Sep 22-26, 2025
Los Altos High School
Tom Esposito
Assistant Researcher (SETI Institute & UC Berkeley), Chief Scientific Officer (SkyMapper), Space Science Principal (Unistellar)
Astronomy Big & Small: From Space to Your Backyard
We'll take a visual tour through how astronomers learn amazing things about our Universe, how telescopes --- both big and small --- make that possible, and how you can be a part of it!
Meet the Speaker:
Dr. Tom Esposito is an astronomer who has been investigating the secrets of our Universe for over 15 years using telescopes big and small. Since obtaining his Ph.D. from UCLA in 2015, he has used the world's leading observatories to image young solar systems beyond our own as a postdoc and researcher at UC Berkeley. As a SETI Institute researcher and Space Science Principal at Unistellar, he partners with citizen astronomers to conduct NASA-funded science that verifies the nature of newly discovered exoplanets and catches the first glimpses of unpredictable supernova and gamma-ray burst explosions. In his role as Chief Scientific Officer at SkyMapper Inc., he leads the scientific team democratizing astronomy through robotic telescopes and blockchain technology. Tom grew up on Long Island in NY, graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in physics, and enjoys playing soccer and video games, gardening, and traveling with his wife, Katie.