Ancient Rome 3D Curriculum Competition

Bernard Frischer is a leading scholar in the application of digital technologies to humanities research and education. As the project organizer for "Rome Reborn," Frischer has been instrumental in forging the partnership with Google that created the Ancient Rome 3D layer. Frischer is currently serving as Professor of Art History and Classics at the University of Virginia, where he also serves as Director of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH). His current research includes a cooperative project with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to construct a virtual model of 18th-century Colonial Williamsburg at key moments in its history. He is the author of several books, including Shifting Paradigms: New Approaches to Horace's Ars Poetica, and The Sculpted Word: Epicureanism and Philosophical Recruitment. He also conceived of SAVE (Serving and Archiving Virtual Environments), a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation to create a database of 3D digital models of cultural heritage sites, monuments, and landscapes. Frischer received his B.A. (Wesleyan University, 1971) summa cum laude and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa (1970), a Fellow of the Michigan Society of Fellows, a Fellow (1974-76) and Resident (1996) of the American Academy in Rome, and he has won research fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies (1981, 1996) and the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (1997). From 1996 to 2003 he directed the excavations of Horace's Villa sponsored by the American Academy in Rome, and from 1996 to 2004 he was founding director of the UCLA Cultural Virtual Reality Laboratory. In 2005 Bernard Frischer was given the Pioneer Award of the International Society for Virtual Systems and Multimedia.

Roberta Johnson is the PI of the Windows to the Universe website (sponsored by NCAR, NSF, NASA and the through partnerships with the university community), which brings multi-level scientific background content and new research results to the public, students and educators in English and Spanish. The Windows to the Universe website received ~20 million visits over the past 12 months from around the world, and its professional development program includes a newsletter that reaches over 9000 educators around the world each month. She is the executive director of the National Earth Science Teachers Association and the Chair of the American Geophysical Union’s Committee on Education and Human Resources. She has extensive experience advising NASA, NSF, and professional societies on education, outreach, uses of cyber-infrastructure for education, and diversity and serves on numerous advisory boards for projects in these areas. As director of the UCAR Education and Outreach Program, Roberta oversees services and resources for students, educators, and the public, including professional development programs for educators, web resources for students, educators, and the general public, event programming, exhibit development, and opportunities to increase the diversity of geoscience researchers. Areas of emphasis under her leadership include development of both in-person and online professional development for educators on climate and global change and modeling in the geosciences. She directs a group of 28 geoscience education specialists at UCAR, combining expertise in geoscience research, education, community outreach, and instructional technologies. Johnson has a Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics from UCLA and has published over 30 papers in the area of upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere research as well as on educational programs.

Dr. Michael Levine oversees the Center's efforts to catalyze and support research, innovation and investment in educational media technologies for young children. Prior to joining the Center, Levine served as Vice President of New Media and Executive Director of Education for Asia Society, managing the global nonprofit organization's interactive media and educational initiatives to promote knowledge and understanding of Asia and other world regions, languages and cultures. Previously, Levine oversaw Carnegie Corporation of New York's groundbreaking work in early childhood development, educational media and primary grades reform, and was a senior advisor to the New York City Schools Chancellor, where he directed dropout prevention, afterschool and early childhood initiatives. He has been a frequent adviser to the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, writes for public affairs journals, and appears frequently in the media. He was named by Working Mother magazine as one of America's most influential leaders in shaping family and children's policy and serves on numerous nonprofit boards, including We Are Family Foundation, Ready To Learn, Talaris Institute and Teach For America. Levine is also currently a senior associate at the Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Policy from Brandeis University's Florence Heller School and his B.S. from Cornell University.