Conference convenes May 20-24 in downtown Toronto

The National Space Society’s 34th Annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC)®, being held next week in Toronto, Canada, features a presentation by famed physicist and author Dr. Kip Thorne. The National Space Society will present the 2015 Space Pioneer Award for Mass Media to Dr. Thorne at the ISDC Gala Dinner on Saturday, May 23, beginning at 7:00 p.m. EDT.

The award recognizes individuals whose accomplishments have helped open the space frontier and whose work has contributed significantly to the endeavor of developing a spacefaring civilization beyond Earth.

Dr. Thorne will also give a presentation entitled “The Science of Interstellar” on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. EDT. Among those attending the presentation will be over 300 award-winning students from around the world who are participants in the NSS/NASA Ames Space Settlement Design Competition. Students from last year’s competition appeared in Interstellar’s companion series The Science of Interstellar. Video clip: https://nss.org/international-and-u-s-students-and-teachers-headed-to-toronto-for-34th-annual-international-space-development-conference/

Dr. Thorne is a theoretical physicist and an author known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. He was the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology from 1977 to 2009 and is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the astrophysical implications of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. In 2009, he left Caltech to ramp up a new career in writing, movies, and continued scientific research. Along with his distinguished career as a theoretical physicist, Dr. Thorne was an executive producer and scientific consultant on the 2014 Academy Award-winning film Interstellar, which was inspired by his work.

ISDC is the yearly conference of the National Space Society, a nonprofit organization that has hosted the gathering since 1982. The event is set for May 20-24, 2015 at the downtown Hyatt Regency in Toronto, Canada. The conference brings together leading managers, engineers, scientists, educators, and business people from civilian, military, commercial, entrepreneurial, and grassroots advocacy space sectors. The Canadian Space Commerce Association is hosting this year’s ISDC.

Online registration for the 34th Annual International Space Development Conference is currently open with a variety of options, from single day registration passes to full conference registration with meals. Discounts are provided for youth, full-time students, seniors, and members of the National Space Society and its affiliates.

For more information, visit isdc2015.nss.org.