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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, May 2, 2016 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Anne Simon

"The Science of the X-Files: Confessions of the Show's Science Adviser"

ABSTRACT -- A major issue facing the United States is the insufficient number of young, diverse individuals choosing STEM majors in college. This problem is exacerbated by unflattering, stereotypic images of scientists in the media, which dissuade promising students from considering STEM careers. To counteract this longstanding issue, the National Academy of Sciences recently established the "Science and Entertainment Exchange" to help foster collaborations between the entertainment industry and working scientists with the hope that the public will be presented with more realistic depictions of science and scientists. When The X-Files science fiction TV show premiered on FOX in the early 1990's, it was revolutionary in its portrayal of a realistic woman scientist, Dana Scully, in a leading role. This led at the time to the "Scully Effect", as many STEM students pointed to her as a reason for choosing a science career. The X-Files also incorporated real science into many story lines, as Scully and other scientists tried to solve mysteries to explain paranormal phenomena that permeated many of the episodes. This talk will focus on my "side gig" as the science adviser to Chris Carter, the creator of The X-Files and one of the principal writers. I will describe how a virologist ended up with this entertaining side gig, how science was included in several of my favorite episodes, and how as science adviser I nudged Chris into including more scientifically accurate story lines. I will also show clips of many scenes that show how real science formed the basis of the last episode of the recent X-Files Revival, for which I received story writing credit.

SPEAKER -- Anne Simon received her BA in Biology from the University of California San Diego and her Ph.D. in Genetics from Indiana University. After 13 years as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Dr. Simon moved to the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland College Park in 2000 where she continues her research on virus replication and translation currently funded by the National Science Foundation and the NIH. Dr. Simon is the founder and director of the University of Maryland Virology Program and a senior editor of the Journal of Virology. In 2002, Dr. Simon received the Francki Prize for Distinguished research in Plant Virology and has published over 120 papers. Dr. Simon's teaching specialty is Introduction to Biology, for which she has received a University Distinguished Teaching Award.

Dr. Simon is the science adviser for the television series The X-Files and the X-Files movie Fight the Future and has written the book, The Real Science Behind the X-Files: Microbes, Meteorites and Mutants published by Simon & Schuster in 1999. She has given talks throughout the country on the science of the X-Files including a principal talk at the 10th TED conference, was featured on Good Morning America, The New York Times and People Magazine and was one of 50 scientists profiled for The New York Times book Scientists at Work. She was also featured in the docudrama Zombie Earth for the National Geographic Channel.




Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov