Matt James first went to the exotic Galapagos Islands in 1982, when he was the same age as Charles Darwin was when he went to the islands in 1835.
For three weeks this August, James will abandon his office in Darwin Hall on the Sonoma State University campus and travel south to Darwin's Islands, the equatorial Galapagos archipelago made famous by Darwin.
Aboard a ship called the Tip Top III, which is about the same size as Darwin's ship HMS Beagle, James will retrace Darwin's footsteps and travel in the wake of the Beagle.
What James hopes to capture is as much of the "Darwin stood right here" feeling as possible that can only be experienced by careful retracing of Darwin's route from Darwin's field notebooks and published work.
In addition, James will have another expedition on his personal radar screen: the 1905-1906 Galapagos expedition of the California Academy of Sciences. The Cal Academy sent out the schooner "Academy" to collect as many specimens of plants and animals as possible from Darwin's islands.
They believed the flora and fauna of the islands were "fast disappearing" -- and they had better collect there before it was too late.
The men of the schooner "Academy" knew all about Darwin, who had visited the Galapagos 70 years earlier, in the fall of 1835. When the men of the "Academy" arrived in the Fall of 1905, they were well prepared to "collect evolution" and document the remarkable plants and animals of the islands.
James is combining his interest in Darwin and his personal research on the 1905-06 expedition into a narrative history of the islands called "Collecting Evolution."
The "Academy" had eight young sailor-scientists aboard for the year-long collecting trip to the Galapagos. Professor James has carefully examined the lives of these men, reading everything they wrote and even meeting their living descendants all around the Bay Area.
James had poured over the yellowing pages of the field notebooks of the eight young men, and read their correspondence on thin onionskin paper in the Archives at the California Academy of Sciences.
Darwin propelled the Galapagos into fame with the publication of "The Origin of Species" in 1859. For the Cal Academy in San Francisco, the April 18, 1906 earthquake and fire propelled their expedition into fame.
During the earthquake and fire, the Academy's new museum on Market Street was completely destroyed. This tragic event made the specimens in the hold of the schooner "Academy" the basis for the new museum, now located in Golden Gate Park.
Walking in the footsteps of Darwin and the eight young men, sailing in the wake of the "Beagle" and the "Academy" -- Professor James will have lots to tell his students when he returns to teaching in Darwin Hall at the end of August.
CAPTION: Geology professor Matt James will make a voyage to the Galgapagos Islands, tracing Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle and the 1905-1906 expedition of the California Academy of Sciences.
Sonoma State University is about to peer farther into the depths of the Universe.
Partnering with the California Academy of Sciences, the NASA Education and Public Outreach Group at Sonoma State University has completed construction of a new astronomical observatory.
The telescope will observe distant galaxies, super-magnetic dead stars, and possibly the largest explosions in the known Universe: gamma-ray bursts.
The telescopic observatory is located at the Pepperwood preserve in Sonoma County, a few miles northeast of Windsor.
While SSU has had an astronomical observatory on-campus since 1976, this new facility is more powerful, is beyond most of the coastal fog, and is in a very dark location in the county far removed from major artificial light sources.
The grounds are already home to the Academy's Hume Observatory, which houses three telescopes. Bing F. Quock, Acting Chairman of the Academy's Morrison Planetarium, said "The Academy is delighted to be involved in this exciting project by providing the location for the SSU telescope. It adds a direct connection to major astronomical research to our activities and helps further the Academy's mission of exploring and explaining the natural world, which, of course, includes the rest of the Universe."
The SSU telescope, which has a 14" mirror and sensitive electronic detector, is operated remotely, using computer controls, while the astronomer can be sitting miles or even thousands of miles away. Professor Lynn Cominsky, director of the SSU outreach group, said "This telescope puts SSU and the California Academy of Sciences on the cutting edge of astronomical science. Robotic telescopes are changing the way we do astronomy."
The telescope was funded through the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, a joint NASA/DOE observatory which will launch in 2007. GLAST will observe high-energy radiation from black holes, including enormous black holes found in the cores of galaxies. Ground-based telescopes are needed to monitor the light coming from these galaxies, to help astronomers better understand these exotic phenomena.
"By observing galaxies at different energies--different kinds of light, like optical, gamma-ray, and X-ray--we can better understand the underlying physics of these galaxies. Even relatively small telescopes like ours can provide important data, critical data," Cominsky added.
The SSU Pepperwood observatory - nicknamed GORT, for the GLAST Optical Robotic Telescope--is the flagship of a network of robotic telescopes located across the country, and eventually the entire Earth. These telescopes will form the Global Telescope Network, able to observe objects all across the sky. This 24-hour coverage will enable astronomers to catch every flash and dip in the light from distant galaxies.
"As gas, dust, and even whole stars fall into black holes, they emit tremendous bursts of light; more than the Sun emits in a million years. Globally distributed small telescopic observatories allow us to measure these bursts with unprecedented coverage, and we're poised to learn a lot about these weird objects," commented Gordon Spear, the SSU Observatory Director.
Spear, along with SSU alumnus and outreach group Instructional Technology Consultant Tim Graves, are responsible for the construction, testing, and use of the telescopic observatory. Spear added, "Even better, the telescopes are robotic, so they do all the work for us. It's a great way to hugely increase the data we get."
The SSU telescope will start observing the heavens later this month. Currently, the telescope runs automated scripts which are uploaded to it every night, and plans are to have it run fully robotically by the end of the year.
Members of the public (especially high school students) are invited to submit observing proposals to use the GLAST Optical Robotic Telescope (GORT) through the Global Telescope Network. To join the GTN and to learn more about it, see http://gtn.sonoma.edu. Robotic observations using GORT will begin in the fall.
For further information, contact Professor Lynn Cominsky, lynnc@universe.sonoma.edu, (707) 664-2655.
MEDIA ADVISORY:
The media is invited to a special "first light" celebration of the telescope network beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 24 at the Pepperwood preserve. All 23 of the NASA Educator Ambassadors will be in attendance as well as other NASA and local representatives. If you plan to attend the celebration, please advise Jean Wasp, Media Relations Coordinator, (707) 664-2057.
Sonoma State University is about to peer farther into the depths of the Universe.
Partnering with the California Academy of Sciences, the NASA Education and Public Outreach Group at Sonoma State University has completed construction of a new astronomical observatory.
The telescope will observe distant galaxies, super-magnetic dead stars, and possibly the largest explosions in the known Universe: gamma-ray bursts.
The telescopic observatory is located at the Pepperwood preserve in Sonoma County, a few miles northeast of Windsor.
While SSU has had an astronomical observatory on-campus since 1976, this new facility is more powerful, is beyond most of the coastal fog, and is in a very dark location in the county far removed from major artificial light sources.
The grounds are already home to the Academy's Hume Observatory, which houses three telescopes. Bing F. Quock, Acting Chairman of the Academy's Morrison Planetarium, said "The Academy is delighted to be involved in this exciting project by providing the location for the SSU telescope. It adds a direct connection to major astronomical research to our activities and helps further the Academy's mission of exploring and explaining the natural world, which, of course, includes the rest of the Universe."
The SSU telescope, which has a 14" mirror and sensitive electronic detector, is operated remotely, using computer controls, while the astronomer can be sitting miles or even thousands of miles away. Professor Lynn Cominsky, director of the SSU outreach group, said "This telescope puts SSU and the California Academy of Sciences on the cutting edge of astronomical science. Robotic telescopes are changing the way we do astronomy."
The telescope was funded through the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, or GLAST, a joint NASA/DOE observatory which will launch in 2007. GLAST will observe high-energy radiation from black holes, including enormous black holes found in the cores of galaxies. Ground-based telescopes are needed to monitor the light coming from these galaxies, to help astronomers better understand these exotic phenomena.
"By observing galaxies at different energies--different kinds of light, like optical, gamma-ray, and X-ray--we can better understand the underlying physics of these galaxies. Even relatively small telescopes like ours can provide important data, critical data," Cominsky added.
The SSU Pepperwood observatory - nicknamed GORT, for the GLAST Optical Robotic Telescope--is the flagship of a network of robotic telescopes located across the country, and eventually the entire Earth. These telescopes will form the Global Telescope Network, able to observe objects all across the sky. This 24-hour coverage will enable astronomers to catch every flash and dip in the light from distant galaxies.
"As gas, dust, and even whole stars fall into black holes, they emit tremendous bursts of light; more than the Sun emits in a million years. Globally distributed small telescopic observatories allow us to measure these bursts with unprecedented coverage, and we're poised to learn a lot about these weird objects," commented Gordon Spear, the SSU Observatory Director.
Spear, along with SSU alumnus and outreach group Instructional Technology Consultant Tim Graves, are responsible for the construction, testing, and use of the telescopic observatory. Spear added, "Even better, the telescopes are robotic, so they do all the work for us. It's a great way to hugely increase the data we get."
The SSU telescope will start observing the heavens later this month. Currently, the telescope runs automated scripts which are uploaded to it every night, and plans are to have it run fully robotically by the end of the year.
Members of the public (especially high school students) are invited to submit observing proposals to use the GLAST Optical Robotic Telescope (GORT) through the Global Telescope Network. To join the GTN and to learn more about it, see http://gtn.sonoma.edu. Robotic observations using GORT will begin in the fall.
For further information, contact Professor Lynn Cominsky, lynnc@universe.sonoma.edu, (707) 664-2655.
MEDIA ADVISORY:
The media is invited to a special "first light" celebration of the telescope network beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, July 24 at the Pepperwood preserve. All 23 of the NASA Educator Ambassadors will be in attendance as well as other NASA and local representatives. If you plan to attend the celebration, please advise Jean Wasp, Media Relations Coordinator, (707) 664-2057.
CAPTION: New SSU Observatory, called GORT, will help monitor deep space mysteries through a network that operates the equipment robotically.
From his signature blend of Latino and African-American styles to his smokin' R&B covers of James Brown, Poncho Sanchez hits the Green Music Festival stage at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 1 with a feast of joyously infectious rhythms guaranteed to pull Festival goers to their feet. Gates open at 2 p.m. for the event in the Main Quad on the Rohnert Park campus.
Tiempo Libre, combining some of the hottest musicians in Miami today, opensthe program at 4 p.m. with its unique mix of jazz, traditional Cuban and Afro-Cuban music. Free salsa dance lessons from local dance teacher Jose Santamaria and his Salsa Kids will be offered to all ages at 3 p.m.
GRAMMY-winner Poncho Sanchez has been an unswervingly passionate exponent ofthe bedrock style of Afro-Cuban Latin jazz pioneered half a century ago by such legendary musicians as Machito, Tito Puente and Dizzy Gillespie. The bearded, jovial conguero and the members of his veteran octet are today symbols of the best of the modern jazz and tropical Latin traditions.
"Sanchez is to Latin jazz what Count Basie was to blues-based swing: a musician who knows how to find precisely the right tone, pace and attitude for each composition," the Chicago Tribune writes. The band is like " a magnificent Swiss watch ticking on a Latin beat," The Cleveland Plain Dealer states.
Tiempo Libre is made of seven extraordinary Cuban musicians who came together to realize their collective musical dream: to create a new musical style by fusing their diverse individual talents. These Cuban immigrants and old friends were schooled in different Havana conservatories and enjoy thriving careers in Latin music.
Each has vast experience performing, touring and recording with such artists as Albita, Cachao, Arturo Sandoval, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Issac Delgado and Roberto Torres, to name a few.
Ticket prices for the concert range from $10-$28. Special group rates are available. Lawn rates for adults are $28, seniors $23, and youth, $10. Table seating is $45 and $340 for a table of eight. To order by phone, call (866) SSU-FEST. Order via the Internet by visiting www.cityboxoffice.com. For more information and updates on this event, please visit www.greenmusicfestival.org.
With a line-up that takes chamber music fans from the tried and true of Bach, Mozart, and Brahms to exciting new works by Kevin Puts and Paul Schoenfield, Green Music Festival artistic director Jeffrey Kahane has raised the bar again with this year 's Chamber Music series.
The four-concert program runs July 9-18 at 8 p.m. on Friday and Tuesday and at 4 p.m. on Sundays in the Evert B. Person Theatre at Sonoma State University.
Kahane, an outstanding pianist in his own right, will perform in each concert with a variety of new and returning guest musicians. Featured this year is the Saint Lawrence String Quartet, winners of the Banff International String Quartet competition and the Young Concert Artists Auditions.
The SLSQ will perform Schubert's monumental String Quintet (8 p.m., July 9), the String Quartet No. 11 by Dvorak and the Piano Quintet in F minor by Brahms (4 p.m., July 11).
Currently the Ensemble in Residence at Stanford University, SLSQ's members include Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiffman, violins, Lesley Robertson, viola and Christopher Costanza, cello.
St. Lawrence String Quartet
Also joining the series for the first time are:
* Violinist Alexander Barantschik, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, performing the Halvorsen Passacaglia and Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2 (8 p.m., July 13)
* Cellist Daniel Gaisford, first place winner of the National Young Artists Competition in Los Angeles and The Juilliard School's Shostakovich Cello Competition, playing J.S. Bach's Solo Cello Suite No. 1 and music by Mozart and Faure (4 p.m., July 18)
* Oboist William Bennett, principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, performing the Oboe Quartet by Mozart (4 p.m., July 18)
Returning guest artists from last year's performances include:
* Violinist Chee-Yun, who recently brought down the house with her performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. Chee-Yun will perform American composer Kevin Puts' dynamic new work, Arches, for solo violin (4 p.m., July 11). She will also play Paul Schoenfield's Cafe Music and Saint-Saens' Violin Sonata No. 1 (8 p.m., July 9) and Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello with Alisa Weilerstein (8 p.m., July 13).
* Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant who in 2001 performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. Weilerstein will play music by Schoenfield, Schubert, Ravel and Shostakovich (8 p.m., July 9 and 13).
* Violist Geraldine Walther, principal viola of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, playing music by Halvorsen, Mozart and Faure (8 p.m., July 13 and 4 p.m., July 18)
* Violinist Margaret Batjer, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, playing music by Mozart and Faure (4 p.m., July 18)
Concert goers are invited for complimentary wine, hors d'oeuvres and fine art under the Festival tent prior to each chamber series concert.
To purchase tickets online go to www.cityboxoffice.com or www.tickets.com. For phone sales, call (866) SSU-FEST; for walk-in sales (M-F 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.) go to City Box Office, 180 Redwood Street, Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94102. Tickets are $30 adult, $25 senior and $10 youth. Parking is free. For detailed festival information, visit the Web site at www.greenmusicfestival.org.
As a special feature, during the week of July 12, Greenfarm, the Arts + Education program of the Green Music Festival, will present two master classes with chamber series artists including Kahane, Batjer, Bennett, Gaisford and Walther. Both sessions, to be held in Ives Hall Room 119 on campus, are free of charge and open to the public.
For information on dates and times, call (707) 664-3312.
Dahr Jamail, Baghdad correspondent for The New Standard, will speak at 7 p.m. on July 9 in Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall at Sonoma State University. Admission for the event is $10-15 sliding scale with no one turned away at the door.
The event is a fund-raiser for SSU student research on corporate media's failure to cover important news stories and is sponsored by Project Censored, a media research program located at SSU.
Dahr Jamail writes daily Iraq dispatches in a weblog about the people living under the occupation. His work can be seen at http:/blog.newstandardnews.net/iraqdispatches/.
Jamail's work is "a unique human style of reporting that people in the corporate media rarely bother to do," says Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored. "He exposes the effects of warfare and military occupation on everyday Iraqis."
For further information, contact Project Censored at (707) 664-2500 for information.
With a line-up that takes chamber music fans from the tried and true of Bach, Mozart, and Brahms to exciting new works by Kevin Puts and Paul Schoenfield, Green Music Festival artistic director Jeffrey Kahane has raised the bar again with this year 's Chamber Music series.
The four-concert program runs July 9-18 at 8 p.m. on Friday and Tuesday and at 4 p.m. on Sundays in the Evert B. Person Theatre at Sonoma State University.
Kahane, an outstanding pianist in his own right, will perform in each concert with a variety of new and returning guest musicians. Featured this year is the Saint Lawrence String Quartet, winners of the Banff International String Quartet competition and the Young Concert Artists Auditions.
The SLSQ will perform Schubert's monumental String Quintet (8 p.m., July 9), the String Quartet No. 11 by Dvorak and the Piano Quintet in F minor by Brahms (4 p.m., July 11).
Currently the Ensemble in Residence at Stanford University, SLSQ's members include Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiffman, violins, Lesley Robertson, viola and Christopher Costanza, cello.
St. Lawrence String Quartet
Also joining the series for the first time are:
* Violinist Alexander Barantschik, concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, performing the Halvorsen Passacaglia and Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2 (8 p.m., July 13)
* Cellist Daniel Gaisford, first place winner of the National Young Artists Competition in Los Angeles and The Juilliard School's Shostakovich Cello Competition, playing J.S. Bach's Solo Cello Suite No. 1 and music by Mozart and Faure (4 p.m., July 18)
* Oboist William Bennett, principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, performing the Oboe Quartet by Mozart (4 p.m., July 18)
Returning guest artists from last year's performances include:
* Violinist Chee-Yun, who recently brought down the house with her performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. Chee-Yun will perform American composer Kevin Puts' dynamic new work, Arches, for solo violin (4 p.m., July 11). She will also play Paul Schoenfield's Cafe Music and Saint-Saens' Violin Sonata No. 1 (8 p.m., July 9) and Ravel's Sonata for Violin and Cello with Alisa Weilerstein (8 p.m., July 13).
* Cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant who in 2001 performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the Santa Rosa Symphony. Weilerstein will play music by Schoenfield, Schubert, Ravel and Shostakovich (8 p.m., July 9 and 13).
* Violist Geraldine Walther, principal viola of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, playing music by Halvorsen, Mozart and Faure (8 p.m., July 13 and 4 p.m., July 18)
* Violinist Margaret Batjer, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, playing music by Mozart and Faure (4 p.m., July 18)
Concert goers are invited for complimentary wine, hors d'oeuvres and fine art under the Festival tent prior to each chamber series concert.
To purchase tickets online go to www.cityboxoffice.com or www.tickets.com. For phone sales, call (866) SSU-FEST; for walk-in sales (M-F 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.) go to City Box Office, 180 Redwood Street, Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94102. Tickets are $30 adult, $25 senior and $10 youth. Parking is free. For detailed festival information, visit the Web site at www.greenmusicfestival.org.
As a special feature, during the week of July 12, Greenfarm, the Arts + Education program of the Green Music Festival, will present two master classes with chamber series artists including Kahane, Batjer, Bennett, Gaisford and Walther. Both sessions, to be held in Ives Hall Room 119 on campus, are free of charge and open to the public.
For information on dates and times, call (707) 664-3312.
