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Photo note:  To download a photo of Sobel, see bottom of  the release.

‘Longitude,’ ‘Galileo’s Daughter’ author to give lecture Oct. 28

CHAPEL HILL -- Dava Sobel, a former New York Times science reporter and the award-winning author of "Longitude" and "Galileo’s Daughter," will give the annual Hillard Gold Lecture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Oct. 28.

She will discuss "The Making of ‘Galileo’s Daughter’ " at 8 p.m. in Hill Hall auditorium. The lecture is free to the public, and parking is available in the Swain lot off Cameron Avenue. A NOVA documentary based on "Galileo’s Daughter" will be aired on PBS at 8 p.m. Oct. 29.

Sobel based the Galileo story on 124 remarkable surviving letters to the famous scientist from the eldest of three illegitimate children, a daughter who became a cloistered nun. The letters, which Sobel translated from Italian, portray a touching father-daughter relationship and reveal much about Medici-era Italy and the man who developed the first reliable telescope and forever changed the way the universe was perceived.

While Galileo was being convicted during the Inquisition for holding the heretical belief that the earth revolved around the sun, his daughter, Sister Marie Celeste (whose convent name reflected her father’s fascination with the heavens), provided moral support with her letters.

"Galileo’s Daughter" won the Los Angeles Times Book Award in 1999 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. The publication also was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire and the American Library Association. The paperback edition enjoyed five consecutive weeks as the number-one bestseller on The New York Times nonfiction list.

"Sobel is a master storyteller," wrote Alan Lightman in The New York Times Book Review. "What she has done, with her choice of excerpts and her strong sense of story, is bring a great scientist to life."

Another book, "Letters to Father," contains the full text of Sister Celeste’s correspondence with Galileo in English and Italian, using Sobel’s translation.

Sobel is also the author of the best-selling "Longitude" about the obscure clockmaker, John Harrison, who invented the chronometer, making it possible for navigators to determine a precise east-west location. The book inspired a NOVA public television documentary, as well as a television drama starring Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon.

Sobel’s visit to UNC, which also includes private meetings with groups of undergraduates and graduate students, is co-sponsored by the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, the department of physics and astronomy, the curriculum in women’s studies and the College of Arts and Sciences.

The Hillard Gold Lecture, held annually in conjunction with the Honors Program, is made possible by a gift from the sons of the late Hillard Gold (a 1939 alumnus): James and Jonathan Gold.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/visiting/sobel_dava092602.jpg

Department of physics and astronomy contact: Bruce Carney, (919) 962-2078
College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339