Tuesday, April 30, 2013

One step forward, pause, one step forward: blog reboot and status update.

Life sometimes throws you come curve balls. Alas, my one-year hiatus is over and my health is restored. I am good to go. Ergo, I will begin this blog once more and reboot it. I'm feeling great and am now focusing on three things: my Major Research Paper draft due in December, my research trip to the American Institute of Physics this summer, and my biography on Robert Jemison Van de Graaff.

My coursework for my MA in Science & Technology Studies is done! Dare I think of starting a Ph.D in a year or two? I would have to do it part-time so that may limit my options.

Being free of coursework now offers more time to attend STS-related events. Recently, the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST) recently took its turn hosting the Fifth Annual GTA Science Studies Workshop. YorkU's Research Seminar Series in STS is always a favourite of mine to attend. Being a full-time employee, however, limits my opportunities to attend these events so I adjust my lunch times when I can. Back on February 26, 2013, I met Sheila Jasanoff briefly before her talk "Science and Reason in the Public Sphere." Back on October 9, 2012, I met with David Kaiser after his talk "Calculating Times:  Testing Einstein's Relativiity in the Cold War." I had just finished reading his fascinating book How the Hippies Saved Physics.

Coming up here at YorkU is Peter Galison who will be the Keynote Speaker at STS conference Materiality: Objects and Idioms in Historical Studies of Science and Technology (May 2-4, 2013). Galison's talk, "Time of Physics, Time of Art" is a public lecture. Attached to this conference is the 3rd Annual Graduate Conference in Science and Technology Studies (May 1-2). Another fascinating guest speaker coming to YorkU is Bora Zivkovic, Blog Editor at Scientific American. His talk, "Science and the New Media Ecosystem," will happen May 6, 2013 with a tweetup dinner to follow. Lots of interesting stuff to learn and contacts to make. I never know where my next Van de Graaff lead will come from!