Dr. Kenneth P. Licata joined the Science Exploration Day planning committee in 2008 immediately after retiring from a teaching career that included 34 years in the Williamsville Central School District and 20 years as an adjunct professor at UB. He quickly became the public face of SED as he welcomed students and teachers to the Keynote Presentations every year and handled behind-the-scenes arrangements for keynote speakers.

When the planning committee needed to replace a departing chair, Ken volunteered, providing useful structure to enable the evolving crew to do its best work to organize and conduct the annual SED event. Along the way, he helped deepen the event’s connections to a core of UB science educators whose commitment has been crucial to the re-emergence of Science Exploration Day after a several-year COVID-era absence.

Ken has published about a hundred journal and newspaper articles, essays, and poems, also serving for a dozen years as the editor of The Science Teachers Bulletin, the professional journal of the Science Teachers Association of New York State. Recognition that Ken has received includes his election as a Fellow of STANYS and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the UB GSE’s Department of Learning and Instruction. Though he has now departed the SED planning group, you might still run into him working on the day of the event.