Buzz Aldrin, Elon Musk, Tony Fadell, Brian May, and all Apollo Astronauts Make Landings at STARMUS V to Round Out History’s Most-Impossible Science Festival

ZURICH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In one of history’s great science gatherings, STARMUS V has collected a dizzying lineup of stars. On Monday, June 24th, Dr. Brian May, Hans Zimmer, Steve Vai, and Rick Wakeman serenaded The Stephen Hawking Medal Winners to a packed house at Samsung Hall. Winners Brian Eno, Todd Douglas Miller and Elon Musk, who graciously joined the festivities live from the Falcon Heavy launchpad, welcomed Buzz as a delightful surprise to STARMUS V attendees where he accepted the Stephen Hawking Medal for “lifetime achievement.”

“We are overwhelmed by the magnitude of this experience. And grateful. Each year STARMUS grows with more awareness and recognition of how we help our planet. I can’t think of a better time, or more appropriate place in history, for this festival.”

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Among the science celebrities was famed-astronomer, and fellow board member Jill Tarter of The SETI Institute, who hosted several panels including the Stephen Hawking Medal Winners at an enthusiastic press conference with the APOLLO Astronauts: Charlie Duke, Rusty Schweickart, Al Worden, Harrison Schmidt, Walt Cunningham, and Buzz Aldrin. The President of Armenia, Dr. Armen Sarkissian, addressed the crowd at STARMUS along with European Commissioner, Carlos Moedas of Portugal.

Elon Musk joined the festival live from the launchpad of Falcon Heavy just hours before their historic launch; graciously thanking the STARMUS board for receiving the Stephen Hawking Medal and emphasizing the importance of its relationship to science itself. It was another unforgettable moment for festival-goers.

Signaling an important shift to applied technology, Tony Fadell, inventor of the iPod and Principal at Future Shape, took over Stephen Hawking’s chair at STARMUS which will expand the festival’s influence and awareness, globally. “Many of our everyday things like laptops and smartphone tech were initially developed for space programs. Today more powerful, smaller, lighter and much cheaper consumer technologies are being adopted by NASA, ESA, SpaceX, etc. This opens up vast data streams about our earth from space. If we get this right, we can strengthen our capabilities to tackle critical issues on Earth: climate change, deforestation, plastic gyres, etc. protecting Earth and putting a multi-planet species within reach.”

Other milestone achievements at STARMUS V included Dr. Brian May and Dave Eicher presenting their new book “MISSION MOOD 3D” and the Swiss premiere of APOLLO 11 by Todd Douglas Miller.

Garik Israelian, STARMUS co-founder, commented “We are overwhelmed by the magnitude of this experience. And grateful. Each year STARMUS grows with more awareness and recognition of how we help our planet. I can’t think of a better time, or more appropriate place in history, for this festival.”

The STARMUS V lineup included more Nobel laureates, astronomers and science visionaries than any festival in history – a week of groundbreaking presentations by the world’s top thinkers – and doers.

**STARMUS extends a special thanks for the amazing support from its title sponsors, Sir Michael Hintze at CQS, Kaspersky Labs and Omega.**

STARMUS V HONORED PARTNERS

OMEGA and The Stephen Hawking Medal:

OMEGA is a prestigious Swiss watchmaker and member of the Swatch Group Ltd. Since 1848, the brand has been synonymous with excellence, innovation, and precision, as well as a pioneering spirit, demonstrated by its achievements in sports timekeeping, the oceans, and space. In fact, since 1965, the OMEGA Speedmaster has been worn on each of NASA’s manned missions including all six moon landings.

Kaspersky Lab:

Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company, which has been operating in the market for 21 years. Kaspersky Lab’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise are constantly transforming into next-generation security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies and we help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

The STARMUS festival’s other supporters include the International Astronomical Union, CERN, the European Space Agency, and the European Southern Observatory.

CQS:

CQS is an investment management firm founded by Sir Michael Hintze in 1999. The Firm’s deep experience allows it to offer solutions for investors across a range of return objectives and risk appetites. CQS is an active asset manager with expertise across corporate capital structures including corporate credit, structured credit, asset backed securities, convertibles, loans and equities. It is committed to delivering performance and high levels of service to its investors.

CQS has offices in London, New York, Hong Kong and Sydney. Our investors include pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, funds of funds, endowments and foundations, and private banks.