Ray Bradbury to Keynote CSUN Conference on Virtual Reality and Disability

"America's favorite science-fiction writer", Ray Bradbury, will keynote the 
Second Annual, International Conference, "Virtual Reality and Persons with 
Disabilities," to be held at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel, June 
8-10, 1994, according to Dr. Harry Murphy, Conference Director.

"Virtual reality" refers to 3-D, computer-generated, interactive media.  The 
astronaut team that recently corrected the problems with the Hubbel 
telescope first practiced their tasks in "virtual reality" and then 
successfully modified the telescope in order to enhance its performance.

Bradbury has published more than 500 short stories, novels, plays and poems 
since he first broke into print in Weird Tales when he was twenty years old.  
He has written for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.  He 
wrote the screenplay for John Huston's Moby Dick.  He was nominated for an 
Academy Award for collaborating on the screenplay of the animated film, 
Icarus Montgolfer Wright. When one of the Apollo astronaut teams landed on 
the moon, they named a crater, "Dandelion Crater," in honor of Bradbury's 
novel, Dandelion Wine.  His own TV show, Ray Bradbury Theater, received 
nineteen cable award nominations and won seven.

"We are delighted to have Ray Bradbury as our keynote speaker," says Dr. 
Murphy.  "When people of Mr. Bradbury's stature turn their attention to the 
potential of virtual reality, it gets us all thinking this way, and that is 
the purpose of the conference - to bring diverse groups together to address 
the problems of people with disabilities."  Mr. Bradbury's address to 
registered conference participants will take place on the morning of 
Thursday, June 9.

For additional information, please contact:
Dr. Harry Murphy, Founder and Director
California State University, Northridge
CENTER ON DISABILITIES
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA  91330-8340
(818) 885-2578 Voice/TDD/Message
(818) 885-4929 FAX
Email: VR@VAX.CSUN.EDU