Talk to Illuminate Life, Universe Of Einstein

Three Westmont professors will discuss Walter Isaacson’s best-selling book, “Einstein: His Life and Universe,” at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 29, at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara Street, as part of Westmont Downtown: Conversations about Things that Matter. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The event is tied to Westmont’s President’s Breakfast Feb. 6 where Isaacson himself will speak. The Westmont Foundation sponsors both the breakfast and the lecture series to reach out and engage the larger Santa Barbara and Montecito communities.

Warren Rogers, interim academic dean and physics professor, has focused his research on experimental nuclear physics and studies of cosmic muon flux using the Westmont College Cosmic Muon Detector Array (CMDA). He has been appointed to the prestigious position of fellow of the American Physical Society. Rogers, who has been a Westmont faculty member since 1994, earned his bachelor’s degree at Harvey Mudd College before getting his master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Rochester.

Patti Hunter, associate professor of mathematics, is a Westmont alumna who earned her master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Virginia. She has been teaching at Westmont for more than 8 years, focusing her research on the history of mathematics.

Jim Taylor, professor of philosophy, specializes in epistemology, philosophy of religion and history of philosophy. He graduated from Westmont in 1978 and earned master’s degrees at Fuller Theological Seminary and the University of Arizona before getting his doctorate at the University of Arizona. He has been teaching at Westmont since 1994.

“I’ll discuss how Einstein was influenced by certain philosophers and philosophical ideas in his scientific theorizing,” Taylor says. “I’ll also explain how Einstein’s scientific theories have influenced subsequent philosophical thinking.”

‘Einstein’ is the first biography to draw from the physicist’s private papers, the work explains “how scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom. ‘Einstein’ explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe.”