit our website. @lasertalks