By Lori Stiles, University of Arizona News
 Physicist
and performance artist Lynda Williams is bringing her nationally
acclaimed "Cosmic Cabaret" to Tucson March 26, courtesy
of the University of Arizona Steward Observatory Public Evening
Lecture Series.
A San Francisco
State University physics and astronomy teacher by day, Williams
morphs on stages around the country into a professional dancer
and singer known as the Physics Chanteuse, presenting a multimedia
MTV-style astrophysics revue with original songs, parodies, and
repartee.
Science writer
K.C. Cole of the LA Times said, "Every scientist dreams of
seducing people with the beauty and wonder of the natural world.
But few take it as far as Lynda Williams - who puts her microphone
where her mouth is."
A New York
Times reviewer described her as "the tall woman in the silver
lame jumpsuit, singing original love songs to quarks and leptons
in a voice that is somewhere between Madonna and Eartha Kitt."
People Magazine,
Good Morning America, Scientific American, and Discover are other
media that have featured Williams, who describes herself as "Bette
Midler meets Carl Sagan, with a touch of Tom Lehrer and Mae West
added to the mix."
Formerly media
manager at the San Francisco Art Institute, Williams began writing
songs when a graduate student in physics at San Francisco State
University.
"Physics
is such a lyrical subject and I just naturally wrote songs about
it," she told the New York Times.
These include
"Black Hole Song" (to the Beatles' tune "Blackbird"),
a rap song titled "Player," "Hi Tek Girl"
(sung to Madonna's "Material Girl"), and, one of her
big hits with physicists - "Carbon is a Girl's Best Friend."
Her greatest hits are now available in her CD, "Cosmic Cabaret."
Williams performs
at planetaria and other academic arenas to audiences ranging from
school children to scientists who have included Stephen Hawking.
A declared feminist with a sense of humor, she aims to inspire
more women to careers in science.
Astronomers
are her favorite scientific audience "because astronomers
have a great capacity for fantasy and wonder," she said.
The Steward
Observatory Public Evening Lecture Series has been drawing public
audiences since 1924. UA astronomer Tom Fleming organizes the
series, which is detailed on the web at http://viking.as.arizona.edu/~taf/pubeve/pub_lect.html
Web site:
http://www.scientainment.com
Cost: Free, with seating limited to about 240 people
Contact : Tom Fleming, Steward Obsv., 520-621-5049, tfleming@as.arizona.edu
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