CU anticipates the coming of Bill Nye

(Courtesy photo)

There is a lot of buzz circulating the CU campus as the community awaits the coming of the television personality, Bill Nye “the Science Guy.”

The student group bringing Nye, the Distinguished Speaker’s Board, sent out a press release stating that Bill Nye will be speaking to the CU community at Macky Auditorium on Tuesday, Feb. 15. The theme of the lecture is “Your Place in Space and How You Can Change the World.”

Nye was requested by DSB, a group that works to bring influential figures to speak at CU. Among the past speakers are Rev. Desmond Tutu, Queen Noor and B.B. King, according to the press release.

The press release states that the DSB chose Nye for his excellence in scientific achievement, science education and because he is a beloved persona to many students.

As well as appealing to a scientifically-minded audience, Nye demonstrates the ability to make science education understandable for everyone, according to the press release.

The Chair for the DSB, Punam Chatterjee, advocates bringing speakers from a different field to diversify the lineup of distinguished speakers.

“We have had a lot of political figures in the past five years,” Chatterjee said. “We wanted to branch out from that.”

The focus of the group was to bring in a well-known figure that would be able to speak to a large audience on a different subject, she said.

Chatterjee said she wanted to incorporate the sciences, as a large portion of the student population studies in this area.

“Since CU has such a huge science program, we thought it would be great to bring someone associated with science,” Chatterjee said. “Who better to do that than Bill Nye?”

Aside from his notorious television show on PBS “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” which aims to make science fun and appealing to younger audiences, Nye holds three honorary Ph.D.’s from Johns Hopkins University, Goucher College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, according to the release.

The student response to Bill Nye’s appearance has been overwhelmingly positive, so much so that tickets to the event are already running low after being on sale for only a few days, Chatterjee said.

The few tickets left will be sold on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and Wednesday, Feb. 9 from 11 am to noon at a table in front of the Alferd Packer Grill at the UMC. Two tickets may be purchased per student ID and if those times don’t work students are asked to e-mail [email protected].

Noble Lilliestierna, a 21-year-old major in civil and architectural engineering, said Nye is “the man” and cannot wait until Wednesday for his appearance.

“‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ helped encourage a great interest of science in me as a young child,” Lilliestierna said. “I always loved watching his videos and all of the crazy kind of stuff that he was looking at. He’s definitely a very important figure from my childhood.”

The original version of this story incorrectly states that Bill Nye will be speaking at CU on Wednesday, Feb. 15, when in fact Feb. 15 is on a Tuesday.
Updated 2/7/11 at 10:21 p.m.

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Nora Keating at [email protected]