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Dr. Kelly Weinersmith      

Professor of BioSciences at Rice University; Co-Author of "A City on Mars" & "Soonish"

Dr. Kelly Weinersmith is a pop-science author, scientist, and public speaker. Her pop-sci books, "Soonish" and "A City on Mars," both made the New York Times Bestsellers list. Her most recent book, "A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?" won a Hugo in 2024 and was short-listed for the 2023 LA Times Book Prize in Science and Technology and the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Book Prize.

Weinersmith is also an ecologist, who is particularly fascinated by parasites. Her research on parasites that manipulate the behavior of their hosts has been featured in The Atlantic, National Geographic, BBC World, Science, Nature, and more. Weinersmith is currently President of the Helminthological Society of Washington and Vice President of the American Society of Parasitologists, and holds positions an adjunct faculty member in Rice University's BioSciences Department and as a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Weinersmith loves giving public talks on topics like parasites, emerging technologies, and space settlements, and has been featured at Smithsonian magazine's Future Is Here Festival, various Google offices, the Royal Institution in London, and more.

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