The Holiday Lecture series is modeled on a famous set of presentations first given to children a century ago as part of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in London. The lectures highlight science in an engaging and fun forum for children age 7 and up. This event, which is free and open to the public, brings science to the community through experiments, audience participation, and highlights from current research. The lecture is a collaborative effort of the NSF MRSEC at Harvard and the NSF PCCM at Princeton. This annual event is free and open to the public (all ages are welcome).

Holiday Lecture 2024: Science by Candlelight

Held on Saturday December 7, 2024 (10 am and 1 pm) in A02 McDonnel Hall, the 2024 holiday lecture for families was all about the candle! Over 530 children and their families joined us to learn about the science underlying the candle. The lectures were led by Prof. Howard A. Stone. Joining Prof. Stone on stage was Angie Miller, the chemistry department demonstrator, who performed all the amazing demonstrations at this year’s event. Angie, a trained professional, captivated the audience with demonstrations of colored flames, edible candles, butane bubbles, and sparkly fire balls! Special guest, Prof. Julia Mikhailova, taught the audience about Schlieren imaging and, with her grad student Arunava Das, demonstrated the beautiful transport of air around that candle flame that is normally invisible to the human eye. Fernando Temprano-Coleto, a postdoc, and Katie Wu, a graduate student, also contributed to the lectures. Our fantastic audience made their own candles and performed a capillary action experiment. The children, aka the molecules, also came on stage to demonstrate phase transitions from solid to liquid to gas, and a combustion reaction!

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