Food for Thought: A new Center for Advanced Study public events series featuring presentations of research and creative projects by recent CAS Associates and Fellows.

This informal series includes talks that were canceled after campus shut down in Spring 2020. With the possibility of in-person events once again, we are delighted to showcase the work of some of our most productive and creative faculty in a series of intellectually and spiritually invigorating presentations. You are invited to drop in when you can and enjoy a bite to eat while you learn about the exciting projects undertaken by our faculty. A brunch buffet will be provided at all in-person events.

11:00am, Charles Gammie, A Portrait of a Black Hole

Black holes are perfect absorbers of light but are also believed to form the heart of the most luminous objects in the universe. Professor Gammie will describe a project - the Event Horizon Telescope project - that set out to make a portrait of a black hole, and by interpreting that portrait come to a better understanding of these paradoxical objects and their role in our universe.

Noon, Benjamin Marx, Charitable Giving for Natural Disasters

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe. Will charitable giving help us recover from their increasing toll? Professor Marx measures the extent to which charitable giving increases with disaster severity, examines whether some socio-economic groups receive more support than others, and tests whether disasters divert donations that would have gone to other charitable causes.