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Schedule for this lecture.
Goddard Space Flight Center Engineering Colloquium
Date: Monday, June 1, 1998
Science and technology make cities possible, and the state of human knowledge determines the kinds of cities we are able to build. I will argue that the common image of a city as "unnatural" is wrong, and that cities are simply one type of ecosystem among many on our planet. I will trace the historical development of cities to show how, at each stage, technology has determined the envelope of possibilities, but does not determine specific choices within that envelope. In particular, I will argue that there are three technological threads that have shaped the modern metropolis -- the abilities to manipulate atoms (i.e., produce materials), energy, and information, respectively. I will argue that the city that many of us carry in our minds bears little resemblance to the cities we actually live in, and in particular that the best metaphor for the modern city in the industrialized world is that of a network in which the nodes are the so-called "Edge Cities". Finally, I will speculate about the possible ways that cities may evolve in the future, including the possibility that they may cease to exist.
Dr. Trefil was born in Chicago and educated in the public schools. After receiving a B.S. in physics from the University of Illinois, he won a Marshall scholarship to Oxford University, where he received B.A. and M.A. degrees. He was a National Science Foundation Fellow at Stanford University, where he received an M.S. and Ph.D. in theoretical physics. He held postdoctoral, visiting, and junior faculty appointments at several institutions such as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In 1987 he joined the faculty of George Mason University as Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics.
Prof. Trefil has written extensively about science for the general audience. He serves as a regular contributor and science consultant for Smithsonian Magazine. He has received awards for scientific journalism and has served as a science commentator on National Public Radio. Dr. Trefil has written several books, including A Scientist in the City and a textbook, The Sciences: An Integrated Approach (with Robert Hazen). He has published over 100 papers in professional journals and has made contributions to research in physics and medicine.
Colloquium Committee Sponsor: Dave Beyer
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