The third annual Science Slam is noon to 1:30 p.m. April 4 in the Great Hall of the Wick Alumni Center.

Finalists and their areas of study are: Karl Ahrendsen, physics; Andrew Conner, mathematics; Kenneth Hipp, chemistry; Alice MillerMacPhee, sociology; Hernán Vázquez Miranda, natural resources; and Kelly Willemssens, natural resources. They will communicate their research in short, dynamic and engaging presentations, and the winner will be decided by the audience.

The Science Slam is free and open to the campus community. A free lunch buffet is included with registration.

Astrophysicist Katie Mack, known on Twitter as AstroKatie, is the keynote speaker and emcee for the event. Her talk, which is 11 a.m. to noon at the Wick Alumni Center, is free and open to the public.

Mack is a theoretical astrophysicist who studies a range of questions in cosmology, the study of the universe from beginning to end. She is an assistant professor of physics at North Carolina State University, where she is also a member of the Leadership in Public Science Cluster. Throughout her career she has studied the early universe, galaxy formation, black holes, cosmic strings and the ultimate fate of the cosmos.

Alongside academic research, Mack is an active science communicator and has been published in a number of popular publications such as Scientific American, Slate, Sky and Telescope, Time.com, and Cosmos Magazine, where she is a columnist.

Editor’s Note — This story has been updated to reflect the addition of a sixth finalist to the contest. The field was recently expanded by organizers.