Dr. Erin Mcdonald, an astrophysicist, aerospace engineer, and science fiction consultant who has served as the science adviser for the Star Trek franchise since 2019, will speak at University of the Ozarks on Thursday, April 4, in the Rogers Conference Center.
The event begins at 7 p.m. and is part of the University’s 2023-24 Walton Arts & Ideas Series. There is no cost for admission and the public is invited to attend.
Described as a “tattooed one-woman STEM career panel,” Macdonald was recognized as a researcher, speaker, engineer, and consultant before her current career. She lives in Los Angeles working as a writer and producer and is currently the science consultant for the entire Star Trek franchise.
Her lecture is titled, “Representation Matters: How STEM in TV and Movies led me to Hollywood.” This personal journey will take the audience through Macdonald’s varied career, “teaching that passion and seeing yourself represented can be a guiding light as you find your path.”
Macdonald hails from Fort Collins, Colo. and did her undergraduate degrees in physics with astrophysics and mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received her Ph.D. at 25 years old in astrophysics at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, doing research into gravitational waves as a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.
After leaving research in 2014, she continued to teach at local community colleges and pursued informal education at museums and popular science fiction conventions.
Life took her to Los Angeles where she began speaking at official Star Trek events and working as a science consultant for the entertainment industry. In 2019 she was hired as the official science consultant for the ever-expanding Star Trek Universe and is currently working on all shows in development. She discovered a skill and passion for writing as well as consulting and currently has multiple projects in development.
She also wrote the children’s book Star Trek: My First Book of Space released in 2022. She is the founder and CEO of Spacetime Productions, a production company dedicated to lifting marginalized voices and providing opportunity in traditionally under-represented genre stories.
Macdonald is an internationally sought-after public speaker, educator, STEM advocate, writer, and technical consultant who explains complex physics and astronomy ideas to varied audiences. She credits her interest in becoming an astrophysicist to her love of the character Dana Scully from The X-Files, her favorite show growing up.
Topics: WAIS