An illustrated lecture, "Scientific Imaging of Museum Objects" presented by Philippe Walter, laboratory director of the Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France located in the Louvre Museum in Paris, is set for Friday, April 15, at 5:30 p.m., in George Pearl Hall, Garcia Honda Auditorium, at the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning. Pearl Hall is located at 2401 Central NE, on the northwest corner of Central Avenue and Stanford Drive.

Walter will demonstrate the use of advanced scientific imaging techniques to understand how works of art were created and can be preserved and restored. His presentation covers, among other things, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and works by Van Gogh and Picasso. He also discusses art works from ancient Egypt.

An alumnus of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon, Walter earned a PhD in geochemistry from the Universite Paul Sabatier in Toulouse. He has been a research scientist at the National Center for Scientific Research since 1995 and received the CNRS silver medal in 2008. Walter has organized several exhibitions at the Egyptian museum in Cairo (2002) and Paris (2008) promoting his work.

The lecture, sponsored by the Alliance Française d'Albuquerque, and part of a cultural program organized by the Delegation Generale de l'Alliance Française USA, is free, and open to the public. A reception follows the lecture.