The Exploration of the Universe
On the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the birth of Galileo Galilei, the Italian Embassy in Washington and the Georgetown University Italian Research Institute are organizing an event focused on the theme of innovation and scientific research, during the semester of the Italian Presidency of the European Union.
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Georgetown University – Italian Research Institute: click here
RSVP Conference Closing – December 12th at 9:30AM
Please RSVP by noon on Wednesday, December 12th
MORE INFO: +1.202.612.4438
Reservations are available until we reach capacity or by the above date/time (whichever comes first)
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DECEMBER 10TH & 12TH LOCATION
EMBASSY OF ITALY
3000 Whitehaven Street NW
Washington, DC 20008
EVENTS AT THE EMBASSY
Auditorium
ADDRESS
3000 Whitehaven Street NW
Washington, DC 20008
October, 9th 6:30PM – Exhibition Opening and Conference
Introductory remarks by HE Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero
Prof. Gino Segré (Univ. of Pennsylvania): 350 Years of Physics in Florence: from Galileo to Cosmic Rays
Prof. Fernando Ferroni (INFN, National Institute of Nuclear Physics, President): Particle Physics after the “Unreasonable” Success of Standard Model
Prof. Antonio Masiero (INFN Vice President): On Galileo’s Sequel: the Micro – Macro Cosmos Exploration Today
November, 3rd 10AM – Open Workshop
The first section of the Workshop is directed to a general audience and is
dedicated to Galileo’s contribution to the birth of the ‘Scientific Method’.
In the second section we move into space, talking about the use of lasers
for satellite positions, including the ‘Galileo’ satellite constellation.
SPEAKERS:
Franco Cervelli (INFN, National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Pisa): By Seeking and Blundering we Learn: Celebrating the Contribution of Galileo to the Scientific Method
Giuseppe Bianco (ASI, Italian Space Agency, & ILRS, International Laser Ranging Service): Another 50 Year Space Anniversary: from the First Laser Ranging to Modern ILRS
Simone Dell’Agnello (INFN-Frascati & ASI-CTS, Scientific Technical Council ): Laser Ranging to Galileo, the European ‘GPS’
November, 18th 6:30PM – Galileo’s Torch
A play by James Reston about Galileo’s trial by the Inquisition.
The Cast
(in alphabetical order)
Sagredo: Andrew Cockburn
Galileo: Colin Davies
Herald: Casimir P. (Casey) Eitner
Ghost of Giordano Bruno: Bruce Fein
Pope Urban VIII: William Marmon
Adviser to Cardinal Bellarmine: Robert Kozak
Monk: Bill Nitze
Doge of Venice: Ken Shoemaker
Grand Inquisitor: David S. Tatel
Sr. Angelica, a Scribe: Edith Tatel
Cardinal Bellarmine: Richard Viguerie
Costumes: May Miculis
Music Direction: Col. John R. Bourgeois, USMC (Ret)
Graphic Design and Placards: Patricia Underwood
Sound Design: Paul Reisler
Stage Management: Megan Smith
A Note on the Text
Galileo’s Torch is the outgrowth of James Reston, Jr.’s biography, Galileo: A Life, published in 1994, called by the Washington Post “brilliant,” and “masterful”, and published in Italy in Italian by Piemme. Reston has said that his Galileo book nearly ruined him for any future work, because the Galileo story has everything: a mercurial, brilliant, acerbic genius at its center, whose discovery of a dynamic universe by his telescopic observations changed the world forever, and whose clash with the Catholic Church remains a seminal case on the timeless issue of science vs. faith.
In the run-up to the millennium year of 2000 A.D. the Catholic Church decided to reconsider the Galileo case, as part of a process it called “historical purification.” After 13 years of study, the Vatican concluded that “mistakes were made” without specifying who made them. In researching his biography, Reston found that deep in the material the Vatican had quietly released in its reconsideration was the actual transcript of Galileo’s interrogation by the Inquisition.
“It is a searing psychodrama,” Reston has remarked, “in which ultimately Galileo is crushed. I always wanted to see that amazing interrogation brought to life on the stage.” That material forms the climax of “Galileo’s Torch.”
A Note from the Director
We are here to continue the journey of a brand new play. Galileo’s Torch is the result of James Reston Jr’s fusion of talents as a writer of history, fiction, journalism, and drama. The play both presents original insights into the case of Galileo v. The Church and comments on the process of telling the truth about difficult and distant things.
The cast of characters, on stage and off, represents a unique collection of diversely-minded thinkers, writers, and actors (in the literal sense) around American values, policies, images, inventions, and traditions. It has been my distinct privilege to work with this intellectually supercharged group of citizen-artists on a piece of history and drama that has kept us engaged in some of the biggest questions of human endeavor.
We are presenting Galileo’s Torch as a staged reading: The actors perform with script in hand. This has allowed us, with only a very few rehearsals, to embrace changes to the script and to allow both actors and audience to focus on what we’re here to do: listen to the words, tell the story, and help launch a new play on what is sure to be an exciting trajectory into the firmament.
–Rick Davis
December, 10th 6:45PM – Conference – From Galileo to Giant Telescopes:
a Journey through Space and Time
Speakers: Adriano Fontana (INAF, National Institute of Astro-Physics)
This conference is a tale of three nested histories.
The first is the History of the Universe, how the first stars emerged from the primordial gas, how the first galaxies assembled, how they changed their size and shape over billions of years until they became the wonderful objects – like the Milky Way – that we see in the sky.
The second is `our’ history: how astronomers, in only a few hundred years, explored Space and ultimately Time. I will mention the role of the two giants who stand out in this history, Galileo and Hubble, who were able to expand our view beyond the existing boundaries and establish the position of Earth in the Universe. I will describe how astronomers work today, how much our work has been revolutionized by technological developments and social changes.
Finally, this is also a history of telescopes – from the small lenses of Galileo’s’ telescope to giant, high tech mirrors placed on top of desert mountains, they are our special glasses to look at the Universe – and the best is still to come.
It is also a history of the close relationship and collaboration between the USA and Italy in the development of cutting-edge technologies for the most advanced telescopes in the world.
Dr. Adriano Fontana is an astronomer at the INAF- Rome Astronomical Observatory, Professor at Rome University “La Sapienza”, and President of the Large Binocular Telescope Corporation in Tucson (Az), the largest optical telescope in the world.
His research field is the study of the early phases of galaxy evolution: he led several international projects that used the most advanced telescopes from space and ground to reveal how the first stars and galaxies formed out of the primordial diffuse gas, in the first billion years after the Big Bang.
December, 12th 9:30AM – Conference and Exhibition Closing
Speakers: Roberto Battiston (ASI, President): The Contribution of Space Activities to the Development of Society: the Case of Italy
The talk by Prof. Roberto Battiston, President of the Italian Space Agency,
will conclude the celebrations of the 450th Anniversary of Galileo’s birth
at the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC. On this occasion we will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of the San Marco, the first Italian satellite launched into space from the Wallops Island base, marking the birth of the Italian adventure in space and its fruitful collaboration with NASA.
EVENTS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITYItalian Research Institute Intercultural Center Auditorium
ADDRESS
37th and O Street NW
Washington, DC 20007
October 16th, 5:00PM – Lecture
Prof. C. Rubbia (1984 Nobel Laureate in Physics): Philosophiae Naturalis Principia and Galileo: the Development of Natural Philosophy
Dr. Carlo Rubbia is an Italian particle physicist and inventor. He was born in Gorizia, Italy. He received a degree in Physics from the Scuola Normale of Pisa and in 1959 received his Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University in New York. Since 1961 he has been working at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).
In 1976 he suggested adapting CERN’s Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) to collide protons and antiprotons in the same ring and the world’s first antiproton factory was built. The collider started running in 1981 and, in early 1983, an international team of more than 100 physicists headed by Dr. Rubbia and known as the UAI Collaboration, detected the intermediate vector bosons. In 1984 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for this discovery.
From 1972 to 1989 Dr. Rubbia held the Higgins Professorship of Physics at Harvard University. During the 1990s Dr. Rubbia proposed the concept of an energy amplifier (ADS), a novel and safe way of producing nuclear energy.
Dr. Rubbia is the recipient of more than 30 honorary degrees and is the author of more than 500 scientific papers. On August 30, 2013 President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Dr. Rubbia Senator for life.
MORE INFO: click here
December 2nd, 5:30PM – Conference
RSVP: click here
Dr. Adam Riess (Johns Hopkins University, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Physics): Using Telescopes to See Dark Energy
Dr. Adam Riess is the Thomas J. Barber Professor in Space Studies at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, a distinguished astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1996. His research involves measurements of the cosmological framework with supernovae (exploding stars). In 2011, he was named a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and was awarded the Albert Einstein Medal for his leadership in the High-z Supernova Search Team’s discovery that the expansion rate of the universe is accelerating, a phenomenon widely attributed to a mysterious, unexplained “dark energy” filling the universe. The discovery was named by Science magazine in 1998 as “the Breakthrough Discovery of the Year.”
In 1609 Galileo used the first telescope to look into the heavens.
In 1929 Edwin Hubble used the biggest telescope of its time and discovered that our Universe is expanding. Eighty years later, the Space Telescope that bears his name is being used to study an even
more surprising phenomenon:
that the expansion is speeding up. The origin of this effect is not known, but is broadly attributed
to a type of “dark energy” first posited to exist by Albert Einstein and now dominating the mass- energy budget of the Universe. Professor Riess will describe how his team discovered the acceleration of the Universe and why under- standing the nature of dark energy presents one of the greatest remain- ing challenges in astrophysics and cosmology.
Dr. Massimo Stiavelli (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore): Then and Now: the Evolution of Astronomy since the Time of Galileo
Dr. Massimo Stiavelli obtained his Ph.D. in Physics at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (Italy) in 1986. He has held positions at the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (1992-1995) and at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore (since 1995) where he is currently an astronomer and the James Webb Space Telescope Mission Head. As the JWST Mission Head Dr. Stiavelli leads the development of the science and flight operations of the James Webb Space Telescope, a 6.5m infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018.
Dr. Stiavelli will use a few examples of astronomical sources to contrast the basic understanding of astronomy at the time of Galileo and now. He will then move on to describe the near future in the form of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the successor of the Hubble Space Telescope currently in development. He will focus on JWST expected contributions to the study of the earliest stars and galaxies in the Universe and to the characterization of planets outside the solar system that might be suitable for harboring life.
Special thanks to:
Franco Cervelli (INFN), Vincenzo Napolano (INFN Press Office), Maura Beghè (Domus Galilaeana), Francesca Cuicchio (INFN Press Office), Maria Chiara Favilla (Fondazione Palazzo Blu), Laura Manetti (Museo Galileo), Giorgio Strano (Museo Galileo).
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