Leadership Team

ACEAP Leadership Team

Tim Spuck

Tim Spuck (202-462-5285) is PI for the ACEAP project, and is the STEM Education Development Officer for AUI embedded at NRAO. Prior to this role, he spent 25 years teaching high school and college classes in earth and space sciences, and served as a K–12 Science Department Chairperson and Planetarium Manager at Oil City High School. Tim has also been deeply involved in the amateur astronomy community, serving as the co-founder and president for the Oil Region Astronomical Society in NW Pennsylvania. He has led initiatives to construct a community observatory as well as an internationally based robotic telescope in Australia, a variety of student astronomy research projects, teacher enhancement programs, and curriculum development initiatives. His work in science/astronomy outreach has taken him to Chile, Japan, Greenland, and Antarctica. He led the initial amateur astronomy visit to Chile in October 2013 to explore the idea of creating the Ambassador’s Program.

Charles Blue

Charles Blue, ACEAP co-PI, is public information officer for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, publicizing the science results and technology milestones for the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). He has more than 20 years of strategic communications experience in science, engineering, and technology. Charles has worked as the director of media services at the American Institute of Physics. He also served as the Writer/Editor for the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Engineering and the media relations specialist for the Thirty Meter Telescope Project. Charles is also the former president of the D.C. Science Writers Association. He has lived in the Costa del Sol in Spain and routinely travels to Chile to serve as a liaison and escort for media representatives visiting the ALMA telescope.

Peter Michaud

Peter Michaud manages Gemini Observatory’s Public Information and Outreach (PIO) offices (both Hawai‘i and Chile) from the observatory’s headquarters in Hilo, Hawai‘i. Prior to taking the helm of Gemini’s PIO effort almost 16 years ago, Peter managed the Bishop Museum’s planetarium in Honolulu. During his tenure of nearly a decade at Bishop Museum, notable “high-points” included leading a film crew to the summit of Mauna Kea for the 2001 total solar eclipse, followed by a public eclipse tour to South America in 2004. In addition to his admitted eclipse addiction, Peter is passionate about science education and inspiring students to pursue STEM careers. He also enjoys amateur telescope making, climbing unreasonably long hills on his bicycle, and striving for unobtainable perfection as an audiophile. Peter has two children, whom he is proud to say aren’t afraid of their inner-nerds. He dreams that his offspring will follow in his footsteps and earn degrees in one of the STEM fields — like his B.S. degree in meteorology (augmented by secondary teaching certification in physical science education).

Lars Lindberg Christensen

Lars is a science communication specialist, educator and manager. He is the Head of Communications, Education & Engagement at NSF’s NOIRLab. He has authored a dozen popular science books translated into more than ten languages. Lars has directed more than 10 documentaries and planetarium movies that have received critical acclaim around the world. He is responsible for the communication, education and community engagement for NOIRLab consisting of Cerro Tololo, CSDC, Gemini, Kitt Peak and Rubin operations. He has produced for a multitude of different media from planetarium shows, laser shows, to web, social media, print, TV and radio. Lars has more than 200 publications to his credit, most of them in popular science communication and its theory. Lars received the Tycho Brahe Medal in 2005 for his achievements in science communication and has been credited with leading the most successful outreach efforts in ESO’s history.

Valeria Foncea

Valeria Foncea is the Education and Public Outreach Officer for the ALMA Observatory. She holds a Journalism degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and a Master’s degree in Strategic Communications from the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. She has extensive experience in television and was recognized for her reporting related to science, technology and environmental issues for Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN). She began her career as an international correspondent based in the United States, then moved to Chile where she continued to report international news as well as collaborate with CNN International. She has worked as Communications Officer for the United Nations for Development Program (UNDP), as Press Manager for European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Leonor Opazo

Leonor Opazo is responsible for the administration matters relating the total functioning of the observatory. Since 2006 she has lead the development of the highly acclaimed NOAO’s education and public outreach program in Chile. Responsible for the implementation of a strategic plan for education and public outreach evaluated yearly by a national committee of US science education experts. Responsible for the creation and management of facilities and programs such as “CADIAS” (Centro de Apoyo a la Didáctica de la Astronomía – Astronomy Teaching Support Center), a unique science education center located in the community of Altovalsol, near La Serena. Also responsible for the “CTIO-Visitor Center” functioning in the “Blanco” 4-m telescope since the early 70’s, “Chile Dark Sky Education Program”, serving nearly a hundred schools, and the “Teaching with Galileoscopes Project”, among many other astronomy informal education projects.”

Juan Seguel

Juan is a Civil Mechanical Engineer from the University of Concepcion, with 18 years of experience in the area of engineering applied to the field of astronomy in the optical range and the development and implementation of educational tools in the area of teaching of Science and Technology for teachers and students. He was Site testing engineer for TMT and LSST where he developed tools and applications for control, monitoring and acquisition of meteorological and astronomical data. He is currently a Science Education Specialist at the NSF´s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, La Serena, Chile.

Manual Paredes

Manual Paredes is a journalist from Chile with a wide experience in documenting and producing visual content about engineering processes and technical milestones related to telescopes and astronomy. Originally based in Santiago as a reporter for agency news and other media agencies, he received a Major in Journalism and a BA in Social Communications at Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello. Also, he was part of the IESL program of the University of Lousville, and other social media management trainings at UC Berkley. Currently he is leading the Public Information Office of Gemini South and, at the same time, is working in the production and writing of the first Chilean book about Astrophotography, financed by the Consejo de la Cultura y las Artes of the Chilean Government.

Yasmín Catricheo

Yasmín Catricheo is currently working at the Office of Education and Public Engagement at Associated Universities Inc. She is a physics educator from Chile. Of Mapuche origin, she is passionate about the teaching of science and more recently has focused in the area of astronomy. In her professional training program, she has participated in courses taught by astronomy faculty at the University of Concepción, and has earned a Master’s degree in Education from the University of Bío-Bío. Yasmín is also a member of the indigenous group “Mapu Trafun”, and she works closely with the Mapuche community to recover the culture and communicate the message of the Mapuche Worldview. In 2018 was selected to enjoy the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program (ACEAP) founded by FSF.