Explorer Club

Tiera Fletcher, NASA Rocket Engineer

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Tiera Fletcher’s job is to figure out how to send people to Mars. She is a rocket engineer who graduated from MIT in 2017 and works for Boeing on the Space Launch System for NASA.

Patricia Moore, NASA Artemis Mission

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During the Artemis Mission, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the moon. Learn how we will NASA will use innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before from Patricia Moore, a member the Artemis Mission communication team.

Yellowstone National Park Service

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Yellowstone National Park is famous for Old Faithful, a geyser that erupts regularly, with intervals typically ranging from 44 minutes to two hours. Learn more about this park’s geothermal features and its amazing wildlife.

Beth McDonald, PRo Kansas Miller Recycling Center

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Dr. Justin Filiberto, Lunar Planetary Institute

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Learn about volcanoes on Venus with Justin Filiberto, a planetary petrologist and geochemist.

Jean-Jacques Hublin, Paleoanthropologist

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Dr. Hublin is a French paleoanthropologist based at the Max Planck Institute for evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He is known for his work on the Neandertals and early Homo sapiens.

Todd Barber, NASA Propulsion Engineer

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From Wichita to NASA! Todd Barber, a graduate of Wichita Southeast High School, is a propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His other passion besides science is music, and he is a published composer. Barber majored in aerospace engineering and minored in music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Seth Zenz, European Organization for Nuclear Research

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Seth Zenz is an American working in particle physics at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr. Kevin Wilson, Death Valley National Park

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Kevin Wilson is an aquatic ecologist who manages the Devils Hole research program at Death Valley National Park, which is the hottest, driest and lowest national park.

Dr. Julie Stopar, Lunar Reconnaissance Oribiter Mission

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Julie Stopar has spent more than a decade involved in the science and oeprations of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, which collects data to help plan future exploration of the moon’s surface.

Matt Goodson, VP/Business Lead – Primary Turkey, Cargill Protein

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Let’s talk turkey. Matt Goodson deals with turkey as a retail product in his job, but the topic he will explore with you is the emerging field of regenerative protein.

Shea Zuckerman, Director, Career and Tech Ed. STEM Lab

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Shea Zuckerman leads the FutureMaker team at WSUTech as the Director of CTE and STEM Engagement. Learn how drones fly and what it takes to become a drone pilot.

Josh Wurman, Meteorologist

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Josh Wurman is best known as the scientest on Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers series. He is passionate about tornadoes, and he would love to give your toughest questions a whirl.

Dustin Wilgers Ph. D. – Associate Professor of Biology, McPherson College

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There’s spidey sense, and then there’s spider sense. These eight-legged arthropods are Dustin Wilgers’ specialty.

Dr. Kady Lyons, Georgia Aquarium

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Elasmobranch biology is Kady Lyons’ specialty. That means the study of sharks, skates and rays. She is a research scienctist at Georgia Aquarium, the largest aquarium in the Western Hemisphere.

Jenny Wang, Mechanical Engineer

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Jenny Wang is interested in applying nonlinear optics and metamaterials theory to superconducting systems. She will discuss particle movement through sound.

Jason Neal, Experimental Operations, Textron Aviation

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The aviation industry is constantly evovling. Jason Neal of Textron Aviation will discuss experimental operations.

Chelsea Yacovazzi, Oklahoma City Coroner’s Office

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Learn about the intersection of science and the law in death investigations. Chelsea Yacovazzi is an experienced forensic chemist whose analyses help the coroner determine causes of death.

James P. Delgado, Ph.D., SEARCH, Inc.

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James Delgado is an expert at maritime archeology, pioneering the U.S. government’s standards for preserving shipwrecks.

Connor & Bauer Lee, Cardboard Superheroes

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Teenagers Connor and Bauer Lee co-founded a nonprofit called Cardboard Superheroes. They spent time at their grandpa’s workplace, which was filled with cardboard boxes. To pass the time, they began making castles, forts, robots and more.

Dr. Derreck Carter-House, Clear Labs Scientist

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With a doctorate in plant pathology, Derreck Carter-House has experimented for many years with plants, fungi and bacteria.

Wendy Sullivan, DreamWorks Story Artist

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Find out what it is like to be a story artist at DreamWorks, the award-winning animation studio responsible for Shrek, Boss Baby and many more.

Dr. Angelo Ricarte, Black Hole Initiative

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Delve into the connection between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies with astrophysicist Angelo Ricarte.

Brandon Ivey, Storm Chaser

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Dr. Kimberly Arcand, Visualization Scientist – NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory

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Dr. Kimberly Arcand is a visualization scientist and science communicator for NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. She is responsible for using the raw binary data received from the space telescope to create astronomical images and animations of Chandra’s new discoveries.

Patricia Moore, NASA Communication Strategist

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NASA educator Patricia Moore will tell you what it is like to live and work in space.

Aubrey Peterson, Physician Assistant

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Dr. Miranda Robbins, Cambridge University Neuroscience

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Teresa Sindelar

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Brandy Hearting, Director of ProOwnership and Pilot at Textron

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Brandy Hearting learned to fly in high school, piloting a Cessna 172 from a small airport in Western Kansas. Now airplanes are her career.

Natalia Guerrero, TESS TOI Manager, MIT-TESS Communications Lead

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Natalia Guerrero’s job is to identify new potential exoplanets. She works at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics on the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) program.

William A. Haseltine PhD

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Mike Everhart, Sternberg Museum of Natural History

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As adjunct curator of paleontology, Mike Everhart helps the Sternberg Museum of National History in Hays tell the story of fossils.

Patrick Ross, Ph. D., Professor of Biology, Southwestern College

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You will be hooked on the fishing tales told by Patrick Ross, who grew up on a fishing resort and has made a career of studying fish behavior. This talk complements National Geographic’s Monster Fish, our summer traveling exhibit.

Dr. Wei Wei, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wichita State University

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Wei Wei’s research interests include advanced materials synthesizing, renewable energy conversion devices, photocatalytic processes for H2 generation and mechanical properties of composite materials.

Kurt Stoner, FBI Special Agent (Retired)

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South Carolina Sea Turtle Rescue Center

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Tracee Friess, National Institute for Aviation Research

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Tony Gondola, New Mexico Museum of Space History

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Stargazers will love hearing from Tony Gondola, outreach coordinator at the New Mexico Museum of Space History, about amateur astronomy.

Greg Monty, Regional Aviation Manager at Air Methods - Pilot

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Rebecca Sellers, Arkansas Water Project

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