Biography
Lisa Will earned her B.S. in Astrophysics from UCLA and her Ph.D. in Physics from Arizona State University. She is a Professor of Astronomy and Physics at San Diego City College.
Dr. Will is also the Resident Astronomer at the Fleet Science Center and the co-host of Astronomy on Tap San Diego. She has researched the nature of dust grains in space and innovations in astronomy education.
Dr. Will is obsessed with Star Wars, the MCU, and Doctor Who and has been a proud geek girl since watching Star Trek and Star Wars as a child. She lives in San Diego with her husband, science fiction and fantasy author Greg van Eekhout, and their dog Dozer.
Web links
Twitter: @dustchick
2021 article about Lisa Will from the San Diego Union-Tribune: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/name-drop-san-diego/story/2021-11-02/lisa-will-san-diego-city-college-fleet-science-center
Astronomy on Tap San Diego on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AstroOnTapSanDiego
Astronomy on Tap San Diego on Twitter: @AoTSD
Presentation
“Losing the Sky: How Satellite Megaconstellations Threaten Astronomy”
Research in astronomy depends on astronomers being able to view the heavens with ground-based telescopes, which have capabilities that space telescopes cannot match. Unfortunately, hundreds of new communications satellites placed in orbit by companies such as SpaceX are literally “photobombing” astronomers’ images as they streak across the sky. Dr. Will’s nontechnical talk will explain how these satellite “megaconstellations” pose a serious threat to progress in astronomy, and whether a solution to the problem is possible.