Our Values
The Festival is very proud of its core values…
We are passionate to explain to young people that science and technology is in everything we do, every day.
We advocate for investing in STEM education as one of – if not the – most effective way to build a secure socio-economic environment for everyone regardless of race, creed, gender or personal beliefs.
We feel that it is everyone’s job – not just teachers – to spark that sustained level of excitement for science and engineering into the minds of young people.
We subscribe to the principles of selflessly giving back to San Diego as a way to ensure our community’s growth potential and quality of life.
We lead by example in developing partnerships and initiatives that will advance this cause.
Our Foundation
Entrepreneur Larry Bock was the inspiration for the San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering. A serial entrepreneur in the life sciences, Larry Bock founded, co-founded or financed early stage growth of over 40 companies. However, he found one day that he could no longer hire Americans to fill positions in the companies he was putting together. In an interview for Forbes/Wolfe Emerging Tech Report, Bock said: “When I took my family abroad, I saw these wonderful international science festivals – in particular the Cambridge, UK festival, the Edinburgh festival, and the Italian and Indian festivals – that have been going on for years. These festivals had not yet come to the U.S. (two were in formation on the east coast), so I thought ‘Ok, I want to create the largest science festival on the West Coast.”
Partnering with more than 100 collaborators – including lead organizer UC San Diego and faculty members Loren Thompson and Jeremy Babendure – Bock implemented the first San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering (originally launched as the San Diego Science Festival) in 2009 with great success. The inaugural festival took place over an entire month, which included more than 500 free events and drew more than 50,000 visitors to the first ever San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering at Balboa Park.
The first year: San Diego Science Festival Ends on a High Note for UC San Diego
San Diego Festival of Science & Engineering: 10 Years In The Making (article on p.31)
