Part of the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture in the Natural Sciences, UWM welcomes Michelle Thaller to campus. Learn how discoveries made by largely overlooked women led to our current understanding of dead stars, dark matter, and the end of everything.

Waukesha native Michelle Thaller is an astrophysicist and the assistant director for science communicat at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Her passion for making science interesting, fun, inspiring and accessible to the public combined with her dynamic speaking sktills make her a frequent guest for news programs, the Science Channel, the History Channel and TED talks.

Her educational background in astrophysics (bachelor’s degree from Harvard and PhD from Georgia State) make her the ideal liaison between science and storytelling. She is the co-author os 111 Places in Space You Must Not Miss and earlier in her career was a science columnist at the Science Christian Monitor.

Michelle will be introduced by Darian Dixon. Darian graduated from Riverside High School in Milwaukee and earned his bachelor’s degree in Geosciences from UWM. Following graduation he worked as a Mission Operations Specialist with Malin Space Science Systems Inc., a NASA contractor. His projects included the Perseverance Mars rover and the Curiosity Mars rover. He returned to UWM in Fall 2022 to begin working on his PhD in Geosciences.

This lecture is designed for all with scientific curiosity! We especially encourage families with children ages 10 and up, school groups, and youth groups to attend!