Liebes '52 to lead students on a 'Walk Through Time'

Students will soon have the chance to journey through five billion years of the Earth's history simply by traversing a mile-long path around campus, thanks to the efforts of University alumni.

The path — called, "A Walk Through Time . . . from Stardust to Us" — is a display of more than 90 panels that tell the story of the Earth's evolution. The exhibit opens at the University today and runs through Saturday.

Conceived by Sidney Liebes '52 and brought to campus by his classmate Bill Murdoch '52, the walk has been displayed in a number of countries around the world, including the United Kingdom, South Africa and Japan. Princeton Environmental Action is showcasing it this week as a prelude to Earth Week and as part of Communiversity festivities.

"One of the big hopes for 'The Walk Through Time,' because it coincides with Communiversity, is to make an effort to involve lots of different groups of people — not just students," said PEA member Helen Labun '02, who helped organize the event.

"It's a bit of a concern that not enough students are aware of what's going on with [environmental conservation]. Hopefully, this display is going to be noticed," she added.

When Liebes, a physicist and environmental activist, announced his retirement from Hewlett-Packard in 1997, he told his colleagues he planned to create the walk — his lifelong dream — during his retirement. Liebes' employer, however, offered to help him realize his goal while he still worked for the company.

"So my last year, I was freed of all my responsibilities, given a budget and I created this walk with many, many other people," he said, adding that the walk now is owned by Global Community, a nonprofit educational group.

"The purpose of the exhibit is to offer a viscerally meaningful context for identifying and addressing the most significant issues of the future of life," Liebes said, adding that political leaders fail to address the impact of an expanding human population on the environment.

"I thought one way to get the message across would be to convert these enormous numbers. Millions and billions are difficult to comprehend," he said. "We need to understand these things viscerally, at least appreciate them."

As part of his effort to make the epic nature of Earth's history more accessible, Liebes created a walk that would take only a couple of hours to complete.

Murdoch, who rowed on the Princeton crew team with Liebes, heard about the walk last year and decided it should be displayed at its creator's alma mater. He then spearheaded an effort to bring the display to campus, receiving financial support from Lynn Wendell '77 and her husband Peter Wendell '72, among others.

Murdoch described the display which had sparked his interest. "It's the story of the Earth, which is pretty spectacular, and the extraordinary things that have happened to bring about life on Earth," Murdoch said.

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Liebes, along with a group of University professors, will speak in a symposium this afternoon in Frick's Kresge Auditorium, addressing the complex evolution of life and the fragility of the environment, Labun said.