Janna Levin is the Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College, Columbia University, and the Founding Director of the Science Studios at Pioneer Works, a Brooklyn-based center blending art, science, and experimentation. As founding editor-in-chief of Pioneer Works Broadcast and a Guggenheim Fellow, she develops interdisciplinary programs that translate complex physics into immersive, public-facing experiences. She leads collaborations with artists, designers, and institutions to create exhibitions, residencies, lectures, and events that reinterpret topics like black holes, spacetime, and gravitational waves for diverse audiences, with a strong emphasis on accessible science communication and community engagement.

At Pioneer Works, Levin’s Science Studios foster cross-disciplinary storytelling and hands-on learning, bridging scientific research with creative practice. Her collaborations with designer Andrea Lauer translate abstract physics into tangible, wearable, and exhibit-based formats, pairing rigorous physics with aesthetic interpretation to make esoteric concepts visually compelling and widely accessible.

Levin has advanced our understanding of black holes, extra dimensions, and gravitational waves, and communicates science to broad audiences through media and books.

Janna’s Website

Trey McIntyre, is an American choreographer whose work blends contemporary sensibility with classical technique. His early training took him from Kansas to the North Carolina School of the Arts and the Houston Ballet Academy. In 1989, Houston Ballet appointed him Choreographic Apprentice—a position created for him—and in 1995 he became the company’s Choreographic Associate. For more than three decades, he has worked as a freelance choreographer, creating over 100 pieces and collaborating with a wide range of companies, including The Stuttgart Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Queensland Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, New York City Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, BalletX, The Washington Ballet, Ballet Memphis, and San Francisco Ballet.

McIntyre has received numerous honors, including the Choo San Goh Award for Choreography, a Lifetime Achievement Award from The National Society of Arts and Letters, two National Endowment for the Arts choreography grants, and is a United States Artists Fellow. In 2019, he won the Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for Your Flesh Shall Be a Great Poem, created for San Francisco Ballet’s Unbound Festival. He has been featured as a “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine (2001), and recognized by People (2003) and Out (2008) for his influence. The New York Times and Los Angeles Times have praised his inventive, modern approach to ballet.

Trey’s Website

Vinita Gatne is a production and set designer based in New York, with a background in urban studies, architecture, research, and installation art.

Born in Mumbai, India, she studied architecture and engaged in contemporary, speculative, and historical urban studies projects exploring lived, plural knowledge produced by diverse communities about global capital and foreign investment. Alongside her research, Vinita creates installation art and set designs that address anecdotal, ephemeral, and plural conditions often overlooked in conventional recording practices. She collaborates with designer Andrea Lauer on scenic design and art installation to shape not only the texture and narrative of immersive visuals but also the very space they inhabit—crafting lighting, scale, movement, and tactile materiality to create an integrated, experiential environment.

Vinita holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Mumbai (2010), a Master of Arts from the Dutch Art Institute (2019), and a Master of Fine Arts from NYU Tisch—Design for Stage and Film (2024).