For photo of LeVar Burton, click here.
Don’t miss your opportunity to obtain free tickets to Emmy Award-winning actor LeVar Burton, who will headline this year’s Nebraska Science Festival on April 22.
Burton – the former "Star Trek" actor and "Reading Rainbow" producer – will present "Technology & Storytelling: Making a Difference in the Digital Age" at Joslyn Museum’s Witherspoon Concert Hall in Omaha. His 7:30 p.m. presentation is free to the public (but requires a reserved ticket) and is suitable for all ages.
Tickets for the general admission seating to Burton’s presentation will be released at noon on March 22 on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets will be available online at Eventbrite (www.EventBrite.com).
Users will need to create a login and password, and then search for "LeVar Burton NE SciFest Keynote Presentation." Once there, you may reserve up to four free tickets. Tickets are not available at the door. Although the presentation is free, tickets are required for admittance on April 22 when doors open at 6:30 p.m.
The fourth annual Nebraska Science Festival – presented by the University of Nebraska Medical Center and scheduled for April 15-23 – will feature an array of science- and technology-related activities in communities across the state. Check nescifest.com for more information.
Tickets for past keynote speakers, "Animal Planet" host and leading conservationist Jeff Corwin, extreme storm chaser Reed Timmer and America's favorite stand-up scientist Bill Nye, went quickly.
Burton launched his acting career while still a student at the University of Southern California. Cast in the groundbreaking role of Kunta Kinte in the landmark television series "Roots," at 19 he found himself on the cover of Time Magazine.
A seemingly impossible act to follow, Burton managed to do so in dramatic fashion, achieving further global acclaim as Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge in the iconic "Star Trek: The Next Generation" television series and feature films.
But it has been his role as host and executive producer of the beloved PBS children’s series "Reading Rainbow," of which he is most proud. Airing from 1983 to 2009, "Reading Rainbow" was one of the longest-running children’s television shows in history, and one of the most acclaimed, earning more than 200 awards including multiple Emmys and a Peabody.
Always committed to improving children’s education through innovative uses of storytelling, in 2012 Burton launched RRKidz, a digital educational publishing company, co-founded with business partner Mark Wolfe. Together, they hold the global rights to the Reading Rainbow brand through a partnership with series creator, WNED/Buffalo.
Reading Rainbow was reimagined to combine today’s forms of media and technology with the goal of inspiring a new generation of children to love reading. The all-new Reading Rainbow is a digital reading service filled with more than 500 children’s fiction and nonfiction books, newly produced video field trips and new content added every week.
Presented by the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the Nebraska Science Festival is a collaboration of organizations and individuals interested in the advancement of science literacy. In addition to UNMC, other sponsors, to date, include Nebraska Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, Nebraska Medicine, Metro Credit Union, West Corporation and media sponsors KETV and the Omaha World-Herald.
In addition to NeSciFest.com, you will find SciFest updates and information on Twitter (@NESciFest) and Facebook (NE SciFest).