Thorne Hall, Occidental College
This event is free but tickets are required.
Join us for an evening of conversation between Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist Kip Thorne with acclaimed interviewer and cultural interlocutor Paul Holdengräber.
Oxy Live is a series of conversations with a diverse lineup of cultural luminaries at the forefront of their fields for thought-provoking discussions hosted by acclaimed cultural interlocutor, Paul Holdengräber. All conversations are open to the public at no cost, creating a space for diverse communities to join in the conversation and explore ideas together.
The series is funded through the generous support of Occidental trustee and alumna, Lisa Coscino ’85 and the Occidental Class of '74.
Kip Thorne is a visionary physicist and creative trailblazer at the intersection of science and art. As the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, Kip spent decades exploring some of the universe’s most fascinating phenomena—relativistic stars, black holes, time travel, and gravitational waves. He made decisive contributions to the observational discovery of gravitational waves by the LIGO Project, earning him the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics (with Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish), and cementing his legacy in modern astrophysics.
After stepping down from his professorship at Caltech in 2009, Kip embarked on a creative new chapter—fusing science with the arts. He brought complex physics to a global audience through his collaboration with Christopher Nolan on the Hollywood movie Interstellar and Kip’s accompanying book The Science of Interstellar. And in his collaborations with renowned composer Hans Zimmer, visual effects guru Paul Franklin, and painter Lia Halloran, Kip is creating multimedia works that creatively explore the "warped side" of our universe.
Kip offers a rare and exciting portal into both the scientific frontiers and creative expressions that shape our understanding of space, time and the cosmos.
Paul Holdengräber is an interviewer and curator. He was the founding executive director of Onassis Los Angeles (OLA). Previously, and for 14 years, he was founder and director of The New York Public Library’s LIVE from the NYPL cultural series where he interviewed and hosted over 600 events, holding conversations with everyone from Patti Smith to Zadie Smith, Ricky Jay to Jay-Z, Errol Morris to Jan Morris, Wes Anderson to Helen Mirren, Werner Herzog to Mike Tyson. Before his tenure at the Library, Holdengräber was the founder and director of “The Institute for Art & Cultures” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and a Fellow at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and has taught at Princeton University, Williams College, Claremont Graduate University among others. In 2003, the French Government named Holdengräber Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and then promoted him in 2012 to the rank of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. In 2010, The President of Austria awarded him the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.
