"An Evening Conversation with Victor and Herman Wouk"

One of the brothers is a visionary scientist and engineer, a pioneer in the development of hybrid and electric cars. The other is a popular novelist, once hailed by the New York Times as "a modern Charles Dickens." On Thursday 21 October, both will be featured in an event at AAAS in Washington, D.C., "An Evening Conversation with Victor and Herman Wouk."

The evening will be an exploration of art and science, and of the different ways that two accomplished brothers have channeled their deep interest in discovery. The conversation will be moderated by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of AAAS and executive publisher of the journal Science.

The event is free and open to the public, and will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the AAAS Auditorium, 1200 New York Ave. N.W. in Washington, D.C. To make a reservation, call 800.215.1969.

Herman Wouk studied at Columbia University, wrote radio scripts, and served in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. He drew on his experience for his classic war novel, "The Caine Mutiny" (1951), which won a Pulitzer Prize and became a successful play and film. Other best-selling novels include "Marjorie Morningstar" (1955); "Youngblood Hawke" (1962); "Inside, Outside" (1985); and "The Glory" (1994); as well as the two-volume historical novels, "The Winds of War" (1971) and "War and Remembrance" (1975).

Wouk recently published "A Hole in Texas," his first novel in a decade. In this rollicking Washington tale, an obscure scientist is swept up in the vortex created when three great forces of American culture—Washington the media and science—clash over building the Superconducting Super Collider, a giant government project that is dedicated to detecting a tiny, elusive particle called the Higgs boson but which has been shut down by Congress.

His brother, Victor Wouk, received his doctorate in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1942. Wouk then devoted himself largely to developing hybrid motor vehicles and using semiconductors in electric vehicles. He designed and built a high-performance electric vehicle and a high-performance, low-emissions, improved-fuel-use hybrid, and promotes continuing the development of hybrid automobiles that can use both electricity and gasoline for power, as seen in the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Escape Hybrid. The hybrid electric vehicle is believed to be the only vehicle in the foreseeable future that can meet industry and government goals: a fuel efficiency rating of 80 miles per gallon, ultra-low emissions, excellent performance and cost competitiveness with conventional vehicles.

The range of his activities is wide, and he has consulted for several institutions and the government on the problems of energy. A space-travel buff since childhood, he also worked with the team that developed fuel gauges for the "dune buggies" that roamed the surface of the Moon during the Apollo Program.

12 October 2004