Dani Bassett

MARIETTA — A physics and astronomy professor at the University of Pennsylvania will speak at 7 p.m. April 19 in the 2023 Ellis L. and Jennie Mae Krause Lecture in Science in the Alma McDonough Auditorium at Marietta College.

Dani Bassett will present “On Being Curious.” Bassett is the J. Peter Skirkanich Professor at Pennsylvania with appointments in the departments of bioengineering, electrical & systems engineering, physics & astronomy, neurology and psychiatry.

Bassett also is an external professor of the Santa Fe Institute and is well-known for blending neural and systems engineering to identify fundamental mechanisms of cognition and disease in human brain networks. She received a bachelor’s in physics from Penn State University and a doctorate in physics from the University of Cambridge, was a Churchill Scholar and was an NIH Health Sciences Scholar.

Following a postdoctoral position at UC Santa Barbara, Bassett was a Junior Research Fellow at the Sage Center for the Study of the Mind.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Alma McDonough Auditorium. The lecture series, which began in 2002, is supported by gifts from the late Dr. Richard M. Krause, the son of E.L. and Jennie Mae Krause. Dr. Krause served on the College’s Board of Trustees for 22 years.