Fermilab Brings You Science Next Door

Happy New Year, everyone! 

I know I’m probably the last one to say that to you. We’re a full week into January now, although I confess I’m still writing 2012 on my checks, and probably will be through March. By now we’ve probably all broken our resolutions, too. One of mine was to stop eating chocolate. That lasted until 10:43 am on Friday, Jan. 4. Oops.

But there are resolutions I’m planning to keep, and one of them is to make Fermilab more visible in 2013. And on that note, let me tell you about this new project we’re starting this month.

We call it Science Next Door. It’s another way for us to reach out to the local community, much like this blog, and let you all know what’s happening here at Fermilab. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my nearly six months in this position, it’s that the lab hosts a lot of interesting programs and events, and we want to do a better job of telling you about them.

Science Next Door is one of the ways we’re going to do that. We’re going to make use of the public access channels in our local communities – specifically, Geneva, St. Charles, Batavia, Naperville, and hopefully soon Aurora. Once a month, we’re going to record a mock newscast about the upcoming events at Fermilab, and provide it to those stations, as well as posting it on our website.

We want these videos to be comprehensive. We want them to cover everything the public can do at Fermilab during a given month, from lectures to concerts to tours to other special events. We want it to be an all-in-one promo for all the cool things happening here on a regular basis.

The first video is out now, and you can see it here. Yes, that’s me doing my best Brian Williams, which I promise will get better as we roll these out. 

Expect a new video at the beginning of each month. In between, we’ll also be providing other fun video content to our local public access stations, under the Science Next Door name. The recording of our recent physics slam is next on the docket.

And don’t forget, you don’t have to wait for a special event to come visit us at Fermilab. Our site is open to the public every day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and free public tours are offered every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., and the first Sunday of every month at 1 p.m. For more info on visiting Fermilab, check out this site.

We’ll be rolling out more ideas to keep that resolution during the year, and I’ll tell you all about them here. Enjoy your 2013, folks. It’s gonna be a good year.

Andre Salles is the media and community relations specialist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He can be reached by calling 630-840-6733, or emailing asalles@fnal.gov.