Zubrin discusses Mars travel
Dr. Robert Zubrin, executive chairman of the National Space Society and president of Pioneer Astronautics, will present a talk entitled "Mars Direct: Humans to the Red Planet Within a Decade" today (Nov. 12) at 12:30pm on the sixth floor of the Faculty Club (Building E52). The talk is sponsored by the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium.
In his talk, Dr. Zubrin will offer a step-by-step explanation of how we can use present-day technology to send people to Mars within 10 years (using fuel for return trips made from methane in the Martian atmpshere), leading to permanent habitation of the planet. He is co-author of The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must (Free Press, 1996).
Sloan, Oxford University Press host talks
Professor James G. March of Stanford University will examine the "Myths of Management" in a series of three lectures that are part of the Distinguished Lectures in Business series presented jointly by the Sloan School and Oxford University Press. The talks will be on November 17, 19 and 24 from 6-7pm in the Tang Center's Wong Auditorium and will include a question-and-answer session.
Professor March will explore the involvement of mythic themes in the interpretation and creation of managerial experience, the structure of common myths and the relations among managerial mythology, practice and research. The topics of the three lectures are: "The Complexities of Managerial Experience," "The Mythic Bases of Managerial Experience" and "Mythic Themes, Management and Research."
An educator by profession and a poet by avocation, Professor March is director of the Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research at Stanford. He also is the Jack Steele Parker Professor of International Management emeritus, and professor of political science and sociology emeritus. His business school course, Organizational Leadership, draws lessons from many works of literature including Don Quixote.
Professor March is best known professionally for his work on organizations and decision-making. He has written and co-authored more than a dozen books, including A Behavioral Theory of the Firm: Leadership and Ambiguity and A Primer on Decision Making. The lectures will form the basis of another book to be published by Oxford University Press.
Maeda to speak on computational expression
John Maeda, the Interval Research Corp. Assistant Professor of Design and Computation at the Media Laboratory, will deliver the next Perspectives lecture entitled "Computational Expression" on Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 5-6pm in Bartos Theater (Building E15).
There is a growing need to find creative ways for the simple aspects of "good design" to coexist in harmony with the massive complexity of computers, according to Professor Maeda. This effort involves exploring the relationship between unusual forms and various sensing media and developing a reliable means for crafting computer-human interfaces that not only communicate but also aesthetically engage.
In his talk, Professor Maeda, who directs the Aesthetics and Computation group, will examine the potential and possibilities for integrating a visual-communication designer's vocabulary with the language of computation.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 12, 1997.
