Stellar Axis Team & Biographies

Antarctica Team

Lita Albuquerque, Artist
Simon P. Balm, Ph.D., Science Advisor
Lionel Cousin, Cinematographer
Sophie Dia Pegrum, Filmmaker
Jean de Pomereu, Photographer

U.S. Project Team

Gabrielle Lamirand, Business Manager and Producer
Marianne Matsuura & Arielle Kilgore, Project Assistants

Technical Consultants

Francis Hu, Performance Composites, Inc.
Sergio Toro
Vinh Bui
Chandler McWilliams
Jon Beasley

Grants Writing & Development Advisor

Rochelle Fabb

Advisory Team

Carey Peck
Valerie Kirkgaard
Eliane Gans
Patricia Faure Gallery
Ellie Blankfort
Becky Loving

NSF Contact

Kim Silverman

Raytheon Contact

Patricia Jackson

 

Biography, Commissions and Collections of Lita Albuquerque

litaalbuquerque.com

Lita Albuquerque is an internationally renowned installation, environmental artist, painter and sculptor. She is committed to developing a visual language that brings the realities of vast time and space to a more human scale and is widely acclaimed for her ephemeral and permanent art works executed in the natural landscape and in public sites.

She was born in Santa Monica, California and raised in Tunisia, North Africa and in Paris, France. At the age of eleven she finally settled with her family in the United States. In the 1970's Albuquerque emerged on the California art scene as part of the light and space movement and won acclaim for her epic and poetic ephemeral pigment pieces created for desert sites. She gained national attention in the late seventies with her ephemeral pigment installations pertaining to mapping, identity and the cosmos, executed and documented in the natural landscape. In 1980 Albuquerque garnered international acclaim for her pivotal installation, THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT PROJECT, as featured in the International Sculptural Conference. The recognition this daring work gained led to awards and commissions at major sites around the world, including the Great Pyramids, where she represented the United States at the International Cairo Biennale with her installation and exhibition SOL STAR which won the prestigious Cairo Biennale Prize.

Completing an ambitious array of public projects over the past decade, Albuquerque has been commissioned to work in locations including: Gannett Publishers in McLean, Virginia; The Evo De Concini Federal Courthouse in Tucson, Arizona; Palos Verdes Central Library, California; Koll/Obayashi Corporation, Los Angeles, CA; Tochigi Prefecture Health Center, Japan; Saitama Guest Center, Saitama, Tokyo, and the Library at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies amongst numerous other sites.

Albuquerque, with architect Mitchell De Jarnett, recently installed the largest public art commission in California state government history, entitled GOLDEN STATE, a plaza design spanning two city blocks at the center of the Capitol Area East End Complex in Sacramento. Conceived at the scale of the city, this environmental artwork includes an amphitheater, a field of sculptures and an excavation of the undulating landscape. Last year, Albuquerque completed CELESTIAL DISK, a star map, sculpture and waterfall in collaboration with architect Robert Kramer, which provides the main entrance to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles. She is currently working with architect Cesar Pelli on a sculptural floor installation for the New Minneapolis Central Library, designing a glass pathway, star map and water wall disk for the Wallace Chapel at Chapman University in Orange County, CA, creating a site-specific work for the California Institute of Technology and was selected to design a public art installation for the North University Branch Library and Nobel Park and Recreation Center in San Diego in 2005. Her newest ephemeral Earth Art work THE POLE PROJECT, a star map of blue diameters on ice planned for installation at both the North and South Poles for 2006 –2007, will result in an exhibition of artwork, photographs and a documentary film.

She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including: the Cairo Biennale Prize, at the Sixth International Cairo Biennale; Arts International award for U.S. Artist Representative for the Cairo Biennale; National Endowment for the Arts Art in Public Places Award (1983, 1984, 1990), a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship Grant and the esteemed Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship in the Visual Arts, Perugia, Italy (2002). In June 2004 she was honored by the MOCA Los Angeles for their 25th anniversary celebration for her contributions to the museum. Her work is featured in their anniversary catalogue and permanent collection.

Lita Albuquerque's work is also included in the archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution and is collected by prominent museums and Foundations, such as: the WHITNEY MUSEUM OF ART, THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, LOS ANGELES, THE GETTY TRUST, THE FREDEICK WEISMAN FOUNDATION, THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM, THE ORANGE COUNTY MUSEUM, THE LAGUNA ART MUSEUM, THE PALM SPRINGS DESERT MUSEUM, as well as numerous embassies and corporations, on an extensive world wide basis.

Numerous solo exhibitions include: a career survey at Santa Monica Museum of Art; Mary Ryan Gallery, N.Y.; Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Santa Monica; Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago; Diane Brown Gallery, Washington D.C.; Lerner Heller Gallery, N.Y.; Robin Cronin Gallery, Houston; and Akhnaten Galleries, Cairo. Her museum exhibition history includes Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Art; Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris; Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; L.A. County Museum of Art; and Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A.

Albuquerque's work questions what we are in the enormity of infinite space and eternal time. Despite a rising flood of new data and interpretive theory, the most elemental concepts of an emerging scientific cosmology are simply not imbedded in everyday culture. Conversely, the meaning of this cosmology does not seem implicit in the science.

Lita Albuquerque has not flinched from the scale of such a challenge. In a dazzling array of work at many scales and in a variety of media, she has worked to develop a visual language capable of bringing the realities of vast space and time to a more human scale.

Albuquerque is one of the rare artists and humanists who are responsible for thoughtfully and imaginatively placing the elemental concepts for a living, functional cosmology for 21st century culture within public consciousness.

Education:  1968,   University of California, Los Angeles; B.F.A., cum laude

Grants and Awards
2006            National Science Foundation Artist And Writer’s Grant, Antarctica.
2006            Distinguished Woman Artist of 2006, Fresno Art Museum Council
2005    City of Los Angeles Fellowship Award, City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department
2002            Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship in the Visual Arts, Perugia, Italy
1996    Cairo Biennale Prize, Sixth International Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt
1996    Arts International - U.S. Artist Representative for the Cairo Biennale, Egypt
1990               National Endowment for the Arts; Art in Public Places
1984,            National Endowment for the Arts; Art in Public Places
1983,             National Endowment for the Arts; Art in Public Places

1. National Endowment for the Arts; Individual Fellowship Grant

Selected Public Art Projects and Commissions
2006    City of Santa Monica, Santa Monica Arts Commission Third Street Promenade Banners.
2006    New Central Public Library, Minneapolis, MN, Ripple Effect, with architect Cesar Pelli (sculptural main
            lobby installation currently in progress)
2004              Chapman University Wallace All Faiths Chapel, Orange, CA, Stellar Score (sculptural vestibule installation)
2004            California Institute of Technology, Stellar Mapping II,  Pasadena, CA  site-specific outdoor work
2003            East End Capitol Complex, Golden State, Sacramento, California (in collaboration with
            Mitchell De Jarnett)
2002            Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, CA, architect Jose Raphael Moneo
Celestial Disk, Entrance Courtyard Fountain and Plaza (in collaboration with Robert Kramer)
2001            Cerritos Public Library Installation, Cerritos, California
Gannett Publishers World Headquarters, Aperture, Executive Floor, McClean, Virginia
Saitama Guest Center, Saitama, Tokyo, Japan
2000    Giza Plateau, Cairo, Egypt, Millennium Illumination # 1 (in collaboration with Tarek Naga)
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Island/Universe, Tokyo, Japan
1999            American Embassy, Ottawa, Canada, Auric Field, Painting commission
The Evo A. De Concini Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, Tucson, AZ
Gardens of Remembrance, (in collaboration with Robert Kramer),
General Services Administration Commission
1999            Chicago Beach Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
            Arabian Nights (in collaboration with Robert Kramer)
1996    Tochigi Prefecture Health Center, Tokyo, Japan

Stellar Source, Kotobuki Corp., Tokyo, and Joyce Schwartz & Assoc., NY

1995    Palos Verdes Peninsula Center Library, Palos Verdes, CA
Stellar Axis (in conjunction with Zimmer-Gunsul-Frasca Partnership)
Hewlett-Packard Corporate Headquarters, Atlanta, GA, Points of Light
1994    Iowa State University Chemical Engineering Department, Ames, IO
            Memory/Echo/Passage, Mural, outdoor and indoor, NEA Grant for Art in Public Places
1992    Grand Hope Park, Los Angeles, CA,  Celestial Source, created for Community Redevelopment Agency,
LA, CA (in collaboration with Lawrence Halprin)
1991            Colorado Place,  Maguire Thomas Partners, Santa Monica, CA, Earth Light
Kinsella, Boesch, Fujiwara and Towle, Century City, CA, Vega
1989            Koll/Obayashi Corporation, Los Angeles, CA, Site/Memory/Reflection
            In conjunction with Kohn, Pederson & Fox, New York;
Langdon Wilson, Los Angeles; and the SWA Group, Los Angeles
1988            Security Pacific Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA       
Spheres of Influence (collaboration with Fred Fisher, Architect, Eric Orr and Jud Fine, artists)
Kilroy Airport Project, Kilroy Industries, Long Beach, CA, Fluidity I and II
              Salt River Project, Phoenix, AZ, Spent Light
1987      Green Valley Civic Center, Green Valley, NV
            Green Valley Obelisk, American Nevada Corporation with Robert Kraft Architects
1986    Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA.  Legend, NEA Grant for Public Spaces

Ephemeral Outdoor Environmental Works
1996            Sixth International Cairo Biennale, Sol Star, Cairo, Egypt
            Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO, Carbon Aurum
1990            El Mirage Dry Lake, CA. Recreated for Public Television KCET,

1. Artworks/Earthworks; documentary aired May 1990 - Present.  Spine of the Earth

1983            Vermillion, South Dakota, NEA Art in Public Places Grant, Medicine Wheel
1981            Arroyo Grande Sand Dunes, San Luis Obispo, CA,
1982            Inconceivable Mansion; Cuesta College
1980            El Mirage Dry Lake Desert, funded by California State University, Long Beach, Spine of the Earth
1981         California State University, Bakersfield, Double Reflective
1980         International Sculptural Conference, Washington, DC,
            Washington Monument Project, the Red Pyramid, funded by the 11th International Sculptural Conference, Washington, DC
1979            Mojave Desert, CA, Man and the Mountain II
1979            Nielsen Residence, Los Angeles, CA, Window into the Earth
1978            Malibu, CA, Malibu Line, Moon Shadow, Blue Rock
1978         Death Valley, CA, Man and the Mountain # 1
1978         Mojave Desert, CA, Rock and Pigment Installation

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2006            Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2006    Fresno Art Museum, Artist of the Year, Fresno, CA
2006            Frederick Weisman Museum, AOR, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA
2005    Cal State Fullerton Main Art Gallery, As Above So Below: Art as Political Space, Fullerton, CA
2002    Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California
2001    Peter Nagy Gallery, New Delhi, India
2000    Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, New York
1998            Louis Stern Gallery in conjunction with the Armand Hammer Museum’s Sunshine and Noir exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
William Turner Gallery in conjunction with the Armand Hammer Museum’s Sunshine and Noir exhibition, Venice, CA
1996            Akhnaten Galleries, Cairo, Egypt
1995            Dorothy Goldeen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, Particle Memory
1994            University of Judaism, Los Angeles, CA
1993    The Works Gallery, Costa Mesa, CA
1991    Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1990            Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA, Reflections, curated by Henry Hopkins, career survey sponsored by Los Angeles Fellows of Contemporary Art
1989    The Works Gallery, Long Beach, CA
1988            Richard Green Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1986    Saxon-Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
The Works Gallery, Long Beach, CA
1984    Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
            Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, IL
1982    Robert Cronin, Inc., Houston, TX
            Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1980    Lerner-Heller Gallery, New York, NY
            Diane Brown Gallery, Washington, DC
Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, IL
1979    Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
            Casat Gallery, La Jolla, CA
1977            University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Fine Arts Gallery, Long Beach City College, Long Beach, CA
Janus Gallery, Venice, CA
1976    Jack Glenn Gallery, Newport Beach, CA
1974            Ellie Blankfort Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Selected Group Exhibitions
2006            Riverside Art Museum, Abstraction, Riverside, Ca.
2006    Peter Blake Gallery, Abstraction, Laguna Beach, Ca.
2006    COLA Grant exhibition, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, Cal
2005    Angels Gate Cultural Center, Drawing on Unusual Surfaces, San Pedro, CA
            Williamson Gallery, Reverence,  Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
2005    Kellogg Gallery, The Big Book Show, Cal State Pomona, CA
2004            Barnsdall Art Center, Bio Ballistic, Los Angeles, CA
2004    Grand Central Art Center, 100 Artists See Satan, Cal State University, Fullerton, CA
2003    San Diego Museum of Art, Of Earth and Sky, Elements in Abstraction, San Diego, CA
2003    Todd Madigan Art Gallery, Made in CA – selected works from Frederick Weisman Foundation, Cal State
            University, Bakersfield
2003    Art Museum Council, Special Projects Gallery, LA County Museum of Art, CA
2003            Palos Verdes Art Center, Exploring the Cosmos, Palos Verdes, CA
2003            Contemporary Arts Center, Made in California: Selections from the R. Weisman Art Foundation Collection,
      New Orleans, LA
2002            California Art from the Weisman Art Foundation, Frederick R. Weisman
            Museum of Art, Malibu, CA
2001         St. John of the Divine, curated by Peter Nagy Gallery, New York, New York
2001            Gallery 825, Romancing the Universe, Los Angeles, CA
            Horizon Drawing Center, New York, New York
2000            Mary Ryan Gallery, New York, New York
            Molly Barnes Gallery, Twelve Divas, Santa Monica, CA
1999            California Center for the Arts, Escondido, CA, The Eclectic Eye:
 Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Collection
            University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach, CA,
             The Women-Founders and Innovators
1996            Bakersfield Museum of Art and Todd Madigan Gallery, Bakersfield, CA,
Process Art:  West Coast 70’s, 80’s, 90’s
            California State University, Northridge, CA, Rear View

1. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Made in LA: Prints of Cirrus Editions

            Los Angeles County Museum of Art, P.L.A.N.: Photography L.A. Now
                 New York Academy of the Sciences, New York, NY, Irrational Landscapes
1994            Madison Art Center, Madison, WI, Southern California:  The Conceptual Landscape
            Palo Alto Cultural Center, Palo Alto, CA, The Gold Show
1992            Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO
               The Artist and Sacred Space                 
            Salt Lake Art Center, Salt Lake City, UT, Dreams and Shields:  Spiritual Dimensions in Contemporary Art           
1991         Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA, One Over One
               Bolinas Museum, Bolinas, CA, The Artist and Sacred Space
1990            Aspen Art Museum , Aspen, CO, Sculpture/Aspen 1990
1989         California State University, Fullerton, CA, Thought and Landscape
1987            National Gallery of Modern Art, New Dehli, India, Visions of Inner Space
Amerika Haus, Berlin/West, West Germany (curated by Noriko Fujinami)
            Los Angeles Today: Contemporary Visions
               Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, Japan Tokyo Prints by Los Angeles Artists        
               Fresno Arts Center and Museum, Fresno, CA, The Years of Passage:  1969-1975
1986            American Center, Paris, France Works from the Collection of the
            Frederick R. Weisman Foundation
            United States Embassy, Helsinki, Finland, Contemporary Art from Southern CA
1985            Japanese American Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, Imagine the Future
            San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, Concerning the Spiritual
            Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA, Art Out
               Fendrick Gallery, Washington, DC, The Artist Views Washington
            Stella Polaris Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, LAVA Exhibition
            Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, Sculpture & Drawing, Drawing & Sculpture
1984            Los Angeles Design Center, Los Angeles, CA, To the Astonishing Horizon
1983            The Museum of Contemporary Art, (MOCA) Los Angeles, CA The First Show
               Fisher Art Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA,
               Abasha – Image Bearing Light
1982         Musee d'Art de la Moderne Ville de Paris, France  (Ireland, Poland)
               Exchange Between Artists - An Experience for Museums
            San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Twenty American Artists:  Sculpture 1982           
1981            Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, Directions 81
               California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA Anti Static
1980            Joseloff Gallery, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT, Southern CA Drawings
            Diane Brown Gallery, Washington, DC, International Sculpture Conference Artists

1. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, Abstract Painting from Southern CA

               The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, The Weisman Collection
1978         San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA  Aesthetics of Graffiti
1977            San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA Los Angeles
1975         Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA, Four by Four + Four by Eight

Selected Collections and Corporate Commission

Airtouch Cellular, San Francisco, CA
American Embassy, Ottowa, Canada; Namibia; and Nairobi
American Nevada Corporation, Las Vegas, Nevada
AT & T Corporation, New York, NY
ARCO Corporation, Los Angeles, CA
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA
Chase Foundation, New York, NY
Consulate General of Japan, Los Angeles, CA
Duke Energy, Houston, TX
Four Seasons Hotel, San Francisco, CA
Frederick R. Weisman Company, Los Angeles, CA
Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, LA, CA
Gannett Publishing Headquarters, McClean, VA
The Gas Company, Los Angeles, CA
The Getty Trust, New York, NY
The Getty Trust, Los Angeles, California
Henri Art Gallery, Seattle, Washington
Hewlett Packard, Atlanta, Georgia; Japan; Korea; and Zurich
Kilroy Industries, Kilroy Airport, Long Beach, CA
Kinsella, Boesch, Fujiwara and Towle
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA, CA
Maguire Thomas Partners, Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA
Obayashi America Corporation/The Koll Company, Los Angeles, CA
Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA
Pacific Enterprises, Los Angeles, CA
Palm Springs Desert Museum, CA
Palos Verdes Central Library, CA
Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa
Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, NJ
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
Sanwa Bank, Los Angeles, CA
Sohio Corporation, Cleveland, OH
Times-Mirror Corporation, New York, NY
Tochigi Health Center, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Universal Music, Santa Monica, California
University of Tokyo of Foreign Studies, Japan
Unocal Corporation, El Segundo, CA
UCLA Neurological Research Institute, LA, CA
Vesti Trust International, Boston, MA
Whitney Museum of Art, New York, N.Y.

 

SIMON P. BALM

Bio & CV

Simon P. Balm, PH.D.
Stellar Axis Science Advisor

A native of London, England, Simon Balm received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Durham in 1988 and his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Sussex in 1992, working with Nobel Prize winning chemist Sir Harry Kroto. After graduate school he spent two years as a NATO Postdoctoral Fellow in the UCLA astronomy Department followed by four years as a Postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA where he helped to design, build and install a radio telescope at the geographical South Pole. He wintered-over with the telescope at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station during the 1996 austral winter. After spending several years teaching as an Adjunct Professor at UCLA he joined Santa Monica College as a full time faculty member in 2000 where he is a Professor of Astronomy. He is currently working with renowned Santa Monica artist Lita Albuquerque on an art installation that will be placed on the Ross Ice Shelf in the Antarctic in December 2006.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal Information

Name:            Simon Peter Balm                  Tel: (310) 434-8651                                    
                                          
Address:      1900 Pico Blvd                E-mail: balm_simon@smc.edu     
            Santa Monica, CA 910405                               

Education
 
October 1985 - June 1988:                 

Department of Chemistry,
University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, U.K.
B.Sc. in Chemistry. First class honors.

Degree dissertation on “The Spectroscopy of Interstellar
Molecules” and a final year research project on “Infra-red and Raman Spectroscopy of Surfactant Systems”.

October 1988 - September 1991:
School of Molecular Sciences,
University of Sussex,
Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, U.K.

Ph.D. in Chemical Physics (Supervisor Prof. Sir Harold W. Kroto).
Thesis Title: “Experimental, Theoretical and Astrophysical Studies on Large Carbon Clusters.”
 
The major part of my thesis work involved the design and construction of a pulsed molecular beam system for probing refractory material clusters (particularly fullerene carbon clusters like Buckminsterfullerene, C60) using laser vaporization/photoionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
This apparatus was used to study the effect of reactive species on the
carbon nucleation process as well as the spectroscopy of electronically
excited carbon clusters in the supersonic expansion. The other components
of my thesis work involved theoretical studies on the stability and structures
of fullerene clusters and investigations into the possible role of large
carbon clusters in astrophysics.

Postdoctoral Experience

January 1992 - September 1993:    
Department of Physics and Astronomy,      University of California,                                                                                  Los Angeles,
                                             CA 90095-1562
                      
NATO Postdoctoral Fellow in Astrochemistry.

At UCLA, working with Professor Michael Jura I gained valuable experience in the application of modern astronomical techniques to the problems of interstellar chemistry. This involved observations at optical, infra-red and millimeter wavelengths. In particular I searched for the presence of C60 in the interstellar medium and identified and modeled for the first time the emission from the methylidyne ion, CH+ in a carbon-rich circumstellar outflow.

 

October 1993 - December 1996                Harvard-Smithsonian Center
                                             for Astrophysics,
                                             60, Garden Street, MS-78,
                                             Cambridge,
                                             MA 02138-1596

Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow in Sub-millimeter Astronomy.

I was in involved in the final stages of construction and testing of the Antarctic Sub-millimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO), a 1.7 m diameter sub-millimeter telescope which is installed at the South Pole where it is taking full advantage of the exceptionally transparent skies at these wavelengths to make novel observations of the interstellar medium. During 1995-1996 I spent a year at the Pole as winter-over scientist in charge of operating and managing the telescope.

Teaching Experience

October 1994 - September 1995:                Department of Physics and Astronomy January 1997 – December 1997:   University of California,                                                                                Los Angeles,
                                            CA 90095-1562

Lecturer in Astronomy.

After the AST/RO telescope was shipped to the South Pole from Massachusetts
in the fall of 1994, I returned to UCLA as a full time Lecturer where
I taught a variety of undergraduate courses in Astronomy. On returning from
the Pole I resumed my position as Lecturer in Astronomy at UCLA.

January 1998 - present:          UCLA Extension                                              University of California,                                     Los Angeles,
CA 90024-0901

Lecturer in Astronomy.

I have been teaching introductory Astronomy and Chemistry classes at UCLA Extension for a number of years.

August 2000 – present:                        Department of Earth Sciences
                                          Santa Monica College,
                                          Santa Monica,
                                          CA 90405

Professor of Astronomy.

I am currently a tenured faculty member in the Earth Science Department at Santa Monica College where I teach a variety of introductory Astronomy and Chemistry courses. I am also the Chair of the Information Services Committee.

 

Awards

President of the Durham University Astronomical Society – 1987
University of Durham Chemistry Prize – 1988
University of California, Los Angeles Teaching Awards – 1995, 1997
United States Navy Antarctic Service Medal – 1996
Santa Monica College Outstanding Instructor Award – 2002-2006

Professional Memberships

Member of the British Astronomical Association.
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Full Member of the American Astronomical Society.
Full Member of the American Chemical Society.

Publications

Twelve journal publications in areas of Astronomy, Physics and Chemistry. Various contributions to conference proceedings.

Lionel Cousin

Gabrielle S. Lamirand
Business Manager and Producer

Currently Project Manager for artist Lita Albuquerque’s art installation - Stellar Axis: Antarctica project Gabrielle Lamirand has coached small business owners through goal setting, research, organization and owner/staff training for the last six years including the Lita Albuquerque Studio where Gabrielle is the Business Manager in addition to Project Manager for Public Art projects such as the Wallace All Faith Chapel at Chapman University in Orange, CA and the Minneapolis Central Library.

As publisher for the Los Angeles based Windsor Publications, Inc., Chamber of Commerce publications division Gabrielle was the liaison between the Chambers of Commerce and Windsor staffs while directing the publishing of over eighty Chamber of Commerce publications a year.  In addition she developed a pilot advertising sales program, trained and motivated the sales staff resulting in increased sales and customer satisfaction.

Gabrielle developed an advertising sales program, trained and motivated sales staffs resulting in a 300% advertising sales increase as publisher of Showcase USA, a Sell Overseas America publication promoting US export to over 150 countries.  With a staff of twenty she planned and directed editorial, layout, design, and advertising production for both the bi-monthly magazine and monthly newspaper.

As part of a continuing education team Gabrielle developed and marketed a career counseling management program for women along with sales and management workshops and seminars for the University of Southern California Continuing Education. She was also a co-coordinator of Women West 79 – three-day women in business event sponsored by the General Services Administration and USC Continuing Education.

During her position of vice president of BW Communications, headquartered in New York with offices in Burbank, Dallas, Houston and Fort Lauderdale, Gabrielle located, equipped, staffed and trained managers and sales staff, wrote the employee manual and a telemarketing manual.

As Operations Manager Gabrielle reorganized and systemized the growing – yearly increase $600/k to 2.4 million plus — S&C Marketing, a marketing mail order company, through development of inventory, order processing and online purchasing systems.  Gabrielle trained staff to use the new systems efficiently in addition to reorganizing the warehouse for bulk inventory storage, packaging, and shipping.

Born in Poland Gabrielle moved to Indiana after spending her first six years in Germany. In the early seventies she moved to Los Angeles to work with Trailer Life Publishing in accounting and sales.  Educated in business management, volunteer management, career counseling, and landscape design she lives in Topanga where she is founder/board member and the Fundraising Chair for the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness.  Gabrielle is also a Red Cross Shelter Manager/Public Information Officer and a Los Angeles County Sheriff Volunteer. Gabrielle was the Topanga Chamber of Commerce president for five years and a volunteer, including President of the Booster club, at Topanga Elementary School.  She received the Chamber of Commerce President’s Choice award, the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness Volunteer award and several state, county and city commendations.

Sophie Dia Pegrum

Stellar Axis Filmmaker

Sophiadia.com

Sophie was born in Bristol and received her Bachelor of Arts (with Honors) at Sussex University in England (Junior year at UCLA) and has been living in Los Angeles for over 10 years. Initially working in the nonprofit sector, in 1996 she began writing for an independent film company, Zero Pictures, which encouraged filmmakers to create films without budgetary constraints. In 2000 she wrote, directed and edited a full-length feature film “Dogstar” on 16 mm for under $10,000. It was released at Laemmle’s in 2001, gained honorable mention at several film festivals and was critically well received. Continuing as a commercial editor and producer, she worked on independent documentary subjects and film writing projects, receiving an award from Scriptapalooza in 2002, and also began shooting her own subjects as a digital videographer. She is currently directing and shooting a documentary about artist Lita Albuquerque and her “Stellar Axis: Antarctica” installation. As a painter Sophie began showing work in Los Angeles in 2004 and has participated in several group and solo shows in the last two years.

exhibitions 2006                       
LACCA Snap to Grid
June 06: Earth to Sky: Topanga Canyon Gallery
Create:Fixate Group Show, Downtown Los Angeles

2005
Solo Show - Forbidden Translations, Electric Lodge, Venice
Juried Show – Topanga Canyon Gallery
Studio Tour, Topanga Canyon
Brewery Artwalk Group Shows, Downtown Los Angeles

filmography 1996-2006                                               

director:
DOGSTAR (16mm feature)              Zero Pictures (DVD Release)
Island of Mirrors – Digital Feature (Vbox Pictures)                                               
Teddy Bears Picnic EPK - Digital (Vbox Pictures)
The Marwari (Daisydog Films) – In Progress
Stellar Axis/Terra Lux: Lita Albuquerque (Daisydog Films)

writer:           
DOGSTAR (Zero Pictures – DVD Release 2002)
Ground on Fire (First Serve Entertainment)
Surrender (Zero Pictures – DVD Release 2002)
Matadora – Feature Screenplay
Billy Bones – Feature (Scriptapalooza Runner-up)
Deadwater, Plentywood – Feature Screenplay
My Best Friend Joe – Feature Screenplay (GS Pictures)
Jackie Papers – Short Screenplay
The Eden Enigma – Story Treatment
Medicine Dogs: A Story of Horses

editor:           
DOGSTAR – Feature (Zero Pictures, 2002)
Rage – Feature (Zero Pictures, Release unknown)
WaveLock – 5 Minute Profile (Internet)
Hunger Relief 2000 – Fundraising Promo
Sal Barbier Profile - 5 Minute Profile(Internet)
Cowboys & Indians – Documentary (festival circuit)
Q: The Short – Film Promo
Island of Mirrors – Hour Special
Interactive Reading Books - Educational
Aussie Nad’s Infomercials – Half Hour TV Spot (National Air)
Blonde From Fargo – Music Video
Tito and Tarantula - Tour Video
Medicine Dogs: A Story of Horses - Promo
Horsefly Films - Promo
                                                                                   
videographer:
Q – The Short – Digital  (Jamontoast Films - Promo)
Documentary Series, Fifty Up (Pandora’s Other Box)
Medicine Dogs: A Story of Horses (HorseTV)
Horsefly Films Promo (Daisydog Films)
Stellar Axis/Terra Lux: Lita Albuquerque (Daisydog Films)

Selected employment           
Business Manager Murielle  2003-2006

Collaboration with designer to manage operations of multi-million dollar garment design house, websites, pr, production, human resources and financial development.   

Producer & Editor   Freelance  1998-2004
Produced, post produced and edited national and international  spots for tv and film. AVID, offline from logging, editing, edls, online and voiceover supervision through to broadcast and traffic. Final Cut Pro and Media 100.

Non Profit Operations Manager
MAZON - a fundraising, grantmaking organization            1994 - 1998
Managed operations of busy nonprofit, accounting/budget $3.5 million, personnel, administration, payroll, support staff supervision, fundraising, grantmaking, donor/vendor liaison, computers/database.
                                               
education                                   
University of Sussex, Brighton, England
First Class BA with Honors - June 1993
Dean’s Honors List 1989-1993
Junior year at UCLA

 

JEAN de POMEREU

Jean de Pomereu is a photographer who has focused his work on the Antarctic since 2002. He has traveled to Antarctica on numerous occasions and photographs from his ongoing Antarctic project have been exhibited in galleries in Paris, London, Madrid, Brussels, and Christchurch, N.Z.

A graduate of the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, Jean is also the Managing Director of the UK arm of the International Polar Foundation (IPF-UK) and a member of the Education and Outreach Committee for the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008.

Jean also writes on the visual and imaginary interpretations of Antarctica since the time of his discovery, and recently gave a lecture on this subject at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, during the 29th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM). This continues to be the focus of his research.

 

15 Bective Place
London SW15 2PQ           
United Kingdom
jean.depomereu@polarfoundation.org                

 

Oct 2006    Centre Culturel d’Uccle, Brussels
              ‘Antarctique. Blancheur Élémentaire’ - solo exhibition
              Antarctic photographs: Platinum and Carbro prints

Sept-Dec    Galerie Marceau Bastille, Paris
2006    ‘Sur la Terre Comme au Ciel’ - group exhibition of artists represented by Beaudoin Lebon and Marie-Laure de Cazotte (including works by Lucien Clergue, Caroline Feyt and Mimmo Jodice)
Antarctic photographs: Platinum and Carbro prints

June 2006    29th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting, Edinburgh
              ‘Heart of Whiteness: Antarctic Art from Romanticism to Abstraction’
              Lecture presented at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh

2005-08    International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008
              Member of IPY 2007-08 Education & Outreach Committee

2005 -     The International Polar Foundation, Brussels
              - Managing Director of the IPF-UK
              - Journalist for SciencesPoles.org, the scientific website of the IPF

2005    ‘Heart of Whiteness’ – private solo exhibition, Madrid
              Curated by Marie-Laure de Cazotte
              Antarctic photographs: Platinum and Carbro prints

2005    The Christchurch Art Gallery (Museum), New Zealand
              ‘In From the Cold: Works From the Antarctica New Zealand Collection’
Group exhibition
Antarctic photographs: Limited edition giclée prints

2005    The International Polar Foundation & the European Commission
              Journalist - Commissioned 18 articles for a special ‘Polar Research’ edition of RTD Info, the European Commission’s magazine on European research

2004    Quark Expeditions, USA
Artist in Residence aboard the ice breaker Kapitan Khlebnikov on a cruise around the Weddell Sea

2004    Peruvian Antarctic Institute (INANPE)
              Photographic assignment on King George Island and the Antarctic Peninsula

2003-05    The Special Photographers Company, London
Rolling group exhibitions
Antarctic photographs: Limited edition giclée prints

2003    Writer/researcher: ICE CUBE: ANTARCTICA’S CRYSTAL BALL
Commissioned documentary proposal on the largest scientific experiment on the continent of Antarctica: An astronomical telescope designed to detect the smallest particle in the universe; the neutrino.

1. Working Title Films, London

Script consultant.

2000-03    Freelance script consultant and editor for independent screenwriters and producers

2000-01    WFM International, Sweden
Writer: WHITE SOUTH
              Commissioned screenplay on the 1911-12 discovery of the South Pole by Captain Scott and the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen
                 
1999    Writer/director/producer: 2000
              35mm short film financed with the support of Virgin Radio.
              Screened at Edinburgh Film Festival; London Short Film Festival;
New Zealand Film Festival; Raindance Film Festival.
Broadcast in France and Spain on Canal+ television channel.

 

EDUCATION & TRAINING

Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
Masters (M.Phil) in Polar Studies

University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Post-graduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies

French Navy
Military Service