Cool Jobs
Friday, May 30, 2008, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Imagine building a roller coaster or solving a heinous crime.
Imagine exploring the surface of Mars or the bottom of the ocean.
This multi-media event for curious minds of all ages invited our audience to meet scientists with some of the coolest jobs in the world — from crime scene investigator and space explorer to oceanographer and Disney Imagineer.
Participants:
Peter Diaczuk is a leading authority in forensics and an expert witness on firearms, trace evidence, and crime scene reconstruction. He has performed research on topics as diverse as underwater fingerprints, blood spatter patterns from gunshot wounds, and bullets ricochetting from different surfaces. He is Director of Forensic Science Training at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Christopher McKay is one of the world’s leading experts on the atmosphere of Mars and the origin and evolution of life there. Dr. McKay, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, has been conducting research in Antarctica for the last 30 years, studying its Mars-like environs and the extremophiles that inhabit them.
Laurie Santos is a cognitive psychologist who studies monkeys' capacity for learning and the evolution of the human mind. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology and director of the Comparative Cognition Laboratory at Yale University, and was named one of Popular Science Magazine's "Brilliant 10" for 2007.
Ben Schwegler is Walt Disney Imagineering R&D’s chief scientist, and is particularly interested in the development of sustainable engineering techniques. He was instrumental in the creation of the most energy efficient theme park ever built as well as a new generation of environmentally friendly fireworks.
Since joining ABC News in 2004, Bill Weir has anchored several launches and landings of the Space Shuttle, was the first American to broadcast live from Tibet and led off 2007's Earth Day special with an unprecedented underwater live report from the Great Barrier Reef.
