Inside Rensselaer, February 13, 2009: Molecules to the MAX To Premiere at EMPAC

Faculty, staff, and students will have the opportunity to watch the new Molecularium movie, Molecules to the MAX, months before it is released to the general public.

The sneak preview, to take place at 11 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 27, in the EMPAC Theater, is free to the campus community. Faculty and staff are invited to bring their children.

“The sneak preview is a way for us to say ‘Thank you’ to everyone at Rensselaer who, directly or indirectly, has worked on or supported the making of Molecules to the MAX,” said Richard W. Siegel, director of the Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center and one of three faculty executive producers of the new movie. “This exciting new movie, made right here on campus with valuable contributions from many different students, faculty, and staff, will be shown all over the world with Rensselaer’s name on it. That’s something of which we should all be proud.”

RSVPs should be made to Nancy Rivera via e-mail at rysedn@rpi.edu or by phone at campus ext. 6448. Up to four tickets can be reserved. Tickets will be available for pickup at the EMPAC box office on the morning of the event. Any tickets unclaimed by 10:45 a.m. will be released and made available to other ticket seekers.

Molecules to the MAX is a 40-minute adventure that follows Oxy, Hydro, Hydra, Carbón, and other characters as they navigate the colorful world of atoms and molecules in search of life. With help of the Molecularium — a spaceship that can shrink to nanoscale sizes — the group explores the “secret worlds” and molecular structures of everyday objects including a snowflake, chewing gum, a penny, and even a human cell.

The movie, distributed by SK Films, will be released this year to IMAX and other giant-screen theaters. Plans are under way for a national premiere later this year.

The background animations of Molecules to the MAX are based on scientifically accurate molecular modeling simulations provided by Professor Shekhar Garde, head of Rensselaer’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. The original idea for Molecularium was developed by Materials Science and Engineering Professor Linda Schadler. Siegel, Garde, and Schadler are executive producers of Molecules to the MAX and the Molecularium project.
The production company behind Molecules to the MAX is Nanotoon Entertainment, which is presently working in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. Nanotoon employs several former and current Rensselaer students.

The first Molecularium movie, Riding Snowflakes, released in 2004, is formatted to be shown in planetarium domes. It is now in worldwide distribution and
s currently being translated into several different languages.

Molecules to the MAX and Molecularium are owned, funded, and managed by Rensselaer, with additional funding support from the U.S. National Science Foundation. The project is supported by a generous gift from Rensselaer Trustee Curtis Priem ’82, co-founder of the leading visual computing technologies firm NVIDIA.

Send comments to:
Inside Rensselaer, Strategic Communications and External Relations
1000 Troy Building, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, N.Y. 12180 or to leibat@rpi.edu.

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