Background
Dava Sobel was born on June 15, 1947 in the Bronx, New York City, New York, United States. Daughter of Samuel H. Sobel, a physician, and Betty (Gruber) Sobel, a chemist. Sobel is the niece of journalist Ruth Gruber.
2001
Dava Sobel received the 2001 Public Service Award (to an individual) from Michael Ambrosino, Chair, NSB Public Service Award Committee, "for her enhancement of the public's understanding of the role of science in our lives and for fostering awareness of science and technology amont broad segments of the general public".
2001
Dava Sobel received the 2001 Public Service Award (to an individual) from Michael Ambrosino, Chair, NSB Public Service Award Committee, "for her enhancement of the public's understanding of the role of science in our lives and for fostering awareness of science and technology amont broad segments of the general public".
2004
Dava Sobel in 2004.
2004
Dava Sobel in 2004.
2004
Dava Sobel in 2004.
2007
Sobel speaking at a Yale event in 2007.
2012
Dava Sobel and David Levy, travelling to see an eclipse, in November 2012.
2015
Dava Sobel spoke to a large audience March 25 in the Music Building’s Recital Hall as a highlight event of UNCG’s year-long “The Globe and the Cosmos” series.
2016
Dava Sobel signs a book after her talk at the annual Buffalo Humanities Festival, on September 2016. Photo: Chad Cooper.
2016
David Castillo, director of the UB Humanities Institute (second from left), chats with Provost Charles Zukoski (back to camera), David Shumway (far left) and Dava Sobel at a reception before Sobel's keynote address Friday night in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
2016
Keynote speaker Dava Sobel delivers her talk "The Rebirth of the Heavens" in the auditorium of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Photo: Chad Cooper.
2016
Keynote speaker Dava Sobel (left) and UB faculty member Jim Bono teamed up to lead a discussion of Sobel's book "Galileo's Daughter". Photo: Nancy J. Parisi.
2017
Dava Sobel in 2017
2017
Dava Sobel at the 2017 National Book Festival.
2017
Dava Sobel (fourth from left) in 2017.
2019
Dava Sobel reads a student’s Science research project. Photo by Alexander Thorp.
2019
Dr. George Yancopoulos, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Scientific Officer at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, was interviewed by Ms. Dava Sobel, award winning science author at at The University Club in midtown Manhattan, on Wednesday, January 30th, 2019. Photo by Alexander Thorp.
2019
Dava Sobel spoke on King Abdullah University of Science and Technology's campus on January 23 as part of the University's 2019 Winter Enrichment Program. Photo by Khulud Muath.
2019
Dava Sobel spoke on King Abdullah University of Science and Technology's campus on January 23 as part of the University's 2019 Winter Enrichment Program. Photo by Khulud Muath.
Dava Sobel graduated from The Bronx High School of Science in 1964.
Dava Sobel received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1969.
Dava Sobel attended Antioch College.
Dava Sobel attended the City College of New York .
(The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and ...)
The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day - "the longitude problem". Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WUYE66/?tag=2022091-20
1995
editor educator science reporter writer
Dava Sobel was born on June 15, 1947 in the Bronx, New York City, New York, United States. Daughter of Samuel H. Sobel, a physician, and Betty (Gruber) Sobel, a chemist. Sobel is the niece of journalist Ruth Gruber.
Dava Sobel graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1964. She attended Antioch College and the City College of New York before receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1969.
Besides, she holds Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the University of Bath, in England, and Middlebury College, Vermont, both awarded in 2002, and also an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Bern, Switzerland, in 2015.
Beginning fresh out of college as a technical writer for IBM, Dava Sobel moved quickly into journalism in January 1970. Then she began her career as a science reporter at New York Times, New York, in 1979 and worked there until 1982. Since 1994 she had been an astronomy columnist for East Hampton Independent in East Hampton, New York, and for The Discovery Channel On-Line since 1996.
Sobel wrote "Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" in 1995. The story was made into a television movie, of the same name by Charles Sturridge and Granada Film in 1999, and was shown in the United States by A&E. In addition, together with William J. H. Andrewes, who introduced her to the subject of longitude, Sobel co-authored "The Illustrated Longitude" in 1998.
She also authored "Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love", which was nominated for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for or Autobiography. She based her book Galileo’s Daughter on 124 surviving letters to Galileo from his eldest child. Sobel translated the letters from the original Italian and used them to elucidate the great scientist’s life work.
A sequel "Letters to Father", containing the full text of Galileo’s daughter’s correspondence in both English and Italian, was published by Walker in 2001. An English-only edition became a Penguin "Classic" in 2003.
An occasional reviewer of books with science themes, Sobel edited the Ecco Press collection "Best American Science Writing 2004". She has also served as a judge for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, the Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction, the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and the Lewis Thomas Prize conferred by Rockefeller University on scientists who distinguish themselves as authors.
Besides, from January through March 2006, Sobel served as the Robert Vare Non-fiction Writer in Residence at the University of Chicago, where she taught a seminar in science writing while pursuing research for her stage play about 16th-century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, called "And the Sun Stood Still". This play was later performed by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company, Colorado, in March and April 2014, with grant support from the National Endowment for the Arts. A radio play version has been recorded and distributed by L. A. Theatre Works.
In May 2011, as the Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Doenges Visiting Artist/Scholar, Sobel taught a course called "Writing Creatively About Science" at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia. From Fall 2013 to May 2016 she taught general science writing and also "The Climate of the Country: Writing about Weather and Climate Change" as the Joan Leiman Jacobson Visiting Nonfiction Writer at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Moreover, lecture engagements have taken Sobel to speak at the Smithsonian Institution, the Explorers’ Club, NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the New York Public Library, the Hayden Planetarium, the U.S. Naval Observatory, the Royal Institution in London, and the American Academy in Rome. She has been a frequent guest on NPR programs, including "All Things Considered", "Fresh Air", "Science Friday", and "The Diane Rheem Show".
Currently, Sobel lives in East Hampton, New York.
(The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and ...)
1995Dava Sobel is described as "Democrat".
Quotations: "From where we Earthlings stand, it’s easy to believe we’re at the centre of the Universe... We never feel the Earth moving. Yet everything we see in the sky has great power to move our emotions. This has been true since human beings first looked up. And it is as true for professional astronomers as it is for amateurs like me."
Dava Sobel has been a member of The Planetary Society, National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, American Association of University Women.
Dava Sobel's home life provided excellent career preparation, since her mother had trained as a chemist, and no one in her family thought it odd or unusual for a girl to be interested in science. Both her parents loved to read, convincing her by their behavior that the best way to hold someone’s attention was with a book.
Besides, Sobel states she is a chaser of solar eclipses and that "it's the closest thing to witnessing a miracle". As of August 2012, she had seen eight, and planned to see the November 2012 total solar eclipse in Australia.
Quotes from others about the person
The New York Times: "Sobel is an elegant stylist, a riveting and efficient storyteller, a writer who can bring the dustiest of subjects to full-blooded life-poignant, in the case of Galileo; cautious but also loving, loyal and feisty in the case of Copernicus."
Dava Sobel married Arthur C. Klein, an author, but they divorced on December 14, 1995. Sobel has two children: Zoe Rachel and Issac.