Hal Clement Science Speaker

Hi there! My name is Christian Ready and I’ve spent pretty much my entire life in awe of the universe. After doing this since I was a wee lad you’d think I would have gotten over the initial “holy mackerel” stage by now, but we are continuing to learn so much more about the universe I can’t help but remain in awe of it.

My formal professional and educational background are in Astronomy. I put “professional” before “educational” because I was fortunate enough to first work professionally in the field at age 13 when I started working at the Sproul Observatory at Swarthmore College near my childhood home. There, I spent countless days and nights measuring the positions of stars on hundreds of photographic plates, and later taking observations with the 24-inch refractor.

I developed a passion for showing the  public celestial objects through Sproul’s telescopes during our monthly open houses, and giving slideshows on those cloudy nights when people would show up anyway. Through my undergraduate years at Villanova University, I continued to pursue that passion as a teacher’s assistant and presenter on weekly public viewing nights.

While working at Space Telescope Science Institute, and later at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center, I gave talks on the Hubble Space Telescope and other astronomy topics at venues from schools, to community groups, to science fiction conventions. I still continue to give talks to this day and even made a video or two.

I’m now an instructor at the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop, where I help teach writers, editors, filmmakers, and other creative professionals about astronomy. It’s my opportunity to combine my loves of astronomy, teaching, and science fiction into one.

I hope you enjoy the site and feedback is always welcome. If you’re looking for a presenter at your next event, or have a question, get in touch!