|
-
Hivemind social net
-
News
- Features
- Blogs
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Google Toolbar scifi
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
Donna Shirley Named Director of the Science Fiction Museum
12/02/2004 . Source: Jessica Martin 
Donna lands the ESF's top job as James Cameron, George Lucas, Majel Roddenberry and Steven Spielberg join its advisory board. Experience Science Fiction (ESF), the science fiction museum, announced that Donna Shirley has joined the institution as its director.
She will oversee the creative, programs and operations teams at the museum, which is scheduled to open this summer.
Founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen and located next to the Experience Music Project in Seattle, ESF will provide exhibit experiences that inspire appreciation of science fiction's history, creativity and contributions, while at the same time recognizing notable science fiction creators and their creations.
Included in the exhibit will be works by Isaac Asimov, Ursula Le Guin, H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Gene Roddenberry, Octavia Butler and Steven Spielberg, to name a few.
"I'm excited to come on board at ESF - especially given the broad role that science and science fiction play in people's lives," said Donna Shirley. "Science fiction is a dynamic and thought-provoking genre that engages young and old alike, and encourages participation and interest in 'real' science. From physics and astronomy to biology and anthropology, science inspires science fiction and vice versa - and science literacy is key in the worlds of today and tomorrow."
A science-fiction fan since age 11, Shirley has 40 years of experience in aerospace and civil systems engineering, including 30 years in management.
She retired in August 1998 from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory where she managed the billion-dollar Mars Exploration Program. In 2000/2001 Shirley was appointed as the official spokesperson for the White House Mars Millennium Project, now called "Imagine Mars."
The ESF also announced the latest additions to the museum's advisory board, including various science fiction luminaries from the worlds of film, television, art and literature.
Among them, actress Majel Roddenberry, widow of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, motion picture director, producer and writer James Cameron of Terminator, The Abyss and Aliens fame, filmmaker Steven Spielberg (Taken, Minority Report, Jurassic Park, ET: The Extra Terrestrial), and Star Wars creator George Lucas.
Chaired by science fiction author Greg Bear, the ESF advisory board is a veritable "who's who" of the SF community, with founding members including Forrest Ackerman, authors Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke, artist and designer Tim Kirk, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, visual effects wizard Dennis Muren, and Octavia Butler, one of the USA's foremost African-American science fiction authors.
"There's definitely a feedback between the sciences and science fiction," said James Cameron. "It flows both directions ... not only does science fiction inspire people to become scientists and want to ask questions about the real nature of existence and matter and reality, but what they're finding then feeds back into the science fiction community, and gets embraced by that, and spins out a whole new generation of science fiction."
"I cannot think of anyone better to run the Experience Science Fiction Museum than Donna Shirley," said Sir Arthur C. Clarke, author and Experience Science Fiction Museum advisory board member. "Science fiction has been a major element in shaping our world, both as a predictor of hopeful futures, and a warning against bad ones. Thus '1984' is the classic example of a self-UNfulfilling prophecy - Orwell would have been delighted."
"The news that Donna Shirley has been made director of the Seattle Science Fiction Museum is really terrific," Ray Bradbury added. "I foresee nothing but a fantastic future for Donna Shirley and the museum."
Well, we await the opening of the ESF with some interest here in Blighty.
:wink:
|
|
