Science Communication in the Space Industry
December 13, 2021 @ 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM UTC-7
The Speakers
Graham Lau
Dr. Graham Lau is an astrobiologist and communicator of science. With an academic background spanning biology, chemistry, astrophysics, and geology, Dr. Lau is an expert on how living things affect the environment around them and how we search for alien life beyond the Earth. He serves as the Director of Communications and Marketing for Blue Marble Space, as a Research Scientist with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, as the Director of Logistics for the University Rover Challenge, and as the Host of the NASA-funded show “Ask an Astrobiologist”. Dr. Lau also serves as a meditation instructor and public speaking coach.
Trevor Kjorlien
Trevor Kjorlien is a Space Educator in Montréal. In 2018, he began Plateau Astro which teaches about space, astronomy, and what we can see in light-polluted areas like Montréal. Trevor tries to use humour and storytelling to get people interested in the sky around them.
Paul Byrne
Byrne received his B.A. in geology, and Ph.D. in planetary geology, from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He was a MESSENGER postdoctoral fellow at the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, DC, and an LPI postdoctoral fellow at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas. He is an Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis; before coming to WashU, he taught as an assistant and then associate professor at North Carolina State University. His research focuses on comparative planetary geology—comparing and contrasting the surfaces and interiors of planetary bodies, including Earth, to understand geological phenomena at the systems level. Byrne’s research projects span the solar system from Mercury to Pluto and, increasingly, to the study of extrasolar planets. He uses remotely sensed data, numerical and physical models, and fieldwork in analog settings on Earth to understand why planets look the way they do.
