Speaker Meeting Dr Sheila Kanani (Royal Astronomical Society)

Dr Sheila Kanani 
Royal Astronomical Society
Ogden Science Officer
shelia.kanani@ogdentrust.com
A planetary physicist, science presenter, secondary school physics teacher and space comedienne with a background in astrophysics and astronomy research from UK universities. Her experience includes being an ambassador of science, public speaking, events organisation, science journalism and school visits. Sheila provides space science consultancy on various levels, including for television, print and web media. She has taught physics to wide audiences; from teenagers who attended Space School UK in Leicester to qualified pharmacists in Kerala, India.

Sheila is a Londoner by birth but a space cadet in her heart! From the age of 13 she knew that space was the inspiring force behind most of her decisions. Her route through life has been interesting and varied, including gap years doing voluntary work in Mexico and Peru and astrophysics in the outback of Australia. Sheila has an Honours degree in Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Manchester and a PhD in Planetary and Plasma Physics from UCL.

She attended Space School UK as a student and was chosen to represent the UK at space camps in Alabama, USA and Moscow, Russia. Her research has taken her to the famous Jodrell Bank Observatory, an Australian telescope facility searching for exoplanets in Sydney and to an old mansion in Surrey where she used the Cassini spacecraft to study the Lord of the Rings, Saturn.

Sheila is hoping to use the inspiring qualities of space science to enthuse future scientists, engineers and mathematicians and thus spent time as an Ogden Teacher Fellow in a secondary school teacher in Preston, Lancashire, teaching science and physics to 9-16 year olds. She is now a Ogden Science Officer as part of her role as Education, Outreach and Diversity Officer at the Royal Astronomical Society.

She has provided space education consultancy and presented for Imperative Space/GovEd and Venture Thinking and is the marketing manager and journalist for Spacelink Learning Foundation. She is also on the British Interplanetary Society’s Project Icarus outreach team, in charge of e-interviews and science journalism. Sheila is one of the faces and a member of the ‘Science Grrl’ initiative, which began as a 2013 calendar showing the ‘real face of female science’ and has since flourished.

She teaches and mentors at Space School UK, is STEM ambassador for science and enjoys visiting schools, giving talks and workshops, and inspiring future astronauts of any age! She was chosen to represent the science ambassadors on Teacher’s TV and has subsequently been in more educational programs and podcasts, recently making the front page of the Guardian website with a new video about Saturn and the Solar System. She has a keen interest in science comedy in pubs, theatres and science festivals and has performed with Helen Keen, Robin Ince and Helen Arney.

Sheila is a world (and one day space) traveller, a lover of good music (she plays the jazz saxophone), a dancer (modern tap) and an advocate for anything vampire related.

Follow her on Twitter @saturnsheila