Colloquium 2007-10-18

 

3:30 p.m. in Room 307 of the Optical Sciences Meinel Building

Speaker:

Robert Greenler

Emeritus Professor, Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Title:

Seeing With the Mind as Well as the Eye

 

Hosts:

Stephen Jacobs and James Wyant

 

Abstract: In this presentation I will attempt to describe a way of looking at the world - a way of seeing beyond the immediate observation.  Since what we perceive is strongly influenced by what we already know, the examples I will present will be quite personal.  However, they illustrate a way of looking at nature that I believe can be very important for a scientist, and can, in addition, enhance our pleasure in walking through the world.

Bio:

Dr. Robert Greenler is Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he has been a faculty member since 1962.  He has been instrumental in the development of the Laboratory for Surface Studies at Milwaukee, an internationally recognized interdisciplinary laboratory that has been the focus for much of his research effort.

 

He is the organizer of "The Science Bag," a series of public science programs in Milwaukee that has had over 160,000 attenders since it was started in 1973.  He has been the producer of a series of 30 videotape versions of selected Science Bag programs that are sold over the country for classroom use.

 

Another area of his interest concerns the study of optical effects of the sky.  His book, Rainbows, Halos, and Glories, was published by Cambridge University Press in 1980 and has been reprinted in paperback edition by Peanut Butter Publishing.  This interest in optical sky phenomena has taken him on three field trips to the U.S. Antarctic Research Station located at the South Pole.

 

Professor Greenler served at the president of the Optical Society of America in 1987.  In 1988 he received the Millikan Lecture Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers for the 'creative teaching of Physics" and in 1993, the first Esther Hoffman Beller Award to be awarded by the Optical Society of America for "...extraordinary leadership in advancing the public appreciation and understanding of science...".

 

In 2002, his name was placed on a bronze plaque at the Spaights Plaza on the campus of the university of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as an individual "...who has made significant, enduring, and campus-wide contributions to the growth and development of the university of Wisconsin-Milwaukee."

 

His latest book, Chasing the Rainbow: Recurrences in the Life of a Scientist, was published in 2000 by Elton Wolf.

 

Dr. Greenler lives in Madison, Wisconsin.