LEWISTON – Dana Hutchins will be the Great Falls Forum’s featured speaker Feb. 15 at the Lewiston Public Library from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The title of Hutchins’ talk is “Beyond the Aquarium: High-Tech Marine Science for Maine Youth.”

Hutchins has a national reputation as an innovator in the science museum exhibit and computer interaction design fields. He will be talking about one of his latest projects which involves the design and development of a $2.4 million system of 12 networked interactive multimedia marine research simulation stations and 30 high-definition video displays for the new Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

For more than 25 years, Hutchins has created interactive systems, educational games, software user interfaces, multimedia and Web products for NASA, National Semiconductor, Fairchild, Polaroid, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System and the Orlando Science Center. He is a long-time member of the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction and the Association of Science-Technology Center. He is president and director of Image Works, whose team recently completed a networked exhibit demonstration project for the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

The forum is a monthly public platform for thought-provoking speakers and discussion. It is sponsored by the Sun Journal, Lewiston Public Library, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center and Bates College. Everyone is welcome. Reservations are not necessary for this event. Bring your own lunch. Water and desert will be provided a small cost. No obligations. Just lunch, discussion and good information and the opportunity to hear some renowned speakers and experts discuss subjects near and dear to their hearts. A question-and-answer period follows each talk.

This season’s remaining speakers are best selling author Tess Gerritsen, who speaks on March 15; Mike Brady, professor of adult education at the University of Southern Maine on April 19, and Lewiston High School teacher Joan Macri will close out the season on May 17.

Anyone wishing to nominate potential speakers to be discussed when the planning committee convenes in May, should contact Lewiston Public Library Director Rick Speer or Sun Journal Newsroom Administrator/Reader Representative Mari Maxwell. Speer can be reached at the Lewiston Public Library, 200 Lisbon Street, Lewiston ME 04240, 784-0135, ext. 208 or e-mail at [email protected]. Maxwell can be reached at Sun Journal, 104 Park Street, Lewiston, ME 04243, 689-2857, or via e-mail at [email protected].