JAMIE CARPENTER & SIDNEY NAGEL
MELLON FELLOWSHIP 2011-12
This collaborative fellowship, which will investigate the physics and aesthetics of light, is hosted by University of Chicago's Department of Physics, The James Franck Institute, and the Enrico Fermi Institute.
Jamie Carpenter is a distinguished architectural designer based in New York City. His multi-disciplinary architectural design firm, James Carpenter Design Associates, is motivated by a deeply held agenda that seeks to merge ecological and aesthetic goals by exploring the natural world to manifest its material, structural and environmental beauty in the built environment. The work is a synthesis of creative ideas and technical expertise that straddles the fields of art, architecture and engineering, while forging creative implementations of innovative technologies. Light in transmission, reflection and refraction as it is perceived, is the work’s initial inspiration, which becomes a guiding principal in designing a complete architectural project. The result is architecture that reestablishes and enriches the individual’s relationship with light and other natural phenomena within the urban environment.
JCDA has been involved in many projects. Among them are: the façade of the new World Trade Center 7 Tower in Manhattan; the entry portal to the Olympic Stadium in Sydney, Australia; the renovation of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; as well the new lighting and pathway design across the Midway on Ellis Avenue for the Chicago Park District at University of Chicago.
Mr. Carpenter is the recipient of numerous awards, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2004, the National Environmental Design Award from the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Institute of Architects Honor Award.
Ph.D., Princeton, 1974, Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor, Department of Physics, James Franck Institute, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College
Many complex phenomena are so familiar that we hardly realize that they defy our normal intuition; we forget to ask whether or not they are understood. Examples of such poorly understood behavior include the anomalous flow of granular material, the long messy tendrils left by honey spooned from one dish to another, the pesky rings deposited by spilled coffee on a table after the liquid evaporates or the common splash of a drop of liquid onto a countertop. Aside from being uncommonly beautiful to see, many of these phenomena involve non-linear behavior where the system is far from equilibrium. Most of the world we know is beyond description by equilibrium theories, and understanding far-from-equilibrium behavior is one of the great challenges of modern physics -- these are phenomena that can lead the inquisitive into new realms of physics. Problems such as these fuel much of my research effort.