lecturer, Physics Department
Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, United States
Diane’s research focuses on measuring the light of cities with drones, aircraft, satellites, and astronauts aboard the International Space Station for use in designing ordinances for the reduction of light pollution, for example, Pittsburgh’s 2021 Dark Sky Ordinances. She earned an International Dark Sky Association’s Defender Award and founded the Pennsylvania chapter of IDA. She has given over one hundred light pollution talks (including one for TEDxPittsburgh), curated a series of space art galleries, and is the editor of the genre anthology Triangulation: Dark Skies with twenty-one starry night short stories. She has recently been interviewed by the New York Times, PBSNewsHour, NPR Morning Edition, Canada One Radio, Chinese Global Television Network, Newsy.com, NBC, Sky & Telescope, and dozens more news outlets worldwide.
Diane started teaching astronomy and doing community engagement in Pittsburgh in 1981, where she coordinates the long-standing astronomy lecture series at Pitt’s Allegheny Observatory. She instituted a summer CMU light pollution undergraduate research class called SKYGLOW and hosted a CMU Dark Skies Conference. She is an organizing committee member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) B7–Inter-Division B-C Commission Protection of Existing and Potential Observatory Sites and is co-editing the proceedings from the 2022 IAU Focus Meeting, “Towards a World Standard for Dark and Quiet Sky Protection.” She will be a plenary speaker at the upcoming Artificial Light at Night Conference in Calgary, Canada in August 2023. dianeturnshek.com
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Saturday, December 10, 2022
9:50 AM – 10:40 AM PT