Texas A&M University invites audiences across Texas, the nation and the world to get up-close and personal with science and technology at the 2023 Physics and Engineering Festival, set for Saturday, April 1, from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the George P. Mitchell '40 Physics Building on the Texas A&M campus.
Festival officials once again are gearing up to host a hybrid event that will feature both an in-person and livestream experience guaranteed to entertain, inform and inspire kids of all ages. No fees or tickets are required for the free entertaining and informative scientific extravaganza (view promotional poster online), which will feature hands-on demonstrations, keynote talks and a legendary Texas-sized five-barrel depth charge as well as special events and bonuses.
The day’s jam-packed schedule kicks off at 10 a.m. with Guggenheim Fellow, popular science writer and best-selling author Richard Panek, who will present the James G. Potter Lecture, The Trouble with Gravity, discussing his latest book in the Stephen W. Hawking Auditorium within the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy. At 11:30 a.m., NASA astronaut and Texas A&M engineer Bonnie Dunbar will present Thinking Outside the Sphere: Exploring Space detailing her experiences as a 27-year NASA veteran, also in Hawking Auditorium.
From 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., festival participants are encouraged to unleash their inner scientists while taking in hundreds of fun experiments and demonstrations manned by Texas A&M faculty, staff and students throughout the Mitchell Physics and Blocker Building patio areas. Three fantastic performances of the Science Circus also will be featured (11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m.), along with five performances of the Low-Temperature Physics Extravaganza (10:45 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 1 p.m., 1:45 p.m.) and Large Hadron Collider virtual tours at 1 p.m. in Hawking Auditorium. Finally, a Texas-sized five-barrel depth charge complete with 1,000 plastic balls will close out the exhibition portion of the show at 3 p.m. on the south side the Mitchell Physics Building.
At 3:30 p.m., University of Washington astronomer and award-winning astrophysicist Emily Levesque will present the Mitchell Lecture, The Last Stargazers: True Stories and Adventures in Astronomy, discussing her critically acclaimed book and some of today's most exciting astronomical discoveries in the Mitchell Physics Building Primary Lecture Hall.
All events are presented by the Texas A&M Department Physics and Astronomy in partnership with several other campus units, including the Departments of Aerospace Engineering, Atmospheric Sciences, Biology, Chemistry and Mathematics.
The 2023 festival is sponsored by Halliburton, Marsha L. ’69 and Ralph F. Schilling ’68, Nancy and Robert L. Dunham ’63, Innolight Technology USA Inc., Col. Hal Schade ’67, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy.
For the latest details regarding the 2023 Physics and Engineering Festival, including event directions and parking information, please visit https://physicsfestival.tamu.edu.