GlaxoSmithKline is getting its name in the stars.

The pharmaceutical company gave $1.5 million to help convert the Star Theater at the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill to digital from analog technology.

The theater will be renamed the GlaxoSmithKline Fulldome Theater, officials announced today.

GSK has supported programs at Morehead for years. The British company has its North American headquarters in Research Triangle Park and employs about 5,000 people in the Triangle.

The company "is committed to making positive contributions to the communities where employees live and work and to invest in health and education programs," GSK senior vice president Janice Whitaker said in a prepared statement.

Such donations also help corporations build their brand names.

The theater is closed during January for the conversion and is scheduled to reopen Feb. 5. Morehead officials expect more than 160,000 visitors, including 85,000 schoolchildren, during the next year.

A free, public forum about swine flu will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Morehead Planetarium on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

The event, part of the Current Science Forum, will be led by Dr. James Thomas, associate professor of epidemiology at UNC-CH’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Thomas will discuss the flu virus as a potential pandemic, what to expect and how to prepare.

For more information, visit www.moreheadplanetarium.org or call Morehead Guest Relations at (919) 962-1236.