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STARMUS Launches the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior at The Kennedy Center

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Gitanjali Rao Honoured as the inaugural Recipient of the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior STARMUS cofounders, Garik Israelian and Brian May, introduce the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior Category to Inspire Young Innovators (LINK)STARMUS Celebrates Its US Debut at The Kennedy Center with Panel Discussions, Performances, the Junior Medal Announcement, the Presentation of STARMUS La Palma, and the US Première of the STARMUS VI Film (LINK)

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — STARMUS Festival proudly announced the launch of the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior Category during the STARMUS x Earth To Space launch event last night at The Kennedy Center. Gitanjali Rao was named the first recipient of this prestigious award. This new category of this prestigious award created by the late Professor Stephen Hawking and STARMUS Festival, represents his last legacy to promote science communication among the younger generation.

Introducing the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior Category

The Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, established in 2015, honoured individuals who excelled in bridging the gap between science and the public through various disciplines such as music, arts, and cinema. The Junior Category aimed to recognize and encourage young innovators who demonstrated exceptional talent and dedication to science communication. Like the Stephen Hawking Medal, the Junior Medal will recognize such dedication through the categories of music, cinema, or literature.

In its inaugural year, the STARMUS Advisory Board selected a profile that perfectly embodies the type of inspiring young individual deserving of this prestigious recognition. Commencing in 2026, the full nominations process will be open to educational centres worldwide, including universities and secondary schools. These institutions will be invited to nominate their most outstanding students, aged 14 to 20, as candidates.

Winners will be awarded the Stephen Hawking Medal and will have the unique opportunity to enrol in a 4 to 6-week internship at a selected science or arts institution, sponsored by STARMUS and the Stephen Hawking Medal partners. During this internship, they will work on their own scientific communications project, which will be published by STARMUS and the Stephen Hawking Medal collaborators and endorsed by a past winner of the Medal.

STARMUS will announce soon the world-class institutions and centres that will collaborate with the Junior Medal Category.

Gitanjali Rao: The First Recipient

Gitanjali Rao, an American inventor, author, and STEM advocate, was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior. Rao, known for her groundbreaking inventions and contributions to science at a young age, embodied the spirit of innovation and curiosity that Professor Hawking championed. She was named TIME’s first “Kid of the Year” in 2020 for her work in science and technology. Gitanjali is also the inventor of “Epione”—a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering, and “Kindly”—an anti-cyberbullying service using AI and Natural Language processing, which is now a UNICEF “Digital Public Good” service available worldwide.

“Being the first recipient of the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior is an absolute honour, but it also comes with a massive responsibility,” said Rao. “I recognize that I am a trailblazer for thousands of young people beyond me who also have the passion to make a difference in our communities, especially girls of colour.”

Garik Israelian, STARMUS co-founder and Director, celebrated this huge step for the Stephen Hawking Medal in approaching younger generations with the Junior Category. “Stephen always shared that he became interested in science being inspired by his professor Dikran Tahta, who opened his eyes to mathematics and changed his life. Since the esteemed STARMUS Advisory Board and Professor Hawking created this Medal in 2015, we all shared the same dream: to inspire the younger generations, serving as a motivational bridge with science through recognizing exceptional contributions in science communications. We’ve awarded such iconic figures of our time such as Jane Goodall, Hans Zimmer, Christopher Nolan, Buzz Aldrin, David Attenborough, Brian May, The Big Bang Theory, Brian Eno among many other internationally renowned figures of science, space, music, and the film industry. It was a natural step for the medal to create a dedicated category for emerging talents who will actually be responsible for the future.”

“The STARMUS Advisory Board chose Gitanjali Rao as the first recipient because of her exceptional talent, dedication to science communication, and her inspiring role as a young innovator” added Professor Israelian. “The Medal reflects not only Stephen Hawking’s amazing dedication to science communication but also the STARMUS spirit. As our dearest Jane Goodall -founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and STARMUS Board member- said, ‘STARMUS brings together people who can link head with heart’.'”

Brian May, Queen lead guitarist and STARMUS cofounder, celebrated the launch of the Stephen Hawking Medal Junior with these words: “We believe this is going to make a difference in the future by encouraging young minds, young artists, young scientists, and young communicators. We hope that the next generation will be inspired to bring art and science even closer together and make this world a better place.”

Celebrating STARMUS’ US Debut at The Kennedy Center

This announcement was made at the STARMUS x Earth To Space event, a two-day program held as part of the Earth To Space Festival at the prestigious Kennedy Center. The event, being held on April 1-2, 2025, featured an impressive lineup of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, astronauts, and explorers, including former NASA astronauts Nicole Stott and Frank Lee Culbertson Jr., Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne and artist Lia Halloran, world-renowned best-selling author Mario Livio, President of the US National Academy of Sciences Marcia McNutt, renowned astrophysicist Eva Villaver, quantum mind reader David Zambuka and SETI pioneer Jill Tarter.

Attendees also enjoyed the spectacular ‘Explosive Universe’ concert by renowned musicians from the STARMUS All Stars, such as Derek Sherinian, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, Tony Franklin, and Vinny Appice. This concert was a highlight of the event, showcasing the fusion of science and music that STARMUS is known for. The celebration of the beauty and mystery of the universe promised to be an unforgettable experience for all attendees.

STARMUS has announced its next edition, ‘STARMUS La Palma, The Island of Stars,’ featuring a short preview of the STARMUS La Palma documentary. This event will be held on the island of La Palma from April 25 to 28, 2025, with a focus on protecting the night skies in collaboration with the Starlight Foundation. The program will include STARMUS Talks with over 40 renowned speakers, such as Jane Goodall, Nobel Laureates, astronauts, and other scientific luminaries. The ‘Sonic Universe’ concert will showcase the STARMUS All Stars with special guest Glenn Hughes, Oscar and 15 Latin Grammy winner Jorge Drexler, and the Spanish pop-rock band Efecto Pasillo, among others. Additionally, there will be two STARMUS Camps and the educational project ‘Interscholar,’ aimed at engaging thousands of young students with science, music, and space.”

The event also included the US première of the STARMUS VI film, which showcases the most exciting moments of the 2022 STARMUS Festival in Armenia. This film perfectly captures the essence of STARMUS and the unique STARMUS experience, merging the gathering of the most brilliant minds and talented artists of our time with the local culture.

Linked Videos:

•  This is STARMUS _ LINK

•  The Stephen Hawking Medal _LINK

About STARMUS 

Created by Garik Israelian PhD, astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) and Sir Brian May PhD, astrophysicist and the lead guitarist of the iconic rock band Queen, Starmus is a festival of science, art and music that features presentations from astronauts, cosmonauts, Nobel Prize winners and prominent figures from various scientific disciplines and musical backgrounds. Starmus brings together Nobel laureates, eminent researchers, astronauts, thinkers and artists to share their knowledge and experiences, as we search for answers to the great questions of our time. 

The STARMUS Advisory Board members are: Jane Goodall, Brian May (co-founder), Garik Israelian (Director and co-founder), Peter Gabriel, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Richard Dawkins, Chris Hadfield, Jill Tarter, Steven Chu, and David Eicher.

Home of the Stephen Hawking Medal 

Stephen Hawking and Alexei Leonov, together with Brian May and Garik Israelian, worked to create the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication in 2015, which is awarded to individuals and teams who have made significant contributions to science communication. Previous Stephen Hawking Medal winners include Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, David Attenborough, Christopher Nolan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jean-Michel Jarre, Brian May, Laurie Anderson, and the Apollo 11 documentary. 

For more information visit Starmus.com   

STARMUS Communications   
Brezo Rodríguez  —  brezo@starmus.com   / press@starmus.com  / +34 678 255 196 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdbUOyYW3Oc
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWDC3G139Y4
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Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2649772/5249367/STARMUS_Logo.jpg

 

 

 

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/starmus-launches-the-stephen-hawking-medal-junior-at-the-kennedy-center-302418857.html

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Link Engineering Company (LINK) Receives VCA Authorization for Euro 7 Brake Emissions Type-Approval Testing

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LIMBURG, Germany, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Link Engineering Company (LINK) announced that its laboratory in Limburg, Germany, has been authorized by the United Kingdom’s Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) to conduct witnessed brake emissions testing for vehicle type-approval programs.

This authorization enables LINK to support manufacturers pursuing Euro 7 compliance while expanding its brake emissions testing capabilities. Building on its ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, LINK was among the first organizations to receive accreditation from DAkkS (Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle) for brake emissions testing.

As Euro 7 regulations introduce brake particle emissions limits for the first time, vehicle and brake manufacturers require specialized facilities, technical expertise, and accredited testing capabilities to achieve certification. Only a limited number of organizations worldwide possess the equipment, expertise, and recognized accreditations needed to support these programs.

The addition of witnessed type-approval testing capabilities positions LINK as a comprehensive partner for the global automotive and brake industries, offering customers an end-to-end solution from development testing through regulatory certification.

“Achieving VCA approval is a major milestone that underscores LINK’s leadership in brake emissions testing,” said Marco Zessinger, Managing Director, Link Engineering Company GmbH. “Manufacturers are facing new regulatory demands under Euro 7, and they need testing partners with both technical expertise and recognized accreditation. Our Limburg laboratory can now support witnessed type-approval testing, providing customers with a streamlined path to certification while further strengthening LINK’s position as a trusted industry partner.”

About LINK
Link Group, Inc. (LINK), parent to Link Engineering Company, Link Industries, and Tescor, consists of businesses that offer customized solutions, with a focus on delivering high value to each of their customers. Offerings consist of the design and manufacture of customized, high-precision test, research, simulation, quality control, and thermal solution equipment; comprehensive test services; and in the case of Link Industries, customized, high-precision cutting tools. LINK’s corporate headquarters are in Plymouth, Michigan (US), with manufacturing and design facilities, laboratory and vehicle test operations, and support teams around the world.

Established in 1935, LINK prides itself on being family-owned, currently led by the second and third generations of the Link family. As many of our team members have been with LINK for a generation or more, the LINK team is equipped with a wealth of knowledge, providing decades of hands-on experience, creativity, and care, supporting our global customer base with highly-technical solutions.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/link-engineering-company-link-receives-vca-authorization-for-euro-7-brake-emissions-type-approval-testing-302832635.html

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BrighterBalance Named a Gold Friend of CASE in Support of Special Education Leaders Nationwide

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BrighterBalance, a real-time behavioral data documentation platform for K-12 special education and MTSS, has been named a Gold Friend of CASE, the Council of Administrators of Special Education. The designation for companies that support CASE’s work advancing leadership and professional development for special education administrators nationwide.

DULUTH, Ga., July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — BrighterBalance, a real-time behavioral data documentation platform built for K-12 special education and MTSS environments, today announced it has joined the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) as a Gold Friend of CASE. The designation recognizes companies that support CASE’s mission of advancing leadership, advocacy, and professional development for special education administrators nationwide.

“It was like having a second memory, and it made her feel less burned out and more confident in her work with students.” Tania Amerson, Bartow County Schools, Executive Director Special Education

BrighterBalance was built to address a gap that special education leaders know well: the 20 minutes before escalation, the behavior a teacher witnessed and tried to redirect, the patterns that live in notebooks and memory rather than in structured, defensible records. The platform enables educators to log behavioral data in under 10 seconds, captures real-time patterns across the school day, and generates progress monitoring reports ready for IEP and BIP review, without adding burden to already stretched teachers and support staff.

“We are pleased to welcome BrighterBalance as a Gold Friend of CASE. The documentation burden on special education teachers is real, and it is contributing to burnout at a time when we can least afford to lose them. Tools that make real-time behavior capture frictionless and that produce records teachers and administrators can rely on are exactly the kind of innovation our members need. We look forward to seeing BrighterBalance’s impact in CASE member districts.”

Brigid Bright, Associate Executive Director, CASE

Early results from districts reflect the impact at the classroom level. Tania Amerson, executive director of exceptional education, Bartow County Schools, shared what she heard after one semester: “What we heard using BrighterBalance surprised me. It wasn’t just about documentation. It was about feeling supported in the moment. One teacher told me it was like having a second memory, and that it made her feel less burned out and more confident in her work with students. That kind of impact on teacher wellbeing and retention is what we are always looking for.”

“Special education leaders are navigating increasing documentation requirements, growing legal pressure, and a student population with more complex needs than ever before,” said Melissa Cook, Co-Founder of BrighterBalance. “Being a Gold Friend of CASE means we are committed to building tools that serve their teachers and their students.”

The platform’s approach mirrors lessons from academic MTSS, where continuous real-time data has replaced periodic snapshots as the standard for intervention decision-making. BrighterBalance brings that same philosophy to behavioral documentation, giving teachers a mobile-first capture tool that works with the methods they already use and feeds directly into their district’s MTSS infrastructure.

BrighterBalance is currently available to individual teachers and school districts, with enterprise pricing designed to support district-wide adoption. The platform integrates with MTSS platforms including Panorama Education and Branching Minds, and exports structured data compatible with major student information systems.

About BrighterBalance

BrighterBalance is a K-12 behavioral data documentation platform purpose-built for special education and MTSS contexts. Faster than paper and smarter than memory, BrighterBalance gives educators a real-time capture layer that produces defensible, structured records at the classroom level before behavior escalates to the office. BrighterBalance is available at brighterbalance.app.

About CASE

The Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) is an international nonprofit professional organization providing leadership, advocacy, and professional development to more than 6,200 administrators responsible for the implementation of IDEA and Section 504. CASE is a division of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC).

Media Contact

Melissa Cook, BrighterBalance, 1 6784479600, melissa.cook@brighterbalance.app, https://brighterbalance.app/

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prweb.com/releases/brighterbalance-named-a-gold-friend-of-case-in-support-of-special-education-leaders-nationwide-302831692.html

SOURCE BrighterBalance

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K-Bro Announces Release Date, Conference Call and Webcast for Q2 2026 Financial Results

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(TSX: KBL)

EDMONTON, AB, July 22, 2026 /CNW/ — K-Bro Linen Inc. (the “Corporation”) will release its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 after market close. The Corporation will hold a conference call and webcast to discuss the results on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time (7:00 a.m. Mountain Time).

The conference call will include prepared remarks from Linda McCurdy, President and CEO, and Kristie Plaquin, Chief Financial Officer.  After the prepared remarks, the Corporation will accept questions from analysts and institutional investors.

Date:  Wednesday, August 5, 2026
Time:  9:00 a.m. ET (7:00 a.m. MT)
Call:    1-888-510-2154 (Canada and USA)
            437-900-0527 (International)

To join the conference call without operator assistance, you may register and enter your phone number at  https://emportal.ink/4wAkiCY to receive an instant automated call back. 

Participants are asked to call at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the call.  For those unable to participate on the live call, a replay will be made available until August 12, 2026 by dialing 1.888.660.6345 (Canada and USA), passcode 36338.  The public is invited to listen to the live conference call or the replay.

This conference call will be webcast live over the internet and can be accessed by all interested parties at the following https://app.webinar.net/WpVkGB4wN7E 

To listen to the live webcast, visit the Corporation’s website at least 10 minutes early to register, download and install any necessary audio software. For those unable to listen during the live webcast, an audio replay will be available shortly after the conclusion of the conference call for a period of 90 days.

CORPORATE PROFILE

K-Bro is the largest owner and operator of laundry and linen processing facilities in Canada. K-Bro provides a comprehensive range of general linen and operating room linen processing, management and distribution services to healthcare institutions, hotels and other commercial accounts.  K-Bro currently operates eleven processing facilities in eight Canadian cities: Québec City, Montréal, Toronto, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria.

Fishers was established in 1900 and is an operator of laundry and linen processing facilities in Scotland, providing linen rental, workwear hire and cleanroom garment services to the hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors. Fishers’ client base includes major hotel chains and prestigious venues across Scotland and the North East of England. The company operates five sites in Scotland and the North East of England with facilities in Cupar, Perth, Newcastle, Livingston and Coatbridge.

Shortridge has operated as a family run business since the 1990s and is based in Cumbria, with plants in Lillyhall, Dumfries and a distribution depot in Darlington. It specializes in providing high quality laundry services to local independent hospitality businesses, including hotels, B&Bs, self-catering units and restaurants.

Stellar Mayan (previously known as Star Mayan) is a holding company that owns 100% interests in three operating businesses: Synergy, Grosvenor Contracts and AeroServe. Stellar Mayan is a leading commercial laundry business in England, serving the healthcare and hospitality markets. Typical services offered include processing, management and distribution of healthcare and hospitality linens, including sheets, blankets, towels, surgical gowns and other linen. Star Mayan has seven operating facilities strategically located across England: Bermondsey, Derby, Dunstable, Sheffield, Slough (2), and St. Helens, in addition to a distribution depot in Manchester.

Additional information regarding the Corporation including required securities filings are available on our website at www.k-brolinen.com and on the Canadian Securities Administrators’ website at www.sedar.com; the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (“SEDAR”).

K‑Bro est le plus important propriétaire et exploitant de buanderies au Canada. K‑Bro fournit une gamme étendue de services de buanderie aux établissements de soins de santé, hôtels et autres clients commerciaux. K‑Bro exploite actuellement dix usines dans huit villes canadiennes: Québec, Montréal, Toronto, Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver et Victoria.

Vous pouvez obtenir des renseignements supplémentaires sur la Société, y compris les documents déposés auprès des autorités de réglementation, sur notre site Web, au www.k-brolinen.com et sur le site Web des autorités canadiennes en valeurs mobilières au www.sedar.com, le site Web du Système électronique de données, d’analyse et de recherche (« SEDAR »).

SOURCE K-Bro Linen Inc.

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