POTSDAM -- The 2013 SUNY Potsdam Academic Festival from Wednesday, April 10 to Saturday, April 13 will have a "Making the Future" theme.

The festival will showcase cutting-edge research and creative thinking through lectures, panel discussions, workshops, seminars, displays and performances.

Highlights will include keynote speeches by former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and John Warner, co-founder of the field of green chemistry. Musical performances, film screenings, and a fossil fair will also be featured.

The festival will examine human rights, education, astronomy and space, sustainability, nanotechnology, leadership, archaeological lessons for the future and the evolution of communication and information.

"We want to encourage students to take control of their own paths forward -- after all, they are the future. Rather than focusing on what I call the 'flying car' vision of the future, we want to look at concrete issues," said Martin A. Walker, festival chair. "For all of us, we hope that the festival will show how the things we do now can affect the world we build together."

For a full schedule visit www.potsdam.edu/academicfestival.