Harvard’s Peter L. Galison is due at UC Davis next week to deliver a lecture in which he will trace the history of secrecy from the Espionage Act to WikiLeaks, in the 2011 Sheffrin Lecture in Public Policy.

The lecture, free and open to the public and hosted by the Center for Science and Innovation Studies, is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, in the AGR Room at the Buehler Alumni and Visitors Center. The organizers said a reception will follow the lecture.

The Sheffrin lectures, now in their second year, are made possible by a gift from UC Davis economics professor Steven M. Sheffrin, former dean of Social Sciences, and his wife, Anjali Y. Sheffrin.

Galison is the Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard, where he is affiliated with the Department of the History of Science and the Department of Physics. he also serves as director of Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments.

He received a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1997; MacArthur fellowships are commonly referred to as “genius” awards.

He co-directed the 2008 film Secrecy, about government secrecy, and previously made the film Ultimate Weapon, on the moral-political debates over the hydrogen bomb. He is the author of Objectivity (with Lorraine Daston, 2007), Einstein’s Clocks, Poincare’s Maps (2003), Image and Logic (1997) and How Experiments End (1987).

A PHOTOGRAPH'S ROLE IN HISTORY: An art history graduate student will give a talk centered around the mid-19th-century photograph Palazzo Ducale, Venice, from the university's Fine Arts Collection, the Nelson Gallery announced.

Kamal Zargar’s talk, “The Transformation and Preservation of the Republic of Venice by the Photographs of the Fratelli Alinari,” is scheduled to begin at noon Tuesday, May 31, at the gallery in Nelson Hall (formerly the University Club). Admission is free and open to the public.

“This project looks into how this photograph, taken by the prolific studio of the Fratelli Alinari in Florence, simultaneously helped transfer Venice into the modern period while preserving its republican glory as seen through the city’s art and architecture,” Zargar wrote for a flier announcing his talk.

This program marks the first time that the gallery has commissioned a talk by an art history graduate student, about a selection from the Fine Arts Collection. The commission came by way of the Nelson’s first Art History Fellowship, a $500 award given by the gallery with the help of the Nelson ARTfriends.

RESEARCH FUNDING WORKSHOP: University Outreach and International Programs announced a brown bag workshop on research funding opportunities associated with France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

UOIP and the Institute of Governmental Affairs are co-sponsoring the workshop.

The organizers said representatives from various funding sources will provide an overview of their programs.

• France — France Berkeley Fund (a partnership between the government of France and UC Berkeley)
• Germany — Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, or DADD (German Academic Exchange Service); the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation; and the German Research Foundation
• United Kingdom — Research Councils UK

The workshop is scheduled from noon to 1:30 p.m. Monday, June 6, in the Institute of Governmental Affairs Reading Room, 360 Shields Library. The organizers are asking for RSVPs by Tuesday, May 31, by e-mail to uoipfacultyresources@ucdavis.edu.

For more information: contact Jennie Konsella-Norene, international funding analyst, (530) 754-9403 or jknorene@ucdavis.edu.

UOIP Faculty Resources