The  Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture hosted two days of presentations by NASA scientist Dr. Anna-Maria Rivas McGowan during Women's History Month, March of 2018 to promote our 5-week Summer Program Dr. McGowan hails from NASA Langley, which was recently featured in the 2017 film "Hidden Figures". She received her PhD from the University of Michigan, and her doctorate focused on questions of education and research into creativity.

Dr. McGowan is a true  inspiration to young people -- particularly young women -- to go "where no man has gone before" in science, engineering and aeronautics. The fact that she is also an American of Trinidadian ancestry, whose parents "made it the hard way", personifies what this country is able to accomplish at its best--as the United States space program, and NASA, exemplify.

Einstein famously said in an interview in 1929 that "I am enough of the artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."  How do we imagine putting impossible dreams into action?  Dr. McGowan's emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches in engineering also raises the important question for all students:  The challenge is not merely what we think, but the way we think.  

Dr. McGowan's two day visit was sponsored by the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, which focuses its 5 week summer program on the relation of classical music and science, demonstrating the interrelated beauty of both. Today, it is critical to recognize this beauty and celebrate our own capacity to comprehend its secrets, as we move forward. 

Dr. McGowan's biography is here