Please join us on Sunday, May 20 at 1pm (before the 2pm performance of The Women Who Mapped the Stars) for a pre-show panel with Lynn Redding Carlson, Daina Bouquin, and Lindsay Smith Zrull.

Lynn Redding Carlson is an astrophysicist who has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Netherlands, France, and the U.S., and is interested in alternative and interdisciplinary approaches to astronomy education. She completed her PhD in Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University with research through the Space Telescope Science Institute. Throughout her career, Dr. Carlson has harbored an interest in women’s studies and the often-underestimated role that women have played in building our understanding of the Universe. This spring, she developed and taught “The Universe: Illuminated by Women” through the Tufts University Experimental College. Set against the backdrop of women’s evolving roles in society, the course provided the scientific background to understand astronomical innovations made by women and what these discoveries meant. Dr. Carlson also teaches introductory astronomy and mathematics courses at Lasell College.

Daina Bouquin is the Head Librarian at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. At the CfA, she primarily focuses on lowering social and technical barriers that impact the astronomy community’s ability to create and share their work. Some of her specific topics of interest include open science, research software preservation, machine learning, and the history of astronomy. You can find more of her recent work in these areas on Github and ORCiD. Originally from Buffalo, NY, she currently live in Melrose, MA with her husband and three blind cats. She holds a MS in Data Analytics in addition to an MLIS. She is a member of the Henry David Thoreau Zen Sangha of Boundless Way Zen. She enjoys year-round ocean swimming and being outside.

Lindsay Smith Zrull is the Curator of Astronomical Photographs at the Harvard College Observatory. In addition to giving historical tours of the observatory and caring for Harvard’s 500,000 astronomical glass plate photographs, she runs the daily operations for the DASCH Project (Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard). Smith Zrull is passionate about the groundbreaking work women accomplished in past centuries and she enjoys speaking with the public about Harvard Observatory’s historic women computers and astronomers.
You can find more information about the glass plate collection at our website (platestacks.cfa.harvard.edu) and on Twitter (@DASCHdesk).