Café Scientifique Dubai, in association with SciFest Dubai™, is delighted to offer its guests at their next event a very special opportunity: to meet a NASA astronaut.
“We are really passionate about space at Café Scientifique Dubai,” says Founder, Rohan Roberts, “so, we’re particularly excited about this event. How many of us have met a NASA astronaut in the flesh?”
He continues, “I’m sure there are many like me who always wonder what it’s like to be out there, to see planet earth in its entirety suspended in the blackness of space – and we’re going to hear all about that, about life in space, the difficulties of training to be an astronaut, and the future of space exploration from our guest speaker, NASA astronaut Dr. Donald Thomas.”
Selected by NASA in January 1990, Dr. Thomas became an astronaut in July 1991. He was CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) for Shuttle missions STS-47, 52 and 53. From July 1999 to June 2000 he was Director of Operations for NASA at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Moscow, Russia. A veteran of four space flights, he logged over 1,040 hours in space. In his last assignment he served as the International Space Station Program Scientist overseeing NASA experiments performed on the ISS.
Café Scientifique Dubai is a place where anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology. The idea is to talk science, but outside an academic setting. The first Cafés Scientifique in the UK were held in Leeds in 1998. From there, cafés gradually spread across the UK and the rest of the world and now operate in 80 different cities.
Café Scientifique covers a wide range of issues relating to science and technology. Since 1998, cafés have covered almost every conceivable scientific topic: AIDS, the Big Bang, biodiversity, cancer, code-breaking, consciousness, ecology, extreme life, foetal experience, genetic modification, global warming, infertility, nanotechnology, and more.
Café Scientifique Dubai is the first of its kind in the Middle East and currently has over 18,000 followers on Facebook. It is committed to promoting public engagement with science and to making science fun and exciting to the lay person.
Everyone's welcome and Café Scientifique Dubai positively welcomes questions which begin with "This might be a dumb question, but..." These questions are invariably not dumb and are often rather insightful.
The Café Scientifique Dubai event, An Evening with a NASA Astronaut, takes place on Thursday 30th April from 6.30-7.30pm at the Urban Bistro in Media City. The cost of the package for the evening is Dhs 100 and is inclusive of finger sandwiches, tea, coffee, soft drinks, and a 45-minute talk by Dr Donald Thomas, followed by a Q&A and book signing.
Packages can be bought at https://cafescidubai.centraltickets.com/nasa-astronaut. For more details about the event and Café Scientifique Dubai, please visit the website: www.cafescidubai.com.