News Release
October 1998
Dr. Robert J. Semper will be awarded the 1998 Comenius
Alumni Award by the Moravian College Alumni Association Board of Directors
at the Comenius Dinner on Friday, October 23. In addition, the "Commission
on the Future" of the College and Seminary officially convenes
at the dinner. David L. Warren, president of the National Association
of Independent Colleges and Universities, will deliver the keynote address,
"Riding the Tide of Change."
This commission, composed of trustees, alumni, and business
and community leaders, will spend the 1998-99 academic year examining
the goals and initiatives that resulted from the institution’s
strategic planning process.
The Commission on the Future will build on the work that
the institution has already done. The Commission provides a way to broaden
the institution’s perspective by involving those personally and
professionally engaged in the complex social, economic, technological,
and public policy issues of our time. In so doing, Moravian will strengthen
its response to the challenges and opportunities that will shape the
future of the College and Seminary and advance the integration of College
and Seminary planning.
The six individuals who will serve as task force chairpersons
are: Connie Hodson, student development, Harry Dimopoulos, global engagement,
Fred O’Such, learning environment, Odell Guyton, community and
diversity, George Friedman, history and traditions, and Gary Harke,
preparation for ministry.
The first task force meetings begin on October 24, in
various locations on campus. The commission will celebrate the conclusion
of its work in October 1999.
Dr. Robert J. Semper ’68 was chosen as the 1998
recipient Comenius Alumni Award by the Moravian College Alumni Association
Board of Directors, announced Bertie Knisely, director of alumni relations.
He will be presented the award at the Comenius Dinner.
Dr. Semper received a B.S. (with honors in physics) from
Moravian College in 1968 and a Ph.D. in physics from John Hopkins University
in 1973.
After a number of years of college and university teaching
and research in solid state and nuclear physics at Johns Hopkins, St.
Olaf College, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and the University of California
at San Francisco, Dr. Semper joined the Exploratorium in 1977. He became
deputy director of the museum in 1985 and was appointed acting director
in 1989. In 1991 he was appointed executive associate director with
direct responsibility for all program activities. Currently he is head
of the newly developing Exploratorium Center for Media and Communication.
In 1988, during a leave he was director of a creative
collaboration between Apple Computer and Lucasfilm Ltd. concerning the
development of interactive multimedia education projects combining computer
graphics and film and video technology. He was also Schumann Fellow
and a lecturer on education in the Harvard Graduate School of Education
for 1988-89.
He was awarded the Distinguished Informal Science Education
Award for 1994 by the National Association of Science Teachers.
At the Exploratorium, Dr. Semper has served as director
for exhibit development projects on mathematics, perception, biology,
and Einstein, and as project director for teacher development programs
at the middle and high school level. He coordinated the development
of the Exploratorium exhibition "Seeing the Light" for the
IBM Gallery of Science and Art in New York City and La Villette, Paris.
Dr. Semper was a contributing consultant to Children’s
Television Workshop’s PBS science program "3-2-1 -Contact."
He has been a consultant for a number of museums, television programs,
and educational institutions.
