The Year Science Changed Everything
Presented in partnership with the Wisconsin Science Festival.
In 1957, 6,000 scientists from 66 nations achieved the impossible: they erased political borders for 18 months to unlock Earth's greatest mysteries—and changed science forever.
The International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957 marked humanity's first unified effort to understand our planet, launching the space race, discovering the Van Allen radiation belts, and producing groundbreaking climate research that shapes our world today. Through exclusive interviews with modern climate leaders—including the late marine biologist and climate researcher Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, science diplomat and Senior Fellow at United Nations Institute for Training and Research Paul Arthur Berkman, Frank Niepold at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), science historian Rebecca Charbonneau, and many more—author Mark O'Connell reveals how this historic collaboration offers a blueprint for tackling today's environmental challenges.
Mark O'Connell
Mark O’Connell is an author, screenwriter, television commentator, and university lecturer. Mark got his start in television writing for Star Trek: The Next Generation (uncredited) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (as Mark Gehred-O’Connell), most notably writing DS9 fan favorite “Who Mourns for Morn?” (S.6, E.12)
Mark’s first book is The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOS, a biography of Dr. J. Allen Hynek, famed UFO researcher, Project Blue Book investigator, and inspiration behind Steven Spielberg’s epic film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His extensive reality TV credits include Co-Executive Producer and on-camera expert on UFO Witness for TRVL, as well as Co-Executive Producer of The Lost Monster Files streaming on Discovery GO and HBOmax. Mark can also be seen in season one of the National Geographic TV Documentary UFOs: Investigating the Unknown (S.1, E.2, 3), as well as on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (S.11, E.9), and he is soon to appear on both Ancient Aliens and The UnExplained with Dan Aykroyd.
Mark has had several feature screenplays optioned and placed in development, including the crop circle comedy screenplay Doug & Dave that was in development at Disney with the late Bill Paxton attached to direct. Mark has served as an adjunct professor on the screenwriting faculties at both UCLA Extension and the College of Computing & Digital Media at DePaul University. Always on the lookout for a teaching moment, Mark has discussed the UFO phenomenon on Chicago Public TV and Japanese Public Television network NHK.
Mark lives in Georgia with his wife Monica.
Mark is a Lifetime Member of Writers Guild of America, East.