The new director of Western University’s Earth and Space Exploration institute plans to push further into more space specialties while continuing to boost mentorship for young researchers and students.
Sarah Gallagher, a long-time physics and astronomy professor who also serves as a science advisor to the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), was recently named director. She succeeds Western Space’s acting director Gordon (Oz) Osinski, a geologist who also led the institute’s predecessor, the Centre for Planetary Space and Exploration.
“I feel right now Western space has a reputation, well deserved, for planetary science because that’s where the institute started,” Gallagher said in a SpaceQ interview. “There’s a lot of exciting things happen with the exploration of the Moon … and that’s a strength that we’re going to continue to build on for sure.”
She cited changes in the Canadian space community in recent years adding on to that strength, such as the CSA’s commitment to join NASA’s Artemis program to eventually land humans on the Moon, and the ongoing agency Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP) in which companies and researchers may land lunar payloads in the coming years. Additionally, Osinski is among the Canadian scientists helping astronauts with geology training to get ready for Moon exploration.
Gallagher, however, also foresees opportunity in expanding Western’s participation in other space work while still keeping a strong focus on planetary science, for the institute’s 30 to 100 students (it’s hard to put them into firm categories due to the multidisciplinary nature of the research). For example, “big data” coming from large-scale astronomy in research – Gallagher herself is a quasar scientist – is something she is excited to pursue. She also foresees avenues for Earth observations in which Western can get involved.
“Companies are springing up like mushrooms who are interested in taking advantage of all the beautiful publicly available data, and developing applications and using that information for things like worrying about food security and climate change,” she said, specifically citing Canada’s long-running expertise in SAR (synthetic aperture radar) observations from space as one possible avenue to pursue.
The institute has the unique challenge of being so multidisciplinary that much of its 60 participating faculty wear multiple hats and perform research in different domains. Gallagher said this cross-sector expertise allows Western scientists to “take on big, big challenges,” including engineering faculty working on CubeSats and wearable robotics, geographers who use data for agriculture, or health researchers who study the psychological challenges of isolation in space and remote areas on Earth.
As for domains that more closely focus on space, Gallagher cited expertise in planetary science, astronomy, space law, space resources and a newer segment concerning the ethics and philosophy of space. Post-doctoral and senior graduate students often find themselves working on hands-on research opportunities such as early planning for the James Webb Space Telescope that may launch this year, doing internships at local companies, performing field expeditions, engaging in science communication (especially with the surrounding community of London, Ont.) and conference planning.
Some of Western’s recent outreach activities to attract more students and to talk with younger age groups include space camps and public nights at The Hume Cronyn Memorial Observatory, although some necessary public safety modifications were made following the eruption of the global COVID pandemic in March 2020.
Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is also a strong part of Gallagher’s mandate – “we want to have a diverse body of students and we want to support them in the way that makes sense, given their lived experience.” Gallagher, a woman, also says she is open with the students about challenges she faced over the years, including moments where she herself “dropped balls.”
“I think part of it is talking explicitly about the tools and the skills and the practices that people can develop to be successful in an environment that can hard for everybody, right?” Gallagher said, citing the fields Western Space students take on – such as physics and quantum mechanics – as often not intuitive at first glance.
“That’s normal. That struggle is going to be normal. Then for some people, it’s even harder depending on their personal experience and where they’re coming from. It’s important to be empathetic, but I think I also want to give people agency and just remind them, you can do some you can do things to [get] help. I tell students, build your network, ask for help, find other ways to do things.”
Gallagher also acknowledged that many students may find themselves as the only person who is a particular gender, or embodying a particular background, in a room full of other people – indeed, she has faced that herself in situations as the only woman in a group otherwise made up by men. “That’s going to be something that if you’re prepared for it, it’s easier to handle than if you’re not … there really are challenges, but we try to be open about the fact that there’s all different parts of trying to work in this domain that can be challenging. You try to give people tools so that they can be successful.”
In her own research, Gallagher co-wrote a 2017 white paper on space exploration called “A Vision for Canadian Space Exploration.” She serves as the lead for the supermassive black hole science team for a proposed Canadian space observatory called CASTOR (Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and UV Research). She also co-published an Astrophysical Research Journal paper in 2020 charting the most powerful wind outflow yet measured from a black hole.
Gallagher added that her new position will be a challenge, but an exciting one, and that her support network will be strong. “The work that’s been done by the by the leadership team to build Western Space is really essential for going forward, so I’m really grateful to them.”