Theme: Shot in the Dark

We are aiming to shine light on topics big and small, ones that failed and succeeded, ones that had to explore risks and revealed unexpected and exciting results. We hope to show how diverging from the “norm” can change our perspective and knowledge about the world around us.

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Chicago, Illinois, N/A
United States

Felipe Gomez del Campo

CEO of FGC Plasma Solutions, LLC

Felipe Gomez del Campo is the founder and the CEO of FGC Plasma Solutions, a Boston-based company which uses plasma to fundamentally improve combustion across a wide variety of systems leading to improvements in emissions, fuel consumption and operability. FGC Plasma’s technology has applications in energy, aerospace and national security. Felipe originally started this research as a high school science fair project and now, over six years later he has a patent on the technology and has raised over $4.4 M in funding from the Department of Energy, NASA, and others. Felipe was named to the 2016 Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Energy category and in that same year was honored at The White House by President Barack Obama as an emerging global entrepreneur. Recently, FGC Plasma was selected by NASA’s Chief Technologists as the 2018 X-factor innovation award through NASA Itech.

Jibrizy Magic

"The Hip-Hop Illusionist"

Chicago native and Hip-Hop illusionist Jibrizy launched his magic career at the age of 7 when he began showcasing his work on YouTube. Due to his diagnosis with Crohn's Disease, Jibrizy was unable to play outside with other kids, leading him to spend most of his time honing in on his magic skills inside alone. To his and his families surprise, his videos began to gain tremendous traction online, garnering hundreds of millions of views and eventually going viral. Jibrizy took this new moniker and ran, branding himself as the new urban magical force to be reckoned with. Jibrizy’s meteoric social media rise/ presence began to be felt and could no longer be ignored by the magic community. After performing on and winning Penn and Teller’s hit show Fool Us, Jibrizy’s platform began attracting life-changing opportunities.

Louis Kauffman

Mathematician & UIC Professor Emeritus

Louis H Kauffman is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research is in topology, knot theory, topological quantum field theory, quantum computing and foundational ideas in mathematics and science including algebra, logic, form and cybernetics. He is known for the discovery of state summation models in knot theory and for the knot polynomial called the Kauffman polynomial. He is the originator of a significant generalization of classical knot theory called virtual knot theory. Kauffman is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and author of numerous books related to knot theory. He is the Editor in Chief and founding editor of the Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications published by World Scientific. He is the editor of the Book Series in Knots and Everything published by World Scientific. Kauffman is a former Polya Lecturer for the Mathematical Association of America and past president of the American Society for Cybernetics.

Patricia Ward

MSI Director of Science Exhibitions and Partnerships

Dr. Ward has been at the Museum since 1999 and provides broad science leadership across the Museum’s exhibition activities by developing partnerships with resources such as universities and other research organizations to coincide with the Museum’s efforts to bring current, relevant science content to the general public and our school audiences. MSI exhibit projects include Genetics: Decoding Life; Future Energy Chicago, a technology-based virtual simulation that allows guests to design a more energy conscious city; and YOU! The Experience, a hands-on exhibit on human health and wellness. Ward holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Ward has been interviewed for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and many local television and radio outlets. She has also been profiled by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) magazine, as well as spoken at the AAAS annual conference on using digital games to encourage youth engagement in science.