Counsil of Scientific Society Presidents

Advancing Leadership in Science & Technology

MEDIA RELEASE Contact: Lynda West, Project Manager
Monday, 13 November 2017
Council of Scientific Society Presidents
254-776-3550, Ext. 3
[email protected]

Best-Selling Author of The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra, to speak at Carnegie

Washington, D.C. – Fritjof Capra, Ph.D., best-selling author whose work includes The Tao of Physics, will present the Fred Kavli Science at the Frontiers Lecture on Monday evening, 4 December 2017, at the Carnegie Institution for Science. His talk, entitled The Systems View of Life: A Science for Sustainable Living, is sponsored by the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) and the Kavli Foundation in cooperation with the Carnegie Institution for Science. Capra’s lecture will be based on his book, The Systems View of Life, which presents a grand new synthesis, integrating the biological, cognitive, social, and ecological dimensions of life into one unified vision.

Capra is a scientist, educator, activist, and author of many international bestsellers that connect conceptual changes in science with broader changes in worldview and values in society. The Systems View of Life, coauthored with Pier Luigi Luisi, has been published in three editions in three languages. The Vienna-born physicist and systems theorist first became popularly known for his book, The Tao of Physics, which explored the ways in which modern physics was changing our worldview from a mechanistic to a holistic and ecological one. Published in 1975, it is still in print in more than 40 editions worldwide and 23 different languages. It is referenced with the statue of Shiva in the courtyard of one of the world’s largest and most respected centers for scientific research: CERN, the Center for Research in Particle Physics in Geneva.

Over the past 30 years, Capra has been engaged in a systematic exploration of how other sciences and society are ushering in a similar shift in worldview, or paradigms, leading to a new vision of reality and a new understanding of the social implications of this cultural transformation. He is a founding director of the Berkeley-based Center for Ecoliteracy which is dedicated to advancing ecology and systems thinking in primary and secondary education. The primary focus of his environmental education and activism has been to help build and nurture sustainable communities. He believes that to do so, we can learn valuable lessons from the study of ecosystems which are sustainable communities of plants, animals, and microorganisms.

The lecture is free, but those who are interested in attending must reserve tickets at https://kavli-lecture.brownpapertickets.com/. The Carnegie Institution for Science is located at 1530 P Street NW in Washington, D.C.

For more information about Dr. Capra and his work, please go to http://www.fritjofcapra.net/. For more information about the CSSP and the Fred Kavli Science at the Frontiers Lecture, please contact Helen Schneider Lemay, CSSP Business Manager, at [email protected].