The Wellesley STEM Expo, which returns this April 8 at Wellesley High School, has announced that MIT Professor of Physics Edmund Bertschinger will deliver the event’s keynote address.

An astrophysicist and cosmologist, Dr. Bertschinger explores cosmic structure, the physics of gravitation, black holes and dark matter, according to STEM Expo organizers.

What’s more, as MIT’s Institute Community and Equity Officer, Bertschinger has focused on issues such as inclusion and diversity on campus.

More details on the Expo will be released in the weeks and months ahead.

The Wellesley STEM Expo was last held in 2015.

 

The roster changed from a year ago, but the results remained the same: Wellesley High School for the second year in a row has won the Women of Science Competition in Bedford, Mass.

The competition involves about forty teams of junior and senior high school women competing in four science and engineering events, which require knowledge based in the areas of biology, chemistry, engineering, environmental science, math, and physics.

The WHS team that won consisted of Katie Pyzowski, Christina Yu, and Jeannie Ruffley. “They shined  in the ‘mystery build’ event where students were given a bag of miscellaneous items and told to build a tower with a flag on top that could withstand the wind from a high speed fan without being blown over or moved,” according to team coach and Wellesley High science teacher Brian Finn.  “They also finished in the top 10 in all 4 events.”

Each member of the winning team gets a $1,000 scholarship.

A second Wellesley team (Clover Zheng, Kathy Byun, and Christina Yang) finished 18th overall, and did especially well in the “Slow and steady wins the race” event, where came in 4th.

Finn says Wellesley has participated in the event since at least 2006 and has been in the top 3 teams each of the past 4 years. The event has grown quite a bit, from about a dozen teams back when to about 40 teams this year.

MORE: Wellesley students shine at Women of Science event in 2015