sci19005 — Announcement

Introduction to the new ESA/Hubble Public Information Officer

15 May 2019

As of March 2019, Bethany Downer is the new Public Information Officer for ESA/Hubble. Bethany was born and raised on the island of Newfoundland in Eastern Canada where she studied Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She then completed her Master in Space Studies at the International Space University through which she completed her internship at ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications.

Bethany has since worked in the domain of communications and outreach for space. She is also currently part of the International Astronomical Union’s IAU100 Secretariat for the organisation’s centennial anniversary celebrations in 2019. She was the global coordinator of the 100 Hours of Astronomy, during which over 1200 astronomy activities took place simultaneously in 86 countries worldwide in January 2019. Bethany also volunteers as the communications and public relations coordinator of the Space Generation Advisory Council in Support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications. Bethany’s accolades include being Memorial University’s youngest-ever recipient of the Horizon Alumni Award in 2018 and the Initiative for Interstellar Studies’ Alpha Centauri Prize 2017. In April 2019 she was awarded the Sovereign’s Medal by Canada’s Governor General.

As Public Information Officer, Bethany’s primary goal is to promote the Hubble Space Telescope’s science for the European Space Agency. As a European Hubble user, you can access ESA/Hubble’s resources to promote your scientific results to the media and the general public. ESA/Hubble can help by producing and distributing press releases, image processing, web articles, artists’ impressions, and high-definition videos. If you think any part of your research could be of interest to the public at large, or your observations might produce an image suitable for public release, get in touch so we can explore possible avenues for promoting your work.

Contacts

Bethany Downer
ESA Hubble Public Information Officer
Email: bethany.downer@partner.eso.org