Top scientist Shon Isenhour visited George Fox Middle School in Pasadena as a guest lecturer on April 8, 2014, to provide insights about his careers and work as part of the USA Science & Engineering Festival’s Nifty Fifty (times three) Program— presented by InfoComm International—which sends more than 150 top scientists and engineers into area schools in advance of the Festival to ignite students’ passion for science and engineering.
The Festival, hosted by Lockheed Martin and taking place April 26-27 in DC, is a free expo that allows kids and adults to participate in over 3,000 hands-on activities and see live performances by science celebrities and experts. New this year, the Festival will open on April 24 with X-STEM: Extreme STEM Symposium—presented by Northrop Grumman Foundation and MedImmune—a “Ted-style” event featuring interactive presentations and workshops by STEM visionaries.
Founded by serial entrepreneur Larry Bock and Lockheed Martin CTO Ray O. Johnson to address the severe shortage in science and tech talent, the USA Science & Engineering Festival and Book Fair is the Superbowl of STEM, and was developed to increase public awareness of the importance of science and to encourage youth to pursue careers in science and engineering by celebrating science the way we celebrate Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and pop stars. To support this effort, the Nifty Fifty are science stars carefully chosen for their differing fields, talents, divergent backgrounds and ages and include entrepreneurs and financiers, policy makers, actors, journalists, educators, researchers, explorers, video game developers, alien hunters, astronauts and brain surgeons.