The Nerenberg Lecture Series
Something Extraordinary
The Nerenberg Lecture Series
Something Extraordinary
The Nerenberg Lecture recognizes the accomplishment of overcoming scientific, mathematical, theoretical, or social obstacles to communicate significant ideas of our age to a broad audience.
The Nerenberg Lecture Series is first and foremost about people and ideas. Knowledge is the true treasure of humanity, accrued and passed down through the generations. Some of it, particularly science and its language, mathematics, is closed in practice to many because of technical barriers that can only be overcome at a high price. These technical barriers form part of the remarkable fractures that have formed in our legacy of knowledge. We are so used to those fractures that they have become almost invisible to us, but they are a source of profound confusion about what is known obscuring its deep value. The Nerenberg Lectures are meant as an opportunity to see through the fractures, and an occasion to understand their consequences.
Nerenberg
Lectures are not ones that might be given merely to popularize science,
but are instead made authoritatively to express an authentic position of
significance--one which can surprise and challenge those holding conventional
wisdom. They typically come from an accomplished scientist or mathematician,
or technical innovator with a passion for communicating to a wide audience his or her distinctive
ideas informed by that technical background.
Previous Nerenberg Lecturers have been Sir Roger Penrose (Oxford, mathematics:
"Science Mathematics and the Mind", 1998), Norman Levitt (Rutgers, mathematics,
"the Ambiguous Situation of Science in Contemporary Society", 1999), Mark
Tilden (Los Alamos, robotics: "If This Is The Future, Where's My Robot?",
2000), S. Fred Singer (SEPP, "Where was Global Warming this Winter When
We Needed It?", 2001), Mike Lazaridis (RIM, theoretical physics, "Why
PI?", 2002), Lee Smolin (Why Does Science Work?, 2003), Leon Glass,
(Chaotic Music and Fractal Art: A glimpse Into the Neurophysiology of
Aesthetics, 2004), John Mighton (If You Can Read This Title, Why Aren't You a Mathematician?, 2005).
These lectures have been widely and enthusiastically attended by members of the general public in large numbers, and often have substantial media coverage.
Approximately 600 people came to
the first Nerenberg Lecture in 1998. Each lecturer has in one way or another
stretched the audience with a presentation tinged with the excitement of
something extraordinary and unexpected.
The Nerenberg Lecture is named after the late Morton (Paddy) Nerenberg, a much-loved professor and researcher born on 17 March-- hence his nickname. He was a Professor at Western for more than a quarter century, and a founding member of the Department of Applied Mathematics there. A successful researcher and accomplished teacher; he believed in the unity of knowledge, that scientific and mathematical ideas belong to everyone, and that they are of human importance. He regretted that they had become inaccessible to so many, and anticipated serious consequences from it. The series honors his appreciation for the democracy of ideas. He died in 1993 at the age of 57. He is survived by his children Albert, Ben, and Simone.
The 9th, 2006, Nerenberg Lecture will be given by Dr. R. Stephen Berry, Department of Chemistry, The University of Chicago. His lecture is entitled, "ENERGY: Mysterious and Amazing, Conserved and Conserving." For more information about this years lecture, please go to 2007 Lecture.