Dr. Neil Gershenfeld
Spaces for Computation and Atoms
Wednesday, January 16, 2002
Building 3 Auditorium - 3:30 PM
(Refreshments at 3:00PM)

Goddard's Office of the Assistant Director for Information Sciences and Chief Information Officer announces the first GSFC Information Sciences and Technology (IS&T) Colloquium presentation of the Fall 2001 Series. Professor Neil Gershenfeld, will talk about Spaces for Computation and Communications. Space exploration presents demanding constraints on Information Technology: the need to operate in harsh environments, without routine supervision, in complex systems, and without access to conventional power sources. While these requirements cannot be met by conventional computers, they do recur in other emerging IT applications in locations ranging from kid's playrooms to rural Indian villages. Professor Gershenfeld will survey why and where computation is moving off the desktop and into the rest of the world, and will explore the physical resources that can be used by unconventional computers to meet the needs of unconventional users.

Professor Gershenfeld holds a BA in Physics with High Honors from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. He was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows, and a member of the research staff at Bell Labs.

Professor Gershenfeld curently directs the Center for Bits and Atoms at the MIT Media Laboratory, where he also leads the Things That Think industrial consortium, and coordinates the Media Lab Asia's Technical Advisory Group. His unique research group investigates the relationship between the content of information and its physical representation, from molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments. Technology from his laboratory has been seen and used in such settings as the Museum of Modern Art, rural Indian villages, the White House/Smithsonian Millennium celebration, automobile safety systems, Las Vegas shows and Eskimo reindeer herds. He is the author of numerous technical publications, patents, and the best-selling books When Things Start To Think, The Nature of Mathematical Modeling, and The Physics of Information Technology, and has been featured in media such as The New York Times, The Economist, CNN, and The McNeil/Lehrer News Hour.

IS&T Colloquium Committee Host: John Schnase
jschnase@pop900.gsfc.nasa.gov