Physicist, Professor, Science Communicator, Filmmaker, Inclusion Activist
Dr. Ágnes Mócsy is a Hungarian-American - born in Transylvania - theoretical physicist, professor at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, Fellow of the American Physical Society, and Visiting Professor at Yale University as Yale Presidential Visiting Fellow 2018/19.
Dr. Mócsy made significant research contributions in high energy nuclear physics, in the theory and phenomenology of strong interactions, investigating how matter formed microseconds after the Big Bang. Her current research explores the intersection and deep connection of science and the arts, and that of the gender, racial, and in general minority landscape and inclusivity in science, and beyond. Dr. Mócsy also made a documentary film ("Smashing Matters: Behind the Science Scene" premiered at the New Haven Documentary Film Festival), had written to the Huffington Post, designs novel ways for physics education, has been producing and performing physics inspired fashion and art shows, and collaborates with artists in various mediums.
She has delivered more than 130 invited talks throughout the world, has authored 35 research papers and numerous science communication articles.
She had developed courses focusing on non-traditional ways of approaching physics: "Starstruck: Meet Our Universe" and "Science, the Film Muse" at Pratt, and "Physics Meets the Arts" at Yale. She co-taught "Being Human in STEM" at Yale, a course examining how factors of gender, race, religion, sexuality, and economic circumstances shape the STEM experience at Yale and nationwide.
Previously, Prof. Mócsy held positions at The Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, as Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, at Brookhaven National Laboratory, NY, and visiting appointments at the École Polytechnique and CEA Saclay in Paris, France and the Wright Laboratory at Yale University.
Photo by Anjali Chandrashekar
 “This Is How I Got Here”Panelist at the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics Yale University January 2020 |  The UnforeseenThis is an art research project which analyzes our role as human beings within the universe at large in collaboration with artist SteamPlant resident Pamela Breda and Pratt faculty cultural critic Ira Livingston. Pratt Institute, Fall 2019 |  Interview in La Voz de GaliciaSantiago de Compostella, Spain November 2019 |
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 Gender Equality in PhysicsInvited speaker at Gender Equality in Physics workshop in Frankfurt, Germany December 2019 |  Museum Talk and PanelAt Centro Galego de Arte Contemporeana in Santiago de Compostella, Spain November 2019 |  Minorities in ScienceTalk on inclusion and equity of minorities in Santiago de Compostella, Spain November 2019 |
 Profiled in SciArt InitiativeJuly 3, 2019 Interviewed about how art and science can generate new dialogues through public works and an unusual educational approach. |  Yale course featured by the APSMay 28, 2019 Featured in article written for Arts & Culture at the American Physical Society. |  In Yale NewsMay 8 2019 Featured about the Physics Meets the Arts course and its culmination in the first physics art show and first student show in the Yale University Art Gallery |
 Physics Meets the Arts Show at YUAGYale University Art Gallery May 7 2019 Physics-based art show show and exhibit - the first! - of my amazing first-year students - culmination of a dreamy semester. |  Science Happy Hour 2019April 23 2019 Official causal BAR fun in New Haven on stage with Fellow Yale Professors and science communicators: Carl Zimmer, Sarah Demers, Keith Baker and John Harris |  Being Human In STEMYale University, Spring 2019 Co-teaching this amazing course on climate, diversity and beyond ... in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math |
 ArtSci Affair at PrattFebruary 28 Speaking as the funder and chair of the ArtSci Affair event series for the "Muons and Meters" Pratt STEAMplant event. |  Women You Should KnowDecember 12, 1018 Featured in article and as a cartoon character (when you scroll inside the article) in womenyoushouldknow.com based on an interview by Dale DeBakcsy. |  Featured in the New Scientist6 November 2018 |
 TV InterviewMarch 2018 Interview (23 min) in TVR Cluj about physics, science advocacy, art, fashion, minorities in science - in Hungarian with Romanian subtitles |  Hungarian Academy of Sciences talkNovember 2017 Invited Talk at the "Magyar Tudomány Ünnepe: Emberközpontu Tudomány" coference organized by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Cluj, Romania. |  Film Festival Screening of SmashingJune 2017 With my co-producer John Harris at New Haven Documentary Film festival, the first festival screeing of "Smashing Matters: Behind the Science Scene" |
 Science, The Film MuseSpring 2017 A fun course - lecture and production class -designed in collaboration with Ramon Rivera-Moret, experimenting with physics and film fusion. Location Pratt Institute and Brookhaven National Laboratory |  Science the Muse for ArtApril 2017 Science The Muse For Art and Design article published in the Science and Society magazine published by the American Physical Society. |  Honored as APS Fellow2016 "For innovative explorations of the intersection of science and the arts, for advocacy on behalf of fundamental science, and for promotion of underrepresented minorities working in science." See interview in link. |
 STEMFest 201716 January 2017 Under St Marks Theatre "THE UNIVERSE UNROBED: A Voyage Into the Stars, Fashion and Film" with appearance of a great lineup of my Pratt students and collaborators. |  From Physics to FilmmakingNov 2016 Invited talk at the NED conference in Phuket, Thailand. |  Owner of a Lonely Quark13 July 2016 Based on an intervview I gave to writer/cartoonist Dale DeBacsy - he wrote a homor-packed informative article spiced with cartoons. |
 All Inclusive Science8-10 June 2016 Organized a 3 day 3 part workshop and panel discussion on gender and race representation in the sciences, particularly physics. Held at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Links to talks and details about panelists |  Entertaining Science5 June 2016 There was atom smashing science, art, a mini fashion showm and the screening of the documentary Smashing Matters. There were several surprise guests. Details |  Debut as Filmmaker5 May 2016 Public screening of first documentary film. Many thanks to Digital Media Center for the Arts and Wright Laboratory at Yale University. Poster of the film |
 Science Happy Hour3 May 2016 Informal but informed science conversations moderated by NY Times culomnist Carl Zimmer. More photos and detail from the event. |  Who is doing science, who isn't24 March 2016 Talk, adressing the large imbalance of gender and race representation in the physical sciences, delivered at Michigan State University. |  On Capitol Hill14 March 2016 With Congressman Lee Zeldin, after discussing the importance of fundamental research and the benefits of pursuing reserach in nuclear science. |
 The lone genius paradigm9 March 2016 Debut as blogger in HuffPost Science, dicsussing the ramifications of what a lone-genius paradigm might hold. |  Scientist in art & design world11 March 2016 Talk presenting work at the intersection and fusion of disciplines, presented at Yale University |  Diversity of identities and minds16 January 2016 Public talk and exhibit on barriers and breking them, organized by Nogozon in Paris, France. |
 Fusion Project Runway16 December 2015 Short interview and video produced by Pratt Insitute about an approach to sciuence teaching Agnes developed in her classes. |  When Physics Meets Fashion23 July 2015 Paired with the sreening of Zoolander a promisingly fun night of physics and fashion, followed by a reception at Huntington Cinema Arts, NY |  Women in Science Symposium12 September 2015 This 18 minutes long talk was recodred and released by the Swedish TV Channel UR Samtiden. The lunk will be active until March 10, 2016. |
 Plenary Talk on Diversity3 July 2015 Diversity in gender and race in the field of physics, and how are we doing on it, is discussed in Montreal, Canada. See the talk. Graphics by Pratt's Young Kim. |  PubSci: Big Bang Physics18 June 2015 Chatting about big science in a casual environment over drinks. At the Bahche in Brooklyn, NY. Click here for the poster announcement |  The fashionista physicist15 February 2015 The thruth about my shoe collection and more in a very nice article on Scienceline by Rebecca Harrington. Read it here |
 Science Happy Hour16 January 2015 We brought Science Happy Hour to Manhattan and had a great time talking about the origins of matter. This event was organized as part of STEM Fest and Ben Lillie of the Story Collider moderated. Looking forward to more of these. |  Pathways to Excellence22 May 2015 Invited speaker and panelist at the Symposium on gender issues facing women in science. Uppsala, Sweden. Link to event site and brochure of the event |  Science Advocacy in DC23 March 2015 Lobbying Congress on behalf of fundamnetal reserach in nuclear science. On the photo the NY State delegation with R Congressman Lee Zeldin. |
 Tour the Universe11 May 2015 Panelist at a superfun event organized by SciArt Center held at the East Village Planeterium. Link to event site. |  When Physics Met Fashion5 March 2015 Talk to be delivered at Pratt Institute exploring Interdisciplinary Design education at the School of Design. |  RHIC Physics Feeds Future Workforce15 January 2015 Thanks to Karen McNulty Walsh for this write-up which gives me a chance to talk about work as a researcher, a science advocate, an art/science ambassador and a representative for under-represened minorities. |
 Girl Power in STEM7 March 2015 Keynote speaker at the symosium honoring the Inetrantional Women Day at Stony Brook University. Link to event site. |  Physics meets the Arts21 November 2014 Roundtable and panel discussion on "Excavating the Universe: Physics Interacts with the Arts" at The Commons, Spooner Hall in the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas, and the University of Kansas. Appearance in video link aroun 1h08'. |  Distinguished Scientist12 December 2014 Gender and racial diversity remains very limited in the physical sciences. Why are certain groups so under-represented? How can diversity be increased? What brought me into the field? And what pushes me away from it? Talk at the University of Minnesota. |
 "Glamorous Gluons"June 2014 My fine art student Sarah Szabo's art exhibit at Broohaven Lab, had it's opening reception during the RHIC/AGS Users Meeting. When physics meets art, really great things can happen. |  Carrer Panelist20 November 2014 Answering question about a carreer as a physicist at the Young Researchers Symposium held at Brookhaven National Laboratory, NY. |  Science Happy Hour at BAR16 October 2014 Four scientists walk into a bar... A casual evening about big science, moderated by Ben Lillie of Story Collider. |
 "Ösrobbanás, ma"June 2014 "Big Bang, today" article published in the Hungarian cultural magazine Müvelödés, in Kolozsvár/Cluj. Click on it to read. |  Physicist of the MonthMay 2014 I feel honored to have been named the Woman Physicist of the Month by the American Physical Society in a program to highlight exceptional female physicists. The award recognizes female physicists who have positively impacted other individuals’ lives and careers. |  Plenary Talk at Hard Probes13 October 2013 After lecturing for graduate students on Quantum Chromodynamics at the pre-conference Summer School at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, I pesented a Quarkonium Theory Overview Talk at the Hard Probes 1013 conference held In Stellenbosch, South Africa. |
 When Worlds CollideApril and September 2014 Talk exploring the Pratt-Brookhaven science-art collaborations, presented at different international conferences: Winter Workshop in Galveston, TX, and Collective Dynamics in Heavy Ion Collisions, Crete, Greece. |  PubSci11 March 2014 Three scientists and two journalists walk into a bar ... PubSci is a science café with informal conversation about big science. Presented by the Brookhaven National Laboratory Stakeholder Relations Office. |  On Capitol Hill in DC28 April 2014 For the second year participated in the Nuclear Science delegation to DC, discussing with elected officials and their staff the value of fundamental nuclear physics research. Photo in front of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand's office, the expanded is at Sen. Schummer. |
 "Smashing Matters" release1 May 2013 Launched my first short film Smashing Matters together with the science advocacy website smashingmatters.org. This film is about the far-reaching yet incalculable value of fundamental research, on the backbone of America's last atom smasher. |  Sound of the Little Bangs12.01.2013 Video and website explaining the acoustics of the hot and dense early-universe-like matter created at Brookhaven Lab. The project, featured in dozens of news outlets, in early 2013, reached over 35k viewers. |  BlackHole Poster Competition06.10.2013 The Pratt students participated in the most recent poster and logo design competition for the Karl Schwartzschild Meeting to be held in Frankfurt, Germany in July 2013. Winning design by Kaitlyn Allaire |
 Review Article02.08.2013 Most recent publication: I co-authored this paper reviewing the recent progress towards understanding the nature of quarkonia in the quark-gluon plasma. |  On Panel at UnionDocs05.09.2012 On Panel at UnionDocs Presenter and panelist advocating a Better Future Through Evidence-Based Reasoning on the discussion "The Future Well-made: on the Conditions for a Personal Vision" organized by Tom Klinkowstein. Photo by P Sorensen. |  Thermal Workshop at BNL12.07.2012 This talk, presented at Brookhaven, is on a new on-going work, in which we propose to use hydrogen-like atoms as mili-scale lepton detectors to access muons directly produced in relativistic heavy ion collisions. |
 Hot Quarks Conference10.12.2012 On the Organizing Committee of the HQ2012 international conference for more than 70 young physicists working on relativistic nuclear collisions, held in Copamarina, Puerto Rico. |  HQ Poster Competition09.20.2012 Pratt students participated in a design competition for the poster for the Hot Quarks Conference. The winning poster by Alex Doig was also displayed on The Big Bang Theory TV show. |  Talk at ISMD in Hiroshima09.27.2011 In this talk I discussed the interplay of the acoustic horizon and viscous effects on the power spectrum of heavy ion collisions. I gave it at the International Symposium on Multi-particle Dynamics and wrote it into publication. |
 My First Race07.10.2012 After completing the B16 SIG training series in 2012 with the New York Cycling Club, I signed up for my first test-race. The accomplishment: I finished. It was exhilarating. Left me wanting more. |  Talk at XQCD in Mexico07.18-20.2011 This is an invited talk overviewing the theory status of quarkonium at finite temperature at the Extreme QCD workshop in San Carlos, Mexico. At the end I sneaked up a short talk on the sound of the little bangs. |  Explaining Nuclear Collisions05.06.2011 Discussing the physics of relativistic nuclear collisions with Alan Alda, in a break from his improvisation workshop that I attended at Brookhaven Lab. |
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