Stephen Hawking to speak in Seattle

World-renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking will make a rare public appearance on June 16 as part of the Luminaries Series of the inaugural Seattle Science Festival, the Pacific Science Center announced Tuesday.

"The overarching goal of the Seattle Science Festival is to demonstrate, at the highest possible level, that science is an integral part of our community's culture. It aspires to enhance scientific literacy in our community and inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers," Ellen Lettvin, festival director and vice president for science and education at Pacific Science Center, said in a news release. "Hawking's participation in this momentous event will certainly catalyse excitement about science in our community."

Hawking is the former Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge and has written best-selling books for a general audience, most notably "A Brief History of Time." And he has done this while living with ALS, the debilitating ailment popularly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." The disease has progressed in recent years, making it harder for Hawking to communicate.

The June 16 event will focus on evolution. Joining Hawking will be palaeontologist Jack Horner -- who discovered the dinosaur genus 'Maiasaura' and was technical consultant to the 'Jurassic Park' movies -- and Leroy Hood, whose inventions "have revolutionized biomedicine and are credited with 'unlocking much of the mystery of human biology,'" according to the science center.

"Interwoven with these presentations will be a performance of the world's first peer-reviewed rap, New York's renowned 'Rap Guide to Evolution,' as well as a stunning performance of the work 'Euclidean Space' by Seattle's critically acclaimed Spectrum Dance Theater," the science center said.

The five-talk Science Luminaries Series is part of the monthlong Science Festival, organized by Pacific Science Center in collaboration with such organizations as the University of Washington, Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle Aquarium, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Institute for Systems Biology, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Experience Music Project, Seattle Opera, Northwest Association for Biomedical Research, PATH, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, Seattle Children's Research Center, Seattle Public Schools, Seattle University, Washington NASA Space Grant and Washington STEM.

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