The Poetry of Science
Credit: Carlos Melián
June 5, 2009, 8 p.m.
Fé Bland Forum at SBCC
Sponsored by:
The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
Santa Barbara City College Creative Writing Program
Santa Barbara Poet Laureate
The Poetry of Science
Tonight’s poetry reading showcases the work of nine local poets who created works inspired by their interviews with nine local scientists from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) in downtown Santa Barbara. This innovative collaboration was spearheaded by SB Poet Laureate David Starkey. Starkey was intrigued when he heard a radio profile about NCEAS on KCLU.
The scientists are in residence at NCEAS, a UCSB research center that has hosted over 4,000 scientists from 50 countries since its inception in 1995. It is funded by the National Science Foundation.
The event celebrates "Year of Science 2009," supporting
public understanding of the process and nature of science.
Scientists from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
Jennifer Balch studies factors that control the global fire cycle. This fire-centric approach illuminates the living and non-living factors that increase fire frequency. Her research provides insights into historical fire patterns and bolsters predictions of future fire regimes in an era of accelerating global land-cover and climate change.
Erica Fleishman directs the Conservation and Resource Management Program at NCEAS. Her research uses syntheses of existing data to inform sustainable management of ecological systems and build international conservation capacity. Fleishman is active nationally in advisory, editorial, and educational roles.
Ben Halpern is Project Coordinator for the Ecosystem-based Management Program. His research focuses on evaluating population and ecological processes of coastal marine systems and developing methods for managing and conserving marine resources. His recent project, Global Mapping of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems, received international attention and is now used to assess regional marine systems such as the California Current.
Carlos Melián develops computer models of interacting species and individuals to provide a vehicle for addressing fundamental ecological questions. His work may create the insight necessary to reduce the staggering losses of biodiversity in contemporary ecosystems.
Mary O’Connor is investigating whether climate change will increase or decrease the number of fish in the sea. She is assembling data on fish catches, plankton abundance and sea surface temperature collected from ships in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans over the last 50 years, and combining this data with theoretical and computer models to see how changes can lead to effects on fisheries harvests and biodiversity in different regions of the world.
John Parker studies the sociology of science, examining science as a social institution and as a social practice. His research explores interdisciplinary collaborations among ecologists and social scientists, attempting to understand what happens when these types of scientists meet and how best to organize this type of interdisciplinary research.
Jai Ranganathan is researching grassland conservation strategies for Argentina, where much of the best remaining grassland is found. He explores how including economic information can improve the quality of environmental planning for Argentinean grassland and for conservation in general.
Sadie Ryan studies the intersection of landscape and climate change in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and its effect both inside and outside the park. Examples of effects include primates and elephants using/destroying crops, wildlife and domestic animals (and people) sharing diseases, and crop yields and park vegetation changing with climate. Her research will lay the groundwork for similar approaches in other sites, such as examining the need for Ebola vaccination in gorillas and controlling SIV and respiratory disease transmission in chimpanzees in Tanzania.
Jennifer Williams studies population ecology, particularly understanding how evolutionary processes affect population dynamics and species interactions. Answering her current research question, “Should an Organism Produce All of Its Offspring at the Same Time or Spread Reproduction across Years?” may contribute to predictions of which species may be more vulnerable to increased climate variability.
Santa Barbara Poets
Greg Karpain is the author of three collections of poetry, and a children's book. His work has been published locally and internationally in various journals and magazines.
Perie Longo, Santa Barbara’s second Poet Laureate (2007-09), is poet in residence at several local schools through the California Poets-in-the-Schools program, teaches privately, and has published three books of poetry. She is a Marriage and Family therapist who integrates poetry for wellness. Her poetry frequently blends her outer and inner worlds.
Glenna Luschei has published the poetry magazines Café Solo and Solo for forty years; she was named Poet Laureate of San Luis Obispo City and County for the year 2000. Her poetry, collected most recently in Salt Lick, is known for its energy and verve. Gene Frumkin calls her poems “the other side of despair.”
Enid Osborn is founding member of Green Poet Project and a producer whose work has appeared in numerous journals, including Art Life, Solo, Rivertalk and Blue Mesa Review, as well as four chapbooks. Visual artist and poet with a strong sense of place, her work draws upon a love of film and her early life experience in southeastern New Mexico.
Melinda Palacio is the co-editor of Ink Byte Magazine and a 2007 PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellow. An author of both poetry and prose—her work was recently featured in Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature--she writes frequently about the people and places in her life.
John Ridland began teaching English at UCSB in 1961 and retired in 2004. He edited The Little Square Review and has published several books and chapbooks of his poems, as well as poems and reviews in many magazines in the US, UK, Australia, and Hungary, beginning with The New Yorker and The Atlantic. His work is notable for its attention to form and its meticulous craftsmanship.
Barry Spacks teaches at UCSB in the College of Creative Studies and is the author of ten collections of poems, most recently Food for the Journey (Cherry Grove, 2008). In addition to his work as a painter, singer/song-writer, and novelist, he served as the first Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara (2007-2009).
David Starkey directs the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College and is the current Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara (2009-2011). David Kirby calls Starkey’s poems “a dark joy,” and Lawrence Raab has written that they “are funny and serious in equal measure...happily unafraid to adjust what seem to be the world's truths to go after something a little stranger, and a little more true.”
Chryss Yost is a writer, editor, and designer who is especially fascinated by traditional forms of poetry. Her projects include California Poetry: From the Gold Rush to the Present (edited with Dana Gioia and Jack Hicks), two chapbooks of poems, and publications in numerous anthologies and journals. “Seasonal” was written in response to a quilt created by Santa Barbara artist Karin Carter as part of the Visual Verse project.
About the Poet Laureate
The Santa Barbara Poet Laureate advances appreciation for literary arts and humanities within the greater Santa Barbara community, and actively participates in ceremonial, educational, and cultural activities.
About the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), established in 1995, has hosted more than 4,000 scientists from over 50 countries, and supported more than 430 collaborative projects in ecology and related fields. NCEAS supports cross-disciplinary research that uses existing data to address major issues such as biodiversity, effects of human activities on the sea, and ecology of infectious disease. NCEAS is among the top 1 % of 38,000 institutions evaluated for scientific impact in environmental research. NCEAS is funded by the National Science Foundation, the State of California, the University of California, and numerous other donors.
Project Coordinated by:
David Starkey, Poet Laureate, and
Margaret Connors, NCEAS
Many thanks to the participants - scientists and poets
alike - for an extraordinary evening.
The entire event will be broadcast soon on Channel 21's Creative
Community.
And, there is a chapbook in the works.
Check back for particulars.