(WNY News Now) – SUNY Plattsburgh School of Arts and Sciences will host Dr. K. Renee Horton, physicist and NASA engineer, as part of its year-long celebration of the April 2024 eclipse Thursday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. in Krinovitz Recital Hall, Hawkins Hall.
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Horton, who bills herself as “hearing impaired, Black, physicist, mother of three,” will speak on “A Squiggly Path to Happiness Totality,” where she will share lessons she’s learned on her journey to becoming a NASA engineer.
Additionally, Horton will bring in issues of diversity in STEM fields as well as her experience of being hearing impaired, said Dr. Genie Babb, associate dean in the School of Arts and Sciences.
“She will discuss moving past ‘imposter syndrome’ — the internal psychological experience of feeling like a phony despite your success — so you can find the intersection between your talent and your passion,” Babb said.
Horton serves as the Space Launch System quality engineer in the NASA Residential Management Office at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. She has worked with NASA since 2009, first as a student through 2011 and then as a mechanical test engineer beginning in 2012.
A popular guest speaker who has appeared on stages around the world, including South Africa, Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and the Virgin Islands, Horton is also the author of the children’s books, “Dr. H Explores the Universe,” “Dr. H and her Friends,” and “Dr. H Explores the ABCs.”
Her lecture at SUNY Plattsburgh is one of a series events in the fall 2023 and spring 2024 semesters leading up to the total solar eclipse Monday, April 8 when about 3:30 p.m. Plattsburgh finds itself in the path of totality.
“We’re thrilled to invite the North Country community to hear Dr. Horton and join us on that path in preparation for this once-in-a-lifetime event next April,” said Dr. Genie Babb, associate dean in the School of Arts and Sciences. “To underline the point, after the 2024 eclipse, it will be 2044 before we have another total eclipse in the United States.”
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