Christopher Jargocki
| Christopher Jargocki | |
|---|---|
 Christopher Jargocki in 2005 | |
| Born |
April 29, 1944 Warsaw, Poland |
| Residence | Poland, United States |
| Citizenship | Poland (by birth), United States (naturalized in 1971) |
| Fields | Physics, Science and Religion |
| Alma mater | University of California, Irvine |
| Doctoral advisor | Myron Bander |
Christopher Jargocki (born Krzysztof Piotr Jargocki, April 29, 1944 in Warsaw, Poland), also known by the pen name Christopher Jargodzki, is a Polish-born American physicist, author, and translator who is a professor at the University of Central Missouri, as well as the Director of the Center for Cooperative Phenomena.[1] He held a previous academic appointment at Northeastern University in Boston.
Early life
Jargocki was born and raised in Włochy, now a western district of Warsaw, the son of Stefania (née Lesinska) and Zdzisław Jargocki. He was raised as a Roman Catholic. At the age of 13, as a voice actor, he did dubbing work for the Russian children's movie Old Khottabych[2] based on a socialist-realist book by Lazar Lagin.
Education
In 1957 Jargocki, age 13, enrolled in Lyceum No. 32 in Włochy,[3][4] choosing the humanities orientation. After obtaining his matura (high school degree) at age 17 in 1961, Jargocki passed competitive entrance exams and enrolled in the Department of Physics at the University of Warsaw. He continued his education at the University of California, Los Angeles, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in physics in 1966. He entered a doctoral program at the University of California, Irvine, where he received his doctorate in elementary particle theory in 1981.
Writing career
From 1966 to 1975 Jargocki worked part-time as a translator of books and articles from Russian and other languages into English for the American Mathematical Society and SCITRAN.
In 1977 Jargocki replaced Isaac Asimov as the contributing editor to the Science Digest Quick Quiz, a feature of Science Digest, a monthly American magazine published from 1937 through 1986.
His four books, the last two co-authored with Franklin Potter, deal primarily with paradoxes and misconceptions in physics and astronomy.
Awards
In 1996 he won a $10,000 award in the worldwide science and religion course competition sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation for a course entitled, Science and Religion: From Conflict to Dialogue. The course has become a component of the core curriculum at the University of Central Missouri.
In 2002 the book Mad About Physics was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the best books of the year 2001 in the teen category.
Center for Cooperative Phenomena
In 2006, Jargocki founded the Center for Cooperative Phenomena to promote the study of the emergent, and specifically, cooperative phenomena at all levels of complexity from the physical to social sciences.
Encyclopedia of Conversational English
Jargocki founded the website in November 2013 . From the welcome page: "We hope that the Encyclopedia of Conversational English will become a standard reference and/or text for students and teachers of English as a Second Language, both in the United States and around the world. In a sense, the Encyclopedia may be viewed as a time capsule describing the language and culture of the United States and Great Britain as they have existed in the last 15-20 years."
Currently, the project comprises two volumes, Communication and Education, containing more than 2600 webpages. Volumes dealing with Daily Life and Transportation are forthcoming.
Selected bibliography
Books
- Science Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Fallacies (1976, Charles Scribner’s Sons, hardcover, ISBN 0-684-14532-4)
- Science Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Fallacies (1978, Charles Scribner’s Sons, paperback, ISBN 0-684-15585-0)
- More Science Braintwisters and Paradoxes (1983, Van Nostrand Reinhold, hardcover, ISBN 0-442-24524-6)
- Mad About Physics - Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities (2001, with Franklin Potter, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., quality paperback, ISBN 0-471-56961-5)[5]
- Mad About Modern Physics - Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiosities (2005, with Franklin Potter as lead author, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., quality paperback, ISBN 0-471-44855-9).
Papers
- C. Jargocki and M. Bander, Field-theoretic Version of a Two-Dimensional Coulomb Gas with Repulsive Cores, Physical Review B 23, Jan. 1, 1981
- R. Aaron, M.H. Friedman, and C.P. Jargocki, Calculations of q¯2 q2 States in Potential Theory, Physical Review D 28, Oct. 1, 1983
- C. Jargocki, Teleology versus Natural Selection in Anthropic Cosmology, Proceedings of the Institute for Liberal Studies, Vol. 4, Fall 1993.
Lectures
- "From Reductionism to Emergence: Science Takes a Cooperative Turn,” a talk given at the international Metanexus Institute conference “Continuity & Change: Perspectives on Science and Religion,” June 6, 2006, in Philadelphia, PA.
- “Cosmic Optimism: From the Principle of Maximum Diversity to Path Optimization,” a talk given at the international Metanexus Institute conference “Transdisciplinarity and the Unity of Knowledge: Beyond the ‘Science and Religion Dialogue,’” June 4, 2007, in Philadelphia, PA.
- "From Stephen Hawking's Flexiverse to Synchronicity: Intimations of Our Transhuman Future," a talk given at the international Metanexus Institute conference "Cosmos, Nature, Culture: A Transdisciplinary Conference," July 18 – 21, 2009, in Phoenix, AZ.
Audio Interviews
- Paradoxes. February 21, 2011. Sift Podcast.
- Top-Down Cause. December 31, 2011. Sift Podcast.
TV Interview
- TV interview with Dr. Jargocki on YouTube taped in 1991.
Translations
- V. T. Fomenko, “On Infinitesimal Deformations of Convex Surfaces with a Boundary Condition of Generalized Translation,” 1969 Math. USSR Sbornik 9. Translated from Russian.
- M. L. Tsetlin, Automaton Theory and Modeling of Biological Systems (1973, Academic Press, hardcover, ISBN 0-12-701050-3 ). Translated from Russian.
References
- ↑ http://www.c4cp.org
- ↑ "dubbing.fora.pl". Dziadek Hassan. Retrieved 24 September 2013. (in Polish)
- ↑ "Historia szkoły przy ul. Promienistej we Włochach". Retrieved 24 September 2013. (in Polish)
- ↑ Borucki, Juliusz (2008). Szkoła cnót i charakterów : 70 lat szkoły na Promienistej. Nakładem LXXIII Liceum Ogólnokształcącego. p. 102. ISBN 978-83-927984-0-8. (in Polish)
- ↑ Ford, Peter (July 2001). "Burst Bangers and Brain Busters". Physics World. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
External links
- New York Public Library (link to NYPL's list of best 2001 titles in teen books and media)
- Ph.D. thesis abstract
- Sift Podcast: Paradoxes
- Sift Podcast: Top-Down Cause
- University of Central Missouri Bio
- Encyclopedia of Conversational English
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