Date:   Saturday, March 13
Time:   11 a.m. PT
Location:   Online on Zoom

As part of the educational programming for Mars: An Artistic Mission, the California Art Club will present the panel discussion “The Intersection of Art and Science,” which will address the history of collaboration between scientists and artists, as well as interesting facts and findings about the exploration of Mars, including the quest to find signs of life on our neighboring planet.

This illustrious panel will include some of the leading minds from their respective fields:

• John Callas, a JPL physicist who was the Project Manager for the Mars Exploration Rover project from March 2006 to the end of the project in September 2019.
• Dr. Laura Danly, an astronomer who recently retired as Curator of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.
• William Stout, a CAC Signature Artist of world renown, known for his diverse body of work that includes themed entertainment and motion picture design, comic book art, book illustration, public murals and dynamic yet accurate reconstructions of prehistoric life.

Biographies for the panelists appear below.

Cost:  $5.00

Register Now

Deadline to Register:  Friday, March 12, at 10 p.m. PT

The Zoom link for all participants will be emailed the evening before the event.  If the link is not received, please email programs@californiaartclub.org.

The Panelists

To submit questions for the panelists, email programs@californiaartclub.org

John L. Callas

John Callas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., was the project manager of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover project since March 2006 to the end of the project in September 2019. Previously, as science manager and then deputy project manager, he helped lead the rover project since 2000.

Callas grew up near Boston, Mass. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Tufts University, Medford, Mass., in 1981 and his Masters and Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University, Providence, R.I., in 1983 and 1987, respectively. He joined JPL to work on advanced spacecraft propulsion, which included such futuristic concepts as electric, nuclear and antimatter propulsion. In 1989 he began work supporting the exploration of Mars with the Mars Observer mission and has since worked on seven Mars missions. In addition to his Mars work, Callas is involved in the development of instrumentation for astrophysics and planetary science, and teaches mathematics at Pasadena City College as an adjunct faculty member.

Dr. Laura Danly

Dr. Laura Danly is an astronomer, curator, and educator based in Los Angeles. She began her career as a researcher for ten years with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and has held posts at NASA’s Space Telescope Science Institute, Pomona College, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the University of Denver, the American Museum of Natural History and Griffith Observatory, where she recently retired as its Curator.

Dr. Danly specializes in public programming, educational multimedia and planetarium show production. She has developed curriculum for students from elementary school through university, with a specialty in Astrobiology, the scientific search for life in the universe.

She has been active in promoting women and girls in STEM. An accomplished lecturer and teacher, Dr. Danlt has appeared in hundreds of television and news programs, and has served on numerous boards and advisory committees, including those for educational non-profit organizations, NASA, and the White House.

Dr. Danly holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Yale University. She is a spectroscopist specializing in ultraviolet observations from space satellites. Her research focuses on the large-scale distribution and dynamics of the interstellar medium and its relationship to galaxy evolution.

William Stout

William Stout was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1949. At age 17 he won a full scholarship to the Chouinard Art Institute (California Institute of the Arts) where he obtained a bachelor’s degree. Stout’s 1977 Wizards poster was the first of his more than 120 film advertising campaigns. He worked as a designer on more than 45 movies and helped Pan’s Labyrinth win two of its Academy Awards.

Themed entertainment design for Disney and Universal earned him a reputation as that field’s top conceptualist. Stout has been honored with Gold and Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators and Spectrum. Stout’s 1981 landmark book, The Dinosaurs: A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era helped inspire Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park. Stout has had in excess of 100 international museum exhibitions, including 13 one-man shows. His career retrospective, William Stout: From Antarctica to Zombies, broke all attendance records at the Laguna College of Art + Design.

Stout was the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s 1992-1993 Antarctic Artists & Writers Program grant. His murals are on permanent display at the San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego Zoo, Houston Museum of Natural Science and Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom. His latest books include William Stout: Prehistoric Life Murals; Dinosaur Discoveries; Hallucinations, Inspirations, Dinosaurs: A Coloring Book; and Legends of the Blues. Stout’s own Terra Nova Press has published more than 45 books on art. A Signature Member of the California Art Club, Stout is managing editor of the organization’s newsletter and serves on its Advisory Board.