Dr Meganne Christian joins us on the evening of Wednesday 30th April to give a talk entitled “From Antarctica to Space”.
Meganne Christian will recount the experiences that led her to be selected as a member of the European Space Agency astronaut reserve, from materials science studies in microgravity to a year working at Concordia Station in Antarctica, one of the most remote places on Earth, also known as “White Mars”. She will describe her experiences of the tough selection process, the training so far, and the work she is doing on future space stations at the UK Space Agency.
Please book to reserve your seat as we suspect this one is going to be very popular.
This talk is being held at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution for members and those interested in astronomy/stargazing.
The venue address 16-18 Queen Square, Bath.
Doors open at 7:15pm. The event commences at 7:30pm with an introduction and update of what is going on in the society and the night sky before handing over to the speaker.
About Meganne Christian
Meganne studied at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and graduated in 2009 with a Bachelor of Engineering in industrial chemistry receiving a final grade of Honours Class 1. During her studies she undertook several internships at chemical industries where she worked on optimising and troubleshooting water treatment processes. From 2010 to 2014 she completed her Doctorate at the University of New South Wales and received her PhD in industrial chemistry with several scholarships such as the University of New South Wales Research Excellence Award. The topic of her thesis was “Core-shell borohydrides for reversible hydrogen storage” where she investigated the design, synthesis and advanced characterisation of nanomaterials for hydrogen storage applications. Both during her studies and after graduation, she received several national awards for outstanding research in the field of engineering and industrial chemistry. Meganne is currently working as exploration commercialisation lead for the UK Space Agency.In addition to being fluent in English, Italian and French, Meganne also speaks Japanese.
From 2018 to 2019, Meganne served as a winter-over scientist at the Concordia station in Antarctica for the national research council of Italy, and the Italian National Antarctic Research Programme. As scientist in charge of atmospheric physics and meteorology at the French-Italian research base, she was responsible for various observatories, including radiation, meteorology, stratospheric lidars, chemical and physical atmospheric aerosols and infrared radiation for Antarctic clouds. She returned to the Concordia Station for a temporary assignment as scientist in charge of the atmospheric physics and meteorology observatories from October 2020 to January 2021. For these expeditions Meganne was also trained in firefighting, medical aid, rescue, and survival in extreme conditions. She participated in biomedical research run by ESA and various public activities to report about her experiences and activities during the winter-over.
Between 2014 and 2022, Meganne worked as a research fellow and subsequently staff researcher at the Institute of Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity and the Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems in Bologna, Italy, as part of the EU scientific research initiative Graphene Flagship. During this time, she took part in two parabolic flight campaigns in 2017 and 2021 to test graphene coatings for thermal management in satellites. She successfully issued further articles and award-winning publications and served as ambassador for Graphene Flagship initiatives. From 2021, Meganne was a lecturer on Problem Solving and Decision Making for businesses, as well as a researcher for the National Research Council of Italy in Bologna, Italy. She is also a start-up founder and CEO of a UK company cultivating technologies for the benefit of humankind.
Meganne’s favourite sports include climbing, white-water rafting, and scuba diving. She holds a black belt in Hapkido and enjoys crafts such as sewing, knitting and crochet. Furthermore, Meganne is an avid singer and active in multiple choirs, where she has also acted as board member and assistant choreographer.
In November 2022, Meganne was selected as a member of the ESA astronaut reserve. In January 2025, she began the first, of three, two-month Astronaut Reserve Training (ART) programmes at ESA’s European Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany.