Photo of Dr. Kevin Grazier from the online magazine The Register, www.theregister.co.uk, 3 Nov. 2010
Building on my last post, I want to confirm that, yes, scientist Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D. will be speaking to my English 370 class at CSU Northridge next Tuesday, October 1. This event is free and open to the public. Science fiction fans are encouraged to attend, and to spread the word!
Dr. Grazier is a former research scientist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the science advisor to popular TV series such as Defiance, Falling Skies, Battlestar Galactica, and Eureka as well as Alfonso Cuarón's hotly anticipated new film Gravity (which premieres next Friday, Oct. 4).
His talk on “The Science of Science Fiction” will give us a rare opportunity to discuss, with a working scientist, the relationships among scientific research, storytelling, and popular media. I like to think it will spark interdisciplinary dialogue about the links among science, humanities scholarship, and literature. To that end, I’ve extended the invitation across CSUN to students and faculty in all disciplines, particularly the sciences.
Dr. Grazier worked at JPL for fifteen years. While there he served as Investigation Scientist and Science Planning Engineer on the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan, working particularly on the Cassini probe's imaging system, which sends pictures back to Earth. For JPL, he wrote mission-planning and analysis software that won both JPL- and NASA-wide awards. He has six university degrees in science, including an M.S. and Ph.D. in geophysics and space physics from UCLA (his PhD research focused on computer simulations of early Solar System evolution), an M.S. in physics, and B.S. degrees in computer science, geology, and physics. His research specialties include numerical method development and large-scale computer simulations of Solar System dynamics, evolution, and chaos.
Besides serving as a science adviser for films and TV shows, Dr. Grazier is a freelance writer and editor. He co-authored the book The Science of Battlestar Galactica, edited the anthologies The Science of Dune, The Science of Michael Crichton, and Fringe Science, and collaborated on the American Chemical Society’s anthology Hollywood Chemistry. In addition, he is a veteran teacher, having taught courses in astronomy, planetary science, cosmology, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the science of SF at UCLA, Santa Monica College, and College of the Canyons. He has also worked to educate the public about science on other fronts, including talks at events such as Comic-Con International and appearances on the History Channel, Science Channel, and National Geographic.
In short, Kevin Grazier is ideally qualified to speak about the science in SF. We in 370 feel lucky to have him as a guest, and are greatly looking forward to this event!
Kevin Grazier's talk will take place at CSU Northridge on Tuesday, Oct. 1, from 12:30 to 1:45, in Jerome Richfield Hall, Room 319, a lovely venue that we in the CSUN Department of English call the Linda Nichols Joseph Reading Room. See you there! Feel free to leave comments or questions about this event right here on our blog, of course.
Dr. Grazier is a former research scientist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the science advisor to popular TV series such as Defiance, Falling Skies, Battlestar Galactica, and Eureka as well as Alfonso Cuarón's hotly anticipated new film Gravity (which premieres next Friday, Oct. 4).
His talk on “The Science of Science Fiction” will give us a rare opportunity to discuss, with a working scientist, the relationships among scientific research, storytelling, and popular media. I like to think it will spark interdisciplinary dialogue about the links among science, humanities scholarship, and literature. To that end, I’ve extended the invitation across CSUN to students and faculty in all disciplines, particularly the sciences.
Dr. Grazier worked at JPL for fifteen years. While there he served as Investigation Scientist and Science Planning Engineer on the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan, working particularly on the Cassini probe's imaging system, which sends pictures back to Earth. For JPL, he wrote mission-planning and analysis software that won both JPL- and NASA-wide awards. He has six university degrees in science, including an M.S. and Ph.D. in geophysics and space physics from UCLA (his PhD research focused on computer simulations of early Solar System evolution), an M.S. in physics, and B.S. degrees in computer science, geology, and physics. His research specialties include numerical method development and large-scale computer simulations of Solar System dynamics, evolution, and chaos.
Besides serving as a science adviser for films and TV shows, Dr. Grazier is a freelance writer and editor. He co-authored the book The Science of Battlestar Galactica, edited the anthologies The Science of Dune, The Science of Michael Crichton, and Fringe Science, and collaborated on the American Chemical Society’s anthology Hollywood Chemistry. In addition, he is a veteran teacher, having taught courses in astronomy, planetary science, cosmology, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the science of SF at UCLA, Santa Monica College, and College of the Canyons. He has also worked to educate the public about science on other fronts, including talks at events such as Comic-Con International and appearances on the History Channel, Science Channel, and National Geographic.
In short, Kevin Grazier is ideally qualified to speak about the science in SF. We in 370 feel lucky to have him as a guest, and are greatly looking forward to this event!
Kevin Grazier's talk will take place at CSU Northridge on Tuesday, Oct. 1, from 12:30 to 1:45, in Jerome Richfield Hall, Room 319, a lovely venue that we in the CSUN Department of English call the Linda Nichols Joseph Reading Room. See you there! Feel free to leave comments or questions about this event right here on our blog, of course.
Kevin Grazier at Comic-Con International, 23 July 2009, photo (via Flickr) by Dave Fayram
PS. Here are some interesting web resources about Kevin Grazier:
- An excellent article on KG by Gavin Clarke for the online tech magazine The Register (Nov. 2010)
- Discover's Stephen Cass interviews KG about the Galactica finale for the "Science Not Fiction" blog (March 2009)
- Discover's Gemma Tarlach interviews KG on the eve of Gravity (Sept. 2013, just a few weeks ago)
- Dice, the tech career blog, profiles KG as a "featured geek" (August 2012)
- Video, via Vimeo, of KG on the American Chemical Society panel "Hollywood Chemistry" (March 2011)
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