Kimberly Kowal Arcand (born December 20, 1975) is a data visualizer and science communicator for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources ...

. She is also the visualization coordinator for the

Aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, Epistemology, knowledge, Ethics, values, Philosophy of ...

and Astronomy image response project at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian located in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

Early life and education

As a child, Arcand wanted to be an

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

. She studied

molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and phys ...

at the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

and also became a developer for the

Center for Vector-Borne Disease Public Health project. She was awarded a fellowship with the

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

Public Health Partnership to work on

Lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a vector-borne disease caused by the '' Borrelia'' bacterium, which is spread by ticks in the genus '' Ixodes''. The most common sign of infection is an expanding red rash, known as erythema ...

. Arcand studied briefly at the

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Department between 2000 and 2002. In 2013 Arcand earned a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Public

Humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at th ...

from Brown University, focusing on image and meaning research. In 2020, Arcand completed her doctorate at the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate u ...

in visualization science, under the supervision of Lisa Smith. She worked in the

Department of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includin ...

as an instructor between 1997 and 1999. She joined the

Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution, concentrating on astrophysical studies including galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, solar, earth and planetary sciences, the ...

and

in 1998.

Career

Arcand on '' This Week in Science'' in 2016 with Megan Watzke hosted by Kiki Sanford ">Kiki_Sanford.html" ;"title="This Week in Science'' in 2016 with Megan Watzke hosted by Kiki Sanford">This Week in Science'' in 2016 with Megan Watzke hosted by Kiki Sanford Rendering Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A into Virtual Reality

Rendering Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A into Virtual Reality

In 2009 Arcand launched ''From Earth to the Universe'' with

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

. She is the visualization coordinator of the Aesthetics and Astronomy image response project at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. The project launched in 2010 and looks at variations in the presentation of color and scale in astronomical images. The team also studies how people respond to images, and the misconceptions that non-experts have when they view them. The project began when Randall, Jeffrey, and Lisa F. Smith realized that the art would provide astrophysicists a more effective way in conveying the results to a much larger audience. The group explored the public perception of astronomical pictures using a survey linked to the

Astronomical Picture of the Day site. She worked closely with

to celebrate the

International Year of Light The International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015 or International Year of Light 2015 (IYL 2015) was a United Nations observance that aimed to raise awareness of the achievements of light science and its applications, and its im ...

, an open-source exhibition that showcased science based on light. The celebration was supported by

SPIE SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

. Using

data, Arcand developed a way to

3D print 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

a supernova remnant. In 2016 the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...

selected Arcand as a ''changemaker'' at the

United State of Women Summit The United State of Women Summit was a summit held in Washington, D.C. focused on gender equality in the United States. The summit was hosted by the White House, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Aspen Institute. ...

. where she wrote about the event for

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

. In 2017 Vinita Marwaha Madill's profiled her on ''Rocket Women''. Arcand also serves on the boards of Rhode Island Museum of Science and Art (RIMOSA). and Rhode Island's Tech Collective. In 2019, Arcand collaborated with the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

to launch the "Journey through an Exploded Star” 3-D Interactive Experience website.

Honors and awards

Arcand has won several awards for her work from

and the

. * 2007

Pirelli Pirelli & C. S.p.A. is a multinational tyre manufacturer based in Milan, Italy. The company, which has been listed on the Milan Stock Exchange since 1922, is the 6th-largest tyre manufacturer and is focused on the consumer production of tyres ...

International Award for science communication * 2010

International Year of Astronomy The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the pu ...

Mani Bhaumik Prize for Excellence in Astronomy Education and Public Outreach * 2014 Tech Collective ''Tech 10'' * 2016

Achievement Award

Publications

Authored and co-authored

Arcand has written several popular science books. Her book ''Colouring the Universe'' was selected by Cosmos as one of the Top Illustrated Science Books of 2016. She collaborates with Megan Watzke and Travis Rector, Ph.D. Her book ''Light: The Visible Spectrum and Beyond'' was selected by

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

as one of the Top 10 Gifts of 2016. *2022 Stars in Your Hand: A Guide to 3D Printing the Cosmos (with Megan Watzke) *2020 Goodnight Exomoon (Smithsonian Kids Storybook) Authored *2020 An Alien Helped Me with My Homework (with Lisa Smith) *2019 Light from the Void: Twenty Years of Discovery with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (with Grant Tremblay, Megan Watzke,

Martin C. Weisskopf Dr. Martin C. Weisskopf (born April 21, 1942) until his retirement from NASA in at the end of May, 2022, was project scientist for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Chief Scientist for X-ray Astronomy in the Space Sciences Department at NASA's ...

and Belinda J. Wilkes) *2017 Magnitude: The Scale of the Universe (with Megan Watzke) * 2015 Colouring the Universe: An Insider's Guide to Making Spectacular Images of Space (with Travis Rector and Megan Watzke ) * 2015 Light: The Visible Spectrum and Beyond (with Megan Watzke) * 2013 Your Ticket to the Universe: A Guide To Exploring the Cosmos (with Megan Watzke)

Selected academic works

* Arcand, K. K.; Jiang, E.; Price, S.; Watzke, M.; Sgouros, T.; Edmonds, P. (12/2018). Walking Through an Exploded Star: Rendering Supernova Remnant

Cassiopeia A Cassiopeia A (Cas A) () is a supernova remnant (SNR) in the constellation Cassiopeia and the brightest extrasolar radio source in the sky at frequencies above 1 GHz. The supernova occurred approximately away within the Milky Way ...

into Virtual Reality. CAP Journal Issue 24 (2018): 17 arXiv:1812.06237 *Arcand, K. K.; Jiang, E.; Price, S.; Watzke, M.; Sgouros, T.; Edmonds, P. (10/2018). Walking Through an Exploded Star: Rendering Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A into Virtual Reality. CAP Journal, Issue 24, p. 17,

Bibcode The bibcode (also known as the refcode) is a compact identifier used by several astronomical data systems to uniquely specify literature references. Adoption The Bibliographic Reference Code (refcode) was originally developed to be used in SIM ...

2018CAPJ...24...17A * Lisa F. Smith, Kimberly K. Arcand, Randall K. Smith, Jay Bookbinder and Jeffrey K. Smith. (November 21, 2017 ). Capturing the many faces of an exploded star: communicating complex and evolving astronomical data

2018CAPJ...24...17A doi 10.22323/2.16050202 * Arcand, K.; Megan, W.; DePasquale, J.; Jubett, A.; Edmonds, P.; DiVona, K. (09/2017). Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, Volume 22, p. 14

2017CAPJ...22...14A *Arcand K., Watzke, M., DePasquale, J., Edmonds, P., *Bringing Cosmic Objects Down to Earth: An Overview of 3D Modelling and Printing in Astronomy and Astronomy Communication* Issue 22, p. 14. *Arcand K., Watzke, M. (09/2017) "Pioneering Paths to the Universe" PanEuropean Networks: Science & Technology, issue 24, p128. *Rector, T., Levay, Z., Frattare, L., Arcand, K.K., Watzke, M. (03/ 2017) "The Aesthetics of Astrophysics: How to Make Appealing Color-Composite Images that Convey the Science" Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific doibr>10.1088/1538-3873/aa5457
* Lisa F. Smith, Jeffrey K. Smith, Kimberly K. Arcand, Randall K. Smith, Jay Bookbinder, Kelly Keach (09/2010) *Aesthetics and Astronomy: Studying the Public's Perception and Understanding of Imagery from Space* Science Communication Journal doibr>10.1177/1075547010379579

References

External links

* *
Exploring the Universe with NASA's Kim Arcand and Subject Matter X
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arcand, Kimberly 1975 births 21st-century American women writers American feminists American film producers American science writers Brown University alumni Data visualization Living people NASA people People from Warwick, Rhode Island Perception Science communication award winners Women science writers University of Otago alumni University of Rhode Island alumni Visual perception 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American scientists 21st-century American women scientists Harvard University alumni