RCIScience/Allan I. Carswell Observatory/Space Place Canada: Celestial Pursuit (ONLINE)
Join RCIScience, the Allan I. Carswell Observatory and Space Place Canada for a fun series of astronomy games and quizzes. Play alongside our expert contestants as they compete for bragging rights and you compete for prizes (and fun)! Live on YouTube.
About the Expert Contestants
Dr. Sara Mazrouei is a planetary scientist, educational developer, and science communicator with a passion for sharing the wonders of the universe with the public. Her PhD research focused on the recent bombardment history of the Moon and links to future sample-return missions. Her work has been featured in many media including the New York Times and National Geographic. Currently, Sara works as an Educational Developer at Ryerson University's Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching. Sara is also passionate about increasing the status of women in STEM as well as equity, diversity and meaningful inclusion. Sara uses storytelling, examples including the Story Collider and TEDx Downsview Women, as a method for sharing her authentic experiences and making science more accessible.
Dr. Jess McIver is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia and a Canada Research Chair in Gravitational Wave Astrophysics. She leads the UBC gravitational-wave astrophysics group, the UBC LIGO group, and the UBC-TRIUMF LISA group. She earned her PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and then went on to a postdoc with the LIGO Laboratory at Caltech. She has worked with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration since 2007 on characterization of the Advanced LIGO detectors and astrophysical gravitational-wave data analysis.
Dr. Hilding Neilson is Mi’kmaq from Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) whose work focuses on stellar and exoplanet astrophysics and on indigenizing astronomy. He earned his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2009 on Cepheid atmospheres and mass loss. He was then an Alexander von Humboldt fellow at the University of Bonn followed by a research professor at East Tennessee State University. Hilding returned to the University of Toronto in 2014 as a CLTA assistant professor.
Dr. Parandis Tajbakhsh currently teaches at York University, University of Toronto Mississauga and Humber College. She received her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 2009 from the University of Toronto where she worked on the possibility of including topology within Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Following a short post-doctoral fellowship at St. Mary’s University, she pursued a master of arts degree in Science and Technology Studies from York University, Canada. Her research interests include the history of extraterrestrial life debate and the interaction between science and religion.
Who can attend: Everyone
Fee: Free
Registration: Eventbrite
Organized by: The Royal Canadian Institute for Science, in partnership with the Allan I. Carswell Observatory at York University and Space Place Canada
Link: https://youtu.be/29wrB0DcSp4