The LASERs (Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous) are an international program of evening gatherings that bring artists and scientists together for informal presentations and conversation with an audience.
For this LASER we'll experiment a different format than the traditional 20-minute talks. This evening, chaired by cultural historian Piero Scaruffi, will feature six conversations on six different topics.Jennifer Parker, founding director of OpenLab at UC Santa Cruz and will give the only extended talk.

Topics:

- Jennifer Parker on "Collaborating with a Living Organisms, the Algae Society: BioArt & Design Lab"
- Krishnan Thyagarajan on "What does Human Obsolescence mean for the future of intelligence?"
- Arun Rao on "The Banach Tarski theorem - The Pea and the Sun"
- Anirudh Sankar on "What the Evolution of Stone Tool Technology says about Cognition"
- Jinxia Niu on "Disinformation and Free Speech"
- Sofia Lozano on "Sound as a Therapy and a Practice"

Jennifer Parker is a Professor of Art at UC Santa Cruz and the founding Director of the OpenLab Collaborative Research Center. Her work moves through the shifting relationships between art, ecology, and technology, drawing from both scientific and creative practices to explore how humans and other life forms sense and respond to the world.

Sofia Lozano Pallares is Community Organizer and Mediator, with  15 years of experience working at the intersection of civic engagement, restorative justice and movement building.

Jinxia Niu conducted research at the Stanford Peace Innovation Lab and co-wrote the Chinese books "Human 2.0" and "Peace Tech" and is now working on methods to combat disinformation.

Anirudh Sankar is a PhD student in Economics at Stanford, with a focus on Development Economics, whose main project explores agricultural technologies for small-scale farmers in Uganda.

Krishnan Thyagarajan is a Physicist by training and has worked on highly interdisciplinary projects in the domains of optical sensors and advanced materials, healthcare, renewable and clean energy, climate tech, quantum technologies, and neurotechnologies.

Arun Rao works on generative AI at Meta and previously worked on a machine-learning system for Amazon Music.

No RSVP required.

Detailed bios at: www.lasertalks.com 

The Stanford LASERs are co-sponsored by the deans of Humanities and Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and by Chemical Engineering.