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Northwestern University
Professor Eberhard Zwergel

Spine-Tingling Spectacle

With its fire-breathing performers, dazzling explosions, and deafening bangs, Eberhard Zwergel’s epic Halloween extravaganza has lured thousands of Weinberg students over the past decade. Zwergel, a senior lecturer and demonstrator in chemistry, doesn’t rely on supernatural sources for his pyrotechnics but on very real experiments and a team of undergraduate and graduate students, program assistants, and various faculty members. This year’s show featured the student percussion/dance group Boomshaka, a troupe of tap-dancers performing on bang snaps, a belly dancer, and a segment of the marching band. While Zwergel describes his legendary show as “arts and sciences in harmony with each other,” others might see—and hear—it as a display impressive enough to wake the dead.

Chemistry Show Ignites Halloween Spirit from Northwestern News on Vimeo.

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