Contemporary Science Issues and Innovations
June 04, 2019, Belmont Media Center, Belmont MA

David Toomey, Ph.D., Professor of English Literature, UMass-Amherst and co-director of the English Department’s Professional Writing and Technical Communication Program.
In this presentation via distance (from UMASS-Amherst) Dr.Toomey examines the relationship between science and science fiction. In particular he explains how science fiction often anticipates discoveries in science.

This presentation will be recorded at Belmont Media Center, but after the presentation visitors will be able to ask Dr Toomey questions in the studio.

In addition to his research, Professor Toomey has written a number of science books for lay audiences. His book Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own (W.W. Norton, 2013) was longlisted for the 2014 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, shortlisted for Physics World Book of the Year for 2013, and named an “Editor’s Choice” by the New York Times Sunday Book Review. It appeared in Spanish translation from Biblioteca Buridán in 2015 and Japanese translation from Hakuyosha Publishing in 2016. His book The New Time Travelers: A Journey to the Frontiers of Physics (W.W. Norton, 2007) was among ten nonfiction books named “new and notable” by Scientific American in 2007, and listed among the “Best Sci-Tech Books 2007” by Library Journal.