Lucianne Walkowicz

Lucianne Walkowicz, PhD is an astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the 2017-2018 Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/LOC Chair in Astrobiology. They study the ethics of Mars exploration, stellar magnetic activity, how stars influence a planet’s suitability to host alien life, and advanced computing to discover unusual events in large astronomical data sets. Dr. Walkowicz is the founding director of the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program, providing astronomy graduate students training in advanced computing. In 2018, they co-founded The JustSpace Alliance, a nonprofit whose mission is to advocate for a more inclusive and ethical future in space, and to harness visions of tomorrow for a more just and equitable world today. Dr. Walkowicz has 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. Lucianne is also a TED Senior Fellow and practicing artist.