Scientist and Breaking Bad Actor to Speak

Oct. 14, 2014

Physicist and chemist Marius Stan, also known for his role as “Bogdan Wolynetz” on the critically-acclaimed TV show Breaking Bad, will present “The Science of Cinema, The Cinema of Science” at 7 p.m. on Oct. 23 in the Evelyn Chapel at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Stan is a nuclear engineering senior scientist and technical director for the Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation program at Argonne National Laboratory, a multi-disciplinary science and engineering research center in Lemont, Ill. He also holds an Intergovernmental Personnel Act position with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) and serves as senior advisor for modeling and simulation to the assistant secretary at DOE-NE.

In 2008, Stan made his acting debut in Breaking Bad as Bogdan, a car wash owner and one-time boss of Walter White, the show’s protagonist. As a recurring character, Stan became infamously known for his eyebrows, which even have their own Facebook page.

A native of Romania, Stan earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Bucharest and a doctorate in chemistry from Romanian Academy’s Institute of Physical Chemistry. An award-winning scientist, Stan has authored one book, three book chapters, over 60 peer-reviewed articles and over 120 presentations.

Stan’s lecture is sponsored by the Re-Centering the Humanities grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

By Tia Patsavas ’16