Jim Sanborn

He grew up in Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, attending Burgundy Farm Country Day School, followed by JEB Stuart High School—both in Fairfax County—and then attended Randolph-Macon College, receiving a degree in paleontology, fine arts, and social anthropology in 1968, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from the Pratt Institute in 1971.

He has created sculptural works for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

[4] Themes in his work have included "making the invisible visible", with many sculptures focusing on topics such as magnetism, the coriolis effect, secret messages, and mysteries of atomic reactions.

[14] In addition to designing intricate sculptures and exhibits, Sanborn has also turned some of his large-scale outdoor art into an interactive experience.

A recreation of a portion of Atlantic coastline, the waves experienced here are transferred in "real time" from a monitoring station at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

[15] Sanborn designed Indian run park located adjacent to the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Beltsville, Maryland, with inspiration from the Iroquois Nations that inhabited the area nearly 900 years ago.

The park, named after the original Indian Run river that once existed there, includes a waterfall and walkway resembling the snaking waterway.

Also, located within the park is a bronze cylindrical sculpture written in Onondaga language and "transcribed from the ancient oral tradition of the five Iroquois nations."