Can the Megacities of the 21st Century Be Sustainable?

by Geoffrey West as part of the Oppenheim lecture series @ UCLA.

Geoffrey West worked in theoretical physics and quantum physics at Stanford University and Los Alamos National Laboratories. In his later career his interest moved to the application of mathematical models, which are prevalent and highly successful in physics and chemistry, to other scientific disciplines. He got known for his work on scaling laws in biology, but meanwhile try to find similar relationships for networked structures in economics (i.e. corporations) and sociology (i.e. cities). For an article 2006 in Time magazine see http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1975813_1975844_1976489,00.html or in Wikipedia see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_West . A short video from a lecture with Geoffrey West about cities can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyCY6mjWOPc .

The lecture is in the Lenhart Auditorium in the basement of the Fowler Museum. Admission for the lecture and the Fowler Museum is free. The venue can be accessed officially from 6 pm. Meeting point would be 15 minutes before the lecture in the amphitheater outside the auditorium. Parking at UCLA is $3 per hour (max $11 per day) at parking structures assigned for visitors. Closest to the Fowler Museum is underground parking P4, accessible from Sunset Blvd turning right into Westwood Plaza. Closest Metro rail station is Vermont / Sunset on the Red Line, then take the bus No.2 which runs along Sunset Blvd. For directions and a campus map see http://www.ucla.edu/map/ . The organizing UCLA Insitute would prefer an RSVP for this lecture, as the lecture hall is not that large http://www.environment.ucla.edu/calendar/showevent.asp?eventid=618 .