CSW Director John Horgan to keynote at Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Science writer and author John Horgan, Director of the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology, will keynote at the upcoming Swiss Biennial on Science, Technics + Aesthetics, January 16, 2010, in Lucerne, Switzerland. The umbrella topic for the conference is “2010: the Large, the Small and the Human Mind.”

According to the conference website, “the Swiss Biennial 2010, The Large, the Small and the Human Mind, will trigger debate about the unequal status that we have attributed to the physical world ‘out there’ and our many beliefs and mental conceptions ‘in us’ about this world, and it explores the fingers of science, rationality, ontology, epistemology, reflexivity, ethics, ecology, and politics that point to the realities of our beliefs.”

Horgan, who came to Stevens in 2005, is an author and freelance writer who has been published in the New York Times, Newsweek, TIME, Discover, London Times and other publications around the world. Horgan holds a BA in English from Columbia University’s School of General Studies and an MS from Columbia’s School of Journalism. He was a senior writer for Scientific American from 1986 to 1997. His honors and awards include the 2005 Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowship in Science and Religion; the Science Journalism Award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1992 and 1994); and the National Association of Science Writers Science-in-Society Award (1993). His writings have been featured in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing.

The New Gallery Lucerne organizes the two-day Swiss Biennial, which brings together a group of internationally renowned scientists, sociologists, philosophers, ecologists, writers, artists, and policy-makers. From the debate about the pursuit of a “Theory of Everything” (TOE) in physics, extreme objectivity, our relationship to the “Universe,” to “human,” “nature,” “human culture,” and the “human mind,” The Large, the Small and the Human Mind will touch on the world’s first climate war, the destructive side of globalization, and the contradictions of our striving for unlimited economic growth and consumption.
The Swiss Biennial will reflect on these topics from an interdisciplinary perspective with the aim to create a broader and finer sense of possibility.

To view the Biennial website, please visit http://www.neugalu.ch/e_bienn_2010.html#7

About the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology

Stevens Institute of Technology created the Center for Science Writings in 2005 to draw attention to writings, from books to blogs, that shape public perceptions of science. Stevens hired the science journalist John Horgan to serve as the first Director of the Center. The Center, which is part of the College of Arts & Letters, sponsors public events at which prominent writers – including journalists, scientists, engineers, philosophers and others – visit Stevens to discuss science-related issues. The Center’s website publicizes these events and provides supplementary materials and a forum for discussion. Please visit www.stevens.edu/csw

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research.  The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.

Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts.  Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world.  Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.