WASHINGTON — (BUSINESS WIRE) — October 18, 2010 — The White House Science Fair this morning launches a week of activities that concludes with the USA Science and Engineering Festival Expo on the National Mall this weekend 10/23-10/24. From the White House, to an Expo hosted by Lockheed Martin and put together by 850 leading science organizations, to over 50 satellite events brought to you by AT&T, everyone from pre-schoolers to grandparents can join in this national effort to revitalize our young people’s interest in pursuing careers in these fields. The USA Science & Engineering Festival is expected to draw more than a million people to all of its events.

Welcome to the week of firsts for science education. President Obama will host the first White House Science Fair celebrating the winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions. The President will view exhibits of these students’ work, ranging from breakthrough basic research to new inventions, followed by remarks to an audience of students, science educators and business leaders on the importance of STEM education to our country’s economic future.

It’s the first time close to 100 leading scientists and 25 Nobel Laureates have gone out into middle and high schools across the nation to tell stories of how they became who they are. Hear about the brain surgeon who began as a migrant worker, about 100 scientists collaborating worldwide to develop bionic arms for Iraq war veterans, about three African American scientists called The Three Cosmic Tenors who are working to learn the origins of the universe, and about a Nobel Laureate who failed his high school chemistry class and went on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

It’s the first time NOVA’s new four hour series “Making Stuff” hosted by New York Times technology columnist David Pogue will preview our future, including such amazing products as invisibility cloaks, spider silk that is stronger than steel, self-healing military vehicles and clothes that monitor your moods.

And best of all, it’s the first USA Science & Engineering Expo - a jam-packed weekend of the most spectacular science you’ve ever seen. More than 1500 interactive, fun exhibits and 75 stage shows with science stars, comedians, magicians, musicians, Erno Rubik, and much more.

See and learn about robots that talk, swim underwater and perform surgery, meet the Science Channel’s Meteorite Men, see MythBuster’s Kari Byron talking about her commercial free series HeadRush, be a CSI Agent for a day with the stars of the Miami Show, see props from Disney’s new virtual reality movie TRON: Legacy, meet stars of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), check out the Cat in the Hat starring in his own science show, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie and Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Attend our WeatherFest and discover what we know and don’t know about the science of climate change, become an amateur weather forecaster, learn the secrets of the oceans and meet real storm chasers who track hurricanes and other violent storms.

Learn the physics behind superheroes, making movies, NASCAR, the chemistry of Thanksgiving dinner and the science of baseball’s knuckleball. Meet scientists, doctors and therapists who are also professional cheerleaders for the Philadelphia 76ers, the Washington Redskins and the Kansas City Chiefs, among others, collect their trading cards and let them tell your daughters that it’s great to be pretty and smart.

Visit Energy Alley’s city block of exhibits and check out a car that drives itself, a spider as tall as a building that walks via solar power and the newest, most high tech of bicycles. Attend lectures by leading scientists brought together by AAAS and the National Academy of Sciences who will discuss conserving endangered species, human origins, the search for new planets, and which “claims based on science” are real. Listen to NPR science reporters interview Nobel and Draper prize winners in chemistry, physics and engineering.

The USA Science & Engineering Festival is spread out across four locations in downtown DC, including First to Seventh Streets on the National Mall, Freedom Plaza, Pennsylvania Avenue between 12^th and 14^th Streets and the Mellon Auditorium, and is open from 10:00-5:30 PM on Saturday October 23^rd and Sunday October 24^th, 2010. The web site has a guide you can use to plan your day. Details of events during the week are listed on the Festival’s Calendar. Closest Metro stops to the National Mall are Federal Triangle and Smithsonian.

The Festival is hosted by Lockheed Martin and sponsors include Life Technologies Foundation, K&L Gates, Clean Technology and Sustainability Industries Organization (CTSI), Larry and Diane Bock, Office of Naval Research (ONR), ResMed Foundation, Farrell Family Foundation, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Motorola Foundation, Aerospace Industry Association, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, LLC., AT&T, Agilent Technologies, Amgen, Celgene Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, National Institutes of Health, Illumina, The Kavli Foundation, Intel Corporation, You Can Do the Rubik's Cube, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., Genentech Inc., Purdue University, MedImmune, Sandia National Laboratories, Project Lead The Way (PLTW), Baxter International, Celestron, Cisco, University of Maryland, THE SCRIPPS FOUNDATION for Science and the Environment, Raytheon Company, Human Genome Sciences, Rockwell Collins, Google, NuVasive Inc., FEI Company, Case Western Reserve University, Biogen Idec Foundation, LifeStraw®, Microsoft Corporation , Draper Laboratory, Colella Photography, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks Corp., Silicon Valley Bank, Bechtel Corporation, SpaceX, Rochester Institute of Technology, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Research In Motion, the Thirty Meter Telescope Project, Astronomy Outreach Foundation, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Engineering, National Math and Science Initiative, SpringBoard, a Program of the Juneau Economic Development Council, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Research and Science, University of Denver, Air Force Research Laboratory, DC Office of the Chief Technology Officer, The Aerospace Corporation, ExxonMobil, Data.gov, Periodic Quest, the USDA Food Safety Discovery Zone and DeVry University-DC Metro.