Invited speakers for ALAN 2027
Fernando Avila
Governance and Regulation
Fernando Avila was born in Nogales, Mexico. His bachelor and graduate studies were in physics, with a specialty in astrophysics. A big proponent of science outreach, Fernando Avila has done public talks, public astronomy observations, interviews and news articles for newspapers, magazines, radio,
and television, for over thirty years. With one of the highlights is having an chapter in the book ”The Right to Dark Skies” published by UNESCO.
Fernando is currently employed at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Astronomy Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. At the Observatory, he is in charge of the Dark Skies Law Office where he has put his outreach experience to educate about the issues of light pollution and how can it be reduced without compromising safety.
A big part of hiswork at the Dark Skies Law Office is working closely with the three levels of Mexican government, promoting laws and ordinances to reduce light pollution.
So far, he has been involved in creating or updating our municipal ordinances, four state laws, one federal law to include light pollution, and is currently working towards a national level technical specification on artificial light control.
Fernando Avila is also the Dark Sky International Mexico Chapter leader since 2013. In 2016, Dark Sky International gave Fernando a Dark Skies Defender Award and it’s currently serving in this organization’s Board of Directors since 2023. He is also part of IAUWorking Group 1: Light Pollution Standard.
Avalon Owens
Avalon Owens is a research fellow at the Rowland Institute at Harvard, where her group works to document the myriad ways in which artificial light at night affects nocturnal flora and fauna (mostly insects). Avalon has spent close to a decade studying how artificial light threatens fireflies and what “firefly friendly” lighting practices can best protect them. At the Rowland Institute, her group is currently investigating the ecological costs and evolutionary consequences of moth flight-to-light behavior. Moths that get stuck swirling around porch lights are not able to find mates or visit flowers—in this way, light pollution might threaten both our food systems and the future of life on earth. Visit owenslab.org to learn more about their ongoing projects.
Avalon received her Ph.D. in Biology from Tufts University in 2022. She also holds a B.A. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University and an M.S. in Entomology from National Taiwan University. She is committed to turning scientific recommendations into real world results through public outreach and policy advocacy. As part of these efforts, she frequently collaborates both with DarkSky International and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
Sonal Asgotraa
Sonal Asgotraa is the Founder of Astrostays. An electrical engineer by education, Sonal merges Astronomy and community development interventions to create a community-led astro-tourism initiative that empowers local communities in remote areas through sustainable tourism by transforming village homestays into Cultural and Astronomy Hubs and bringing economic benefits of tourism directly to lesser-known, rural areas. Sonal was also a team member of the 2013 International Antarctic Expedition led by Polar Explorer, Sir Robert Swan, OBE
Manuel Spitschan
Professor of Chronobiology & Health / Max Planck Research Group Leader
Technical University of Munich & Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Manuel Spitschan is the Rudolf Mössbauer Assistant Professor of Chronobiology & Health at Technical University of Munich and Max Planck Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. After undergraduate studies in psychology at the University of St Andrews (2009-2012), he completed his PhD on melanopsin sensitivity in the human visual system at the University of Pennsylvania (2012-2016). Following a post-doc at Stanford University (2016-2017), he joined the University of Oxford on a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship, through which he collaborated with the Centre for Chronobiology in Basel (2017-2021). He is the current Speaker of the Steering Committee of the Daylight Academy, Chair of the Joint Technical Committee 20 of the CIE and past Chair of the Optica (formerly OSA) Color Technical Group.
Paulina Villalobos
Technology and Design
DIAV / Noche Zero, Chile
Paulina Villalobos is a Well-known lighting designer
Juan Pablo Uchima
Measurement and Models
U. La Serena / OPCC