For those of you putting together a public lecture, I recommend you prepare it as though you are explaining an astronomical topic to someone seated next to you on an airplane with no background in science. I tell parents of children who might attend, that they will likely get something out of the lecture, but not necessarily everything. When choosing a topic for a lecture, make sure it is something that you are personally interested in as well as something you have some basic knowledge about. Oftentimes the best topics are *not* related to your own research.

The guideline of 30 minutes is rough, as you may go a little over or under the 30 minute mark in duration. Lectures are generally given in Pupin 301, a large lecture hall with capacity for ~300 attendees. There are 4 chalk boards, a digital projector, a DVD/VHS player, a video camera to project books or other non-digital images, a speaker system, and a wireless microphone. The speaker system is set to work with the wireless microphone (but you do not need it if you project your voice) as well as the output headphone jack from your laptop. You will need to bring a laptop, dongle, pointer, presentation, and yourself by fifteen minutes before the lecture is set to begin. If you do not have a laptop or laser pointer, we can use the ones purchased for the astronomy lab by the department, but please let us know in advance that this is what you plan to do. If you have any questions, please contact Cameron.

In order to recognize the outstanding work done by our speakers, we now offer the APPLAUSE award to the best public outreach talk of the year. Please see the link for more details.