{"id":19038,"date":"2013-02-15T11:20:50","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T15:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=19038"},"modified":"2013-03-08T10:04:59","modified_gmt":"2013-03-08T14:04:59","slug":"honors-institute-to-explore-mysteries-of-the-universe-with-academic-rock-star-keynote-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2013\/02\/15\/honors-institute-to-explore-mysteries-of-the-universe-with-academic-rock-star-keynote-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Honors Institute to explore \u201cMysteries of the Universe\u201d with \u2018academic rock star\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>

Neil deGrasse Tyson will deliver his \u201cTen Things You Need to Know About the Universe\u201d presentation at the Wright State University Nutter Center\u2019s McLin Gym March 7, at 7 p.m.<\/p><\/div>\n

The astrophysicist who erased Pluto from the planetary bodies\u2014a star expert with star power\u2014is coming to Wright State University.<\/p>\n

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History and pop culture mainstay\u2014with appearances on The<\/em> Big Bang Theory<\/em>, The<\/em> Colbert Report<\/em> , The Daily Show<\/em>, Nova<\/em> and over 1 million followers on Twitter\u2014 will be the next speaker in the Presidential Lecture Series and the featured speaker at the Wright State 2013 Honors Institute.<\/p>\n

Tyson is already proving to be the biggest star the University Honors Program has ever procured for the series.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always had strong local and regional interest in the speakers, but this is the first time we\u2019ve actually had people from multiple states calling and contacting us about how they can come to the event,\u201d said Susan Carrafiello, director of the University Honors Program.<\/p>\n

With inquiries coming in from Colorado, Texas, Virginia and other faraway places, organizers realized the original plan for his keynote speech was not going to work.<\/p>\n

Instead of the Student Union Apollo Room, Tyson will now deliver his \u201cTen Things You Need to Know About the Universe\u201d presentation at the Wright State University Nutter Center\u2019s McLin Gym March 7, at 7 p.m. The Apollo Room will serve as an overflow site where his presentation will be streamed to those who cannot get in to the gymnasium.<\/p>\n

The Honors Institute, now in its eighth year, is no stranger to big speakers. In 2012, Robert Ballard, known for discovering the sunken RMS Titanic,<\/em> headlined. In 2007, the Wright State community welcomed the late Wangari Maathai, a Nobel Peace Prize\u2013winning political and environment activist from Kenya.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Tyson is just different. He\u2019s notched it up. He\u2019s an academic rock star type,\u201d said Carrafiello. And he should fit well with the 2013 Honors Institute theme: \u201cMysteries of the Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

New York Times science writer Henry Fountain<\/p><\/div>\n

Joining Tyson will be New York Times<\/em> science writer Henry Fountain, who will be the luncheon speaker for the Honors Institute Symposium Friday, March 8. Fountain will present \u201cThe Future of NASA\u201d at the symposium but will also meet with student journalists from The Guardian<\/em> and will conduct a session during the symposium on science writing.<\/p>\n

Fountain is one of multiple New York Times<\/em> writers who have spoken to students at Wright State in recent years as part of the New York Times<\/em> College Readership Program with which the University College and the First-Year Experience Program have partnered.<\/p>\n

Carrafiello believes both speakers \u201ccould be a catalyst for the imagination of the students in terms of where they can take their own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHonors Institute speakers help inspire students to think big,\u201d said Carafiello. \u201cCollege is often about finding your passion, and with both of these men it will be very clear where their passions lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit http:\/\/www.wright.edu\/honors\/honors-institute<\/a> to learn more about the 2013 Honors Institute. Both days\u2019 events are free and open to the general public, but advance registration <\/a>is required for the March 8 symposium and luncheon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The astrophysicist who erased Pluto from the planetary bodies\u2014a star expert with star power\u2014is coming to Wright State University. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":19043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,729,725,2045,715,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-around-campus","category-home-news-sidebar","category-honors-program","category-news","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19038"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19058,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19038\/revisions\/19058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}