Public Invited to Forum on Science and Society on 10 August at Inaugural Conference of the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos

8 August 2007—A public Forum on Science and Society will be held during the Inaugural Conference of the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos on Friday, 10 August, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. in 102 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. The forum, which is open to the general public without charge, is part of the international conference that marks the expansion of the formerly named Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Penn State with the addition of particle astrophysics to its core components, forming the new Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos. "From quantum cosmology to new observational windows, the new Institute will seek greater understanding of the physical universe and its extreme events," said Abhay Ashtekar, Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Physics and director of the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos.

The forum will be chaired by Daniel Larson, the Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Penn State Eberly College of Science. The forum will begin with presentations by four distinguished speakers who will share their thoughts on issues related to science and society, as they relate to the new institute, from four different perspectives. "The four presentations will be followed by a general discussion in which organizers will solicit ideas from scientists and citizens on how best to orient the Institute for the exciting pursuit of new science and how we can share our quest with interested people from all walks of life," explained Paul Sommers, professor of physics and astronomy and astrophysics and associate director of the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos. The speakers include Dr. Edward Frymoyer, Mr. Christopher Liedel, Mr. Duane Valz, and Sir Roger Penrose.

Dr. Edward Frymoyer is the founder of emf Associates, Inc., which provides a wide range of consulting services to the data-communications, computer, telecommunications, film/video/broadcast, and semiconductor industries. In 1994 he launched Fibre Channel Group, LLC, to meet the educational needs of the fibre-channel and storage-area-network (SAN) fields. In 1999 he founded Infinity I/O, which continues the work of the Fibre Channel Group in information infrastructure training. He is a member of the American National Standards Institute committee on fibre-channel standards (ANSI X3T11); a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), and the Society for Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE); and a holder of several patents. He currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the Dean's Advisory Committee of the Eberly College of Science.

Mr. Christopher Liedel is executive vice president and chief financial officer for the National Geographic Society. Under his leadership, the society has expanded its Explorers program beyond terrestrial themes to include explorations of the cosmos as a whole. He also chairs the National Philanthropic Trust's Board. He is a member of the board of directors of Destination Cinemas Inc., and Fairfax Symphony Orchestra. He played a seminal role in the founding of the Foundations Questions Institute (FQXi), a community focused on foundational questions in physics and cosmology, with emphasis on new frontiers and innovative ideas, that seeks to catalyze and disseminate research that is integral to a deep understanding of reality but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.

Mr. Duane Valz is a Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Global Patent Strategy at Yahoo! Inc. In that role he leads a team of attorneys and engineers responsible for the company's worldwide invention harvesting, patent filings, and portfolio management. He has counseled a wide variety of emerging-growth, private, and publicly held companies on intellectual property and technology matters. In particular, he served as Director of Intellectual Property for Quantum Corporation (NYSE: QTM), a producer of high-capacity data-storage systems and devices.

Sir Roger Penrose is the Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at Oxford and the Francis R. Pentz and Helen M. Pentz Distinguished Visiting Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Penn State. He has made seminal discoveries in diverse areas of mathematics and physics, including general relativity, cosmology, condensed-matter physics, algebraic geometry, complex analysis, and recreational mathematics. He is also the founding father of Twistor Theory. He has played a major role in the popularization of Science, writing a number of influential best-sellers: The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (1989); Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science Of Consciousness (1994); and The Road to Reality (2004). He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom for his services to science and has received many other prestigious prizes and awards.

Further details are on the Web at http://www.gravity.psu.edu/igc/

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