AstroFest - Live Stream Calendar of Events

Prof. Svetlana Berdyugina, Director, Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics
An exoplanetary and astrobiology researcher and physics professor, Svetlana and her team were the first to see reflected light and a blue color of a planet outside the solar system, a paradigm-exploding discovery in exoplanetary research. 

Dr. Tina Santl-Temkiv, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, Aarhus University Solar Telescope
An aerobiology and astrobiology researcher and microbiology lecturer, Tina and her group are investigating the impact of microorganisms on Earth’s weather and climate by inducing ice formation and precipitation in clouds. This process is called “bioprecipitation” and could in future serve as a biosignature on exoplanets.

Dr. Janice L. Bishop, Senior Research Scientist, The SETI Institute
Dr. Janice Bishop is a chemist and planetary scientist who explores the planet Mars using spectroscopy. Her investigations of CRISM data of Mars are revealing clays and sulfates in the ancient rocks that provide information about the geochemical environment at the time the minerals formed. Dr. Bishop studies the spectral fingerprints of minerals and rocks in the lab in order to generate a spectral library for identification of these in the Martian data. 

Dr. Kathryn Bywaters, Research Scientist, The SETI Institute
Kathryn Bywaters’ work encompasses a wide range of interdisciplinary projects including development of life detection instrumentation for future space exploration, investigating the nutrient constraints microbes would have on Mars, and performing experiments in Mars analog environments. Kathryn has extensive fieldwork experience is some of the most extreme environments on Earth. She spent four months on Devon Island in the Canadian High Artic looking at the winter to spring transition in active layer above the permafrost. 

Prof. Jill Tarter, Emeritus Chair of SETI Research Member Board of Trustees
In 2004 Time Magazine named her one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world and in 2012 one of the Time 25 most influential people in space. Jill Tarter is the Emeritus Chair for SETI Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA, and serves on its Board of Trustees. She has led numerous SETI observational programs at radio observatories worldwide and helped construct and operate the innovative Allen Telescope Array in Northern CA. Tarter’s work has brought her wide recognition in the scientific community, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace and two Public Service Medals from NASA.

Laurence Denneulin, Ph.D. candidate at University of Lyon
Laurence is currently ending her PhD on image reconstruction of circumstellar environments in high-contrast polarimetry with the instrument ESO-VLT/SPHERE, under the supervision of Maud Langlois. She developed a global method to process SPHERE polarimetric data including the debluring of the images, in order to improve the resolution and the Signal-to-Noise ratio in the reconstructions. Laurence has   mathematical background and also general experiences in image processing, statistics and machine learning. 

Dr. Foamie Kritsadi, Post-doc in Live-Mirror Project at INSA-Lyon
Dr. Kritsadi THETPRAPHI is currently doing a Post-doc in Live-Mirror Project at INSA-Lyon, LGEF laboratory to develop electroactive polymers (EAPs) to be used as a force-actuator in an active optics system. She has obtained a doctoral degree from INSA-Lyon in July 2020 with her Ph.D. grants from the Development and promotion of science and technology talent project (DPST) from Thailand and Franco-Thai 2016-2019 from Campus France. She has also the experience in material physics, smart material systems, and material elaboration. 

Dr. Maud Langlois, CNRS Permanent Researcher, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon, France
Dr. Maud Langlois is an expert in extreme adaptive optics and the instrument scientist of the IR dual imaging and spectrograph for the spectro-polarimetric high-contrast exoplanet system (SPHERE) on the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which is used for direct detection of exoplanets.

Urania Sternwarte

Urania Sternwarte is Switzerland's oldest public observatory. It was built in 1907 and still features the original telescope and dome. Its name refers to the muse of astronomy in Greek mythology. During the weekly public tours, one can see planets, stars, the Moon, star clusters, or even fainter objects, such as planetary nebulae and galaxies.

As the sky changes throughout the year, each tour is different. In October 2020, the tours are mostly focused on Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, which are all currently very well visible in the night sky.

Dr. Lucia Kleint, Research group leader at the University of Geneva
After receiving a PhD from ETH Zurich in 2010, Lucia worked in Boulder, Colorado and in Palo Alto, CA on solar telescopes and satellites. She returned to Europe in 2014 and worked on the Solar Orbiter mission, a satellite that will get very close to the Sun, which was launched this year. From 2018-2020 she was the head of Europe's largest solar telescope and also led its optical redesign. Recently, she won a major research grant, which allows her to hire her own research group at the University of Geneva to investigate the mysteries of solar flares and solar magnetic fields.

Prof. Svetlana Berdyugina, Director, Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics
An exoplanetary and astrobiology researcher and physics professor, Svetlana and her team were the first to see reflected light and a blue color of a planet outside the solar system, a paradigm-exploding discovery in exoplanetary research. 

Dr. Christiane Helling, Director of the St Andrews Center for Exoplanet Science, University of St Andrews, Scotland
Christiane is an astrophysicist who studies atmospheres of extrasolar planets and is
passionate about extrasolar clouds as they block our view into the planet’s atmosphere.
Deciphering the large diversity of exoplanet atmosphere requires us to understand how
exo-clouds, that can be glittery gemstones form. Christiane is also passionate about joining
forces with other disciplines like geosciences, philosophy and modern languages in order to
understand if Earth is a special place in the universe.

Dr. Karen Meech, Astronomer, University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy
Karen is an astrobiologist interested in understanding how the ingredients that make a world habitable are delivered to terrestrial planets in their host star’s habitable zone. In particular, she is interested in understanding the distribution of volatiles in the early solar system, and how water was delivered to Earth. Karen involved in large international collaborations both for research and graduate and early career field training. She recently led the characterization of the first interstellar object – discovered by PanSTARRS.

Prof. Adriana Valio, Professor at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie
Bachelor degree in Physics from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (1986), master in Astronomy from University of California at Berkeley (1992) and master in Astronomy from Universidade de São Paulo (1989) and PhD in Astronomy from University of California at Berkeley (1995). Has experience in Astronomy, focusing on solar and stellar activity, acting on the following subjects: solar and stellar flares, spots and atmospheres, extra-solar planets and their interaction with their host stars, planet habitability, and also radio astronomy.

Prof. Cristina Rabello, Professor at Instituto de Ciências Exatas
PhD in Physical Sciences (1996) from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain. Since 2012, she has a permanent position as Professor at the Department of Physics of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil). She worked at Stanford University (California, USA) as a Research Associate from 2004 to 2012 in the construction of the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) instrument on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO/NASA) launched in February 2010. She works mainly in the fields of solar and stellar physics, using the techniques of Asteroseismology (helioseismology) to study the stellar (solar) interior.

Prof. Claudia de Alencar Santos Lage, Professor at Rio de Janeiro Federal University
A Biology scientist that develops research in the field of Astrobiology, Claudia has a Bachelor's Degree in Genetics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1985), a Master's Degree in Biological Sciences (Biophysics) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1990) and a PhD in Sciences from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1995). An Post- Doctorate fellow in a Post-Genomics project at USP (2004- 2005) developing a study on the DNA repair functions of an environmental bacterium, Caulobacter crescentus, and CEA-França (2007-2008) working on a project targeted to isolate DNA repair proteins of Homologous Recombination from a bacterium associated with human stomach cancer. She was approved as Assistant Professor in Human Physiology in Public Exam by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1994, and is currently Associate Professor IV (2016-). Between 2009-2011 she was a visiting Professor of Open University. Claudia have 42 papers published in periodicals with editorial body, and more than 150 communications in congresses, with 26 prizes won (14 national and 12 international).

Rimma Murta, Founder at Maui Science Center
The Maui Science Center is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage enduring curiosity and exploration of the surrounding environment by providing innovative, educational and entertaining hands-on/ minds-on science and technology experiences to lifelong learners regardless of their age. Rimma founded the Maui Science Center in 2014

Prof. Saskia Hekker, Group leader Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS)
An asteroseismologist and professor of Theoretical astrophysics, Saskia and her group are investigating the internal structure of stars through their global intrinsic oscillations. These oscillations are the way to pierce into the inner regions of stars that are otherwise hidden by the opaque surface.

Prof. Svetlana Berdyugina, Director, Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics
An exoplanetary and astrobiology researcher and physics professor, Svetlana and her team were the first to see reflected light and a blue color of a planet outside the solar system, a paradigm-exploding discovery in exoplanetary research. 

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

The European Southern Observatory (ESO), is a 16-nation intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. Created in 1962, ESO has provided astronomers with state-of-the-art research facilities and access to the southern sky. The organization employs about 730 staff members and receives annual member state contributions of approximately €162 million. Its observatories are located in northern Chile.

Dr. Heidi Korhonen, Operations Staff Astronomer ESO - European Southern Observatory
Heidi Korhonen is an ESO staff astronomer since January 2020. She obtained her PhD from University of Oulu, after having done half of her PhD work as a student support astronomer at the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma. Since obtaining her PhD, she has worked in Germany, Denmark and Finland. She has also been a fellow in ESO Garching doing support work at Paranal observatory as a UT2 night astronomer. Currently she is mostly supporting VLTI, especially GRAVITY.

Tishanna Ben, Educator and Outreach Specialist
Tishanna is an educator and outreach specialist at the observatory.  She's responsible for educating the general public, and specifically students, on everything from the foundational science that the telescope uses to the convection currents on the Sun.  Tishanna also gets to share the ground breaking discoveries and news that comes from the telescope by giving presentations, writing stories, and planning events.

Dr. Sarah Jaeggli, Inouye Solar Telescope Astronomer
Sarah is an astronomer at the Inouye Solar Telescope.  She builds and uses scientific cameras and instruments on the telescope to study the sun's sunspots and their magnetic fields.  She also studies the molecules that form in cool pockets in the Sun’s atmosphere.

Brialyn Onodera, Inouye Solar Telescope Thermal Systems Engineer
Brialyn Onodera is a mechanical engineer, who works with the thermal system of the Inouye Solar Telescope.  She was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii, and graduated from University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. Brialyn is also currently working towards a Master's of Business Administration from the Shidler College of Business. Her job as an engineer requires her to develop, test, and apply different mechanical systems that help to keep the telescope that stares directly at the Sun, cool enough to capture high precision images and data.

Dr.  Stacey Sueoka, Inouye Solar Telescope Optical Systems Engineer
Stacey is an optical engineer at the Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST), the world’s largest solar telescope atop Haleakala in Hawaii. She and her team ensure the telescope’s optical system is in tip top shape so solar scientists can zoom in on the surface of the sun to take mind blowing images of it boiling like pot of caramel popcorn! Stacey received her PhD in Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. Her degree helps her in her role at the telescope because she specializes in the science behind the lenses and high tech cameras that capture the important data about the magnetism and energy held by our Sun.

Pragya Chawla, Ph.D. candidate at McGill University in Montreal, Canada
Pragya Chawla is a Ph.D. candidate at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her research interests lie in the field of fast radio bursts (FRBs) which are extremely energetic transient events of unknown origin located at cosmological distances. She works on developing a better understanding of the FRB phenomenon through observations of these bursts with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope and the Green Bank telescope.

Emilie Parent, Ph.D. candidate at McGill University in Montreal, Canada
Emilie Parent is a PhD candidate at McGill University. Her research centres on neutron stars: the stellar remnants left behind when a massive star goes supernova. These stellar corpses are the densest and most magnetized objects observed in the Universe, and therefore can serve as extraordinary cosmic laboratories. Emilie uses some of the most sensitive radio telescopes in the world, such as the Arecibo Observatory and the Green Bank Telescope, to search for new neutron stars in our Galaxy and study their properties.

Prof. Svetlana Berdyugina, Director, Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics
An exoplanetary and astrobiology researcher and physics professor, Svetlana and her team were the first to see reflected light and a blue color of a planet outside the solar system, a paradigm-exploding discovery in exoplanetary research. 

Prof. Carolin Crawford, Public Astronomer, University of Cambridge
Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, and Emeritus Gresham Professor of Astronomy, Carolin Crawford is one of Britain's foremost science communicators.

Prof. Svetlana Berdyugina, Director, Leibniz Institute for Solar Physics
An exoplanetary and astrobiology researcher and physics professor, Svetlana and her team were the first to see reflected light and a blue color of a planet outside the solar system, a paradigm-exploding discovery in exoplanetary research. 

Rimma Murta, Founder at Maui Science Center
The Maui Science Center is a non-profit organization whose mission is to encourage enduring curiosity and exploration of the surrounding environment by providing innovative, educational and entertaining hands-on/ minds-on science and technology experiences to lifelong learners regardless of their age. Rimma founded the Maui Science Center in 2014