A team of Yale postdoctoral associates and graduate students, including seven members of Yale’s Wright Lab, coordinated the 2025 Pint of Science Festival in New Haven, held from May 20-21, 2025.
The Pint of Science Festival is an annual global event, created in 2013, that takes place all over the world. This year’s event was held in 27 countries worldwide, with 16 locations across the United States. The first Pint of Science Festival to be located in New Haven was in 2024 and was initiated by Wright Lab postdocs Pranav Sanghavi, Jorge Torres, and Fernando Flor, who is now a postdoctoral appointee at Argonne National Laboratory.
This year’s coordinators included Wright Lab postdocs Elise Le Boulicaut Ennis, Sanghavi, and Torres; and Wright Lab graduate students Jacqueline Baeza-Rubio, Jesse Farr, Ryan Hamilton, and Andrew Tamis. In addition, postdoctoral associate Ashlea Segal and graduate student Evyn Dickinson from the Wu Tsai Institute contributed to the event management.
The Pint of Science Festival included several scientists from Yale having casual conversations at local pubs with the general public, with the intent to discuss science being done locally with the audience.
Torres said, “The 2025 edition of the New Haven Pint of Science was a success. All of the events were sold out, all the talks were amazing, and engagement between researchers and the public was optimal.”
Le Boulicat Ennis said, “Being a part of Pint of Science was a lot of fun, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I think these events really helped bring together Yale scientists and local community members. Based on the high level of engagement, I would say that people are eager for more of these types of events!”
Torres added, “We’re happy that this science communication event reached a big audience, as it is currently very important, more than ever, that people learn why science is relevant for society. Thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors that helped us to make this happen.”
The themes and agenda for each of the days are below:
May 20 at Trinity Bar: Peering into the unknown
- Sarah Demers, professor of physics, “The speed limit of the Universe”
- John Harris, D. Allan Bromley Professor Emeritus of Physics, “An Odyssey through our Universe from the Big Bang to Black Holes, Unknown Dark Forces, and Unseen Dimensions and Universes”
- Earl Bellinger, assistant professor of astronomy, “How can you look inside a star?”
Demers and Harris are both members of Yale’s Wright Lab.
May 20 at The Cannon: How brains see, move, and navigate the world
- Sam McDougle, assistant professor of psychology, “The cerebellum and mental gymnastics”
- Damon Clark, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and of physics and of neuroscience, “Visual illusions in humans and flies”
- Sarah Lichenstein, assistant professor of psychiatry, “Brain basis of risk for problem cannabis use
May 21 at The Cannon: Built to branch, wired to heal
- Joe Howard, Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and professor of physics, “Branching morphogenesis: How to build a nerve cell”
- Valerie Horsley, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and associate professor of dermatology, “Renewal and repair of skin”
The 2025 Pint of Science Festival in New Haven was cosponsored by Yale Wright Lab, the Yale Physics Department, and the Wu Tsai Institute.
For more pictures of the event, see our Flickr album.
