Star Trek icon George Takei will give Higgs lecture at UC San Diego

Sulu is coming to UC San Diego.

George Takei, who shot to fame on the original Star Trek television series in the 1960s and later became a major activist on social issues, including LGBT rights, will give a public talk at the university’s Price Center on April 26.

Takei, 80, is scheduled to give the Higgs Memorial Lecture, which is devoted to issues involving law and society.

The event, which begins at 5 p.m., has been titled, “Where No Story Has Gone Before; An Evening With George Takei: Actor, Social Justice Activist & Media Mega-Power.”

The lecture will mostly be limited to the UC San Diego community. Undergraduates will be admitted without charge. Graduate students, faculty and staff can buy one ticket, and one guest ticket, at a cost of $20 each. They are permitted to bring a person from the general public with the guest ticket.

Tickets will go on sale at 9 a.m. on April 9 on the Higgs Memorial Lecture website.

Takei was born in Los Angeles to Japanese-American parents. During World War II, the Takei family was sent to internment camps, first in Arkansas and later in California. The Takei family’s experience inspired “Allegiance,” a musical that premiered at San Diego’s Old Globe Theater in 2012, with Takei playing a starring role. Three years later, the musical debuted on Broadway, again with Takei in a lead role.

UC San Diego says that Takei’s lecture will cover everything from his internment in World War II to his acting career to his work on behalf of the LGBT community and, more recently, his rise as a star of social media.