KimArcand.com
 

Kimberly Arcand, PhD

VISUALIZATION SCIENTIST, EMERGING TECH LEAD,
SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR
Astronomy, Physics, Molecular Biology
& Computer Science

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Happening RECENTLY…

Kim Arcand & Liz Landau accepted an award at the Raw Science Film Fest on Oct 5 2024.

Preorder our new edition of Light coming out July 16, 2024

Check out BBC/Nova’s Universe

Our NASA+ documentary “Listen to the Universe” just won an industry award for best new media at the Raw Science Film Festival!

Check out my recent work with Mickey Hart and Dead & Co on The Sphere Las Vegas.

Read our feature on micro vs macro in this New York Times Interactive quiz.

Our new paperback edition of “Light: The Visible Spectrum and Beyond” has received a starred Library Journal review! Available now.

Visit "Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky,"if you’re in Washington DC. This exhibit on light pollution I co-curated is at @nmnh through April 2025.

Listen to my segment on sonification for NPR’s Science Friday. Catch me on NPR Weekend Edition, or talking about black holes on the BBC ‘Universe” series on PBS in the US & BBC in the UK.

Stars in your Hand on 3D printing the Universe, is now available! Settle in for bedtime reading with my children’s book.

Goodnight Exomoon, available at B&N and Amazon. Read the Smithsonian Magazine review.


It all started when…

I was working in molecular biology and public health when I was hired for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in 1998. Since I always wanted to be an astronaut when I was little, this opportunity got me close to the cosmos but without the long distance commute. Today, I use data to tell stories about science, whether in the form of a 3D print of a supernova remnant, a Virtual Reality application in high-energy astrophysics, or a data sonification of the stars.

 
 
 
 

Science storytelling

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The story continues…

I enjoy connecting with different groups, from small classes of elementary students to large conferences with aerospace industry professionals.  I have had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the U.S. Library of Congress, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United Nations (Space for Women), U.S. Congress (Science on the Hill), Blue Origin, Intrepid Museum, Brown University, Boston Museum of Science, Franklin Institute, StarTalk Radio, TEDx, SXSW, and many others for my day job.   Whether I’m discussing space, light, data visualization or women in STEM, I greatly appreciate being able to interact with diverse audiences as part of my career.

 
 
 
 
 

Research

 
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My Work Includes…

I am a leading expert in studying the perception and comprehension of high-energy astrophysics data visualization across the novice-expert spectrum, principal investigator of NASA’s Universe of Sound program, and a co-founder and principle researcher for the Aesthetics and Astronomy image response research project with international participation.

My work includes experimental studies in emerging technologies, from the production of the first-ever data-driven 3D print of a supernova remnant to the first-ever data-driven virtual reality app of a supernova remnant using NASA data, to recent work in hologram and data sonification forms, including spatial data sonification, and their potential effect on non-expert and expert audiences.

I co-founded and was the principal investigator for numerous public science initiatives that placed astronomy, physics, optics, photonics and planetary science in non-traditional science communication spaces reaching many millions of people since 2009.