Ivan Amato

Although my primary channel of communication is writing, I also enjoy tapping into live channels of communication. Here are a few examples of events that I have organized and/or participated in.

Materials Matters: A dialog with innovators

The materials of the constructed landscape have always captured my attention and imagination. Materials, after all, are the flesh of almost all technologies. So the more capable are materials, the more capable are our technologies. In February 2012 I mediated a panel of six corporate materials scientists and executives about innovations in materials. The event was held at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia and was the result of a joint venture of CHF with Discover Magazine, which ran its own coverage of the event in the September 2012 issue. CHF posted a video recording of the event. Take a look.

Materials Research Society Panel Discussion

I was hired by the Materials Research Society to help organize and then facilitate a panel discussion of corporate responsibility officers and technology officers that would leave those in the audience with a feel for how the materials centric industries are taking steps to invent and supply the materials society needs and wants in more environmentally sound ways than before. MRS prepared a short video, which includes some comments by me, about the event.

The Matter or Origin, a performance

In May 2010, I was among 50 “provocateurs” participating in choreographer Liz Lerman’s ambitious and epic, multimedia performance titled “The Matter of Origins.” The performances took place at the Clarice Smith Performance Center on the College Park campus of the University of Maryland.

Nerd Nite DC

In November 2013, I was a featured speaker at the monthly science and party night known as Nerd Nite DC. The topic was “The World’s First Spy Satellite…as far as we know of.”