Simons Foundation Presents: A Universe of Grief

Simons Foundation, Gerald D. Fischbach Auditorium, 160 5th Ave, New York, NY 10010

*Please note that the entrance is on W 21st St between 5th and 6th Aves*

There is perhaps no human emotion more complex than grief. It’s at once painful and profound, a reminder of loss and a memory of love. To consider grief is to consider different scales — from the end of a particularly memorable summer, to the conversations we’ll never have with loved ones again, to the death of stars in our universe. But no matter the scale, grief is connected by, among other things, a sense of loss.

What can the universe, and the ways we understand it, tell us about grief? How might things as seemingly simple as a Ziploc bag, or as complex and ubiquitous as a fractal, bring us closer to a shared understanding of something as beautiful and messy as grief?

As part of the Simons Foundation’s Triangle Program, writer, director and actor Ain Gordon and astrophysicist Amy Secunda have been exploring the symmetry between human and galactic birth, companionship, death and afterlife. Gordon’s upcoming work, CONDOLENCE or A Rug & An Elf, created with his longtime collaborator Josh Quillen, is a funny and personal exploration of what remains after people are gone. For film director and producer Neha Shastry, mathematics offers another lens on grief. Her upcoming short film explores the work of mathematician Michael Frame and the ways in which grief can be considered fractal.

Join them for a conversation moderated by John Tracey, senior director of the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture division, to explore this universal human experience.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Secunda received her Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University in 2024, where she bridged the gap between observations and simulations of active galactic nuclei (AGN) accretion disks using multifrequency radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations and multiwavelength UV and optical time-domain surveys of AGN. In addition to her work on AGN disks, Secunda has performed research in a broad range of astrophysics subfields, from reionization to planet formation. She joined the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Simons Foundation’s Flatiron Institute in September 2024 as a Flatiron Research Fellow.

Gordon is a three-time Obie Award–winning writer/director/actor, two-time NYFA recipient, Guggenheim Fellow and 2023 Creative Capital awardee. Gordon’s work often sources purposefully obscured histories and the individuals inhabiting that space. He has been presented at BAM Next Wave, Baryshnikov Arts, New York Theatre Workshop, Performance Space New York (formerly P.S. 122), HERE, 651 Arts; as well as Flynn Center, Krannert Center, Wexner Center, Festival of Arts & Ideas, George Street Playhouse, CAP/UCLA, Quick Center, Williams College, Boston University, DiverseWorks and the Mark Taper Forum, among many others. Gordon has been the director of the Pick Up Performance Co(s) since 1992.

Shastry is an Indian American director and producer whose work explores power, justice and pop culture. Her Emmy- and duPont-winning films examine influential cultural figures. Her feature documentary, The Act of Dreaming (2025), follows three immigrant families through their first year in America. Recent credits include an episode for Netflix’s What’s Next with Bill Gates (2024), praised by The New York Times and featured on The Late Show; The Murdochs: Empire of Influence (2022), which was named a best documentary by The New Yorker; and producing All In: The Fight for Democracy (2020), which was shortlisted for an Academy Award.

Conversation Moderator: Tracey joined the Simons Foundation in 2014 as part of a team to improve public engagement with science. As senior director, Tracey works with the senior vice president of Science, Society & Culture to develop and execute funding strategy. He leads the division’s external communications and storytelling, including website content development, external media strategy and visual storytelling. Prior to joining the foundation, he worked at the American Association for Cancer Research, specifically on the Stand Up to Cancer initiative, where he managed grantee statistics and statistics reporting, and edited and produced website content. He holds a B.A. in English literature from the College of New Jersey.