He is the Charles Howard Candler Professor Emeritus of Physics at Emory University,[1] where he has pursued research on the properties of matter and has produced more than 100 scientific papers and books.
[2] In 1990, Perkowitz's interests turned to presenting science to non-scientists via books and articles, the media, lectures, museum exhibits, and stage works.
[16] Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids (2005) recounts the history of humankind's fascination with creating thinking beings from inanimate objects.
Foam affects the taste of beer, makes shaving easier, insulates take-out coffee cups and NASA Space Shuttles, controls bleeding in trauma victims, aids in drilling for oil, and captures dust particles from comets.
Perkowitz examines the making of electrical light and its integration into commerce, telecommunications, entertainment, medicine, warfare, and every other aspect of daily life.
His examinations range from the cave paintings at Lascaux to Mark Rothko’s stark blocks of color in today’s art museums, from Plato’s speculation that the eye sends out rays to Ramon y Cajal’s modern analysis of the visual system, from Tycho Brahe’s elegant measurements of planetary positions to the Hubble telescope’s exquisite sensitivity to light from billions of light years away.
I give it two thumbs up!”[37] Beth Kephart of the Pennsylvania Gazette wrote that Digital People is "A helpful book—a straightforward summarization of the myth and magic, science and struggles, ideals and cautions that constitute the history of artificial beings.”[38] Science Magazine called Universal Foam “Broad-ranging and enlightening.”,[39] and Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews both praised Empire of Light as “A wondrous, mind-expanding tour of the visible world"[40] and as “Smoothly written, comprehensive, and thoroughly enjoyable,"[41] respectively.