Arcand still shooting for the stars

UNIVERSAL APPEAL: Kimberly Kowal Arcand, visualization lead for NASA's Cambridge-based Chandra X-ray Observatory, has done work at the organization that includes organizing and curating award-winning exhibits featuring Chandra's photography, digitally adapting science content into tactile and Braille formats and researching the use of color in science imagery. / PBN PHOTO/STEPHANIE ALVAREZ EWENS
UNIVERSAL APPEAL: Kimberly Kowal Arcand, visualization lead for NASA's Cambridge-based Chandra X-ray Observatory, has done work at the organization that includes organizing and curating award-winning exhibits featuring Chandra's photography, digitally adapting science content into tactile and Braille formats and researching the use of color in science imagery. / PBN PHOTO/STEPHANIE ALVAREZ EWENS

Kimberly Kowal Arcand – quite literally – shows people the universe.

In her role as visualization lead for NASA’s Cambridge-based Chandra X-ray Observatory, she leverages her proficiency in science data visualization to bring the cosmos and all its wonders to both experts and the general public on an international scale.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory, launched in 1999 from the Space Shuttle, is an X-ray telescope that orbits roughly one-third of the way to the moon, studying hot regions in the universe, including such phenomena as galaxy clusters and black holes.

Arcand, who was educated at the University of Rhode Island, Harvard University and Brown University and works out of Smithfield, began with the observatory in 1998, and has since sought out innovative and high-tech methods to tell compelling, widely accessible stories based on Chandra’s scientific output.

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Her efforts have included organizing and curating award-winning exhibits featuring Chandra’s stunning stellar photography, digitally adapting science content into tactile and Braille formats, researching the use of color in science imagery and helping to establish the first-ever 3D, data-based model of a supernova remnant (the residual bits of an exploded star).

Additionally, Arcand initiated the creation of an online, open-source database of curated astronomy and space science materials – a project that resulted in free public science exhibitions in 1,000 locations on every continent except Antarctica. She has also authored dozens of scholarly papers, as well as the book, “Your Ticket to the Universe: A Guide to Exploring the Cosmos.”

“Being able to write about the science is an exciting extension,” Arcand said in an interview. “When you go into a bookstore and visit the science section, the number of female authors is a pretty small percentage still.” •

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