Advisory Board

Dr. Pamela L. Gay

Pamela L. Gay, Ph.D. is an astronomer, writer, and podcaster focused on using new media to engage people in science and technology.
 
Her most well known project is Astronomy Cast, a podcast she co-hosts with Fraser Cain (Producer of Universe Today). Each week, Pamela and Fraser work to take their listeners on a facts-based journey through the cosmos that explores not only what we know about the universe, but how we know it. They are now entering our sixth year of production, and thanks to the constant new discoveries coming out of the Space Science communities, they have no plans stop recording any time soon.
 
Prior to working on Astronomy Cast, Pamela and fellow Slackers Aaron Price and Travis Searle worked on Slacker Astronomy, the first podcast devoted explicitly to astronomy. Slacker Astronomy was the reason for science becoming a distinct genre in podcast directories. Launching in February 2005, Slacker Astronomy ran for over a year. Parodying everything from the opening to ABC’s Monday Night Football and the theme to Green Acres, Slacker Astronomy combined off-beat humor with hard-core science. Off-air, they produced the first peer-reviewed papers on what it takes to make a podcast and find out who is listening. (Astronomy Cast and collaborators have followed up with three more papers.)
 
In addition to podcasting, she also works to communicate astronomy to the public through her blog, through frequent public talks, and through popular articles. Her writing has appeared in Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, and Lightspeed magazines.
 
A public school kid through and through, Pamela earned her B.S. in Astrophysics from Michigan State University in 1996 and her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Texas in 2002. Today, she teaches at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Although her first research love was and remains variable stars (she even serves on the council of the American Association of Variable Star Astronomers), she has committed scientific adultery more than once to steal moments for exploring the secrets of galaxy evolution. Today, along with her astronomy science research, she also focuses her efforts (the majority of her efforts really) on engaging the public in doing science through CosmoQuest.
 
Watch Dr. Pamela Gay — “Make the World Better (Ask if Anyone Minds Later)” and TAM Panel — Our Future in Space. Watch her YouTube channel. View her Facebook page and her Flickr photostream. Read her her LinkedIn profile, her NASA profile, and her Wikipedia profile. Follow her Twitter feed.