Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcomes Anna Von Mertens—recipient of a 2010 United States Artists Fellowship in Visual Arts and previously exhibited at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute—for a discussion of her new book, Attention Is Discovery: The Life and Legacy of Astronomer Henrietta Leavitt. She will be joined in conversation by Alyssa Goodman—Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy at Harvard University. Doors open at 5:30, and the program begins at 6 pm, followed by a book signing with the author and refreshments.
Location
Harvard University, Jefferson Lab 250 Lecture Hall
Jefferson Laboratory
17 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States
Ticketing
There are two ticket options available for this event. Anna Von Mertens will sign copies of her book after the presentation.
Free General Admission Ticket: Includes admission for one.
Book-Included Ticket: Includes admission for one and one hardcover copy of Attention Is Discovery.
Mask Policy
Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.
Event Series: Harvard Science Book Talks
The Harvard Science Book Talks series is a collaboration between the Harvard University Division of Science, the Harvard Library, and Harvard Book Store. The series features talks by the authors of recently published books on a variety of science-related topics and is open to both the Harvard community and to the general public. Typically, lectures are followed by a book signing with the author and refreshments. Learn more and watch recordings of past talks here.
General Info
(617) 661-1515
info@harvard.com
Media Inquiries
mediainquiries@harvard.com
Accessibility Inquiries
access@harvard.com
About Attention is Discovery
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has a diameter of about 100,000 light years—a figure we can calculate because of the work of Henrietta Leavitt (1868–1921), who spent decades studying glass plate photographs of the night sky. Visual artist and researcher Anna Von Mertens’s Attention Is Discovery is a fascinating portrait of this remarkable woman who laid the foundation for modern cosmology, as well as an exploration of the power of looking and its revelatory role at the center of scientific discovery. Ushering us into the scientific community of women who worked alongside Leavitt, now known as the Harvard Computers, Von Mertens describes the inventive methodologies Leavitt devised to negotiate the era’s emerging photographic technology.
Interspersed with Von Mertens’s meticulously researched and lyrically written essays are collaborations with art historian Jennifer L. Roberts, cosmologist Wendy Freedman, astrophysicist João Alves, and novelist Rebecca Dinerstein Knight. Alongside Leavitt’s process, evident in her astronomical logbooks and ink notations on the glass plates, Von Mertens includes details of the hand-stitched quilts and graphite drawings she made in response to Leavitt’s legacy. Photographs made by Jennifer L. Roberts using a macro lens amplify the material richness of these artworks and archives. This interweaving of text and image engages and rewards the reader’s own close attention. Highlighting ways that subtle, repeated actions build meaning—whether skilled, technical observation, the crafting of an object, or the mundane tasks that construct our exquisite lives—Von Mertens’s pairing of close looking with close reading creates a layered portrait of Henrietta Leavitt that acknowledges the significance of her discovery and the richness of its inheritance.
Praise for Attention Is Discovery
“Fans of Hidden Figures and The Glass Universe will appreciate Anna Von Mertens’s captivating portrait of Henrietta Leavitt and the Harvard Computers, who laid the foundation for modern cosmology at the turn of the 20th century. Blending complex science with human-interest stories, Von Mertens celebrates the constellation of women scientists who discovered how to calculate galactic distances and classify stars by chemical composition. The writing occasionally veers into textbook territory, but Von Mertens includes vibrant illustrations and archival documents that help to bring these astronomical legends to life on the page. This deeply researched book is ultimately an homage to the process of observation and meaning making in science.” —Scientific American
Speaker Bios
Alyssa Goodman
Alyssa Goodman is the Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy at Harvard University and a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution. Goodman’s research and teaching interests span astronomy, data visualization, prediction, and online systems for research and education. In her astronomical pursuits, Goodman and her research group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA study the dense gas between the stars. They are particularly interested in how interstellar gas arranges itself into new stars, and in the large-scale structure of gas within the Milky Way. In computationally-oriented efforts, Goodman co-founded The Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC) at Harvard, and she served as its Director from 2005-8. In 1997, she received the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society for her work on interstellar matter. Goodman has served as Chair of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and on the National Academy’s Board on Research Data and Information, and she currently serves on the both the IAU and AAS Working Groups on Astroinformatics and Astrostatistics.
Anna Von Mertens
Anna Von Mertens has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout the United States including Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute, Berkeley Art Museum, Ithaca College, and Boston Center for the Arts. Group exhibitions include Needle’s Eye at KODE, Art Museums of Bergen, Norway, which traveled to the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the 40th anniversary exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, among many others. Von Mertens is the recipient of a 2010 United States Artists Fellowship in Visual Arts and a 2007 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award. Anna Von Mertens received her MFA from California College of the Arts and BA from Brown University. She lives and works in Peterborough, New Hampshire.