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Dr Kanani Sheila
Team Chair and Contact Person, NAEC team - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)
Royal Astronomical Society
skananiatras.ac.uk
Dr Sheila Kanani is a planetary physicist, science presenter, secondary school physics teacher, space comedian and published author, with a background in astrophysics and astronomy research from UK universities. She regularly acts as a science ambassador.
Appointed as NAEC until: Aug. 1, 2027
Team Chair and Contact Person, NAEC team - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)
Royal Astronomical Society
skananiatras.ac.uk
Dr Sheila Kanani is a planetary physicist, science presenter, secondary school physics teacher, space comedian and published author, with a background in astrophysics and astronomy research from UK universities. She regularly acts as a science ambassador.
Appointed as NAEC until: Aug. 1, 2027
Dr Nicola Loaring
Team Member, NAEC team - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)
Tauton School, Somerset
Nicola works as a Physics Teacher at Taunton School where she runs the senior school Astronomy Club. She has been teaching for five years in the UK, including a brief stint as a school based physics coach for the Institute of Physics in the South West of England. Post COVID she hopes to take on a lead educator role for the National Space Academy.
Prior to school teaching, Nicola worked as a research astronomer in survey science. She completed her PhD at Oxford University before moving to the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL, as a research fellow. In 2005, Nicola moved to South Africa where she lived for ten years. Initially employed as a SALT astronomer, she later moved into astronomy outreach as the South African Astronomical Observatory’s Outreach Astronomer. While in South Africa, she lectured at the University of Cape Town on the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP), an initiative set up to train South African and other African students at Honours and Master’s levels.
In addition to public outreach and media work, Nicola was heavily involved teacher training while in South Africa. She worked with Siyavula, an open education company, on behalf of the Department of Basic Education to deliver astronomy curriculum training for teachers and teacher trainers across South Africa. She also produced educational resources and co-authored open-source textbooks formally adopted by schools in South Africa.
Appointed as NAEC until: Aug. 1, 2027
Team Member, NAEC team - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)
Tauton School, Somerset
Nicola works as a Physics Teacher at Taunton School where she runs the senior school Astronomy Club. She has been teaching for five years in the UK, including a brief stint as a school based physics coach for the Institute of Physics in the South West of England. Post COVID she hopes to take on a lead educator role for the National Space Academy.
Prior to school teaching, Nicola worked as a research astronomer in survey science. She completed her PhD at Oxford University before moving to the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL, as a research fellow. In 2005, Nicola moved to South Africa where she lived for ten years. Initially employed as a SALT astronomer, she later moved into astronomy outreach as the South African Astronomical Observatory’s Outreach Astronomer. While in South Africa, she lectured at the University of Cape Town on the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP), an initiative set up to train South African and other African students at Honours and Master’s levels.
In addition to public outreach and media work, Nicola was heavily involved teacher training while in South Africa. She worked with Siyavula, an open education company, on behalf of the Department of Basic Education to deliver astronomy curriculum training for teachers and teacher trainers across South Africa. She also produced educational resources and co-authored open-source textbooks formally adopted by schools in South Africa.
Appointed as NAEC until: Aug. 1, 2027
Prof Andy Newsam
Team Member, NAEC team - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)
Liverpool John Moores University
Andy Newsam is Professor of Astronomy Education and Engagement at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). After studying cosmology at Glasgow University, and working as an observational astronomer at the University of Southampton, he joined LJMU in 1998 to help set up the educational arm of the Liverpool Telescope, which later became the National Schools' Observatory, one of the largest astronomy education projects in the world. As well as astronomical research and education he is a keen science communicator, giving talks to many thousands of schoolchildren, amateur astronomers and the general public throughout the UK and beyond, as well as working with artists of all kinds on new ways - from show gardens to street theatre - to bring the delights of astronomy to as many people as possible.
Appointed as NAEC until: Aug. 1, 2027
Team Member, NAEC team - The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)
Liverpool John Moores University
Andy Newsam is Professor of Astronomy Education and Engagement at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). After studying cosmology at Glasgow University, and working as an observational astronomer at the University of Southampton, he joined LJMU in 1998 to help set up the educational arm of the Liverpool Telescope, which later became the National Schools' Observatory, one of the largest astronomy education projects in the world. As well as astronomical research and education he is a keen science communicator, giving talks to many thousands of schoolchildren, amateur astronomers and the general public throughout the UK and beyond, as well as working with artists of all kinds on new ways - from show gardens to street theatre - to bring the delights of astronomy to as many people as possible.
Appointed as NAEC until: Aug. 1, 2027
Contact
To get in touch with the NAEC team for The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) please contact:
Dr Kanani Sheila via skananiatras.ac.uk
Astronomy Education in The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK)
For more information on Astronomy Education in The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), see the Astronomy Education in The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) document (PDF file 838.69 kB Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) icons) prepared by our NAEC team
The Office of Astronomy for Education is hosted by the Haus der Astronomie on the campus of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. The Office of Astronomy for Education is an office of the International Astronomical Union, with substantial funding from the Klaus Tschira Foundation and the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The Shaw-IAU Workshops on Astronomy for Education are funded by the Shaw Prize Foundation.
