VU 443rd Birthday: Events for the Community and Public
This year, on 1 April, Vilnius University (VU) will celebrate its 443rd birthday. On this occasion, VU will invite its community and the general public to events that have already become a tradition as well as to special events initiated specifically for this birthday.
Novelty: science communication competition
This year, for the first time, on the occasion of its birthday, VU is hosting a science communication competition Science Sprint. On 1 April, 18:00, the Paviljonas venue will gather 15 teams consisting of one lecturer and one student. Teams will have 3 minutes to present a research or scientific idea they find fascinating, they will be required to give a clear and immersive presentation.
Participants will be judged by a panel of researchers and communication experts. The three teams with the highest scores will share a €1,800 prize pool set up by Thermo Fisher Scientific.
The competing teams will consist of students and lecturers from the faculties of Economics and Business Administration, Mathematics and Informatics, Chemistry and Geosciences, Medicine, Philology, Communication, and Philosophy, and the Life Sciences Centre. The participants will discuss the impact of price on our decisions, 3D printed bones and ways to raise psychological capital, as well as offer to see poetry with the help of a deaf poet. Students from Germany and Ukraine will also try their hand at the competition.
Exclusive exhibition
VU popular science magazine Spectrum will offer a delight for those interested in the synergy of art and science - an exhibition of illustrations Science Revived in Art.
The goal of artists who illustrated the articles in the popular science magazine Spectrum was to portray scientific ideas in an immersive, understandable, original, and bold yet accurate way.
According to one of Spectrum’s illustrators Jekaterina Budrytė, an illustration of a scientific article is like the face of a text, a garment. It must pique curiosity and be intriguing, and also offer the person who has already read the text a chance to see it in a different way: “In my illustrations for the magazine, I sought simplicity, clarity, and more interesting insights. You always want to escape clichés and convey your interpretation.”
Published since 2004, the magazine now offers its readers informative popular science texts as well as colorful illustrations by young Lithuanian talents. The most beautiful of them will be exhibited in the Grand Courtyard of the Central Palace (Universiteto g. 3) from 31 March to 31 May.
Orientation game 4.43 and activities at Kaunas Faculty
On 2 April, VU Museum and VU Sports Center will invite everyone wishing for a more active celebration to meet for an orientation game with an objective of finding VU-related sites in Vilnius (duration - 2 or 4 hours). It will be a great opportunity to learn about the history of the university as well as the history of the city while walking or running.
The event will start at 12:00 in the Grand Courtyard of Vilnius University (Universiteto g. 3). Participants with the highest number of located sites and points will be awarded prizes. Participants must register in advance and specify how much time - 2 or 4 hours - they are willing to spend looking for the sites.
On 28 Marche, 16:00 to 20:00, VU Centre of Culture will to the Video Conferencing Studio (Muitinės g. 12, Building IV, 3rd floor) to take part in a creative storytelling workshop for students. It will be a great opportunity to learn how to express thoughts in a smooth narrative, speak in front of different audiences, and inspire people. The number of participants is limited, so participants are invited to register.
On 29 March, the event Story Telling Salon, a favorite of many storytellers and listeners, arrives in Kaunas Faculty. It is a non-binding place for telling and listening to stories, offering the chance to not only hear many intriguing stories but also interact with interesting participants and get to know like-minded people. The event will take place at 19:00 at the Video Conferencing Studio (Muitinės g. 12, Building IV, 3rd floor).
Traditional birthday events
The tradition of displaying the first printed Lithuanian book - Catechism of Martynas Mažvydas - for one day every year becomes a great opportunity for a large part of the public to get acquainted with an important part of our cultural heritage. Therefore, this year the original of the book will be exhibited, as usual, on 1 April from 10:00 to 19:00 in the P. Smuglevičius Hall of the VU Library (Universiteto g. 3, 1st floor).
The VU Foundation will invite everyone to give the University an eternal birthday present - a symbolic €4.43 donation to the VU Endowment Fund. And VU Talent Evening will select the best dancers, singers, artists, or otherwise talented members of the community.
For six years in a row, on VU’s birthday, the University also awarded symbolic diplomas in memory of members of the community expelled from it by totalitarian regimes. This diploma and its public award ceremony are part of the historical research-based initiative Recovering Memory, which aims to assess the impact of totalitarian regimes on the VU community, discover the victims and symbolically return them to the VU community. This year, on 1 April at 15:00 in the Theater Hall, 27 former members will be awarded Memory Diplomas and returned to the community.