Pickford Film Center Bellingham, WA
Kent Rochford, PhD
CEO of SPIE
Sunshine— How the Sun Shines: Creating Light From Fusion and How it Manifests on Earth
Program Description
The sun has been revered and worshiped by civilization throughout history, but over the last hundred years advances in science have allowed us to understand how it actually functions. Kent Rochford provides an in-depth examination of the science of light, how the sun uses fusion energy to create it, and how we are able to perceive it ninety-three million miles away on Earth.
Presented At
Pickford Film Center Bellingham, WA
Film Synopsis
A team of international astronauts is sent on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb in 2057.
50 years in the future, the Sun begins to die, and Earth is dying as a result. Though the encroaching darkness at first seems unstoppable, scientists have devised one desperate final plan to buy the human race a temporary reprieve from the grim future that looms just past the horizon. A crew of eight men and women has been given a nuclear device designed to reignite the sun and are sent hurtling through the cosmos on the most crucial space mission ever attempted. Suddenly, as the crew loses radio contact with mission control, everything begins to fall apart. Now, in the farthest reaches of the galaxy, the men and women who may hold the key to ultimate survival find themselves struggling for their lives and their sanity.
About the Speaker
Kent Rochford is the CEO of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. Before relocating to Bellingham in 2018, Dr. Rochford was the Associate Director for Laboratory Programs at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) responsible for the breadth of NIST R&D, and served as the Acting NIST Director in 2017 . Earlier, he was Chief of the NIST Quantum Electronics and Photonics Division Chief in Boulder, Colorado, and has held research and management roles at multinational companies and startups. He holds a PhD in optical sciences from the University of Arizona, an MBA from the University of Colorado, and has been quoted in The Onion.