Invited speakers

Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer Ouellette is a nationally recognized science writer and the author of four popular science books: Me, Myself, and Why: Searching for the Science of Self (2014); The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse (2010); The Physics of the Buffyverse (2007); and Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics (2006), all published by Penguin.

She is former science editor of Gizmodo, a popular technology/science daily news blog that garners over 35 million page views per month. Her freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times Book Review, Discover, Slate, Salon, Smithsonian, Mental Floss, Pacific Standard, Nature, Physics Today, Physics World, and New Scientist, among other venues. From November 2008 to October 2010, Ouellette was the founding director of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, a Los Angeles-based initiative of the National Academy of Sciences aimed at fostering creative collaborations between scientists and entertainment industry professionals in Hollywood. She holds a black belt in jujitsu, and lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Caltech physicist Sean (M.) Carroll.

Hitoshi Murayama

Hitoshi Murayama is a theoretical physicist who works on the connection between the physics of the small (elementary particles) and of the large (the Universe). In addition, he worked on a neutrino experiment and is currently leading a team of astronomers.

Hitoshi Murayama received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Tokyo in 1991. He had worked as a Research Associate at Tohoku University from April 1991, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from September 1993. He joined the Physics Department at UC Berkeley in July 1995, became an Associate Professor in July 1998, and Professor in July 2000. Professor Murayama is also the Director of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) at the University of Tokyo. He received Yukawa Commemoration Prize in Theoretical Physics in 2002. He is a Fellow of American Physical Society and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He is well-known for his clear lectures for students and general audience.

Professor Norio Kaifu

Honorary Professor of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and Advisor to the IAU, Norio Kaifu graduated from the University of Tokyo, Ph.D. in astronomy in 1972. He led the construction of the Nobeyama 45-m Mm-wave Telescope in 1978-1982. We was a pioneer of mm-wave observations of interstellar molecules and star-forming phenomena in the early mm-wave astronomy era. He directed the 8.2-m Subaru Telescope construction on Mauna-kea in 1991-2000 and was appointed Director General of NAOJ (2000-2006). He also started ALMA-Japan as part of a worldwide project. Through these works he pushed Japanese ground-based astronomy to the current level. Having published 150 papers and several textbooks, his current scientific interest is exo-planets and life in the universe.

He served to Japanese basic science as a senior member of the Science Council of Japan. His long-year’s effort was directed also towards Asian astronomy cooperation: he established the EAMA (East Asian Astronomers Meeting) in 1990 and the EACOA (East Asian Core Observatories Association) in 2005, which recently resulted in the start of EAO (East Asian Observatory). For the IAU he served as Vice President,  member of the IYA2009 Working Group, President Elect, and President in 2012-2015. He is a writer and lecturer of science for the general public and also known as a book reviewer of the wide field of science.

Wanda Diaz Merced

Wanda L Diaz Merced is an astrophysicist from Puerto Rico, where she was born, raised and did her studies in physics. When she lost her sight in her early 20s, her dreams of studying stars in the visually oriented scientific world suffered a major setback — until she discovered “sonification,” a way to turn huge data sets into audible sound using pitch, duration and other properties. She has a PhD from the University of Glasgow in the use of sound to analyze astrophysics data. Since the year 2000, Dr Wanda has been working on finding perceptual modalities to analyze data and teach learners (students) how to analyze that same data. She focuses on learners with disabilities. Dr Wanda is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD), in Cape Town where she works developing instructional material to teach disabled learners at school level how to analyze astronomical data.

Dominique Brossard

Dr. Brossard, Ph.D., is professor and chair in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Brossard’s research agenda focuses on the intersection between science, media and policy. She is an internationally known expert in public opinion dynamics related to controversial scientific issues and she has published more than 100 research articles in outlets such as Science and Public Understanding of Science, and has been an expert panelist for the National Academy of Sciences. Brossard earned her M.S. in plant biotechnology from the Ecole Nationale d’Agronomie de Toulouse and Ph.D. in communication from Cornell University.

In her talk, “ Communicating Science in New Media Environments” she will discuss how scientific discourse gets constructed in online environments and stress the aspects that need to be taken into account for successful science communication, based on empirical research findings.