Popular holiday science program sells out, will be televised

Once again, the popular holiday lectures by UW–Madison chemistry Professor Bassam Shakhashiri are proving to be a tough ticket. All four programs scheduled for this weekend (Dec. 6 and 7) are ‘sold out,’ according to the event organizers.

Now in its 34th year, the program of free lectures, ‘Once Upon a Christmas Cheery in the Lab of Shakhashiri,’ continues to be an extremely popular holiday event, and all of the free tickets for the four scheduled programs have been given away on a first-come, first-served basis.

“As usual, we have more requests than we can possibly handle,” says Shakhashiri.

For those unable to get tickets, however, the program will be broadcast on Wisconsin Public Television at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 25, and again at 8 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 28.

The show, says Shakhashiri, has always been popular, playing to packed venues in Madison and, when Shakhashiri was an assistant director of the National Science Foundation, Washington. His holiday programs are one of the reasons the UW–Madison chemistry professor was cited this year by the American Association for the Advancement of Science with its annual Award for the Public Understanding of Science and Technology.

Shakhashiri’s holiday programs are distinguished as one of the university’s longest running and most popular programs of public service.

“The main purpose is to share the joy of science with kids of all ages and to promote understanding and appreciation of science among all members of the community,” Shakhashiri explains.