John Falk
Author
Dr. John H. Falk, Executive Director, Institute for Learning Innovation and Sea Grant Professor Emeritus, Oregon State University, is a leading expert on free-choice learning - the learning that occurs while visiting museums, science centres, zoos, aquariums, national parks, and through watching educational television or surfing the Internet for information. His current research focuses on the role that well-being and identity play in why and how people utilize these settings and the value created by their use. He has published more than 250 articles, 14 books and received numerous awards, including the NARST Distinguished Career Award (2016); Council of Scientific Society Presidents Award for Educational Research (2013) and American Alliance of Museums John Cotton Dana Award for Leadership (2010). His most recent book is "The Value of Museums: Enhancing Societal Well-Being."
Mikko Myllykoski
Interviewer
Mikko Myllykoski is the CEO of Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre. Myllykoski is a historian by training and has worked in multisensory science engagement since 1990. He has chaired the conference program committees of both ASTC and ECSITE, Europe's largest annual conference on science engagement, and he serves on the board of ECSITE. He has also chaired the Finnish Association for Science Editors and Journalists in 2014–16. Myllykoski is also the chair of the newly founded national network of Finnish science centres.
Myllykoski received the State Prize for Information in 1997 as project manager for the exhibition "Nordic Explorers", which toured Europe in 1996–98. He has published about history, museology and science engagement. In the name of Heureka, he was the recipient of the Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience for the exhibition "Heureka Goes Crazy" (renamed "Mental Health: Mind Matters" on its tour in North America) at the ASTC annual conference in 2014. Heureka's exhibitions travel worldwide and have been visited by close to 30 million people in 25 countries on 4 continents. A more thorough presentation of Myllykoski can be found in the Series of 375 Humanists of the University of Helsinki.
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