A fundamental
part of the role of a scientist is helping serve as an ambassador of science to the public. I have made
enthusiastic scientific outreach a primary focus of my career. I have been fortunate to travel
the world speaking to both small and large audiences about astronomy, science, creativity, and
inspiration, blending speaking and stargazing in a unique way to bring people closer to
the heavens.
Some of my recent speaking experiences include:
- I've spoken for four years at The Unique CAMP in Los Angeles, most recently in early 2017. Gina Mariko Rosales, of Make it Mariko and X: The Moonshot Factory wrote about her experience at CAMP 2017, saying that "[my talk was] one of the most epic, inspiring and straight kick ass talks I’ve ever heard. In a loud, empowering, and motivating voice, he talked about the stars, and atoms, and how we’re all made of millions of billions of atoms just floating through the universe."
- The Innovation Partnership Program, an organization jointly founded by the XPRIZE Foundation and Singularity University, has brought me out to speak on two occasions over the last year. Here, I discussed the Big Bang and the James Webb Space Telescope with Fortune 500 executives.
- I was the keynote speaker at Photo Field Trip in 2016. In the reviews for Field Trip, attendees called my talk "An amazing way to kick off the week. He's soooo pumped on his passion. Amazing amazing amazing." and said that "He was incredibly inspiring and he was by far my favourite part of Field Trip."
- I have also given large public lectures at Karchner Caverns in southern Arizona, as well as at Steward Observatory, a public talk on my research hunting for black holes that you can watch here. I've appeared on multiple podcasts, most recently the Conference Call Podcast with Michael Antonia.
In addition to my public speaking, I've been heavily involved in more one-on-one public outreach. I've run the UCLA Planetarium, which provided free public and private planetarium shows. In this capacity, I developed a variety of planetarium shows and activities for the general public and school groups of all ages, and also worked directly with Los Angeles educators to set-up interesting and educational astronomy visits for their students. While at UCLA, I personally ran hundreds of planetarium shows, introducing people young and old to both the night sky and to astronomy as a vibrant and exciting science.
I was also quite active with UCLA Astronomy Live!, the award-winning UCLA grad-student-run outreach organization. Each year, this group runs a fall outreach event, "Exploring Your Universe," providing the Los Angeles community a free day of exciting scientific workshops and programs.
While at Dartmouth, I was involved with science outreach at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, VT, where I ran science activities and night sky shows. I also traveled throughout New Hampshire and Vermont speaking with school groups about astronomy.