Join STATIC as we present science educator, engineer, comedian, television presenter, author, inventor, and everyone’s favorite school-aged memory, Bill Nye the Science Guy, live via Zoom, on Saturday, May 1. The Zoom waiting room will open at 7:45 p.m., with the event beginning promptly at 8:00 p.m.!

THIS EVENT IS COMPLETELY FREE and OPEN TO THE ENTIRE IUP COMMUNITY. No preregistration is required. Join here (link forthcoming)!

If you would like to submit a question for Bill to answer live during the event, please email us or send us a direct message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

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According to his official bio:

Bill Nye is an American science educator, engineer, comedian, television presenter, author, and inventor, with a mission to help foster a scientifically literate society and to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been passionate about his entire life.

“My family is funny,” he says, “I mean funny in the sense that we make people laugh, not just funny looking.” Bill discovered that he had a talent for tutoring in high school. While growing up in Washington, DC, in the 1970’s, he spent afternoons and summers de-mystifying math for his fellow students. When he wasn’t hitting the books, Bill was hitting the road on his bicycle. He spent hours taking it apart to “see how it worked.” Now, he commutes by bike in both Los Angeles and New York. Bill’s fascination with how bicycles, airplanes, and other things work led him to Cornell University and a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1977. Soon after, Boeing recruited him as an engineer, so he went to Seattle. “I’ve always loved airplanes and flight. There’s a hydraulic resonance suppressor ‘Quinke’ tube on the 747-horizontal stabilizer drive system that I like to think of as my tube,” he says. The U.S. Department of Justice also recruited Bill for his unique technical expertise and pedagogical skills.

It was in Seattle that Bill began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Eventually, Bill quit his engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle’s homegrown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live” in 1986. This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING–TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate. With fellow KING–TV alumni Jim McKenna and Erren Gottlieb, Bill made a number of award–winning shows, including the show he became so well known for, Bill Nye the Science Guy.

While working on the Science Guy show from 1992-1998, Bill won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmy’s in five years. To commemorate the series, the Bill Nye The Science Guy original lab coat is on display at the “T is for Television” exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

He fights to raise awareness of climate change and the value of critical thinking, science, and reason. Through all his work, Bill hopes to inspire people everywhere to change the world.”

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For more information, check out the STATIC website, Twitter page, or Instagram page.