Rice professors discuss inspirations at Scientia

By Dixita Viswanath     11/5/13 6:00pm

In only 30 minutes, the attendees of the Oct. 29 Scientia colloquium gained insight into the ideas that have most powerfully influenced Rice professors. Students, faculty and staff were introduced to Rice University faculty members Erin Cech, Simon Fischer-Baum, Guseka Heffes and Andrew Putman and provided with an opportunity to appreciate the world in a different manner. 

According to Scientia Director Susan McIntosh, Scientia is an annual lecture series founded in 1981 and aimed at showcasing Rice's talents from a variety of perspectives.

Will Rice College junior Petra Constable said her favorite speaker was Cech, an assistant professor of sociology, who spoke about the importance of culture in everyday life. Cech spoke about the power we give culture and the repercussions we voluntarily face if we break culture rules.

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"Culture is a system of symbols and meanings and practices shaped by laws and institutions that help us make sense of our daily experiences," Cech said. "We follow [the rules it dictates] because it makes social situations less demanding .... If culture is real, it is real in its consequences."

Fischer-Baum, an assistant professor of psychology, said he wanted to find out how the brain works by detailing the differences between our perceptions of reality.

"Every individual is as individual as a snowflake," Fischer-Baum said. "We all have six points. We all are made from the same stuff, but in the end, we are unique. We are all special ..., and in order to understand how individuals differ, we need to find our similarities."

Heffes, an assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese, said irreverence between human culture is a key component of cultural innovation. 

"While many people, perhaps, would find [my condition] uneasy and even distressful, it gave me the great opportunity to look at the world from a different perspective," Heffes said. "I found myself, furthermore, thriving from emergence, since this geopolitical worldview allowed me to reflect on topics that otherwise I would have taken for granted."

Putman, an associate professor in mathematics, said he found his field fascinating because it was impossible to define. 

"Mathematics uses the notion of a proof: a sequence of logical arguments starting with some set of agreed-upon assumptions," Putman said. "But this is not always possible. In fact, there exist simple statements that resemble exercises in high school algebra which are empirically true but cannot be proven."

Constable said she thought the Scientia colloquium was riveting because of its brevity. 

"I loved the Scientia lecture series because it provides interesting lectures on scientific ideas that I would have never thought about on my own," Constable said. "It provides a glimpse of different disciplines that I would not have normally ever interacted with."

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