Tami Spector
Professorat University of San FranciscoTami Spector is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of San Francisco (USF). She received her BA from Bard College, her PhD from Dartmouth College, and was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota. She has also been a visiting researcher at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Huntington Library. Trained as a physical organic chemist her scientific work has focused on fluorocarbons, strained ring organics, and the molecular dynamics and free energy calculations of biomolecules. She has also published and presented work on molecular aesthetics, the visual image of chemistry, the intersections of chemistry and contemporary visual art, and nanoaesthetics. In 1997 she was awarded the USF National Endowment for the Humanities Chair for her work on the Molecular Aesthetics of Disease and in 2005 served as the Louis M. Davies Forum Professor for the course The Material Body: Medicine and Aesthetics in American Culture. She previously served as a guest editor for the journals Foundations of Chemistry and HYLE: International Journal for the Philosophy of Chemistry, co-curated “Chemistry in Art: A Virtual Exhibition” and currently serves on the Leonardo/ISAST Governing and Editorial Boards, co-hosts the San Francisco–based Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) series, and serves as the co-editor of an on-going special section on “Art and Atoms” in the Leonardo journal and is the editor of the recently published e-book of the same name.