Charles Falco

In his Assembly Series presentation, "The Science of Optics; The History of Art," he will detail his findings about this controversial theory. The lecture will begin at 3 p.m. Feb. 16 in Steinberg Hall Auditorium.

If Falco's theory is true, then artists were using optical aids centuries earlier than previously thought possible. This would account for the remarkable transformation in the reality of portraits produced in the 15th century.

He got the idea from reading artist David Hockney's article in The New Yorker. Falco and Hockney began collaborating, studying hundreds of paintings and applying Falco's scientific knowledge to the question.

Studying the question of optical aids and master artists of the Renaissance is only an avocation for Falco, who holds the chair of condensed matter physics and also serves as a professor of optical sciences at the University of Arizona. Since earning a doctorate in 1974, his research and scholarship have covered metallic superlattices, X-ray optics, magnetism, magno-optics, superconductivity, and nucleation and epitaxy of thin films.

Falco also is a fellow of the American Physical Society and is a member of the Optical Society of America and the International Society for Optical Engineering.

Assembly Series talks are free and open to the public. For more information, call 935-4620 or go online to wupa.wustl.edu/assembly.