FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (10/00)
Contact:  Dr. Steve Shelburne, Department of English, 318-869-5254, or
Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120

Award-winning Science Writer Dava Sobel
to Speak Oct. 19 at Centenary College

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Award-winning science writer Dava Sobel will speak at 11:10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 19 at Centenary College.  The lecture is free and open to the public, with limited seating available in Centenary's Hurley Auditorium.

Dava Sobel

Ms. Sobel's latest book is Galileo's Daughter, which this fall  has been used in conjunction with Centenary's First Year Experience program. In researching Galileo's Daughter, which is about the scientist and his love for his daughter, Ms. Sobel traveled to Italy four times and translated original documents. 

A former New York Times reporter, Ms. Sobel has written articles about astronomy for Audubon, Discover, Life and The New Yorker.  She has been also been
a contributing editor to Harvard Magazine, where she has written about scientific research and the history of science.

Her book Longitude (Walker and Company, fall 1995; Penguin paperback fall 1996) spent a total of 41 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and has been translated into 22 foreign languages, including Korean, Hebrew, Turkish and Icelandic.  The book has won several awards, including "Book of the Year" in England, "Le Prix Faubert du Coton" in France, and "II Premio del Mare Circeo" in Italy. 

Also in recognition of Longitude, Ms. Sobel was recently made a fellow of the American Geographic Society.  In fall 1998, the PBS program NOVA aired "Lost At Sea: The Search for Longitude," a television documentary adaptation of Longitude.  It was the lead program in NOVA's 25th-anniversary year.

Ms. Sobel has lectured at The Smithsonian Institution, The Explorers Club, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Los Angeles Public Library, the New York Public Library, the Royal Geographic Society (London) and BookExpo America 1998.

She has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including NPR's "All Things Considered," "Fresh Air," and "The Connection" with Christopher Lydon, as well as C-SPAN, "The Today Show" and "ABC World News Tonight."

She lives in East Hampton, New York.

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