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​​Come and explore the universe and enjoy our renowned northern hospitality!​

Dark Sky Festival

DSF 2023 Keynote Speaker
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Nagin Cox
​Nagin is Tactical Mission Lead on the Curiosity Rover and on the Perseverance Rover.
Nagin is currently a Tactical Mission Lead for the Curiosity Rover and the Perseverance Rover.
She has held leadership and system engineering positions on interplanetary robotic missions including the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Kepler exoplanet hunter InSight. Before her time at JPL, she served for 6 years in the US Air Force including as a Space Operations Officer at NORAD/US Space Command.
Nagin has known from the time she was 14 that she wanted to work on missions of robotic space exploration at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was born in Bangalore, India, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her experiences in a Muslim household inspired her to do something that brings people together instead of dividing them. The space program helps the world “look up” and remember that we are one world. Nagin realized her childhood dream and has been a spacecraft operations engineer at NASA/JPL for over 20 years.
Nagin received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and two NASA Exceptional Achievement Medals. Nagin is a U.S. Department of State STEM Speaker and has spoken to audiences around the world on the stories of the people behind the missions. She also has an asteroid named in her honor: 14061 Nagincox.
>>  Checkout Nagin's Website
DSF 2023 Festival Host
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Richard Van Camp
​Richard is a proud member of the Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ) Nation from Fort Smith.
He is a graduate of the En’owkin International School of Writing, the University of Victoria’s Creative Writing BFA Program, and the Master’s Degree in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia.

Richard is an internationally renowned storyteller and best-selling author. His novel, The Lesser Blessed,
is now a movie with First Generation Films and premiered in September of 2012 at the Toronto International Film Festival. He is the author of five collections of short stories, six baby books, three children’s books, five comics and much more.
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>>  Checkout Richard's Website
Presentation Host
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Roland Dechense
Roland Dechense is a long-time astronomer and a long-term fellow and contributor to the RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada).
Currently he serves on RASC's Light Pollution Abatement committee. By day, he is an oil and gas geologist in Calgary.

Through his engagement with astronomy, Roland has had a significant positive impact on RASC and his fellow amateur astronomers across Canada. In his leadership role in researching and education of Light Pollution Abatement, he has helped develop responsible lighting policies and in communicating light-pollution issues in many communities and with several local and regional governments.

2023 Ursa Major Sponsors