GREAT BAY – Dynamic speaker and leading space scientist Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne will deliver the keynote address of the St. Martin Book Fair, June 2-4, said book fair coordinator Shujah Reiph.
“The Science of It” is the theme of the literary festival’s 14th year edition. “We are very happy and honored to have such an accomplished scientist to open the St. Martin Book Fair 2016,” said president of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP) Jacqueline Sample.
“Dr. Alleyne has an exciting way of talking about the world-changing effects of cutting edge science and technology in our lives. She inspires young and old by showing how the ideas, inventions, and uses of science are opening the future in brilliant ways,” said Sample.
Dr. Alleyne has served as the Assistant Program Scientist for the International Space Station (ISS), the space-based science laboratory, said Sample. Dr. Alleyne developed and managed the innovative communication strategy for ISS Research and Technology, which conveyed the benefits of ISS scientific research to stakeholders, including the US Congress, the general public, and potential users.
Prior to leading the integration of all international space education programs across the ISS Partners (US, Japan, Russia, Europe and Canada), Dr. Alleyne served as the Orion Crew Module Systems, Integration and Test Technical Manager at Johnson Space Center, said Sample.
The Trinidad-born scientist has worked as the Systems Engineering and Integration Lead for the Constellation Systems Requirements development at NASA Headquarters and as a Flight Systems Test Engineer at the NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Dr. Alleyne’s previous “positions as an Aerospace Systems Engineer at the Missile Defense Agency and the US Department of Defense,” where she led analysis and integration of several ballistic missile defense system projects, place her at the center of highly advanced space and earth-based sciences, said Reiph, on learning about what he called “the powerful range of our guest scientist’s career experiences.”
Dr. Alleyne has dedicated some 20 years advancing the areas of aerospace and space technology development, specifically in the fields of human space flight, space vehicle systems engineering, integration and testing, and space (microgravity) research.
But what might be closest to the scientist’s heart? In 2007, said Dr. Alleyne, she founded the Brightest Stars Foundation, an NGO, dedicated to advancing “areas of space technology application in international development and global science and space education advocacy” for children, especially for girls.
Conscious Lyrics Foundation and HNP are organizers of the St. Martin Book Fair. The St. Maarten Tourist Bureau is the strategic partner of the literary festival. The island-wide book fair is also organized in collaboration with the University of St. Martin (USM) and LCF Foundation.
Caption: Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, scientist for the International Space Station (ISS), the space-based science laboratory, to deliver keynote address of the 14th annual St. Martin Book Fair, June 24.
