Staff
Irene Porro, Director
Irene Porro is the Public Education and Communications Officer for the MIT Kavli Institute (MKI) and she is the Director of the MKI Education and Outreach Group. In her work, Irene is able to combine a background in physics and astrophysics, with an interdisciplinary approach to science learning and a strong commitment to promote science learning outside of the traditional classroom.
Irene Porro obtained a Ph.D. in Space Science and Technology from the University of Padua in 1996. Her research work focused on ground and space-based stellar interferometry and was carried out during a three-year fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In her early academic career she attended, first a student and then teaching assistant, the International Space University, a multidisciplinary program in space related disciplines, where she nourished and developed her interdisciplinary approach to science.
As the Director of the Education and Outreach Group, Irene's main goal is to create and promote out-of-school time (OST) initiatives to make science education resources available to urban youth. She contributes several years of experience in leading OST astronomy learning initiatives funded through the NASA Space Science EPO Program and the National Science Foundation Informal Science Education program. She has been focusing on adapting and making available high-quality science education resources for use in OST, and in establishing partnerships with local OST organizations such as Boston 2-to-6 After-School Initiative, Gear Up in Boston, the Timothy Smith Network. These efforts have been bringing valuable science programming to OST environments, and provide motivated underserved youth with the opportunities and the tools to pursue high quality science learning.
Irene also collaborates with local educators to design and offer professional development programs that specifically meet the needs of Massachusetts' science teachers. One of her most successful teacher programs is an astrobiology course. Searching for life elsewhere in the universe is a very exciting topic that allows Irene to engage her audience in scientific inquiry out of curiosity and to expose teachers (and their students) to the interdisciplinary nature of science. Irene is glad to be able to bring her personal passion for the arts into her education efforts and she also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Catalyst Collaborative@MIT.
Ross Barros-Smith, Science Coordinator
Ross had been active in astronomy education and outreach as an amateur astronomer for events in the Boston area and surrounding suburban communities. After many positive experiences sharing the sky with schools and other community groups, the opportunity to turn a hobby into a profession was one he jumped upon.
Of particular interest to him is engaging youth in observations of the actual sky and developing practical observation skills. He maintains that even under the city lights, knowledge of astronomy is something that can be applied and enjoyed whenever there is an opening in the clouds. Ross continues to pursue astronomy as an interest in his personal life as a member of a major local area club and a regular nighttime observer who is careful not to stray far from a pair of binoculars when the Sun is down.
Andrea Belmontes, Phillip Erilus, Shalese Ford, Kameko Gregory,
YAA Interns
