Evening
Will Recognize Champions of Science Spees, Rogers, PG&E, Cohen
At the Starlight
Gala on September 21, Starlight Gala will honor Tom Steyer,
as well as present the annual Champion of Science Awards in four categories.
Now in its third year, Chabot’s Champion of Science Awards honor individuals
and organizations that have made extraordinary and lasting impacts in science
education and support Chabot’s STEM mission. Awards are given in four
categories: Foundations, Corporations, Individuals, and Educators. Recipients
of the 2013 awards include: The Rogers Family Foundation, Pacific Gas and
Electric, the Honorable Richard and Jean Spees, and U.C. Berkeley Professor
Ronald C. Cohen.
The
Starlight Gala is the premiere fundraising event for the Center. This year’s theme celebrates inspiration,
imagination, and invention. Recognized Bay Area media journalist and eight time
Emmy Award winner, Randy Shandobil will emcee the event which raises money for
the Center’s STEM education programs.
Chabot’s
Executive Director & CEO, Alexander Zwissler said that the event not only
raises needed funds to continue important science education initiatives, but
also in turn “allows the Center to recognize those who have supported Chabot’s
goals of increased science literacy through education and public programming,
and whose extraordinary contributions to these goals – through volunteerism,
partnership, advocacy, and philanthropy – have made a substantial impact on our
community.”
Tom Steyer is the
founder and retired co-managing partner of Farallon Capital Management, L.L.C.,
one of the country’s most successful investment firms. Tom stepped down from
Farallon in December 2012 to focus on political activism, in particular on
advocating for alternative energy, citing his desire to give back "full
time" and to revolve his life around service. He was a featured speaker at
the 2012 Democratic National Convention. In 2010, Tom teamed with George
Schultz, former Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State, to chair the
successful No on Proposition 23 campaign, which would have rolled back
California’s landmark AB32 environmental laws. Tom and his wife, Kat, are
signers of the Giving Pledge, a campaign to encourage individuals over their
lifetime to donate their wealth to philanthropic causes.
Champion
of Science Foundation awardee, the Rogers Family Foundation was established
in 2003 by T. Gary and Kathleen Rogers. The Foundation strives to create high
quality educational opportunities for children in Oakland by supporting
exceptional schools (traditional public, charter and private) and organizations
whose efforts positively impact students along their journey to college or a
career of their choice. In addition, the Foundation is leading two city-wide
initiatives: Oakland Reads 2020 – an effort to double the number of Oakland
third grade students reading at grade level by the year 2020 – and a Blended
Learning initiative that is creating more differentiated learning in Oakland
classrooms through the integration of technology. For 10 years, the Rogers
Family Foundation has generously supported a variety of education programs at
the Chabot Space & Science Center
Husband
and wife Richard “Dick” and Jean Spees are being honored as long-time
supporters of the Center and amongst Chabot’s most important early champions of
the current Skyline facility. Between them, they have 50+ years of service to
the Oakland/East Bay community. After a long career at Kaiser Aluminum, Dick
was elected to the Oakland City Council six times spanning a 24 years in that
role. The resonating thread throughout their lives in Oakland has been public
service, with an intense fascination with and a deep commitment to, science
education.
Pacific
Gas and Electric is being honored for their longstanding
philanthropic focus, with a goal to engage, support and improve the
neighborhoods where their customers and employees live and work, particularly
in education, environment, community vitality and building playgrounds. The company has supported science education
programs at Chabot Space & Science for over 20 years and currently sponsors
Chabot’s popular Educator Night, a fall open house event for teachers in the
Bay Area.
The Educator award recipient is Ronald C.
Cohen, Professor of Chemistry and of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the
University of California, Berkeley, and the Director of the Berkeley
Atmospheric Science Center. He created and heads U.C. Berkeley’s innovative
greenhouse gas monitoring project, BEACON: the Berkeley Atmospheric CO2
Observation Network, a new approach to observing atmospheric gases over an
urban area, blanketing interesting locations with a high density network of
instruments, with each instrument representing a network “node.” Taken
together, the nodes produce an accurate, highly resolved picture of real-time
pollutant concentrations. The first node was installed on the roof at Chabot
Space & Science, and currently there are 15 nodes installed at 15
elementary, middle and high schools in the East Bay.
###
About Chabot
Space & Science Center
Chabot Space & Science Center
is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit interactive science center whose mission is to inspire
and educate students of all ages about Planet Earth and the Universe. Located
in the Oakland hills, the Center focuses on the earth, life, physical and
astronomical sciences, with a 128-year legacy of serving Bay Area communities
through exhibits, public programs, school field trips, science camps, teacher
training, teen development programs and community outreach; hosts 50,000
students on school field trips and over 100,000 public visitors each year; and
offers over 20,000 sq ft of interactive exhibits on a variety of space and
science subjects, a world-class planetarium, giant-screen Megadome movies,
school classes on over 30 different science topics, hands-on science
activities, state-of-the-art classrooms and labs and publicly-available
research-level telescopes.
Labels: Champions of Science Spees, Cohen, Farallon Capital Management, PG&E, Rogers, Rogers Family Foundation, Starlight Gala, STEM education programs. Alexander Zwissler
