It's a Star Party With Dava Sobel in Southampton

Hamptons Observatory and the Southampton Arts Center are partnering to present “Dava Sobel on ‘The Elements of Marie Curie,’” a free hybrid lecture, book signing and star party at Southampton Arts Center on Monday, January 13, at 6 p.m. followed by stargazing from 7 to 8 p.m., weather permitting.

Sobel, a New York Times Best-Selling author, Pulitzer Prize finalist and East End resident, is a Hamptons Observatory founding advisory board member. Her book “The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science” tells the story of Polish-born Marie Sklodowska Curie who came to the world’s attention in 1898 with the discovery of two new elements—polonium, named for her homeland, and radium. Both elements were “radioactive,” a term she coined to describe their unusual behavior.

As radioactivity reshaped physics and chemistry in the early 20th century, Mme. Curie met regularly with a coterie of scientists, including her friend Albert Einstein. For decades she stood out at international conferences as the only woman in the room. Meanwhile, she made room in her laboratory between 1906 and 1933 for more than 40 aspiring female scientists. During World War I, she drove her personally outfitted mobile X-ray units to combat zones accompanied by her 17-year-old daughter, Irène. Together they trained some 150 French women as X-ray technicians. After Irène completed her university studies, she followed her mother into the lab and won her own Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.

“Marie Curie visited the United States twice in the 1920s,” said Sobel. “By then a war hero and a two-time Nobel Prize winner, she was welcomed and fussed over by many fine institutions — and received at the White House by Presidents Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover. Had the Hamptons Observatory or the Southampton Arts Center existed at the time, I feel certain she would have enjoyed a side trip to see them.”

“Even after 90 years since her death, Mme. Marie Curie continues to be an inspiration, not only to the scientific community but also to generations of young women to whom she has served as a role model,” added Donna L. McCormick, the executive director of Hamptons Observatory. “Dava Sobel, too, is an inspiration: She is an outstanding author who, through her meticulous research and writing skill has, time and again, provided fresh insight and brought to life historical figures who have made world-changing contributions.

“We are deeply grateful to Dava for taking the time to discuss her new book, ‘The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science,’ and the indefatigable, pioneering character of Mme. Curie, who is the subject of this biography,” added McCormick. “It is truly an honor to have Dava as a founding member of Hamptons Observatory’s Advisory Board. We also are delighted to again be partnering with the Southampton Arts Center on this special program.”

Following Sobel’s lecture, she will autograph copies of her book, which will be available for purchase. Weather permitting, the event will conclude with guided telescope tours by of the night sky by Sean Tvelia, Hamptons Observatory founding board member and Academic Chair of Science at Suffolk County Community College.

Dava Sobel is the author of seven books, including best-sellers “The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of Harvard University Took the Measure of the Stars,” “Longitude” (on which a NOVA documentary and a four-hour mini-series were based) and “The Planets.” Sobel was a 2000 Pulitzer finalist for her book “Galileo’s Daughter,” which served as the basis for an Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary. She is currently poetry editor of Scientific American and formerly a science reporter for The New York Times.

The nonprofit Hamptons Observatory has served the community since 2005 with a mission to foster interest in science, particularly astronomy, through educational programs. The organization has an observatory in East Hampton that it is endeavoring to restore and to make accessible to students, researchers, educators and the general public. To learn more, visit hamptonsobservatory.org.

Admission to the lecture is free, but donations are welcome to support the work of Hamptons Observatory. Reservations for the lecture portion of the program are required. To attend in-person, visit bit.ly/DavaSobelTalk-InPerson. To attend virtually, visit bit.ly/DavaSobelTalk-Virtual.

Southampton Arts Center is at 25 Jobs Lane in Southampton Village. For details, visit southamptonartscenter.org.