UB Offers Free Tickets for Area High Schools to Attend UB Astrophysicist Lecture

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo is offering Western New York high schools free tickets for students to attend a lecture by astrophysicist and bestselling author, Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Tyson will speak on March 31 at 8 p.m. in Alumni Arena on the UB North Campus as part of UB's 23rd Annual Distinguished Speakers Series. Up to 30 complimentary tickets per school will be available on a first-come basis while the ticket supply lasts.

Tyson, host of PBS's NOVA scienceNOW, is F.P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City. His professional interests include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies and the structure of the Milky Way.

Tyson earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard and his PhD in astrophysics from Columbia. He is the recipient of nine honorary doctorates as well as the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, and is the author of 11 books, including "The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist" and "Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution," among others. In 2004, Tyson was selected as one of the 50 Most Important African-Americans in Research Science.

The free tickets for the Tyson lecture are made possible through the support of the sponsors of the Distinguished Speakers Series and the UB Office of Special Events. The free ticket program for high schools serves to encourage area students to get excited about science, and to become involved with global issues. The program began in 2004 with a talk by Steven Squyres, a nationally regarded astronomer perhaps best known as the face of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission. Since then, free tickets have also been made available to local students for lectures by physicist and groundbreaking string theorist Brian Greene; former vice president Al Gore; human rights activist and author Ishmael Beah; economist and "Freakonomics" author Steven Levitt; author of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini; television personality and scientist Bill Nye; and Los Angeles Times columnist and author of the book "The Soloist," Steve Lopez.

Requests for tickets may be made by the principal or one faculty or staff member who will act as the sole liaison for the school, and who will distribute the students' tickets. Request forms and information about Tyson and the other speakers in the Distinguished Speakers Series are available at http://www.specialevents.buffalo.edu. Deadline for submission of request forms is March 5.