This afternoon the 2017 U.S. Physics Team came to our building for a reception and selection of the members who will travel to Indonesia this summer for the International Physics Olympiad Competition. The team is made of 22 high school students, selected based on their scores from the F=ma test. They spent a week at the University of Maryland participating in a training camp, and at today's reception were recognized for their hard work. However, only five of the 22 students were selected to continue on to the Indonesia competition taking place July 16-24.
The reception opened with one of the team's coaches, a graduate student at MIT named Mike Winer, telling some really bad science jokes.
Another intern heard through the grapevine about a book event taking place in the area, so as soon as work ended we all rushed to make it on time. The event took place at East City Bookshop and featured a book reading of Vacation Guide to the Solar System by the authors. The authors, Olivia Koski and Jana Grcevich, said they met at a science outreach event where they pretended to be part of the Intergalactic Travel Bureau and booked vacations to outer space. They created the organization Guerilla Science (of which the Intergalactic Travel Bureau is a part) and eventually decided to take what they were "selling" and gather it in one book. Thus the Vacation Guide to the Solar System was born.
Along with Koski and Grcevich, another special guest at the book reading was Lori B. Garver, former NASA deputy administrator under Barack Obama. She talked about how she came to be involved with the space program, and how she even got to meet Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek!
I thought it super appropriate this book reading took place tonight, since this afternoon I watched NASA announce their 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. Out of a record-breaking 18,300 applicants, the 12 chosen women and men make for the largest astronaut class since 2000.
Left: Jana Grcevich raises the cardboard 3D viewer for cell phones while Olivia Koski describes how Guerilla Science began expanding the merchandise they offer. (We were given free 3D viewers!) Below: All the interns who went posed with Grcevich, Koski, and Garver at the event (Garver is next to me in the red shirt). |