New London Native and Mitchell College Alum Ed Belbruno presents his award-winning documentary, Painting the Way to the Moon

New London native and renowned mathematician and artist Edward Belbruno ’71 will be returning to his alma mater, Mitchell College, to present and discuss the new award-winning documentary about his artwork, “Painting the Way to the Moon.” It will take place on Wednesday, October 21, at 6:30 p.m. at the Mitchell College Weller Center and is free and open to the public.

“Painting the Way to the Moon” is a 54-minute feature documentary about the art and science of Ed Belbruno. In the 1980’s, Ed worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab by day and made space-inspired paintings by night. In his free time, he became obsessed with figuring out a new way of space travel, and over five years he toiled to find a solution. But it wasn’t until he turned to his oil paints and canvas that he made his breakthrough.

Edward Belbruno, a graduate of Mitchell College, was always fascinated by space travel and has been painting since childhood. At Mitchell, he discovered his love for mathematics which opened the door to his work in space travel. He received his doctorate in mathematics in 1980 from the Courant Institute of New York University. His research interests are in celestial mechanics, dynamical systems, astrodynamics, astrophysics and cosmology. His early work in 1986 led to a new approach to space travel by the use of chaos dynamics to obtain low energy trajectories that require less fuel. The methodology he developed for this is called weak stability boundary theory.

Presently, Belbruno is a research collaborator at the department of astrophysical science at Princeton University, director of the research company Innovative Orbital Design, and a visiting scholar at New York University, Courant Institute. He consults regularly with NASA and leading aerospace organizations. He has been interviewed on many radio and television programs, including NBC’s Today Show. He has published two books with Princeton University Press, his most recent entitled, “Fly Me to the Moon.”

Infused with science and sci-fi themes, his art features prominently in “Painting the Way to the Moon.” As a painter, he prefers oils and acrylics. Since he began showing his artwork in the 1980s, his style has progressed through a series of different variations, from the defined, low-texture pieces in the 80s to the brightly colored, high textured pieces he began producing in 2010. Mitchell College is proud to share one of his art pieces to the public before and after the event.

For more information about the event, call 860.701.5155 or email speakers@mitchell.edu.