Research & Media Workshop: Co-hosted by the Rotman Institute & the Space Institute
4 March 2026, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm EST
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Join the Rotman Institute of Philosophy and the Institute for Earth & Space’s Research & Media Workshop!
Who: Western University research community
When: Wednesday, March 4th, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
Where: D.B. Weldon Library, SCHOLAR’S SQUARE
Speakers:
- Sarah Gallagher, Director, Institute for Earth & Space Exploration; Professor, Physics & Astronomy
- Gordon Osinski, Professor, Department of Earth Sciences
- Maxwell Smith, Associate Director, Rotman Institute of Philosophy; Associate Professor, School of Health Studies
- Luke Stark, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies
- Crystal Mackay (and team), Media Relations, Western University
This workshop, jointly hosted by the Rotman Institute of Philosophy and Western Space, focuses on strengthening academics’ engagement with media and journalists. The workshop will bring together scholars from both institutes alongside an expert from Western University’s Media Relations team to discuss experiences and tips as they relate to engaging with the media. The workshop will involve an exploration of what academics should know before engaging with journalists, practical do’s and don’ts, and common challenges and misconceptions. The conversation will also explore the value proposition of media engagement—for research impact, public understanding, and academic life more broadly.
Questions? Reach out! Contact us at rotman.institute@uwo.ca
Dr. Sarah Gallagher
Director, Institute for Earth & Space Exploration; Professor, Physics and Astronomy
Dr. Sarah Gallagher is a professor of Physics and Astronomy and the Director of the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration at Western University. Her astrophysics research focuses on studying growing supermassive black holes at the centres of distant galaxies and the interactions between galaxies in crowded environments. She has over 100 refereed papers that include data from 10 different space observatories, and her research has been recognized with an Ontario Early Career Researcher Award and a Western University Faculty Scholar Award. From 2018-2022, she served as the first Science Advisor to the President of the Canadian Space Agency. In this role, she advised the CSA Executive Committee on space science investments and capacity development and sat on the Departmental Science Advisor Network. She was a co-founder of the pan-Canadian CanCOVID research network, set up to connect the research community in response to the global pandemic. This work was recognized with the Purvis Memorial Award by the Society of Chemical Industry. She regularly speaks to the public of all ages about black holes, space, and equity and inclusion in the space sector.
Dr. Gordon Osinski
Professor, Department of Earth Science
Dr. Osinski’s research interests are diverse and interdisciplinary in nature. His work synthesizes field, remote sensing, and laboratory observations with a range of geochemical data. His current research falls into three main areas: planetary geology, astrobiology, and economic geology. Meteorite impact craters provide a common cross-cutting theme. He approaches planetary geology with the fundamental view that interpretations of other planetary bodies must begin by using the Earth as a reference and fieldwork forms the basis for much of his research. He has conducted fieldwork on 6 continents, from Antarctica to Africa, but the Canadian Arctic is where much of his work takes place.
Dr. Osinski is also involved in several past and ongoing planetary exploration-related activities. He is a Co-I on the PanCam instrument on the European ExoMars mission to Mars and in November 2022 was named as PI of the Canadian Lunar Rover Mission – Canada’s first ever rover mission to the Moon. Dr. Osinski is also involved in providing geology training to Canadian and US astronauts. In September 2023 he was named to be part of the Geology Team for the Artemis III mission, the first mission to return to the Moon in over 50 years.
Dr. Dan Lizotte
Associate Director, Rotman Institute of Philosophy; Associate Professor, School of Health Studies
Dr. Maxwell Smith is a bioethicist, Assistant Professor, and Western Research Chair in Public Health Ethics in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. He also serves as an Associate Director of the Rotman Institute of Philosophy and has appointments in the Department of Philosophy, Schulich Interfaculty Program in Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Centre for Research on Health Equity and Social Inclusion, and Institute for Earth and Space Exploration. Professor Smith’s research is primarily in the area of public health ethics, with a focus on infectious disease ethics and the ethical demands that health equity and social justice place on governments and institutions to protect and promote the public’s health.
Dr. Luke Stark
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Information & Media Studies
Luke Stark researches the ethical, historical, and social impacts of computational technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). He is particularly animated by how these technologies mediate social and emotional expression, and are reshaping, for better and worse, our relationships to labor, collective action, and each other.
His current book project, Ordering Emotion: Histories of Computing and Human Feelings from Cybernetics to AI, is a history of affective computing and the digital quantification of human emotion, from 1950s cybernetics to today’s social media platforms.
Before joining FIMS, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics (FATE) Group at Microsoft Research Montreal; a Fellow and an Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Dartmouth College. His PhD is from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, and his BA & MA are from the University of Toronto.