[Leonardo/ISAST Network] Leonardo/ISAST Elects New Board Chair

[Leonardo/ISAST]

LEONARDO/ISAST ELECTS NEW BOARD CHAIR
Jeffrey N. Babcock Elected Chairman of the Board
Roger F. Malina Named Chairman Emeritus

In elections during a 40th Anniversary Retreat held by the Board of 
Directors of Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences 
and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST), Jeffrey N. Babcock was elected Chairman 
of the Board, and Roger F. Malina was named Chairman Emeritus while 
continuing to serve as a voting member of the Board.

“I am indeed honored to be asked to serve as Chairman of 
Leonardo/ISAST,” stated Babcock. “I look forward to working to 
strengthen and broaden the organization's programmatic scope while 
sustaining and building upon a 40-year foundation and legacy of 
pioneering publications and initiatives at the intersection of art, 
science and technology.

“Roger Malina has served Leonardo with extraordinary commitment, passion 
and vision for more than a quarter century, and I am delighted that he 
will continue to be actively involved as our first Chairman Emeritus, 
Co-Chair of a newly invigorated International Advisory Council, and 
Executive Editor of Leonardo Publications. Roger's enthusiasm and 
outreach will position the organization to connect and pursue important 
new opportunities with leading creators, researchers, leaders and 
institutions throughout the world.”

Roger Malina confirmed his enthusiasm for serving as Chairman Emeritus 
of Leonardo/ISAST, as well as his commitment to helping the organization 
identify and champion the “New Leonardos” – innovative creators around 
the world who work with art, science and technology:

“Many of the problems that faced artists involved in science and 
technology in the 1960s, when Leonardo was founded, have been overcome. 
The pioneering work of early computer artists led to whole new 
industries in computer media, from games to pocket films to online 
communities. Now we look to the work of artists involved in climate 
change and sustainable development, in biology and genomics, in 
nanoscience and space exploration to imagine new ways of coupling art, 
science and technology as part of a tool kit for human survival."

Chairman Jeffrey N. Babcock has served on the Leonardo/ISAST Board of 
Directors since 2007. He is a composer, producer and arts executive with 
a special interest and expertise in creative technologies. As Executive 
Director of San Francisco State University's International Center for 
the Arts, he leads a multidisciplinary team of innovators who pursue 
cross-disciplinary initiatives in documentary film, visual arts and 
design, and performing arts. An entrepreneurial executive, Babcock 
co-founded (with San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson 
Thomas) and served as president & CEO of the New World Symphony and Los 
Angeles Philharmonic Institute with artistic directors Leonard Bernstein 
and Michael Tilson Thomas, and directed Atlanta’s Cultural Olympiad and 
1996 Olympic Arts Festival. In the academic field, he was Dean of Fine 
Arts at Boston University and Executive Director of the University of 
Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Babcock received a B.A. 
(cum laude) and a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of 
California, Santa Barbara, which honored him with a Distinguished Alumni 
Award in 1992.

Chairman Emeritus Roger F. Malina is an astronomer and space scientist. 
He is the former director of the Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale CNRS, 
Marseille, France, and a member of the International Academy of 
Astronautics. He is currently a member of the SNAP consortium to build a 
new astronomy satellite to study dark energy and dark matter in the 
universe. He was the founding Chairman of Leonardo/ISAST, and since 1982 
has served as Executive Editor of the journal Leonardo. He writes and 
speaks on the relationship between the arts, sciences and technology.

About Leonardo/ISAST:
The seeds of Leonardo/ISAST began in the late 1960s in Paris with the 
founding of the journal Leonardo by rocket scientist and artist Frank 
Malina, who visualized an international forum through which artists and 
scientists would communicate directly about their work. With Leonardo’s 
move to San Francisco in 1982, Leonardo/ISAST was formed as a 501(c)3 
non-profit organization to expand its vision and goals. Today 
Leonardo/ISAST publishes scholarly journals and books, organizes events 
and sponsors a wide range of educational and scholarly activities 
related to the intersection of art, science and technology, including 
the Leonardo Education Forum, Leonardo Abstract Services, and LASER 
(Leonardo Art/ Science Evening Rendezvous) meetings, a bimonthly 
networking and presentation forum for notable artists, researchers, 
authors, scholars and industry leaders in the art/science/ technology 
field.

Leonardo/ISAST is committed to pursuing the 21st century’s critical 
global challenges through cross-disciplinary alliances and 
collaborations between leading creators/ researchers in the arts and 
sciences. Leonardo/ISAST fosters unique explorations and research 
throughout the world, resulting in interdisciplinary projects, 
conferences and other events, while also documenting and disseminating 
promising ideas and solutions to timely issues of global significance. 
Leonardo/ISAST, in partnership with the MIT Press, publishes the 
renowned journal Leonardo, Leonardo Music Journal, the popular and 
rapidly expanding Leonardo Book Series, and Leonardo Electronic Almanac 
web journal.

For more information, please visit: http://leonardo.info

A complete listing of the Leonardo/ISAST Board of Directors follows:

Jeffrey N. Babcock, Chairman, Executive Director, International Center 
for the Arts, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
Greg Harper, Treasurer, Attorney, Harper & Associates, Emeryville, CA
Meredith Tromble, Secretary, Associate Professor, School of 
Interdisciplinary Studies, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Roger F. Malina, Chairman Emeritus, Astronomer/Space Scientist, 
Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale CNRS, Marseille, France
Michael Joaquin Grey, Artist, Designer, Inventor and Entrepreneur, New 
York, NY
John Hearst, Professor Emeritus, Chemistry Department, University of 
California at Berkeley; Senior Staff Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley 
Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
Sonya Rapoport, Artist, Berkeley, CA
Beverly Reiser, Artist, Oakland, CA
Christian Simm, Executive Director, swissnex, San Francisco, CA
Tami Spector, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of San 
Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Darlene Tong, Head of Information, Research & Instructional Services, 
San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA
Stephen Wilson, Professor, Conceptual/Information Arts Program, San 
Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA