Stranger than Fiction: The Science Behind the Story
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Join us for an evening under the stars with Mason as we discuss how humanity's relationship with outer space has informed, influenced and even predicted the stories we tell.
This event will feature four mini-lectures from our Mason faculty, our inflatable planetarium for kids to explore, and the opportunity to view the night sky through our Mason Astronomy Observatory Telescope. This is a family-friendly event open to Mason alumni, friends, and community members.
This event is co-sponsored by the George Mason University College of Science and College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Featured Activities that are Fun for the Whole Family!
Event Speakers
Enjoy four mini-lectures from Mason faculty and Friends of Mason. Activities for kids will be available at the same time.
Talk Title: Humanity and the Stars
Jessica Hurley is an assistant professor in the English department at Mason. Her teaching and research are focused on the overlaps between science and technology, the environment, and the stories we tell about those things. She is the author of Infrastructures of Apocalypse: American Literature and the Nuclear Complex (University of Minnesota Press, 2020), which explored the apocalypse narratives produced by the communities most at risk from nuclear infrastructures in the United States. Jessica holds degrees from Oxford University, the University of Sussex, and the University of Pennsylvania, and before coming to Mason she spent four years teaching at the University of Chicago as a Harper-Schmidt Fellow. She is a huge sci-fi fan and loves teaching Mason’s science fiction classes.
Talk Title: When Science Fiction Influences the Interpretation of Actual Science
Dr. J. Rob Parks is an assistant professor and Deputy Observatory Director at George Mason University. For over 14 years, Dr. Parks has brought astronomy into the lives of both college students and the general public. During his years of service, he has taught hundreds of students, mentored students through research projects, and hosted numerous public outreach events at observatories and planetariums. Dr. Parks is excited to be part of GMU and looks forward to sharing his love of astronomy with its community. Dr. Parks also serves as the Mason Observatory Deputy Director.
Talk Title: The New "Wild West" Frontier: Opportunities and Risks of the Private Space Industry Revolution
Dr. Plavchan is an associate professor of Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University, where he is also the Director of George Mason Observatories. He was formerly an assistant professor at Missouri State University, and a research scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute. He earned his PhD in 2006 from UCLA, and undergraduate degree from Caltech in 2001. Dr Plavchan's research is on the frequency and formation of exoplanets orbiting low-mass stars, and he is an expert with the precise radial velocity technique. He discovered the transiting planetary system orbiting AU Mic published in Nature in 2020. He was the PI of the NASA EarthFinder probe mission concept study, and is currently PI of the Landolt Pioneers mission concept. He has built instrumentation including for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility, and uses ground-based telescopes world-wide and in space with the Spitzer, Kepler and TESS missions. His work is actively funded by NASA and the NSF.
Rebekah Hounsell, PhD
Talk Title: Expoplanets: From Science Fiction to Science Fact
Dr. Hounsell received her PhD in 2012 from England’s Liverpool John Moores University. After which she moved to the USA to pursue a career in astrophysics. Her research focuses mainly on stars that explode, resulting in the severe disruption of the system or complete obliteration. In 2015 she joined a team of astronomers tasked with designing a supernova survey for NASA’s next big flag ship mission, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. In 2020 Dr. Hounsell became an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Through this appointment she works at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as a support scientist for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). This is a NASA-sponsored Astrophysics Explorer-class mission that is performing a near all-sky survey to search for planets transiting nearby stars. Given the sky coverage, cadence, and high precision photometry obtained by the mission, it is more than an exoplanet detector. The mission enables a diverse range of science including the study of transient events. Dr. Hounsell is continuing her research through this mission and aiding others in the community who wish to propose for and use TESS data.
