The singing, guitar strumming, Canadian astronaut who captured the world’s imagination by tweeting and posting videos and photos of his adventures from space, is the next presenter in the TRU President’s Lecture Series.
Retired Commander Chris Hadfield’s presentation is titled “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth”, which is also the title of his forthcoming book.
The presentation is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 4 at 7pm in the Grand Hall, located in TRU’s Campus Activity Centre (CAC). Admission is free. In anticipation of high community interest in seeing this Canadian hero in person, TRU has arranged for overflow space in the CAC which will include a live simulcast of the presentation in the nearby Grand Hall.
The lecture will be broadcast live to the university’s Williams Lake campus in room 1303. The simulcast starts at 7pm and is also free.
NOTE: This event is first-come, first-seated.
While serving as Commander of the International Space Station earlier this year, Hadfield educated and entertained the world through social media by answering the public’s questions and deconstructing the mysteries and wonders of space. Uploading videos to YouTube, he answered a range of questions through demonstrations from how to wash your hands in space to controlling the International Space Station.
Earlier in the day, Hadfield will give an invitation-only presentation to an audience largely made up of TRU science students, faculty, students from School District 73, and TRU science alumni.
Read the Q & A with Chris Hadfield
In 1992 Hadfield was one of four applicants from a field of 5,330 to join the Canadian Space Agency. On July 3 of this year and after 21 years of service, Hadfield announced his retirement so he could pursue other opportunities.
Born in 1959 in Sarnia, Ont. and raised in Milton, Ont., Hadfield has also been honoured with:
• the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 2002;
• the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2003;
• induction into Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame in 2005;
• and commemoration on Royal Canadian Mint silver and gold coins for his spacewalk to install Canadarm2 on the International Space Station (2006).
MORE INFORMATION
Lucille Gnanasihamany,
Associate Vice-President Marketing & Communications
Thompson Rivers University
Phone: 778-471-8389
Email: lgnanasihamany@tru.ca
SOME LINKS
Hadfield biography on the Canadian Space Agency website
President’s Lecture Series event on TRU Events Calendar
Hadfield performs a revised version of Space Oddity while aboard the International Space Station
Hadfield performs at the Ottawa Folk Festival, singing Canadian Tire (the last refuge of men)
