Previous Speakers

Alan Nursall is President & CEO of TELUS World of Science – Edmonton. For twenty years, he entertained Canadians with science demonstrations and adventures in popular weekly segments Science and the City, and The Alan Nursall Experience on the Canadian television series Daily Planet on Discovery Channel Canada. For the past six years, Alan has hosted the popular Saturday night trivia event at Jasper Dark Sky.

Emma Louden is an astrophysicist and space entrepreneur on a mission to help people find their place in space. She works at the intersection of academia and the space industry and is a strategic thinker and leader who is passionate about being a steward of the story of the relationship between space exploration and humanity. As an astrophysics Ph.D. student at Yale University, Emma studies the geometry of exoplanetary systems. Emma uses the kind of thinking spurred by this inquiry to help humanity develop a consciousness that puts the Solar System in context—Earth’s precarious position in the

Jameel is used to living life in the fast lane. A career as a fighter pilot and experimental test pilot on high-performance fighter aircraft in Canada, the UK, and the US has left him with some pretty unique journal entries. Jameel spent much of his youth looking upwards. While learning to fly at 16 years old in a field in Southern Alberta, Jameel never imagined that he’d become a spaceline pilot for a commercial space company, Virgin Galactic. Born in Calgary, Alberta, Jameel is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has 4,600 hours flying experience in more than 55 different aircraft. He was also one of the final four candidates in the Canadian Space Agency’s 2009 astronaut recruitment campaign.

Jeanine is an aurora chaser, astro photographer and explorer. She’s a recognized, and published photographer based in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, Canada. Focusing her work for the past 6 years on capturing the Northern Lights. With a love for astronomy and space weather she promotes the importance of dark sky awareness and the astronomical wonders of the night sky through her presentations, photography and writing.

Jonathan Ward’s joy of bringing the space program to life for the public began in high school, when he served as a tour guide at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, and a cruise ship enrichment lecturer in space exploration. He authored four highly-regarded books on American space history, most recently collaborating with Eileen Collins, the first American woman to command a space mission. In 2019, Jonathan earned a place in the record books as the first person east of the Mississippi River—and only the fourth person to date—to successfully image all 110 Messier Objects in one night.

Jay Ingram has hosted two national science programs in Canada, Quirks and Quarks on CBC radio and Daily Planet on Discovery Channel Canada. His 19 books have been translated into 15 languages. Jay has six honorary degrees and is a member of the Order of Canada. From 2005-2015, he chaired the Science Communications Program at the Banff Centre, he is co-founder of the arts and engineering smashup called Beakerhead in Calgary, and he is one of the hosts of the podcast Anthropomania.

Patrick is a Fellow, Canada CIFAR AI Chair and Member of the Board of Directors at Amii, as well as an Associate Professor in the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He holds a Canada Research Chair in Machine Intelligence for Rehabilitation and is a principal investigator in the Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Bionic Limbs for Improved Natural Control Lab and the Sensory Motor Adaptive Rehabilitation Technology Network at the University of Alberta. Patrick is also a Senior Staff Research Scientist at DeepMind in Edmonton, Alberta.

Rob Meyerson is the founder and CEO of Delalune Space, a management consulting company focused on the aerospace, mobility, technology, and investment sectors. He is an angel investor, advisor, and director for companies operating in the hypersonics, space, mobility, technology, and telecommunications industries. Rob is the former President of Blue Origin. Rob oversaw the steady growth of Blue Origin from 2003 to 2018, building the company from its founding into a more than 1500-person organization. Prior to joining Blue, Rob was a Senior Manager at Kistler Aerospace. Rob began his career as an aerodynamicist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC).

Dr. Sarah Jane Pell is an artist testing technologies and human expression in extreme spaces. Pell is a commercial diver, aquanaut, and analog astronaut. Monash University Associate Professor (Research) in Human-Centred Computing and Creativity, Artist-in-Residence at the Monash Immersive Visualisation Platform, and Chief Investigator of research in HCI design for Aquatic Performance. Her practice begins underwater to embody deep ecologies in future-focused research and interaction design.

Seth is Senior Astronomer and Institute Fellow at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, California. He has an undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University, and a doctorate in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology. For much of his career, Seth conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies, and has published approximately sixty papers in professional journals.

Dr. Shawna Pandya is a physician, aquanaut, scientist-astronaut candidate program graduate with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS)/Project PoSSUM, skydiver, pilot-in-training, VP Immersive Medicine with Luxsonic Technologies and Director of Medical Research at Orbital Assembly Corporation. She is Director of IIAS’ Space Medicine Group, Chief Instructor for IIAS’ Operational Space Medicine course, and podcast host with World Extreme Medicine’s WEMCast. Dr. Pandya was on the first crew to test a commercial spacesuit in zero-gravity in 2015. She earned her aquanaut designation during the 2019 NEPTUNE (Nautical Experiments in Physiology, Technology and Underwater Exploration) mission.

Dr. Torah Kachur is the CBC Radio One National Science columnist and a sessional professor at the University of Alberta. She received her PhD from the University of Alberta in the wonderfully irrelevant field of worm gonads and molecular genetics. The reality of studying worm gonads for the rest of her life forced Torah into doing something she loves even more than worms and that’s talking about science. Each week on CBC, Torah explains the latest and greatest science news stories and gets to talk about everything from white blood cells to black holes. In the summer of 2014, Torah produced and hosted “What a Waste” – a nationally broadcasted summer show on CBC radio One as well as dozens of holiday radio specials on all kinds of topics.

From aspiring rock star to history-making Ph.D. rocket scientist, Adam Steltzner is recognized as one of NASA’s leading – and most unique – innovators. For nearly a decade, Adam led and inspired the breakthrough team that invented the ingenious “sky crane” landing system that so spectacularly landed the Mars rover, Curiosity on the Martian surface in 2012. Next, Adam will lead NASA’s Mars 2020 Project that will gather core samples of Mars for scientific discovery.

Rob Meyerson is the founder and CEO of Delalune Space, a management consulting company focused on the aerospace, mobility and technology sectors. As President of Blue Origin, Rob oversaw the steady growth of the company from startup, evolving a 10-person research team into a more than 1500-person organization. Under Rob’s leadership, Blue Origin developed the New Shepard system for suborbital human and research flights, the BE-3 LOX/LH2 rocket engine, the BE-4 LOX/LNG rocket engine, the New Glenn launch vehicle as well as the manufacturing and test capabilities to enable all the above.

Alan Nursall is a Canadian scientist and President & CEO TELUS World of Science Edmonton, who reported on science news for the Canadian television series Daily Planet and the Alan Nursall Experience on the Discovery Channel.

Dr. Torah Kachur is the CBC Radio One National Science columnist and a sessional professor at the University of Alberta. She received her PhD from the University of Alberta in the wonderfully irrelevant field of worm gonads and molecular genetics. The reality of studying worm gonads for the rest of her life forced Torah into doing something she loves even more than worms and that’s talking about science. Each week on CBC, Torah explains the latest and greatest science news stories and gets to talk about everything from white blood cells to black holes. In the summer of 2014, Torah produced and hosted “What a Waste” – a nationally broadcasted summer show on CBC radio One as well as dozens of holiday radio specials on all kinds of topics.

Dr. Hilding Neilson is Mi’kmaq from Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) whose work focuses on stellar and exoplanet astrophysics and on indigenizing astronomy. He earned is 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.

Brian Edward Cox is an English physicist and former musician who is a professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester and The Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science.

Philip Cary Plait, also known as The Bad Astronomer, is an American astronomer, skeptic, and popular science blogger. Plait has worked as part of the Hubble Space Telescope team, images and spectra of astronomical objects, as well as engaging in public outreach advocacy for NASA missions.

Bob McDonald is a Canadian author and science journalist. He is the national science commentator for CBC Television and CBC News Network, and since 1992 has been the host of a weekly radio science show, Quirks & Quarks which draws approximately 800,000 listeners each week.

With a career spanning five decades, George Takei is known around the world for his founding role in the acclaimed television series Star Trek, in which he played Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the Starship Enterprise. But George Takei's story goes where few stories have gone before. From a childhood spent with his family wrongfully imprisoned in a Japanese Internment Camp during WWII, to becoming one of the country's leading figures in the fight for social justice, LGBTQ rights, and marriage equality—George Takei remains a powerful voice on issues ranging from politics to pop culture.

Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life.

Chris Austin Hadfield is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, musician, and writer. The first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also served as commander of the International Space Station.