The E.N. Thompson Forum on World Issues has announced its 2014-15 lecture series, “The Creative World,” featuring distinguished experts spanning a host of industries including a poet, physicist, educator, economist, multiple scholars and world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Tickets to fall semester lectures will be available for reservation at the Lied Center Box Office beginning Aug. 25. Spring semester lecture tickets will be available on Jan. 12. All lectures will take place on the Lied Center for Performing Arts main stage.

The theme will center on creativity’s role and impact on our society. “Top industry thought leaders will demonstrate what creativity means to them,” said Lloyd Ambrosius, E.N. Thompson program committee chair. “Together we will explore how creativity can change our culture and our planet for the better.”

A special lecture event presented by the Lied Center on Dec. 5 will feature Ma, a 15-time Grammy Award winner and prominent speaker who is scheduled to perform a concert on the Lied Center stage the evening prior to his lecture. “You’d be hard pressed to identify a lecturer more qualified to speak on the topic of creativity than Yo-Yo Ma,” said Bill Stephan, executive director of the Lied Center. “We are delighted to have the opportunity not only to hear Mr. Ma play his instrument on our stage, but to listen to him share his astute observations on creativity.”

The 2014-15 E.N. Thompson Forum lectures:

• Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m. — Humanities Nebraska Governor’s Lecture in the Humanities: Natasha Trethewey, U.S. poet laureate, “The Quarrel with Ourselves”;

• Oct. 14, 7 p.m. — Neil Gershenfeld, MIT Media Lab, “How to Make (Almost) Anything,” sponsored by Nebraska Innovation Campus;

• Nov. 17, 7 p.m. — British Debate Team, “Are Social Media a Threat to Human Creativity?” sponsored by the UNL Department of Communication Studies and the Center for Civic Engagement;

• Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m. — Yo-Yo Ma, “Cultural Citizens”; for pricing and tickets go to http://www.liedcenter.org.

• Feb. 24, 7 p.m. — Milton Chen, George Lucas Educational Foundation, “Creativity, Curiosity and Learning,” sponsored by the UNL College of Education and Human Sciences;

• March 3, 7 p.m. — The Chuck and Linda Wilson Dialogue; Marlo Lewis, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Gilbert Metcalf, Tufts University, “Cutting Carbon Emissions: Better Environment, Worse Economy?”

Lecture summaries and biographical information on each of the speakers is available on the Thompson Forum’s website.

Tickets for the Yo-Yo Ma lecture are $34 (plus fees, no discounts). A limited quantity of free tickets will be available for UNL students. All other E.N. Thompson lectures are free to the public. Tickets are required for all lectures and can be obtained at the Lied Center Box Office. Call the Lied Center for Performing Arts at 402-472-4747 to reserve tickets. Tickets may also be ordered in person at the Lied Center, 301 N. 12th St., or ticket order forms can be downloaded from the Lied Center website for mailing or faxing request.

In most cases, tickets are available at the door, but reservations ensure seats. These are general admission events; seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Lectures are streamed online at http://enthompson.unl.edu/, and are available live on Lincoln Time Warner Cable Digital Channel 80, Channel 71.16 without a cable box, UNL campus Channel 4, and UNL KRNU radio 90.3 FM. All lectures are interpreted for the deaf and hard of hearing.

The Thompson Forum is a cooperative project of the Cooper Foundation, the Lied Center and UNL. It was established in 1988 with the purpose of bringing a diversity of viewpoints on international and public policy issues to the university and the residents of the state to promote understanding and encourage debate.