The "big" attraction this year at Spacefest is Brian Cox who is a rockstar in the scientific community- both literally and figuratively. He actually was a rock star before going on to become a scientist. I was speaking with him about music vs. physics and he said that while music has its charms, physics is a lot more fun. Spoken like a true particle physicist.
Cox is figuratively a rock star because of his fame (having appeared in many TV shows) and the fact he's sooooo pretty. Trust me, this fact that was not lost on the female attendees. I have to admit I swooned over him myself.
What I observed about Cox over the course of the event (as you can see, I'm writing this overview several days later) is the fact he is a genuinely nice and unassuming fellow. He was willing to chat with anyone who approached him and he seemed to be excited to meet the Apollo astronauts who were in attendance.
Cox is also brilliant. I ended up going out to dinner with a few space buddies along with Fred Haise (lunar module pilot for Apollo 13- and yes, I'm totally name-dropping here) who attended Cox's big talk right before meeting us for dinner. I asked Haise how the talk went. Haise said it all went over his head which I thought was amazing given the fact Haise is as smart as they come.
Anyway, circling back to my stint at the admission table. It turned out to be a great place to be since Cox and the other headliner, Carolyn Porco (a big-name planetary scientist), showed up early to scope out the speaker hall set-up. I believe I was one of the first people to lay eyes on him at Spacefest. Take that all you Brian Cox groupies! Of course I took the opportunity to snag a picture with Cox and Porco. I got a kick out of the composition of this photo. We take up just a small fraction of the space in the photo. The wall behind us seems to be the star of the picture.
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