6-7 pm Reception and Buffet
7-8 pm Science Cabaret
8-8:30 PM NASW 75th Birthday Celebration

Since 2006, NASW has featured a Science Cabaret on the first night of its annual meeting -- a chance to get together with friends and colleagues, share a drink, and listen to performers who offer scientific themes in entertaining new ways. The thinking behind the Science Cabaret is that all of us are science communicators. Some of us use words. Others of us use music, comedy, and even acrobatics.

This year, when NASW celebrates its 75th anniversary, the Science Cabaret features three terrific musical acts.

Act One

Leo Kretzner, singer-songwriter. Leo is an NASW member, a molecular biologist (Ph.D. from Brandeis University) who studies prostate cancer, and guitarist and mountain dulcimer player extraordinaire. He will perform original songs and musical parodies about tenure, astronomy, and various foibles of the scientific life.

Act Two

Olson/De Cari Duo, classical musicians. John Olson is a guitarist, president of the New York City Classical Guitar Society, and a research scientist who studies new treatments for cancer. His wife, Gioia De Cari, a classically-trained soprano, is also an actress and “recovering mathematician” who is currently touring her hit award-winning one-woman show, “Truth Values: One Girl’s Romp Through M.I.T.’s Male Math Maze,” which describes her adventures as a Ph.D. student at M.I.T. (where John got his Ph.D. in Biochemistry). John and Gioia also sponsor the Science/Music Commissioning Project, whose goal is “to create music that will convey the beauty of science and illuminate the human side of the scientific enterprise.” Tonight they will perform “Men, Women and Molecules,” a set of songs written for them by Frank Wallace, based on the poetry of Roald Hoffmann, who is not only a poet but a Nobel Prize-winning chemist.

Act Three

The Chromatics, a capella science songs. The Chromatics are a unique high-energy vocal band that delights audiences with a combination of outrageous originals, crazy covers, and melodic insights into modern life. Described as “NASA’s most endearing merrymakers” (The Washington Post), “an astronomy class set to music” (Sky & Telescope), and “jaw-droppingly brilliant” (Chase Masterson, Star Trek DS9), the group is dedicated to spreading science through a cappella and a cappella through science across a wide swath of the known universe. Their "AstroCappella 2.0" CD of astronomically correct songs, videos, and lesson plans is in use in classrooms across the country. The Chromatics' songs have been featured on PBS, CNN Headline News, and in popular YouTube videos, and a copy of their CD has even flown in space! The Chromatics are Padi Boyd, Alan Smale, Karen Smale, Deb Nixon, Barry Mahaffey, and John Meyer.

NASW’s 75th Birthday Celebration

Emceed by NASW president Nancy Shute and Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research and founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, this celebration will reveal everything you always wanted to know about an organization that’s been called more tenacious than a remora, more ubiquitous than hydrogen, and more powerful than the Large Hadron Collider.