iTHEMS x academist online public event was held on April 18, 2021

Following last year’s precedent, iTHEMS held an online lecture event for the general public with the help of Academist Inc., on April 18th, 2021. The event was planned as an alternative for the lectures at RIKEN’s annual open house.
The event was started by Kanato Goto with his talk on Blackhole and its information problem. His compelling narrative evoked a lot of questions from high school students; some of them were very sharp.
Next, Jeffery Fawcett talked about genome science. Among other topics he studied, he also mentioned the mutation of COVID-19 virus. During the lunch break, Program Director Hatsuda talked with Mr. Shibato from Academist about related books, the exhibition of Black Hole Recorder at Miraikan, and the attempts with RIKEN SUURI.
In the afternoon, Sugiura-san talked about the supercomputers and the analysis of subatomic physics, followed by Naomi Tsuji's talk on supernovae and their remnants. The talk included several polls from the audience.
Keita Mikami concluded the event with his talk on Mathematics, in particular inequality and differential equations.
All the talks were compered by Ms. Michibayashi from Academist; Her facilitation with a wit kept the talks accessible even to high school students. The event was viewed by as many as more than three hundred audiences at one time.