Monday, April 10, 2006
RISC Showcase keynote speaker studies complexity in physics and photography
 There is an art and a science to physics and photography, and Dr. Kevin Bassler, the keynote speaker for the 2006 Vectren RISC Showcase, is a master of both. As associate professor of physics at the University of Houston, Bassler studies complexity theory. As an amateur photographer, his images capture nature's complexity. “Science is a very creative field, and what is nice about the art of photography is that it is also very scientific,” he told Momentum, the newsletter of the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. “In particular, there’s a lot of physics in photography; it’s about optics, light, and timing. I enjoy being able to combine the two.” As a scientist, Bassler looks for underlying order in apparently random data. “I study what happens when you put a group of objects together that behave very simply on their own, but collectively can have a variety of complex behavior,” he said. According to Momentum, he has related the movement of grains of sand in a sand pile to the movement of magnetic vortices (tornadoes of electrical current) in superconductors, business models, and to the flow of fluvial rivers. He also has studied processes of self-organization in complex networks, which have applications in topics ranging from biological evolution to the behavior of the stock market. He is self-educated in photography. For seven years, he has focused his lens on the landscapes of the western United States and Canada. In addition to showing his work in several juried art shows and selling to private collectors, he is president of the Houston Center for Photography. Bassler holds a Ph.D. and Master of Science degree in physics from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Honors Tutorial College, Ohio University. The Vectren RISC Showcase will be held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, April 22, in the University Center. Bassler’s keynote will begin at 9 a.m. in Carter Hall. Student presentations will begin after the keynote. There is no registration or admission fee. The RISC program is designed to encourage independent faculty-guided undergraduate research and creative projects. RISC grants, administered by the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, provide students with funding to initiate or continue such projects, and the RISC Showcase provides an arena for them to present, demonstrate, or display their academic work to fellow students, faculty members, and the public. For more information, contact Dr. Jim Durbin, RISC committee chair and associate professor of geology, at 812/465-1208. |
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