The Texas teen who was arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school heads to the White House Monday night.
Ahmed Mohamed, 14, will attend Astronomy Night, an event that brings together scientists, engineers, teachers and students for an evening of stargazing on the South Lawn. The White House has billed the event as an opportunity for Obama to encourage more boys and girls to take interest in STEM.
He became a household name last month after school administrators mistook his clock for a bomb. The incident inspired the hashtag #StandWithAhmed and led to praise and free stuff from a number of tech companies.
President Obama personally extended an invitation to Mohamed on Twitter in September following the news that he’d been arrested at school.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday he is not sure whether or not the teen will bring the clock to Monday’s event, but the White House has been welcoming to the teen. In a White House blog post, U.S. Chief Data Scientist D.J. Patil said the administration thinks “Ahmed will fit right in” at Monday’s fair.
Mohamed has been tweeting pictures of his trip to Washington over the weekend.
Monday’s White House event will mark Ahmed’s latest rendezvous with luminaries and world leaders. The teen has visited Google, met Queen Rania of Jordan and the Turkish Prime Minister and even stirred up controversy after meeting the President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes. (The teen’s father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed, has attempted to run against al-Bashir twice in presidential elections.)
On Tuesday, Mohamed will attend a press conference with Silicon Valley Rep. Mike Honda, where the two will discuss a letter the Democratic congressman sent to Attorney General Loretta Lynch urging the Department of Justice to investigate Ahmed’s arrest.
Monday’s Astronomy Night is the White House’s second. The first was held in 2009.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Introducing the 2024 TIME100 Next
- The Reinvention of J.D. Vance
- How to Survive Election Season Without Losing Your Mind
- Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams
- Did the Pandemic Break Our Brains?
- The Many Lives of Jack Antonoff
- 33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
- Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women
Contact us at letters@time.com