Science Sketches

Sidney Perkowitz was born in New York City, attended college at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now the NYU Tandon School of Engineering), and earned his doctorate in physics at the University of Pennsylvania. As Charles Howard Candler Professor of Physics at Emory University, he produced over 100 research papers and books. As Professor Emeritus, he has presented science for non-scientists in books (Empire of Light, Universal Foam and Universal Foam 2. 0, Digital People, Hollywood Science, Slow Light, Hollywood Chemistry, Frankenstein: How a Monster Became an Icon, and Real Scientists Don't Wear Ties) that have been translated into seven languages and Braille; over 200 articles and book chapters in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New Scientist, Leonardo, Discover, Physics World, Encyclopedia Britannica, Aeon, Quo, Los Angeles Review of Books, JSTOR Daily, James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction, and elsewhere; and theatrical works produced in Atlanta, New York, and Chicago. He has appeared on CNN, NPR, the BBC, and other outlets, and venues such as NASA, Microsoft, the American Museum of Natural History, the High Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Atlanta Science Festival, and various café scientifiques, to discuss topics from science in the media to the science of food. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in 2015, received a lifetime achievement award from the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts.