About
Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and health concerns, we have made the decision to host this year’s conference virtually. We hope to see you all safely in person next year!
Women in Space highlights the achievements of women researchers and industry professionals, discusses challenges faced in the field, and offers opportunities for mentoring, recruiting, networking, and more. We welcome cis and trans women, as well as non-binary people who are comfortable in a space that centres the experience of women.
We encourage geologists, geophysicists, engineers, geographers, biologists, astronomers, social scientists, space policy experts, and any other people of all genders working or researching in a related field to submit an abstract, or to simply attend and join in on the discussion.
Press about previous years of the Women in Space conference:
SpaceQ: Women in Planetary Science and Exploration Conference Highlights Humanity as Well as Research
Ingenium Canada: Seeking Equality: Women in Planetary Science and Exploration Conference
University of Toronto: UofT PhD Student Brings First-Even Women in Planetary Science Conference to Toronto
Chantelle Dubois on Medium: #WPSE2018….wow
Hot Pop Robot: Guest Speaker at Women in Planetary Science (WPSE), Toronto
Some of the Women in Space 2019 attendees, SkySong Innovation Center, Arizona
“A typical academic conference focuses its schedule on research talks...[but] conversations that directly discuss issues being faced by people in the fields are never part of the main narrative. [Women in Space] balanced academic research in the fields of planetary science with the complex issues that face the people who actually do the work. These conversations were not at lunch sessions, after-hours conference social events, or any other side event or forum. The panels were front-and-centre in the schedule, and thus expected your participation. In the panel discussions, we heard directly from the people who are experiencing workplace discrimination and harassment, and how they have been dealing with their experiences. In structuring the conference this way, the organizers and participants challenged the idea that work is separate from lived experience.”
Jesse Rogerson, Ingenium Canada
Brooke Owens Fellows at Women in Space 2019. Photo Credit: Payton Barnwell
8-year-old Toronto maker Arushi with her working robotic Canadarm, posing with Kristen Facciol, aerospace engineer with the Canadian Space Agency and Mission Controller for the Canadarm2 aboard the International Space Station. Image Credit: Tanya Harrison
Dr. Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty, opening keynote speaker for Women in Space 2019. Photo Credit: Jenny Kampmeier
Art meets science at our “Girls in Space!” after hours event, bringing together kids aged 12–18 with the women in attendance at Women in Space 2019.
Dr. Darlene Lim of NASA Ames, keynote speaker at Women in Space 2019.
“In showcasing important research in planetary science while also honoring the human difficulties
some of us in the field face, [Women in Space] let us have both our accomplishments and our struggles without
hiding either.”