World Science Festival

World Science Festival
Name	World Science Festival
Formation	2008
Founder	Brian Greene; Tracy Day
Type	Nonprofit
Headquarters	New York City
Location	United States
Region served	International
Leader title	Co-founder
Leader name	Brian Greene

World Science Festival is an annual series of public events that present science-related lectures, performances, and interactive exhibits in New York City and touring programs worldwide. Founded by Brian Greene and Tracy Day, the Festival convenes scientists, artists, educators, journalists, and public figures to explore topics ranging from cosmology to neuroscience through panels, debates, and live demonstrations. The Festival partners with cultural institutions, universities, and media organizations to reach diverse audiences across exhibitions, broadcasts, and educational initiatives.

History

The Festival was launched in 2008 in New York City by physicist Brian Greene and television producer Tracy Day with support from institutions including Columbia University, New York University, American Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Institution for Science, Princeton University, and Institute for Advanced Study. Early editions featured speakers such as Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, Lisa Randall, Sean Carroll, and George Smoot, framed alongside performances involving collaborators like Yo-Yo Ma, Philip Glass, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Yo-Yo Ma's ensemble collaborations with Mark Morris. The Festival expanded into international programming with events connected to Sydney Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Royal Institution, Max Planck Society, and the Royal Society to bring scientific topics to festivals and institutions in London, Toronto, Sydney, and Singapore. Milestones include collaborations with National Geographic Society, premieres of documentary features alongside Public Broadcasting Service, and thematic years emphasizing quantum mechanics, genomics, climate science, and artificial intelligence featuring contributors from NASA, European Space Agency, CERN, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Organization and Leadership

The Festival is organized by a nonprofit board and executive team with advisory input from academic and cultural partners such as Columbia University, New York University, Rutgers University, Barnard College, City University of New York, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and Carnegie Hall. Leadership includes founder Brian Greene as a public-facing co-director alongside executive producers and artistic directors who coordinate programming with scholars from Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Princeton University, and University of California, Berkeley. Board members and advisors have represented organizations like the Simons Foundation, Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Wellcome Trust, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and National Academy of Sciences. Curatorial teams collaborate with producers connected to Lincoln Center Local, The New Yorker Festival, TED, Aspen Ideas Festival, and broadcasting partners including PBS, BBC, and NOVA.

Programming and Events

Annual programming includes live discussions, staged theatrical works, symposia, film screenings, and interactive exhibitions hosted at venues such as Times Square, Brooklyn Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, Museum of Modern Art, Queens Museum, and Queens Botanical Garden. Signature events have featured panels with laureates and prize recipients from Nobel Prize, Abel Prize, Turing Award, Lasker Award, and Breakthrough Prize laureates alongside scientists like Edward Witten, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Donna Strickland, Frances Arnold, and Katalin Karikó. Cross-disciplinary collaborations include seasons pairing scientists with artists such as Anish Kapoor, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Sting, Ira Glass, and ensembles like the New York Philharmonic. Special series have explored themes in quantum computing with participants from IBM Research, Google DeepMind, Microsoft Research, and D-Wave Systems; in genome editing with scientists from Broad Institute, Sanger Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute; and in climate change featuring speakers from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, NOAA, NASA Goddard, Met Office, and Environmental Defense Fund.

Education and Outreach

Educational initiatives include curriculum-aligned programs for students and professional development for teachers in partnership with institutions such as New York City Department of Education, Museum of the City of New York, American Museum of Natural History, New York Hall of Science, Smithsonian Institution, National Science Teachers Association, and Carnegie Institution for Science. Outreach tours have connected communities via collaborations with Public Schools Athletic League, Teach for America, Girls Who Code, Society for Neuroscience, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, and Mathematical Association of America. Programs emphasize accessibility through multilingual offerings, partnerships with Metropolitan Opera education programs, and workshops co-developed with Jane Goodall Institute, National Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy, and local community boards in boroughs across New York City.

Public Engagement and Media

The Festival amplifies public engagement through broadcast collaborations with PBS, BBC Horizon, NOVA, The New Yorker Radio Hour, NPR, WNYC, The Guardian, The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature, Science (journal), National Geographic, and Smithsonian Magazine. Documentaries and filmed events have featured production partners including WNET, PBS American Masters, HBO, and streaming platforms such as Amazon Studios and Netflix in selected projects. Media strategies include interactive social campaigns with outlets like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and podcasts produced in collaboration with Radiolab, Science Friday, The Verge, Vox Media, and Bloomberg Media to broaden reach to audiences in London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Seoul, São Paulo, Mumbai, and Cape Town.

Funding and Partnerships

Funding sources combine philanthropic grants, corporate sponsorships, ticket revenues, and foundation support from entities such as the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Simons Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and corporate partners including Google, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Bloomberg L.P., Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer. Institutional partnerships involve collaborations with Columbia University, American Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, NYU Langone Health, Mount Sinai Health System, Weill Cornell Medicine, and international science organizations like CERN and European Space Agency. Grant-funded projects have received awards and fellowships associated with National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, and European Research Council programs to support research communication, education, and global touring initiatives.

Category:Science festivals