Hamptons Observatory (HO) is partnering with the Southampton Arts Center to present a free, hybrid lecture and book signing by acclaimed, New York Times Best-Selling author, Pulitzer Prize finalist, Hamptons resident, and Hamptons Observatory founding Advisory Board Member, Dava Sobel.
Donna L. McCormick, the Executive Director of Hamptons Observatory, states: “Even after 90 years since her death, Mme. Marie Curie continues to be an inspiration, not only to the scientific community but also to generations of young women to whom she has served as a role model. Dava Sobel, too, is an inspiration: she is an outstanding author who, through her meticulous research and writing skill has, time and again, provided fresh insight and brought to life historical figures who have made world-changing contributions.”
According to Dava: ‘Marie Curie visited the United States twice in the 1920s. By then a war hero and a two-time Nobel Prize winner, she was welcomed and fussed over by many fine institutions--and received at the White House by Presidents Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover. Had the Hamptons Observatory or the Southampton Arts Center existed at the time, I feel certain she would have enjoyed a side trip to see them.’”
Ms. McCormick continues: “We are deeply grateful to Dava for taking the time to discuss her new book, The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science, and the indefatigable, pioneering character of Mme. Curie, who is the subject of this biography. It is truly an honor to have Dava as a founding member of Hamptons Observatory’s Advisory Board. We also are delighted to again be partnering with the Southampton Arts Center on this special program.”
Following Dava’s hybrid lecture, she will autograph copies of her book, which will be available for purchase. Weather permitting, the event will conclude with guided tours (by telescope) of the night sky by Hamptons Observatory founding Board member and Academic Chair of Science at Suffolk County Community College, Sean Tvelia.
The discovery of two new elements—polonium, named for her homeland, and radium with its strange powers—brought the Polish-born Marie Sklodowska Curie to the world’s attention in 1898. Both elements were “radioactive,” a term she coined to describe their unusual behavior.
As radioactivity reshaped physics and chemistry in the early 20th century, Mme. Curie met regularly with a coterie of scientists, including her friend Albert Einstein. For decades she stood out at international conferences as the only woman in the room. Meanwhile she made room in her laboratory between 1906 and 1933 for more than forty aspiring female scientists. During the First World War, she drove her personally outfitted mobile X-ray units to combat zones accompanied by her seventeen-year-old daughter, Irène. Together they trained some 150 French women as X-ray technicians. After Irène completed her university studies, she followed her mother into the lab and won her own Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.
Weather permitting, the event will conclude with an opportunity for in-person attendees to enjoy stargazing by telescope with Hamptons Observatory founding Board member and Academic Chair of Science at Suffolk County Community College, Sean Tvelia.
The lecture will begin at 6:00 PM, ET, on Monday, January 13, 2025.
Admission is free but donations to help support the work of Hamptons Observatory are deeply appreciated.
Reservations for the lecture portion of this program are required.
To attend In-Person: https://bit.ly/DavaSobelTalk-InPerson
To attend Virtually: https://bit.ly/DavaSobelTalk-Virtual
Dava Sobel is a highly acclaimed, award-winning author of seven books, including best-sellers The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of Harvard University Took the Measure of the Stars; Longitude (on which a NOVA documentary and a four-hour mini-series were based), and The Planets. Dava was a 2000 Pulitzer finalist for her book, Galileo's Daughter, which served as the basis for an Emmy Award winning PBS documentary. She is currently Poetry Editor of Scientific American and formerly a science reporter for the New York Times. Dava has been a member of Hamptons Observatory’s Advisory Board since its inception.
Hamptons Observatory (HO), a 501(c)(3) New York State nonprofit, has served the community since 2005. Its mission: to foster interest in science, particularly astronomy, through educational programs. Lectures, star parties, portable planetarium shows and other events are held frequently and often in collaboration with other nonprofit organizations. HO has an observatory in East Hampton that it is endeavoring to restore and to make accessible (in-person and remotely) to students, researchers, educators and the general public. Hamptons Observatory offers all of its public programs free-of-charge so that everyone can learn about and enjoy the wonders of their universe. HO is not endowed but operates exclusively through public donations. Visit www.HamptonsObservatory.org to learn more and to join our email list for news and event notices. To make a tax-deductible donation, please go to .https://bit.ly/HO-Zeffy Thanks!