Imagine a meeting of Pablo Picasso and Albert
Einstein in a bar in Paris in 1904 — when both men were in their
twenties — and the resulting examination of science and art and their
impact on a rapidly changing society.
Written by Steve Martin, one of the great comedic actors
of our generation, Picasso at the Lapin Agile is Martin's
poker-faced — and very funny — riff on the birth of the modern
century.
Director is Jon Galt.
Shows run through Saturday, May 27, at 8 p.m.; and
Sunday, May 28, at 2 p.m.
Admission is $7 (students/seniors $5). For tickets and
information, call ext. 6545.
The faculty on Wednesday voted down a proposal that
would have modified the College's pass-fail policy.
The proposal would have allowed students to take a total
of four pass/fail courses over four years, limited to one per term, rather
than the previous policy of one per year. The new policy was to be
reviewed in the fall of 2001 to consider an amendment to allow students to
take two pass/fail courses in one term.
In other business, faculty approved a transportation
studies minor. The six-course interdisciplinary program is to provide
planning, political, social, and economic insight into the development of
transportation systems and their interactions with society and the
environment.
On Friday, faculty defeated a proposal to enact a
semester calendar by a vote of 104 against and 95 in favor.
Also, Steve Leavitt was elected secretary of the
faculty.
Richard F. Voss, a pioneer in physics and a popular speaker on fractals, will speak on Thursday, May 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the F.W. Olin Center Auditorium at Union College.
The title of his talk, which is free and open to the public, is “Mountains, Clouds, and the Music of the Markets.”
Voss, a former researcher with IBM (where he was a colleague of Benoit Mandlebrot) teaches at Florida Atlantic University's Center for Complex Systems.
The intricate shapes and ever-changing patterns of the natural world have long been an inspiration and model of beauty to artists, writers, and musicians. Mathematics and science, on the other hand, are often viewed as cold, dry, and uninteresting. If they possess a beauty, it is of a perfect symmetry that is irrelevant to the real world: scientists could send a rocket to the moon, or predict the perfect symmetry of carbon atoms in a diamond, but they could not describe a mountain, write a formula for clouds, predict financial markets, or capture a melody.
The mathematics of fractal geometry and the science of chaos are now bridging the gaps between math, science, art, and culture. They treat the messiness of the everyday world. They are based on natural self-similarity (a small branch of a tree reminds one of the entire tree) and observations of complicated behavior from simple equations. They provide a new mathematical language for capturing, manipulating, and simulating nature.
The lecture will illustrate the descriptive and creative power of fractals and chaos through computer generated images, animation, sounds, and music. Examples of practical applications of fractals to economics, DNA sequences, early Chinese landscape paintings, and x-ray mammograms will be presented. The unity of building mountains and clouds from mathematics and generating music from the stock market will be demonstrated.
Voss, an internationally-recognized physicist and popular lecturer on fractals, has presented over 150 major invited lectures on fractal geometry and has published over 80 scientific articles.
Born in Minnesota, Voss received a B.S. degree from M.I.T, a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. For many years, he was a researcher at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, where he collaborated closely with Mandelbrot (the “father” of fractals) and continued his research in condensed matter physics. His mastery of scientific computer graphics has been instrumental in the rapid acceptance of fractals as a useful language. His computer-generated images have appeared widely in numerous magazines, books, television shows, and IBM commercials.
In 1993 he was elected professor of applied physics at Yale University, where he taught a special undergraduate course on fractal geometry. In August 1995 he joined the Center for Complex Systems at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton with appointments as professor of physics and mathematics while continuing his association with IBM Research as a visiting scientist. His current research interests are applications of fractals and chaos to science and math education, financial time series, and medical imaging.
Shaul Bakhash, professor of history at George Mason University and an authority on modern Iran, will deliver a talk titled “Iran: John Locke and Liberalism in an Islamic Republic” on Wednesday, May 24, at 8 p.m. in Union College's Memorial Chapel.
The lecture, part of the Frederic E. Miller Lecture Series in Honor of Anwar Sadat, is free and open to the public.
Bakhash specializes in Iran, modern Middle East and modern Islamic political thought.
He is author of Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy and Reform Under the Oajars, 1858-1896, The Politics of Oil and Revolution in Iran and Reign of the Ayotollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution.
He frequently writes for The New York Review of Books. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the New Republic.
He worked for many years as a journalist in Iran, writing for Tehran-based Kayhan Newspapers as well as the London Times, Financial Times and The Economist.
He taught at Princeton University, and has been a Guggenheim Fellow. He has been awarded fellowships at the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the National Humanities Center.
His current research deals with Islam and political sensibility.
Shaul
Bakhash, professor of history at George Mason University and an authority
on modern Iran, will deliver a talk titled “Iran: John Locke and
Liberalism in an Islamic Republic” on Wednesday, May 24, at 8 p.m. in
Memorial Chapel.
The lecture, part of the Frederic E. Miller Lecture
Series in Honor of Anwar Sadat, is free and open to the public.
Bakhash specializes in Iran, modern Middle East and
modern Islamic political thought.
He is author of Iran: Monarchy, Bureaucracy and
Reform Under the Oajars, 1858-1896, The Politics of Oil and Revolution in
Iran and Reign of the Ayotollahs: Iran and the Islamic Revolution.
He frequently writes for The New York Review of
Books. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington
Post, and the New Republic.
He worked for many years as a journalist in Iran,
writing for Tehran-based Kayhan Newspapers as well as the London Times,
Financial Times and The Economist.
He taught at Princeton University, and has been a
Guggenheim Fellow.
He has been awarded fellowships at the Institute of
Advanced Study at Princeton, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, and the National Humanities Center.
His current research deals with Islam and political
sensibility.
Friday, May 19, 1:30 to 4 p.m.
Hale House.
“Germany in the European Union,” panel discussions sponsored by
the College and the American Association of Teachers of German.
Friday, May 19, 8 p.m.
Nott Memorial.
Bala Troupe presents concert of South Indian classical music and dance.
Sunday, May 21 10:15 a.m.
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1935, The
Plaza, Schenectady.
Union College Jazz Ensemble, Prof. Tim Olsen, director, performs
Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.
Through May 21.
Mandeville Gallery, Nott Memorial.
“Separate & Together,” an exhibition by painters Wolf Kahn
and Emily Mason focusing on the husband and wife's common influences,
inspirations and approaches.
Tuesday, May 23, 12:30 p.m.
Reamer Auditorium.
General faculty meeting.
Wednesday, May 24, 8 p.m.
Memorial Chapel.
Shaul Bakhash, professor of history at George Mason University and an
authority on modern Iran, on “Iran: John Locke and Liberalism in an
Islamic Republic.” The lecture is part of the Frederic E. Miller
Lecture Series in Honor of Anwar Sadat.
Wednesday, May 24, 8:30 to 11 p.m.
Old Chapel.
Celebration of Bob Dylan's birthday hosted by musician and journalist
Mike Eck.
Thursday, May 25, 4 p.m.
Reamer 302, Women's Studies Lounge.
Reception with artists Lori Beth Malinoski '00, Marni LoIacono '01,
Cequyna Moore '00 and Lindsay Kay Rieck '01. Second annual art
exhibition by Union women runs through June 2.
Through May 28.
Yulman Theater.
Opening of Picasso at the Lapin Agile by Steve Martin,directed
by Jon Galt. Admission is $7 (students/seniors $5). For tickets and
information, call ext. 6545.
