Grant Imahara of the popular TV show Mythbusters speaks about engineering and entertainment Monday night in the DuBois ballroom. Imahara talked about his work with various movies, TV shows and companies, like Energizer, to a crowd of more than 850 people. - Matt Beaty /The Lumberjack

Flooding into the NAU DuBois Ballroom at 5:30 p.m. on March 30, 850 Flagstaff residents filled the conference center to maximum capacity.

Grant Imahara, a member of the Discovery Channel series Mythbusters, spoke on behalf of the College of Engineering, Forestry, and Natural Sciences. The Freeport McMoran Lecture Series donated $500,000 to support science and engineering programs at NAU, helping make this lecture free to the public.

Matthew Gage, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, said this annual event was initially supposed to have taken place in Ardrey Auditorium.

“I handled most arrangements with help from a committee and we were planning on doing this next week after the opera to fill a larger venue but it changed because of the changes in production,” Gage said. “We had to turn away 100 to 150 people tonight.”

Imahara launched right into a brief history of the popular television show Mythbusters.

“We did three pilots and it turned into a huge hit,” Imahara said. “We originally would have a build team out of camera (Imahara, Kari Byron and Tory Belleci) and Adam (Savage) and Jamie (Hyneman) would come out. It wasn’t working so they told us we were all going to be on TV.”

Before Mythbusters, Imahara was involved in another well-liked television show called Junkyard Wars, which he said was both a good and bad experience that made him skeptical about accepting the offer for Mythbusters.

Projects Imahara has contributed his animatronic engineering and model-making skills to include: The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Artificial Intelligence (2001), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), Terminator 3 (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003).

Imahara went into particular depth about his role in recreating R2-D2 from Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones (2002).

“I remember waiting outside of this theater to see Star Wars in 1977 with my mom,” Imahara said, “but I never thought I would be working with it when I grew up.”

Shay Wilberger, a student at Northland Preparatory Academy, said the Star Wars portion was his favorite.

“I have always been a fan of Grant and I thought the entire presentation was really cool and I enjoyed it,” Wilberger said.

While being one of only three official operators of R2-D2 in the United States, Imahara also appeared all around the world as the man in the suit of C-3PO.

“The best part of all was when Carrie Fisher showed up at the red carpet appearance and comes right up to me and says, ‘Who are you?’” Imahara said, the crowd erupting in laughter.

Imahara worked as a licensed engineer for THX Home Theater Entertainment Company and later moved to Industrial Light & Magic, a George Lucas Lucasfilm company.

He also worked on creating the Energizer Bunny seen in television commercials. This three-person-operated bunny runs with 18 servos that correct its performance as well as 44 AA Energizer batteries.

Charles Wesley Botz, a junior political science major, said he enjoyed getting out of his house for the night and getting to see a knowledgeable celebity.

“Really, NAU is overlooked and we don’t get many popular or familiar people willing to answer FAQs, so it’s nice to sit back and relax at the end of the semester, not to mention an autograph to show (for it),” Botz said.