CBE Awarded “Scientists in the Synagogue” Grant
CBE was one of just 15 communities selected to receive a really exciting grant for "Scientists in Synagogues".
We will be hosting interesting, top-flight scientists at a half dozen events open to ours and neighboring communities through the end of 2024.
Rabbi David brought this grant opportunity to the attention of congregant Joe Formaggio, an MIT physics Professor. Thanks to Joe for leading the successful grant application process and coordinating our future efforts on this grant.
This is part of a project entitled "Scientists in Synagogues," a grass-roots initiative run by Sinai and Synapses in consultation with the American Association for the Advancement of Science Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion, and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, along with other individual donors.
You can learn more by clicking the links above and below:
- Article announcing the Scientists in Synagogue 15 congregations, including us, that are the grant recipients this year: Sinai and Synapses, fiscally sponsored by Clal – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, is thrilled to announce the selection of 15 communities as part of its project “Scientists in Synagogues.”
- Sinai and Synapses Facebook Page
- Sinai and Synapses Twitter Page
CBE's Scientists in Synagogues Events
October 15, 2023 - KICK-OFF EVENT
Scientists in Synagogues Speaker Series: A talk by Professor David Kaiser (MIT) entitled "Einstein's Legacy: Studying Gravity in War and Peace”
The video recording of this talk is below, but will only be visible to those logged into their account. If not already logged in, scroll to the top of the screen to log in.
Abstract: "Einstein's Legacy: Studying Gravity in War and Peace" , MIT's Dr. David Kaiser
A popular image persists of Albert Einstein as a loner, someone who avoided the hustle and bustle of everyday life in favor of quiet contemplation. Yet Einstein was deeply engaged with politics throughout his life; indeed, he was so active politically that the U.S. government kept him under surveillance for decades, compiling a 2000-page secret file on his political activities. His most enduring scientific legacy, the general theory of relativity -- physicists' reigning explanation for gravity and the basis for nearly all our thinking about the cosmos -- has likewise been cast as an austere temple standing aloof from the all-too-human dramas of political history. But was it so? This lecture examines ways in which research on general relativity was embedded in, and at times engulfed by, the tumult of world politics over the course of the twentieth century.
If you are logged into your account (upper right of the screen), you will see the video recording of Professor David Kaiser's talk below.
December 17, 2023
Scientists in Synagogues Speaker Series: A talk by Professor Sara Seager (MIT) entitled "Planetary Atmospheres and the Search for Signs of Life Beyond Earth"
Sara Seager is an astrophysicist and a Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on the search for the first Earth-like exoplanets and for signs of life beyond Earth.
She is a MacArthur Fellow, has Asteroid 9729 named in her honor, and the author of, “The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir”
March 3, 2024
Scientists in Synagogues Speaker Series: A talk by Dr. Robyn Cohen entitled "Asthma disparities: A journey towards helping kids and families breathe a little easier"
Dr. Robyn Cohen is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine and the Director of Boston Medical Center Pediatric Pulmonary & Allergy Clinic.
Dr. Robyn Cohen started her medical training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where she had the great fortune of having the amazing Jaymi Formaggio as her roommate. She then followed Jaymi's footsteps into the Social Pediatrics residency program at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore. Once immersed into the epicenter of the pediatric asthma epidemic in the Bronx, she entered a pediatric pulmonary fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital and a post-doctoral research fellowship in respiratory epidemiology at the Brigham and Women's hospital, during which time she also gained her Master in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Since completing her training, her clinical and research career has focused on pediatric respiratory health disparities, specifically asthma in low-income urban populations and the pulmonary complications of sickle cell disease. Dr. Cohen will discuss the multilevel factors contributing to the high degree of asthma morbidity among low-income urban children, and what a dedicated group of clinicians are doing to help their community breathe a little easier.
May 12, 2024
Scientists in Synagogues Speaker Series: A talk by Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman, Professor in MIT's Aeronautics and Astronautics Department & an astronaut
As an astronaut, Dr. Hoffman has made five space flights, becoming the first astronaut to log 1000 hours of flight time aboard the Space Shuttle. He has performed four spacewalks and has helped develop space suit designs and procedures for assembly of the International Space Station.
Dr. Hoffman is currently the director of the Massachusetts Space Grant Consortium, responsible for space-related educational activities and Deputy Principal Investigator of the MOXIE experiment on NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission. In 2007, Dr. Hoffman was elected to the US Astronaut Hall of Fame.
Dr Hoffman showed his short film “Space Torah” -- which shows how he became an astronaut, carried a Torah on a space flight and performed a short ceremony reading the first words of Beresheet.
Acton Exchange Article entitled "Astronaut Lands in Acton", authored by CBE congregant, Matthew Liebman.
CBE congregant, Matthew Liebman, authored an article about Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman's talk published in the Acton Exchange on May 16, 2024 entitled, "Astronaut lands in Acton". Click on the photo below or the title above to read the article.
