• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2023

• University of British Columbia, Microbiology and Oceanography, ‘23

• Host Institution: Space Capital

• Mentor: Tess Hatch

• Brookie Mentor: TBD

Raveen Kaur Sidhu is in her final year at the University of British Columbia and is completing her degree with a combined major in microbiology and oceanography and a minor in international relations. During her undergrad, Raveen has accumulated diverse research experience spanning domains like ornithology to particle physics.

Raveen is extremely passionate about science communication, outreach, and literacy. With Go CODE Girl and The University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society (UMSATS), she has designed and implemented science outreach activities and workshops with over 300 participants in online and in-person settings. In 2021 Raveen lead a science education workshop about effective outreach techniques at the International Astronautical Congress IAC in Dubai. This passion for science communication is seen also in her experience with her time as a delegate for Equal Voice’s Daughters of the Vote program, when Raveen delivered an address to the Canadian House of Commons about information literacy and combatting misinformation. Raveen is currently co-developing a science communication graduate course for the University of British Columbia with Dr. Kirsten Hodge. This course focuses on educating scientists in science communication and outreach, and allows Raveen to work alongside museum experts at Science World, Beatty Biodiversity Museum, Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology, and many other great institutions in the Vancouver area. This science communication interest has also informed her work with Quebec’s artificial intelligence institute MILA and their AI4GoodLab, where she co-developed a web app known as ‘newsworthy.ml’ to increase informational literacy. The newsworthy.ml project was later awarded additional funding through the AI4GoodLab Entrepreneurial Project Prize and the Youth Impact Challenge.

In addition to science communication, Raveen is proud of her work in student leadership development. In her hometown of Winnipeg, Manitoba, she has grown through organizations like the James W. Burns Leadership Institute, as a fellow, a cohort mentor, and now as an alumni board executive. Her leadership development has been recognized through awards like the Jack Prior Memorial Undergraduate Research Prize, and the RETSD Gold Medal.

She is honoured to have previously worked with the Arthur B. McDonald Institute of Canadian Particle Astrophysics, the University of Manitoba Biomedical Engineering Design Team, the Avian Behaviour and Conservation Lab, and Queen’s University Physics Camp for Girls. Raveen is also pleased to work as a member of the International Astronautical Congress’s History of Astronautics Symposium. In her free time, Raveen loves completing jigsaw puzzles, beating her brother, cousins and friends at Uno, and learning about Punjabi history.

Raveen is delighted to work with Space Capital this summer as a Brooke Owens Fellow.