Today is a discussion of astrobiology, big science, and the pandemic with astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz
Lucianne Walkowicz is an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the co-founder of the JustSpace Alliance. Walkowicz studies the ethics of Mars exploration, stellar magnetic activity, how stars influence a planet’s suitability as a host for alien life, and how to use advanced computing to discover unusual events in large astronomical data sets. From 2017-2018, they were the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/LOC Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress. Walkowicz is the founding director of the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program, an initiative to provide astronomy graduate students with training in advanced computing. Walkowicz speaks and writes regularly on topics at the intersection of science and society, which have appeared on TED.com, Slate, The Washington Post, Vox, and more. Walkowicz holds a BS in Physics and Astronomy from Johns Hopkins University, an MS and PhD in Astronomy from the University of Washington, and held postdoctoral fellowships at UC Berkeley and Princeton prior to joining the Adler Planetarium. They are also a TED Senior Fellow and a practicing artist, working in a variety of media, from performance to sound.