Queen's Space Conference

Something New Under The Sun || February 4th - 6th

About

What is QSC?

The conference is centered around a series of exciting talks, innovative workshops, and networking opportunities. We strive to bring together industry professionals in order to provide delegates with the most informative, inspiring, and memorable conference possible. QSC is about sparking thought and idea-generation, raising awareness of the space industry, and piquing the interest in space for the future generation.

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Something New Under The Sun

Lots is changing rapidly in the field of space. This years QSC conference theme is covering everything new happening happening under the sun! Our Speakers will discuss new innovations in the industry and make connections with attendees.

QSC Taster

Looking to learn more about QSC? Come to our taster at Clark Hall Pub November 30th at 6:30 pm for a talk from Tony Noble.

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased here.

Engineering Society Bursary Application here

Presenting This Years Speakers:

Dr. Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson is a theoretical astronomer who has helped pioneer the study of extreme magnetism in the universe. The sky is constantly dynamic and evolving when observed in the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, X-rays and gamma-rays. These observations must be performed in space, outside the protective blanket of the Earth's atmosphere. Key advances have been carried out by space missions launched by NASA, ESA, JAXA, and ISRO. Many lines ofevidence now connectthis dynamic behavior withneutron starsand black holes that are threaded by magnetic fields a quadrillion times stronger than the Earth's field. Astrophysicists like Thompson investigate cosmic phenomena using laws of physics that are already well established (for the most part) but have dramatic implications when applied to the wider universe. Thompson is Canadian; he received his Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton University in 1988 and has been a Professor at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics since 2000. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was co-awarded the Bruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society in 2003 for his work on magnetars.

Dr. Samara Pillay

Dr. Samara Pillay is an AI Specialist at Mission Control, a company that makes software for the Earth, Moon and Mars, where she develops AI and autonomous capabilities for space exploration and robotics. A physicist and mathematician by training, she cultivated an analytical mindset and expertise in predictive modeling; skills she has applied throughout her career, across disciplines, roles, and industries, including biotech, tech and banking. Her research interests have spanned black holes and nuclear astrophysics. She completed a PhD at the University of Oxford and has since specialized in product innovation and business strategy for analytics-based products. By exploring the boundaries of knowledge, that which we do not know, she hopes to contribute to solving pressing problems in space exploration and space situational awareness.

Dr. Greg Wade

Dr. Wade investigates the structure, evolution, origin and impact of magnetic fields in stars. His research concentrates on intermediate and high mass stars, which are the evolutionary progenitors of most white dwarfs, neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes. His current research aims at understanding the origin of and evolution of magnetic fields in stars; the role of magnetic fields in generating spectroscopic activity and in mediating accretion in late stellar formative stages; the interaction of magnetic fields and stellar winds; the factors influencing stellar rotational angular momentum; and the ultimate impact of internal and external magnetic fields on stellar evolution. Dr. Wade is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Magnetism in Massive Stars (MiMeS) collaboration, co-PI of the Binarity and Magnetic Interactions in Stars (BinaMIcS) project, and past-Chair of the international BRITE Executive Science Team for the Bright Target Explorer (BRITE) Constellation mission.

Dr. Will Percival

Prof Will Percival is the Director of the Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, holds the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Distinguished Chair in Astrophysics at the University of Waterloo, and is an Associate Faculty member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Prof Percival is a cosmologist working primarily on galaxy surveys, using the positions of galaxies to measure the cosmological expansion rate and growth of cosmological structure. He has published over 300 papers and articles in the field of cosmology over the last 23 years. He holds senior scientific management positions within two ongoing scientific experiments: the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and European Space Agency-led Euclid satellite mission. Euclid is scheduled to launch in 2023 using a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher, and travel to L2, the second Lagrange point in the Earth-Sun system. For six years it will take data, performing a survey of the Universe to measure the cosmological expansion rate and the growth of structure within it. The resulting constraints will transform our knowledge of dark energy, the physical mechanism accelerating the present-day cosmological expansion rate. DESI is a ground-based experiment observing the more-local Universe and is highly complementary to the Euclid mission.

Dr. Jean Depuis

Dr. Jean Dupuis is a senior mission scientist in space astronomy at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). He is currently the CSA mission manager for the James Webb Space Telescope and is an astrophysicist by training. After receiving his PhD from the Université de Montréal, he spent many years in the United States working at Dartmouth College (NSERC postdoctoral fellowship), the University of California at Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins University as a scientist for space astronomy missions (Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer; Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Explorer). He returned to Canada in 2005 to join the CSA, where he has worked on the development of the Webb Telescope and other space astronomy projects such as Herschel, Planck and AstroSat. In his spare time, he enjoys being in nature, playing guitar, and participating in various sports such as fencing and running.

Dr. Kristin Spekkens

Dr. Kristine Spekkens is a professor in the Department of Physics and Space Science at RMC and is cross appointed in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy at Queen's University. She leads a research group at RMC and Queen's that is focused on understanding the structure and evolution of nearby galaxies through deep multi-wavelength observations, and she is particularly interested in using their atomic gas reservoirs as a cosmological probe. Dr. Spekkens leads a variety of initiatives to survey atomic gas in nearby galaxies using the biggest radio telescopes in the world; she is also the Canadian Science Director for the billion-dollar SKA telescope, that is currently under construction that that will revolutionize our view of the radio sky.

William Mackey

Bill Mackey began his 30+year career in space exploration at Spar Aerospace Ltd (now MDA -Brampton) as a systems engineer responsible for the Mobile Servicing System architecture and the user interface for the Canadarm2 and Dextre robotic systems on the International Space Station (ISS).Bill joined the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) after 12 years with Spar as a member of the first Canadian Flight Control Team at NASA’s Johnson Spaceflight Center (JSC) and soon became the lead Mission Team Manager for CSA and eventually the head of the CSA Liaison Office at JSC. Bill was honored with the privilege of giving the ‘Go for Launch’ call as the international partner representative for Canada for 28 Shuttle assembly flights of the ISS during his 13-year posting in Houston. Bill then became the Counselor for Canadian-U.S. Space Affairs at the Embassy of Canada in Washington D.C. for 5 years before returning to CSA Headquarters in Montreal where he was responsible for evaluating options for the next major Canadian flagship contributions to international space exploration initiatives. Bill is currently a casual employee with the CSA Space Exploration Strategic Planning team as a senior advisor on future space exploration contributions; commercialization and technology transfer opportunities pertaining to the international lunar exploration campaign. Bill holds a BSc degree (Human Kinetics) from the University of Guelph and an MSc degree (Ergonomics –Mechanical Engineering) from the University of London, England. Bill will speak to us on CSA initiatives supporting International (Human and Robotic) Space Exploration–Past, Present and Future.

Schedule

Conference Schedule:

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Delegate Handbook:

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The QSC 2023 Sponsors

A special thanks to all of our sponsors who are helping make QSC 2023 possible.

Interested In Sponsoring QSC 2023?

Sponsoring QSC 2022 brings you lots of great benefits! Please email any one of us listed in the sponsorship package. Click the document below to download the package. We can't wait to meet you!