On March 31st, STEAM Member Paul Sutter appeared on the sold-out premiere of The Not So Late Show with Johnny DiLoretto, a live talk show hosted at the Shadowbox. Along with Paul, the show welcomed radio personality, Dino Tripodis and shark attack rescuer, Gary Harkin.  

After being introduced to the crowd as an “agent to the stars” and podcast celebrity, Paul told the story of how he had no intention of becoming a scientist until his sophomore year as an undergraduate. He never realized being a scientist was considered a profession, and from that moment his changed his major. Moving forward, he received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, spent three years at the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, followed by a research fellowship in Trieste, Italy. He currently holds a position the Ohio State University’s Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics and was recently named COSI’s Chief Scientist.

Aside from these major professional accomplishments, Paul announced his current project, Song of the Stars, as one of his more creative endeavors. Song of the Stars is a project that combines Paul’s love of astrophysics and dance (fun fact: Paul is a ballroom dancer!).  Through his personal narration and with the help of Seven Dance Company, Song of the Stars tells the story of 13 billion years of space history in one dance. The goal of the modern dance interwoven with scientific outreach is to present science in an unexpected way. Paul mentioned that his objective is to teach astronomy to people who don’t want to learn it. Song of the Stars does just that by capturing an audience through creativity and scientific concepts.

At the end of the night Paul gave the audience a sneak peak of Song of the Stars with a brief narration and a surprise performance by Seven Dance Company. The live performance is on April 21^st at Capitol Theatre. For more information on Song of the Stars, visit http://www.songofthestars.org or https://www.facebook.com/events/424385927771217/.