Dr. Stephon Alexander "The Jazz of Physics" Friday Nov. 13th 9:30-10:30am Bldg 1 room 360 (JSC Employees)

Dr. Stephon Alexander, who has been featured on PBS NOVA, the Discovery network, National Geographic Explorers, is a theoretical physicist specializing in the interface between cosmology, particle physics and quantum gravity (String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity). He is also a professional jazz saxophonist and recording artist, critically acclaimed for his recent album collaboration with Erin Rioux. His interests include STEM outreach to youth through the nexus of music and physics. His upcoming book, “The Jazz of Physics” will be released in Spring 2016.

Dr. Stephon Alexander, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy, currently serves as the Ernest Everett Just 1907 Professor of Natural Sciences at Dartmouth University. Previous faculty positions include Penn State and Haverford College, and postdoctoral fellowships at Imperial College, London and The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He received his BSc from Haverford College and PhD from Brown University. 

Click his TED TALK on the Jazz of Physics here!

Preorders for his book, “The Jazz of Physics” can be found at  http://www.amazon.com/The-Jazz-Physics-Structure-Universe/dp/0465034993

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 http://dartmouth.edu/faculty-directory/stephon-alexander

http://www.spin.com/2014/05/stephon-alexander-rioux-here-comes-now-stream-album/ - hear his music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-PR1TF0f5I  on Nova

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/secretlife/physical-science/stephon-alexander/ PBS links

http://physics.dartmouth.edu/tags/stephon-alexander - great a lot of STEM focus!

https://aaas.dartmouth.edu/tags/stephon-alexander New York times op ed and how he got the sax at age 12

http://now.dartmouth.edu/2012/03/theoretical-physicist-stephon-alexander-join-dartmouth-ee-just-professor (interesting article)

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/stephon-alexander/ --also interesting

http://happinessbeyondthought.blogspot.com/2012/07/is-universe-alive-does-it-evolve-think.html -Discovery Network with Morgan Freeman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rioux_(musician) – excerpt below review of the album

Collaborations[edit]

In the summer of 2012 Rioux collaborated with Trinidadian-American astrophysicist & saxophonist Stephon Alexander to create their collaborative record Here Comes Now, out on August 4 of 2014 Rioux’s record label Connect.^{[23][24][25][26][27]} The album features no-wave artist Arto Lindsay and will explore the connection betweenscience and music, namely the creation of the universe.^{[23][24][28][29]}

Here Comes Now was given a positive score of 7.2 by Pitchfork (Pitchfork Media) before the album was even released. Pitchfork said

"Rioux's propulsive, cheery beats give the album its momentum. The music mostly races forward with gently twinkling synths and drums, punctuated by long saxophone solos and short riffs."

^[30]

On September 5, 2014 Here Comes Now was named ″Sunset Album of the Week″ by one of Sydney, Australia's leading independent radio stations FBi Radio.^[31]

Also in September of that year, Rioux joined Cibo Matto to open for them on a few of their fall tour dates in the US.^[32]