24 ASTRONOMY • SEPTEMBER 2015t a press conference in
April, a distinguished
group announced that
next year’s Starmus
Festival will honor
the life and times of theoretical
physicist Stephen Hawking. The
event will gather the greatest
minds in astronomy and related
sciences, music, and the arts for
a memorable weeklong celebra-
tion. The theme will be “Beyond
the Horizon: Tribute to Stephen
Hawking.” Astronomy magazine
will proudly again be the prima-
ry media partner for Starmus.
Starmus founder and direc-
tor Garik Israelian, astrophysi-
cist and Queen guitarist Brian
May, and Stephen Hawking
revealed the theme and date at
the Royal Astronomical Societyin London. The third Starmus
Festival will take place June 27–
July 2, 2016, in Tenerife, Canary
Islands, Spain, the same loca-
tion as the first two events.
Among the big-name speak-
ers at Starmus III, in addition
to Hawking, Israelian, and
May, will be 10 Nobel Prize
winners, including chemists
Harry Kroto and Eric Betzig;
physicists Robert Wilson, Adam
Riess, and Brian Schmidt; and
biologists Carol Greider and
Elizabeth Blackburn. Also
speaking will be astronauts
including American Rusty
Schweickart and Canadian
Chris Hadfield, as well as
astronomers Kip Thorne, Lord
Martin Rees, Neil deGrasse
Ty s o n , a n d N e i l Tu r o k.A
Next summer, the science festival
will revolve around the life of the
renowned theoretical physicist.Starmus will honor
Stephen Hawking
in 2016
David J. Eicher is editor
of Astronomy magazine
and a board member of the
Starmus Festival.The festival will again include
a Sonic Universe Concert featur-
ing legendary rock stars who
also are interested and involved
with science. In addition to
May, Starmus participants and
board members have included
the great keyboardist Rick
Wakeman, famous for his solo
work and for his time in the
group Yes, and Peter Gabriel,
celebrated for his work with
Genesis and his long solo career.
Starmus III will take place
mostly in Tenerife but also on
La Palma, at the world’s largest
optical telescope, the 10.4-meter
Gran Telescopio Canarias. It
also will feature a Mount Teide
star party under some of the
greatest, darkest skies on Earth
that, as with the second festival,will have its own soundtrack
performed by the progressive
rock band Nosound.
More speakers will be
announced as plans develop.
Starmus also will feature an
astrophotography contest and
an astrophoto school.
For more information on
the 2016 Starmus Festival, see
http://www.starmus.com.
Astronomy magazine and
our website, Astronomy.com,
will carry updated information
frequently as plans develop.Stephen Hawking speaks
at the 2014 Starmus
Festival in Tenerife,
Canary Islands, Spain.
MAX ALEXANDER/STARMUS FESTIVALThe Starmus Festival takes place on the beautiful Canary Islands
under one of the darkest skies on Earth. DAVID J. EICHERBrian May jams on his famous Red Special during the 2014
Starmus Festival Sonic Universe Concert. DAVID J. EICHERGarik Israelian, the founder and director
of the Starmus Festival, is an astrono-
mer at the Institute for Astrophysics on
Tenerife. MAX ALEXANDER/STARMUS