Frank White, author of The Overview Effect
Frank White will discuss the little-known fact that President John Kennedy wanted Apollo to be a multi-national mission, not a “space race.” Think of the impact on history if the astronauts on Apollo 11 had been Russian and American. That was President Kennedy’s dream, cut short by his untimely death.
Facilitated by: Dr. Irene Porro
Sponsored by: Framingham State University Arts & Ideas Program
John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (Review) & Additional Resources
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Frank White is a published author and co-author of 10 books on topics ranging from space exploration to climate change. His best-known work, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, is considered by many to be a seminal work in the field of space exploration. White is a co-founder of the Overview Institute, a leading organization dedicated to analyzing the Overview Effect and disseminating its findings. He also considers himself to be a “space philosopher,” and has long advocated developing a philosophy of space exploration. His newest book on this topic is called The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect.
The Overview Effect is now on Audible.
Dr. Irene Porro is the Director of the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Integrated Science Learning at Framingham State University. A professional scientist with a deep commitment to social justice, in her work Dr. Porro combines research skills in physics and astrophysics with an interdisciplinary approach to education to promote equity and diversity in STEM fields.
Dr. Porro received her Ph.D. in Space Science and Technology from the University of Padova, Italy. During her doctoral program she was a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then a post-doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, in Heidelberg, Germany. She then joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she became the Director of the Education and Outreach Group of the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. Dr. Porro is an alumna of the International Space University, an international education program specialized in training the future leaders of the emerging global space community.