Science is part of culture.

At Pioneer Works, we value the cultural impact of scientific thinking, discovery, and irrepressible curiosity. The integration of science is essential for the full expression of a cultural organism. Our Director of Sciences, Janna Levin, is an astrophysicist, author, and Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. In the spirit of connecting great centers of education and culture, with support from Barnard College, Janna brings influential, creative scientific minds to our Pioneer Works community to explore unsolved quandaries and to engage in vivid public conversations.

At our science events, the audience can experiment with technical equipment, look through our telescopes with astronomers in the garden, and edit the genome of yeast. We emphasize public engagement while providing a platform for scientific exchanges and scholarly research.We welcome our visiting scholars to be as singularly focused as they need to be on equations, data, observations, and measurements.

At Pioneer Works, subjects need not blend, although collaborations and overlaps will undoubtedly erupt spontaneously. The friction between disparate groups and individuals can lead to sparks of inspiration, epiphanies, conflicts, confluences. That is the climate we’re excited to foster here at Pioneer Works—vibrant, energetic, unpredictable.

This department is supported by Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation initiative dedicated to engaging everyone with the process of science.