Newsroom

CORVALLIS - An Oregon State University researcher will appear soon in a nationally-televised series titled "Life by the Numbers," produced by the Public Broadcasting System.

Dawn Wright, an OSU assistant professor of geosciences, will be in the Oregon Public Broadcasting program on Sunday, May 10, at 11 a.m. called "Shape of the World," which explores how geometry can be used to measure and map the spherical Earth in a two-dimensional form. The overall series is looking at the role mathematics plays in sports, work, education, exploration and other fields.

Wright, an expert in using remote sensing technology to map the ocean floor, was filmed for the series on a 1996 research cruise in the South Pacific. Such studies, the TV series points out, help us "see" the two-thirds of the Earth that are covered by water, which includes the world's tallest mountain ranges, deepest canyons and most active volcano chains.

The program is being produced by a Pittsburgh television station with support from the National Science Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Texas Instruments.