Teaching a First Year Seminar: Bringing (past) works of Asimov to (future) Skidmore graduates

Presented on: Tuesday, August 11th at 3:00 PM EDT



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Isaac Asimov, (born January 2, 1920, Petrovichi, Russia – died April 6, 1992, New York, New York, U.S.), is considered as one of the greatest Science Fiction writers of the last century. A very prolific writer, he alone authored more than 470 books. While he is most famous for his Science Fiction works – such as the Foundation and the Robot series – he also wrote many essays aimed at the layperson that covering topics such as science, religion, or history. I have been an avid Asimov reader for more than 30 years. When I was asked to design a Scribner Seminar that would highlight my own intellectual curiosities and passions, I decided to create a course based on the works of Isaac Asimov. In this webinar, I will describe how I use Asimov’s works to survey the evolution of science – and science fiction as a genre – through the last century; and how I envision the process as an intergenerational dialog between me, Asimov, and a new generation of Skidmore students. Javier Perez-Moreno is an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Physics Department at Skidmore College (Saratoga Springs, NY). He obtained his B.S. in University of Valencia and University of Leeds, and his Ph.D. from Washington State University (in Physics) and the KULeuven, Belgium (in Chemistry). His research focuses on the interaction of light and molecules using quantum mechanical principles. He teaches courses on Optics, Thermodynamics and Quantum Mechanics. He also teaches a First-Year Seminar based on the works of Isaac Asimov. He has published articles in Physics Reports, Advanced Materials, Physical Review A, The Journal of the Optical Society of America B, Chemical Reviews, The Journal of Chemical Physics and The Journal of the American Chemical Society, among others.