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Renowned astrophysicist, Hayden Planetarium director, NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal recipient and author of Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization.

This is a ticketed Lied Center event and will not be livestreamed or recorded.
As an event co-sponsor, the Thompson Forum offered 100 complimentary tickets and a $10 discount code.

Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist, 2024 Guggenheim Fellow and author of An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes.

In this engaging lecture, Yong will take audiences through the hidden realms of animal senses. With wit and humor learn the amazing ways in which animals perceive aspects of the world to which we are oblivious.

The Lessons from the Natural World Photo Contest will feature four judged categories for K-8 students, high school students, university students, and adults, as well as a people’s choice category. Photographers are welcome to submit nature photos taken in 2024 or 2025. Winners will receive prizes related to the theme, including tickets to “The Cosmic Perspective” with Neil deGrasse Tyson on April 22! The contest closed on February 28, 2025.

Hosted in collaboration with Global Affairs, this event will feature a panel of local photographers and storytellers showcasing the beauty and diversity of Nebraska’s ecosystems. Attendees will also tour the Howard G. Buffett Gallery, which currently features a photo exhibit on conservation. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Larkin Powell, Director of the School of Natural Resources and Professor of Conservation Biology/Animal Ecology, and will feature three panelists from Platte Basin Timelapse: Dakota Altman, Emma Balunek, and Ethan Freese.

Poet, professor and author of World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments, Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year in 2020.

Acclaimed author of The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife and others, including 2024’s illustrated nature journal The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a #1 New York Times bestseller.