A.P.E.X. Events Presents Sam Kean, Bestselling Author

Published: February 10, 2020 | Read Time: 2 minutes

A.P.E.X. Events is proud to continue our Spring Season by bringing best-selling author Sam Kean to Southern Utah University. Join A.P.E.X. Events on February 20, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. in the Great Hall of the Hunter Conference Center. Kean’s visit is part of the Eccles Visiting Scholar program as supported by the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation. 

Kean spent years collecting mercury from broken thermometers as a kid in South Dakota. He went to college in Minnesota and studied physics and English, and later moved to Washington, D.C., where he earned a master’s degree in library science. He is now a writer in Washington, D.C where his stories appear in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Slate, and Psychology Today, among other places, and his work has been featured on NPR’s “Radiolab”, “Science Friday”, and “All Things Considered,” among other shows. 

Kean’s “The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb” was a Science Friday book of the year, while “Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us” was the Guardian science book of the year. “The Disappearing Spoon” was a runner-up for the Royal Society book of the year. Both “The Violinist’s Thumb” and “The Dueling Neurosurgeons” were nominated for PEN’s literary science writing award. Kean is also the editor for the 18th edition of The Best American Science and Nature Writing and has been featured on multiple NPR shows, such as “Radiolab”, “Science Friday”, “All Things Considered”, and “Fresh Air. 

Kean is a uniquely engaging science writer who has found broad success with his three books. Kean transforms complex scientific material into captivating narrative. Understandable, interesting, witty – and quite funny at times. More than you might think possible in a science story. Kean’s love of science led him to a college degree in physics and though he got an English degree to explore writing, he found himself missing science. Ultimately, he found science writing to be a compromise, a way to combine a field he loves without having to spend his life in a lab. 

"Sam’s books are not only fun to read, but allow you to be surprised and fascinated by science every time you read,” said Dr. Lynn Vartan, director of A.P.E.X. Events. “We are so lucky to have him visit campus and share his writing and research.” 

A.P.E.X. Events is SUU’s premier weekly lecture series, with speakers and presenters invited from all areas of the world, featuring a diverse range of topics and disciplines. Students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to attend the free series.

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