2018.Mar.17 Intersections of Art & Science on the Neutron Trail
Vancouver CANADA – I debuted a new Neutron Trail talk, in a private home to a small, highly engaged audience on the intersections of art and science — with a focus on the controversial, paradoxical, healing and transformative influences that art can have on us. From atomic bomb cakes made of angel food puffs to dancing physicists, I showed how artists are making sense of the difficulties and dilemmas arising out of humankind’s discovering and deploying nuclear technology.
2017.Aug.11 Neutron Trail Talk for Students from Kobe, Japan
AMS Student Nest, UBC, Vancouver CANADA – In a pre-meeting, their head teacher Tokuzawa Sensei asked me to explain how Enrico decided what he wanted to be when he grew up, as this would be a relevant tie-in for her cohort. Trump and the North Korean leader were nuclear threatening each other and Japan is on the flight path between the two countries. I felt compassion for the young students inheriting such a situation. It occurred to me that one way of looking at career choice was whether one went toward being and expert or a facilitator. Enrico was both and that was part of his strength. I said that it’s important to consider the world situation as well as one’s personal skills and talents in making a decision about career but that one can also change. Takashi Nagai was a doctor at Nagasaki University when the bomb fell. He himself suffered and eventually died of radiation sickness. But nonetheless he ministered to fellow sufferers and became a poet.
2017.Jul.17 Neutron Trail Talk and Student Dialogue Session
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver CANADA – I once again was a guest lecturer in Professor Terry Neiman’s “Negotiation and Dialogue as Communication” course (SFU, CMNS 447). (see 2015.Jul.08)
2016.Mar.10 Fairleigh Dickinson University Live Talk and Interview
Embracing Contradictions on the Neutron Trail, USA – At FDU’s campus in Teaneck, NJ, just outside of Manhattan, I began to introduce a renewed vision for Neutron Trail — as an immigration story. Not only can we migrate from place to place, we can also move into new ways of living together by allowing ourselves fluidity to enter new cultural paradigms.
2015.Jul.8 Neutron Trail Talk and Student Dialogue Session
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver CANADA – I visited Professor Terry Neiman’s “Negotiation and Dialogue as Communication” course (SFU, CMNS 447). I was delighted to meet his students. They rose to the challenge of embracing the values disconnects and nuanced personal history I presented. Through lecture, discussion and workshop exercises we deepened our understanding of each other and the roots of our shared nuclear legacy.
2015.Mar.10 VisualSpace Gallery, Vancouver, CANADA: Live Talk: A Healing Journey to Japan
2014.Nov Granddaughter of scientist involved in developing atomic bombs visits Hiroshima and Nagasaki (English version)
Japanese Newspaper Story – During my recent Neutron Trail visit to Hiroshima, Yumi Kanazaki, journalist at Chugoku Shimbun introduced me to her friend, an atomic bomb survivor Toshiko Tanaka. We had a mutually inspiring meeting, which Yumi covered. Neutron Trail blog post about connecting with Toshiko and Yumi. 中国新聞掲載記事はこちら
2014.Jul Inhabited Desert: The Untold Story of the Trinity Test
Radio Interview & Blog Post – Marisa Demarco of KUNM Radio, an NPR affiliate, spoke with Tina Cordova, of the Tularosa Downwinders Consortium and myself, in this 5 minute piece about recognizing the impact of radioactive fallout on the communities around the Trinity Test. Currently the National Cancer Institute is going deeper into the findings of a major Centers for Disease Control study.
2014.Mar Women Respond to the Manhattan Project: Then & Now
Vancouver, BC & Denver, CO– At the invitation of the American Physical Society (APS), I developed a new talk about female activism in response to the Manhattan Project and its fallout in Northern New Mexico for an APS Panel on Women and the Manhattan Project. Link above is a write-up about the talk. March 3, 2014 video of Women Respond to the Manhattan Project about my grandmother Laura Fermi, pioneer in the environmental movement and contemporary community leader Marian Naranjo of the Santa Clara Pueblo in Northern New Mexico.
2013.Jan Langara Students Walk on the Neutron Trail with Olivia Fermi
Vancouver, CANADA – Students in Langara’s Computer Science program are collaborating with Olivia Fermi, granddaughter of Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi and trailblazing environmentalist Laura Fermi, on her quest to explore the conflicts and dilemmas of the nuclear age.
2012.Oct Presentation looks at key questions from Nuclear Age
Tri-City Herald Coverage of talk contextualizing Enrico & Laura Fermi lives on the Neutron Trail, USA
200 people attended the talk, funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, in a town where Enrico Fermi is a household name because of his key role during World War II in the development of commercial-scale plutonium production facilities near the Tri-Cities, WA.
2012.Mar Interview with Olivia Fermi on the Neutron Trail in felicenews.com
Challenging Assumptions About Everything Nuclear
VANCOUVER — “Could nuclear bombs really end life on Earth as we know it?,” I asked Olivia Fermi, creator of the Neutron Trail and granddaughter of the Nobel prize winning nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi. Mutually assured destruction hadn’t seemed relevant to me personally for whatever reason, until suddenly she turned to me and said, “Yes.” Starting in the mid 90’s, Olivia grappled with inner conflicts about her grandfather’s role in the development of nuclear technology.
2011.Oct Neutron Trail at CERN — featured in CERN Bulletin
2011.Sept.30 Olivia gives TEDx talk in Rome Italy
“My great-grandmother Ida built her own pressure cooker… In December, 1942, her son Enrico Fermi built a pressure cooker — a nuclear kind…” The number and level of conflicting forces in our lives has been increasing ever since…
2011.Apr Hiking the Neutron Trail
Peak Performances: Olivia Fermi’s keynote at Montclair State University, USA.
2011.Apr Quantum Diaries features Neutron Trail talk
Nigel S. Lockyer, Director of TRIUMF, reviews Olivia Fermi’s keynote for the inaugural meeting of the Society of Italian Researchers & Professionals in Western Canada, Vancouver, CANADA.
2011.Mar.21 BBC World Radio Interview with Olivia Fermi
In the wake of the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident, BBC’s Dan Damon interviews Olivia Fermi.
2010.Nov Neutron Trail featured in Vancouver Observer
Olivia Fermi discusses her family’s nuclear legacy on the Neutron Trail
What would you do if your grandfather was Enrico Fermi, one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century and a key architect of the atomic bomb? And your grandmother was Laura Fermi, an environmental pioneer?
For Olivia Fermi, the answer was to set out on a quest, …
2009.Apr Playing Squash featured in Los Alamos Monitor
Matthew Day Jackson and Olivia Fermi’s squash game, USA. Olivia’s grandfather Enrico’s famous pile experiment, wherein he built the first nuclear reactor, was carried out inside an abandoned squash court… NOTE – if you don’t care to sign up for an account on Los Alamos Monitor, full story republished here.
2008.Jun Fermi Family visit to Fermilab in FERMILAB Today
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