Geekadelphia Awards at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Photo of the city of Philadelphia

The nominees for the second annual Philadelphia Geek Awards, a black-tie awards ceremony honoring the city’s vibrant geek scene, were announced today.

From astronomers practicing journalism to Angry Birds posing as gangsters, to local startups measuring Pinterest, to artists bombing public places with yarn, these nominees are up to incredible and innovative things, drawing attention to themselves and the city in a unique way.

Launched in 2011 by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and by Eric Smith and Tim Quirino of the local blog Geekadelphia, the inaugural Geek Awards were a sold-out sensation. The show returns to the Academy this year on Friday, Aug. 17, with shiny new trophies, categories and special guests.

Attendees can look forward to great food and drink during the 90-minute cocktail “hour” before the show and are free to explore the museum. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to the public awards show are available at the official Philadelphia Geek Awards website. The fee is $15 per person and attendees must be at least18 years old to enter and 21 or older to drink.

Guest presenters include local comedian and author Doogie Horner, Christopher Wink and Brian James Kirk of Technically Philly, celebrated photographer Kyle Cassidy, video game journalist Chris Grant, Leah Cevoli of Robot Chicken, award-winning comic book authors Tony Trov and Johnny Zito, and more.

Below is the full list of nominees. For detailed biographies on each, visit the official website for the Philadelphia Geek Awards

Geek Headline of the Year: Patrick Kerkstra, Faye Flam, Derrick Pitts

Hacker of the Year: Stephanie Alarcon, Georgia Guthrie

Scientist of the Year: Dr. Youngmoo Kim, Dr. Andrew Hicks, Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich

Viral Project of the Year: Nick Murphy’s Angry Birds Trailer, Leah Kauffman’s Firewall music video, Philadelphia Opera Company’s Pop Up Opera

Web Dev Team of the Year: P’unk Ave, Jarv.us, Blue Cadet

Social Media Campaign of the Year: Philadelphia Museum of Art for Zoe Strauss’ Foursquare Campaign, Red Tettemer & Partners’ Under Armour Finding Undeniable, National Public Radio’s Fresh Air

Start Up of the Year: Curalate, SnipSnap, ElectNext

Indie Game Developer of the Year: Cipher Prime for Splice, Final Form Games for Jamestown, Flyclops for Domino! 

Visual Artist of the Year: Yis “NoseGo” Goodwin, Jessie “Ishknits” Hemmons, Mike Smith 

Comic Book Writer of the Year: Rob Kelly (Ace Kilroy), Phil Kahn (Guilded Age), Bryan J.L. Glass (The Mice Templar)

Comic Book Artist of the Year: Brad Guigar (Evil Inc.), Nick Filardi (Powers, Takio), Dan O’Connor (Ace Kilroy)

Indie Film of the Year: Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles (Jon Foy), Mancation (Frank Vain), Alpha Girls (Tony Trov, Johnny Zito), Maybe We Can Go to Hollywood (Isaac Williams)

Annual Event of the Year: WordCamp, Women in Tech, Philly Tech Week, Philadelphia Science Festival, BarCamp Philly

Geek of the Year: Tristan Hightower, Gerri Trooskin, Roz Duffy

Interviews and images available upon request.

For more information on  the awards, contact: Eric Smith, blogger, Geekadelphia, at 908-764-9835 or geekadelphia@gmail.com