EVENTS PORTFOLIO

Nine Lessons and Carols for curious people - King’s Place Theater

Stand-up (7 minutes)

December 2023


Beatrice Tinsley Lecture Tour 2021 — 2nd to 28th February 2022

4 weeks, 10 cities, 12 events, 800 people willing to brave omicron across Aotearoa to learn about Black Holes and Neutron Stars. Thank you all!


TVNZ BREAKFAST SHOW

Live interview (5 minutes)

December 2021

I summarised the recent Nature Astronomy study presenting asteroseismology and polarimetry of Beta Crucis which revealed its stellar interior.

WIBBLY WOBBLY SMASHY CRASHY — STAR Academy

Invited Lecture and Live Q&A (1 hour)

November 2021

In this presentation I talked to 14-18 year olds astronomy passionate students from Puerto Rico about how Neutrons Stars and Black Holes are born and die.

THE NEIGHBOURS OF NEUTRON STARS— Super Collider

Public talk and Live Q&A (1 hour)

September 2021

How can we learn about neutron stars, their mergers, their explosions and their ancestors? One very important piece of the puzzle is to look at their neighbours and to do this we need exceptional observational data and cutting edge computer models.

THE MOST LUMINOUS SUPERNOVAE— Stardome

Public Lecture (1 hour)

August 2021

From birth to death, the life of a star and how it interacts with its companion will have an impact on the beautiful explosion it results in. This public lecture makes accessible to a lay audience some of Auckland’s team most recent results.

WIBBLY WOBBLY SMASHY CRASHY— RASNZ conference 2021

Public Lecture (1 hour)

July 2021

Wibbly Wobbly Smashy Crashy…Or at least that’s how colliding neutron stars and black holes go in my head.

In this presentation I talked about how Neutrons Stars and Black Holes are born, and the most impactful discoveries of LIGO/VIRGO in last 6 years. Suitable to anyone from children to seasoned amateur astronomers.

NINE TO NOON - RADIO NEW ZEALAND

Radio Interview (30 minutes)

June 2021

How stars are born, live and die. An personal interview about my work, my passions and my public facing science communication work.

SKYPE A SCIENTIST - 6th graders

Live Q&A (1 hour)

May 2021

Kids have the best questions. This time one of them asked me: “How much water would it take to put the sun out?”

ARTSCIENCE MONTHLY - CURIOUS MINDS

Live Talk + Event (2 hours)

May 2021

As a guest on this month’s Curious Minds event I got to give a brand new thought provoking talk titled “Follow Your Curiosity” about my work, my motivations as a scientist and the place of science in our society.

SOUTHERN SKY LIVE STREAM

Live Show and Q&A (1hour)

April 2021

With the live feed from the Sydney Observatory telescope and couple of slide with HST pictures I went live to take the viewers on a journey to explore the lives and deaths of stars!

MANUREWA HIGHSCHOOL

Talk (30 min)

March 2021

Teamed up with Jan eldridge to tell the story of how stars live and die to some unimpressed 16 year-olds. They won’t admit it, but they loved it ;)

SUCK IT! PODCAST

Podcast (1 hour)

March 2021

Debunking flat earth and discussing the mindset of flat earthers is a tricky business but we did not shy away from it!

ELEVES DU COLLEGE VOLTAIRE - 6eme

Talk and Q&A (1hour)

March 2021

For their first astronomy class I joined these 11 year-olds via zoom to tell them about how seasons and time zones work. Once the curriculum was out of the way they got to ask everything they wanted about black holes and aliens.

CHAT WITH 3rd GRADERS

Q&A (1hour)

February 2021

Children have the best questions - Everything from black holes to dyson spheres!

SKYPE A SCIENTIST

Q&A (1hour)

February 2021

You know the drill! Teachers and professionals partner up to bring science directly to the classroom.

ASTRONOMY CLUB (children)

Q&A (1hour)

February 2021

Thanks to the magic of zoom I spent an hour answering the questions of very curious young adults from the UK.

STEMBASSY show

Live show (1h20 )

February 2021

We talked science, we spilled some tea about academia, we laughed so much my cheek hurt. Catch it on YouTube down below:

More Artificial Than Intelligent: Is the A.I. Hype Blinding Scientists — OX AI SOCIETY

Talk (45 min) + Q&A (45 min)

November 2023

I presented some of the issues I am seeing in how science can be dazzled by the AI mania, and I discussed with the Oxford AI Society how we can disentangle the true potential ML Technologies from the promises made to investors and media outlets, so that we can harness these new tools for Science in a reliable and sustainable way

IN THE KNOW WITH CAT BOBINO

Podcast - Facebook Live (45 minutes)

February 2021

What is the life of astronomer like? How weird are massive stars and their explosions? This and more in a brilliant atmosphere with the brilliant Cat!

CAFE SCIENTIFIQUE

Talk (20 min) + Q&A (1 hour)

March 2022

What happens when the densest objects in the universe collide at half the speed of light? It starts with a stretch of a wobble in the fabric of spacetime and sometimes ends in cosmic explosions that create some of the rarest and shiniest elements in the Universe….

ELEVES DU COLLEGE VOLTAIRE - 4eme

Q&A (1hour)

February 2021

An orientation Q&A about what it is to be an astrophysicist, how one might get into that career and my personal experience. All in French of course!

Q&A WITH 5th GRADERS

Free for all Q&A (70min)

February 2021

Kids ask the best questions and I was back in 2021 answering the curious minds of the 5th graders of Erin Anderson who teaches in a Massachusetts school.

CENTRAL STAR PARTY 2021

Talk (1 hour)

January 2021

Wibbly Wobbly Smashy Crashy. Or at least that’s how colliding neutron stars and black holes go in my head. In this presentation I talked about how Neutrons Stars and Black Holes are born, and the most impactful discoveries of LIGO/VIRGO in last 5 years, to a crowd from all walks of life from children to seasoned amateur astronomers.

RAMON SCICOMM CONFERENCE 2021

Panel (35 min)

January 2021

I was fortunate to be invited to participate in a panel on scientists and science communicators can reach wider audience with diverse educational backgrounds.

PLANETARIUM VAUL-EN-VELIN

Twitch (1 hour)

January 2021

We are made of star dust. All the material needed to make planets, people, and chocolate cake had to come from stars. Most often these elements are released in the gigantic outbursts or the explosive deaths of massive stars. But be warned, we spoke French the whole time.

SHEFFIELD ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Talk (45 min)

December 2020

Wibbly Wobbly Smashy Crashy — or what happens when black holes or neutron stars collide! Gravitational Wave detection has opened up a whole new era of astronomy and in this talk I explain what these waves are, how we detect them and some of the major discoveries made in the past 5 years.

WEDISHTHAT — HOW TO BECOME A BADASS WITHIN YOUR CAREER

Podcast (40 min)

November 2020

A podcast episode all about careers, challenges, failures, successes and more!

TESSALATE CMI

Interview (40 min)

November 2020

Interview about astrophysics, my research and recent NASA results for Tessallate, the annual festival of Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI)

THE FUNCTION ROOM - GALAXY BRAIN

Podcast (40 min)

November 2020

“We’re talking at the same time but on different days of the week. Which is pretty cool. We talk TikTok viral videos, bald headed football linesmen in Scotland being mistaken for a football and how a thing called machine learning is helping people like Heloise find out the answer to life the universe and everything. And bonus info – what gender are stars?

Not bad for 40 minutes work”

TEACHING IN HIGHER ED — FOSTERING CURIOSITY IN STEM AND BEYOND

Podcast (40 min)

November 2020

“Heloise Stevance shares how to foster curiosity in STEM and (other disciplines) on episode 333 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.”

WOMEN IN ENGINEERING NETWORK

Panel discussion (1h)

October 2020

Q&A with diverse scientists and engineers for an audience of students, alumni and industry followed by drinks and pizza. This event is organised by WEN and not open to the wider public.

IMPOSTER SYNDROME PANEL

Panel discussion (1h30)

October 2020

A live event aimed at science students at the University of Auckland - the panel includes academics of diverse background to talk about their experience with imposter syndrome.

LINDA HALL LIBRARY

Talk (50min)

October 2020

“Linda Hall Library has developed programming that celebrates women’s contributions to the field of space exploration. Throughout history, women have made, and continue to make, significant contributions to astronomy through their work to disseminate observations and discoveries with visualizations and publications.”

MANUREWA HIGHSCHOOL

Class Q&A (1 hour)

August 2020

Right as second-lockdown hit we moved this live event to zoom and I had the pleasure to spend an hour talk about black holes, exploding stars and answer diverse questions from a bunch of curious 16-17 year olds

POINT VIEW SCHOOL

Talk and Q&A (50 min)

June 2020

Me and 3 colleagues went to a primary school and explained the wonders of the solar system to an army of 6 year-olds. We then split the crowd and I took my little ones on a journey to Mars and answered any questions they had about Space.

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE CURIOUS

Podcast (20 min)

I was interviewed as part of Series II of “The Good, The Bad, and The Curious” Podcast - we talked about supernovae, kilonovae, gravitational waves and what it’s like to be an early career researcher in astronomy.

CYBERCAFE SCIENTIFIQUE

Podcast (1 hour)

May 2020

Quarantine and 18,000 miles didn’t stop me from joining the Cyber Cafe Scientifique for a fun chat about Space, The Universe and Everything. Originally meant to focus on Supernovae, we talked about Novae, Supernovae, Kilonovae, Black Holes, Gamma Ray Bursts, Galaxy collisions and I even had a little rant about Star Link. If you missed it, you can listen to it down below!

LIFE IN RED PODCAST - Ep. 58 Space and The Universe

Podcast (1 hour)

May 2020

Ryan’s thought provoking questions made for a fascinating conversation about the Universe, stars, black holes, aliens and dark matter — Listen to it here!

SPACE FORCE THEATRE 5000 SHOW

YT Live (1 hour)

April 2020

After a fun conversation with the hosts about recent news and the HST anniversary - I took over for 25 minutes to tell the audience about the fascinating science of supernovae.

DATA CENTER AND TECH CAREERS […]

Podcast (35 min)

March 2020

Interview with Carrie Goetz about STEM careers, my personal path and plenty of science!

SKYPE A SCIENTIST

School Q&A (1 hour)

December 2019

A great Skype session with a bunch of excited 5th graders from Iowa

MEXBOROUGH AND SWINTON ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Talk (45 min)

December 2019

Carl Sagan said "We are made of star dust". Well, that dust comes from Supernovae! Giant stellar explosions that can release as much energy as the Sun will in its entire lifetime. Two years ago, another type of stellar explosion was observed for the first time: a Kilonova - the merger of two neutron stars. If you wear a gold or platinum wedding ring, that's where it came from!

SKYPE A SCIENTIST

School Q&A (1 hour)

November 2019

Had an amazing time Skyping a diverse group of 7th, 6th, 5th graders who asked me everything and anything they could think of about space!

AUCKLAND ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Talk (45 min)

November 2019

Carl Sagan said "We are made of star dust". Well, that dust comes from Supernovae! Giant stellar explosions that can release as much energy as the Sun will in its entire lifetime. Two years ago, another type of stellar explosion was observed for the first time: a Kilonova - the merger of two neutron stars. If you wear a gold or platinum wedding ring, that's where it came from!

Hosting @People_ Of_Space

Social media (1 week)

August 2019

People of Space is a twitter account created by Tarustralis, an Aussie/US TV Producer and social media correspondent with a sweet tooth for science. Each week a new “Space Person” - astronomer, astronaut, what have you- takes over to host the twitter account and gets free reign to talk about whatever they want: Sharing their love of space, and their lives as scientists. I had the privilege the curate content for them on the week of the 18th of August!

WORLD ASTRONOMY DAY

BBC Sheffield Radio Interview

May 2019

To celebrate World Astronomy Day my friend Becky Arnold and I made a live appearance on “Nowt So Strange As Folk!” presented by Leesh and Kat on BBC Radio Sheffield (88.6FM).

If you missed the show, fear not! It is now available on the BBC online player. Our bit starts at minute 43 and ends at minute 56 with a short musical break in the middle.

SHEFFIELD ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Talk (45min)

January 2019

Core Collapse Supernovae are some of the most powerful explosions in the Universe. They can shine as bright as ten billions suns and are responsible for creating most of the elements we are made of. In this talk I will provide an overview of this incredible phenomenon, and what we know about it.

SITE GALLERY OPENING

Performance (10 min)

October 2018

After a two year closure for expansion, the modern art Site Gallery re-opened at the heart of Sheffield on the 28th of September. A curated happening was organised by Nwando Ebizie for the occasion, and I had the pleasure to be invited to perform at the event. In the soothing atmosphere created by Nwando and the other artists, I took the public on a journey to better understand where we come from, the vastness of space, the beauty of galaxy, how stars live, how they die, and how they create the elements that we are made of.

SOAPBOX SCIENCE

Talk 3x20min

September 2018

Stars are the factories of the universe. They create the building blocks that make up nearly everything you see around you. At soap box science I had the pleasure to stand in the Sheffield City Centre and talk about how stars live and how they die, as well as answer questions of the public on anything from the nature of shooting stars to the Big Bang.

PINT OF SCIENCE

Talk (10min)

May 2018

Core collapse supernovae mark the deaths of the most massive stars in the Universe. They are responsible for release of the elements required for planets to form and life to arise. This joint talk with Jost Migenda covered how stars evolve, explode – and how we can use ghost-like particles called “neutrinos” to watch them become cosmic fireworks!

CAFE SCIENTIFIQUE

Talk (5min)

Mars 2018

Sheffield's Cafe Scientifique teamed up with SHEFEST to show case the work of women in science. I had the pleasure to give a short  introduction to the field of supernovae, as well as being a panel member for a discussion on the experience of women in science. 

COCKTAILS AND PHYSICS

Talk (15min)

November 2017

What are supernovae and why do they happen? In the relaxed atmosphere of Cocktails and Physics organised by Physics Unbound, we endeavoured to answer these questions and have a few laughs in a very approachable talk punctuated with a good dose of humour… and a few space themed cocktails!

MOBILE UNIVERSITY 

Talk (15min)

September 2017

We are all made of stardust. Sounds whimsical? It’s science! Every time a star explodes, it generates this mysterious substance that forms the basis of all things – including us. The public of Sheffield could find out how and why this happens by hopping onto the Mobile University double-decker Bus!

PUB.H.D

Talk (10min) 

September 2017

Carl Sagan said, "we are made of star stuff". Well, that stuff comes from supernovae, the explosive deaths of massive stars. I gave a short overview of how stellar collapse can create an explosion brighter than a galaxy, by simply using a flip-chart a felt tip pen and a lot of arm flailing. 

DONCASTER ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Talk (45min)

August 2017

I had the pleasure to give a  seminar at the Doncaster Astronomical Society, giving a deeper overview of the field of supernovae.  

SMASHFestUK

Interactive stall / Festival (~3 hours)

May 2017

The theme of SMASHfestUK 2017 was volcanic activity. I had the pleasure to show case some of the amazing volcanic activity that happens on other planets and moons of the solar system. I also helped run some hands on activities for children to play around and understand asteroid impacts!

DISCOVERY NIGHT 2017

Talk (20min)

Mar 2017

I had the pleasure to initiate children and parents to the wonders of light in collaboration with my friends  Martin Dyer and Professor Simon Goodwin. Hands on activities showed our audience how white light decomposes into colours, and how these colours can tell us about the chemical composition of stars and galaxies. We also played with an Infra-red camera to demonstrate that there is more to light than the eye can see. 

RESEARCHERS NIGHT 2016

Talk (15min)

September  2016

This talk was aimed to be appropriate for teenagers passionate about science. When the most massive stars reach the end of their lives, they produce some of the most cataclysmic explosions in the Universe: Supernovae. They shine as bright as 10 billion Suns, and have the power to create the most heavy elements, the star dust, without which life would not be possible.

TAPTON SCHOOL

Talk (45min)

September 2016

This talk was aimed at an audience of high achieving sixth-formers. When the most massive stars reach the end of their lives, they produce some of the most cataclysmic explosions in the Universe: Supernovae. They shine as bright as 10 billion Suns, and have the power to create the most heavy elements, the star dust, without which life would not be possible. 

STEM IN SCHOOLS

4 workshops (3 hours each)

Mar 2016

I had the pleasure the be part of a team of other volunteers to go and deliver a series of workshops in a primary school in the heart of Sheffield. We talked about space, dinosaurs, climate change and engineering with a port-folio of learning material and hands-on activities to engage with the children  and inspire their curiosity.